Corporations will align with Sustainable Development Goals only with Spiritually Intelligent Business Leaders

Spirituality is a broad concept yet we could identify a spiritually intelligent person as one who has a sense of connection to something bigger than themselves, loves self and cares about others, animals and the planet. Spiritual persons understand their oneness with nature and empathetic to the universal human experience.    

As corporations impact on the sustainability of this planet, I postulate that we need spiritually intelligent purposeful business leaders to balance their IQ and emotional intelligence. Enlightened leaders are purposeful and may drive corporations to be more responsible - to minimize harm to this earth and its beings.

Dr. Ronald Heifetz, founding director of the Center of Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government said to a group of business leaders at a Harvard Business School session to discuss how their spirituality helps them be powerful leaders - "There are so many pressures on you as a leader to lose your compassion and develop a thick skin, to lose your capacity for doubt and curiosity,"  [i] The audience did not disagree with him.

Mindfulness is a way to become aware of words and actions that can afflict self and others. Mindful leaders will be spiritually intelligent and purposeful to transform organizations to be more responsible. 

Spiritually intelligent mindful leaders are few and far between as the global status quo - the mainstream narrative beginning with education leads to a material and money oriented culture of consumerism.  

That is why it is good to see the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) initiative bringing many businesses on board to align them with the UN’s Sustainable Development

Goals (SDG) for the planet.

The Global Compact operates on ten principles divided into fundamental responsibilities of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

The UNGC website[ii] states that;

Corporate sustainability starts with a company’s value system and a principles-based approach to doing business. 

Responsible businesses enact the same values and principles wherever they have a presence, and know that good practices in one area do not offset harm in another. By incorporating the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact into strategies, policies and procedures, and establishing a culture of integrity, companies are not only upholding their basic responsibilities to people and planet, but also setting the stage for long-term success.

The above description calls for spiritually intelligent corporate leaders. 

That is what purposeful leadership is all about - to protect the environment, be sustainable and ethically govern the organization (ESG) based on a set of values to serve human beings, protect the planet while performing well to be profitable.   

Walking the Talk

Since the UNGC released its 10 principles more than 15 years ago, nearly 12,000 companies worldwide have committed to adopting the sustainable and socially responsible policies.  This is a remarkable achievement.

UNGC’s principles have been effective in getting many global businesses to become more mindful of their impact on this world and its people, In real life though, these voluntary principles can be compromised as soon as profitability and a business’s survival is at stake.  

Bad Behaviour 

                                          Picture: freemalaysiatoday.com

Even that is not a criteria for bad behaviour as we saw Volkswagen – a member of UNGC to falsify its diesel engine emissions to promote the sale of its cars globally – just to gain market share and make more profits.

The Boeing debacle with 737 Maxx also makes a mockery of these principles with what came to light after two deadly crashes - Lion Air in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019 killing 346 people. In the months following the crashes, a report commissioned and paid for by institutional investors with large holdings in Boeing stock stated that pilot error was “the most consequential factor” in both crashes, when that was false.  

What has come to light was a profit motive to sell more planes. The new software technology called MCAS was required for the new version of the 737 with the bigger engines placed differently on the wings, which risked the planes to stall after take off.  

When operating the plane manually, the MCAS senses if the nose lifts too high leading to a stall and forces the nose down automatically. In these two crashes, the MCAS took control away from the pilots who had no idea what was happening, as they were not informed or trained to operate it. That would have cost extra money and made the plane not competitive in the market.    

That is why people like Cloe Franko, a senior organizer at Corporate Accountability International, a non-profit organization fighting to stop corporate abuse is more cynical.   
In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Franko stated[iii]:

The UNGC provides a platform for corporations to advance their brands and promote their association with the UN - with little or no action. It's a voluntary initiative, which corporate actors use to advance their own agendas and bottom lines. But they don't significantly change the playing field around, for instance, health, the environment and labor - which the UNGC claims to advance. It is primarily a PR scheme.

As well meaning and effective UNGC has been to bring the global sustainable agenda including the SDGs to the private sector, it is difficult to change a leopard’s stripes.  Corporations who hide behind the limited liability laws and its business-as-usual practices for growth and profits only, will continue on this path without significant change in organizational culture and attitudes at a deeper level.  

Transforming this culture begins with enlightened leadership with a combination of rational, emotional and spiritual intelligence.

Changing Human Behaviour

As we develop corporate responsibility and sustainability agendas, protocols, processes, rules and regulation, human motivation and behaviour are hardly addressed.  It is not to examine behaviour through academic disciplines of psychology, sociology or economics alone, but adding culture, attitudes, values, ethics and spirituality. A holistic view encompasses the spirit, the mind, emotions and the physical.  

We also acknowledge the four frames of a modern organization[iv] – Structural (hard systems and processes); Human Resources (hard and soft); Political (soft); and Symbolic (soft).  With enlightened leadership these soft systems and processes linked to emotional and spiritual intelligence can impact behaviour to transform organizational cultures to become more responsible.

There is yet a reluctance to delve on the soft and ‘wooly’. Going deeper than what the five senses offer and beyond what can be proven “objectively” (hard) with quantifiable results seem mysterious and emotionally fraught.

In the quantum world of science, we use new Physics in our modern communications technologies. However, our education, hence our worldview, is based on Newtonian Physics - left brained, rational and reductionist, so we find comfort in the "hard objective facts" - the black and white -  and avoid the right brain "soft" consciousness as these can be emotional, grey, uncertain.

Anything to do with the spirit, the mind and the body is outside the educational curricula and we wonder why the world of economics and business are not taking into consideration externalities – impact on human and eco-system well-being, the cradle to grave costs that are not internal to those businesses.  

The corporation operates with its legal license with limited liability and the choice to be a responsible citizen or not is in the hands of its shareholders, directors and the top management.  

Ethical Leaders Exist

If corporations are led by the rare likes of the late Anita Roddick of Body Shop, late Ray Anderson of Interface Carpets, Paul Polman of Unilever, Ratan Tata of Tata Sons - the chances are, “Purpose and Passion” is lived through enlightened leadership values and vision where a profitable business is a means of giving back to society and the environment.

These names are already familiar to us and if I search for new personalities going against the grain in 2019, not many corporate leaders are shaking the tree at the moment.  Many of those who are moving towards being more sustainable are doing so as it makes business sense.  

There are corporations like Virgin led by Richard Branson who is committed to reducing the environmental footprint, coffee and tea company Grosche who are providing natural-sand bio-filters for millions of rural people around the world to have access to clean water as cited among others in the article "50 + Real Live Examples of Private Sector SDG Leadership" in Corporate Knights article (Dave Klar: March 2019). 

However, not many business leaders are championing the need to make the globe more equitable, mitigate or help communities adapt to climate change, for instance. 

That is because most corporations are run by highly trained rational and focused people immersed in their potentially tyrannical left brain being reptilian in a competitive world acting out their default behaviour to maximize profits, grow at any cost, as it is survival to the fittest in a culture driven by fear. They operate on the edge, constantly on guard, hoarding, not sharing, not trusting, which is so outside the nature of the compassionate human being, that it causes the spiral of stress on people and the planet.  

Playing the Winning Game and Losing 

I play a game in organizational soft skills training programmes called the Winning Game. The rules give away the fact that it is a game of interdependence. 

I divide the group into 4 teams (typically 4 to 12 people per team), allocate names of departments of their own organization and tell them the objective – “To win as much money as you can”.  Six to ten rounds can be played depending on the available time and each team has to decide on one of two options. The rules are implicit in informing them that the final outcome will be predicated on how the other teams score.  

Invariably, most teams become competitive to win at any cost.  Even when given a chance to speak to each other to collaborate, at least one team may deceive the others, which causes all the teams to lose trust and then begins the spiral of irrational emotion and action where anger and revenge dominates.  

It is interesting to watch the negative energy rise as the teams become reptilian and combative to deal with the perceived threatening environment - all sense of reason and decorum disappears.

When at the end, I tot up the earnings of each team and calculate the collective earnings of all four teams and say, everyone has lost - there is surprise.  

Post game discussion is dominated by finger pointing - blaming each other and also laying blame on me as the facilitator for deceiving them with partial information, yet not many put a mirror on themselves.  

Within one simulated hour, this game can replicate normal human behaviour. Organizations that may lack an enlightened leadership vision and values based on human integrity, generosity, graciousness and dignity – in effect spirituality - may get trapped in the default competitive human nature where the left brain rules. 

Very rarely have I seen a situation where an organization wins together at the Winning Game. The few that have won have been rural agri-based organizations where interdependence is crucial for survival.  

The Protestant Work Ethic

Most western corporations were founded in the Protestant Work Ethic. The desire for a good life provided a moral framework for good behavior for employees.  It also provided a meaning and purpose to work. 

Luis W. Fry

However, the Industrial Revolution also ushered in a Newtonian deterministic, machine-like universe through scientific method, removing free will of man. It postulated that the universe and man were stable and materialistic in nature (Luis W. Fry 2004). 

In a way it has taken away human emotion from the process. Good behavior meant putting up with domineering and demeaning managers, not reacting to unfair systems and processes.   

This may lead to a “survival to the fittest” culture, silos, fear driven competitiveness, requiring selfish behavior to show self in a good light to the management.  According to Luis Fry, the current malaise in corporate ethics and social responsibility has roots based on egoism and a perversion of the Protestant Work Ethic.

This behaviour is reinforced through an education and social conditioning to be rational, logical and to specialize.  Institutions designed in the old industrial age hierarchy operate in silos and the notion of interdependence and interconnectedness or 'interbeing' as the Buddhist monk Thich Nach Hanh describes, is alien. The term spirituality in the formal structures of organizations seem too vague, mysterious and may even evoke fear.

In his 2004 paper, Toward a theory of ethical and spiritual well-being, and corporate social responsibility through spiritual leadership, Louis W. Fry of Tarleton State University,  Central Texas states;

Spiritual well-being is a result of satisfying the spiritual survival needs for:  (1) transcendence or calling manifested in the desire to strive for those purposes and values that express whatever a person feels is ultimately meaningful to him or her and (2) membership which is the desire for people, especially at work, to feel understood, and appreciated resulting in a sense of belonging and partnership.  

Spiritual well-being, however, is not obtained by striving for it directly.  Organizational members cannot experience a sense of spiritual well-being by trying to manufacture it. 

It is not produced when a company focuses on its monetary goals, but instead occurs when leadership first establishes a healthy workplace culture grounded in altruistic values and transcendent goals. 

When members of an organization have a sense of belonging and a commitment to a common purpose, the organization as a whole is more successful in meeting or exceeding key stakeholder expectations; this is also when sustainable monetary goal achievement is realized.

Acknowledging our Spiritual Nature 

Acknowledging our spirituality helps us to find purpose and meaning in life, provides a foundation for our values to guide us in the way we behave with self, others and the world around us.  

Spirituality is a way of facilitating a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body - balancing the left and right brains. Spirituality helps us grow and transform from our ego-centered material self to an active, unifying, meaning-giving centre in a universal awareness and consciousness of our oneness with nature.

Spirituality is about a transpersonal vision of goodness, beauty, perfection, generosity, graciousness, and sacrifice.  It hinges on dignity for self and others and the foundation is true integrity.  Love and compassion is its cornerstone.

The Cartesian/Baconian Folly

The 500 year Cartesian/Bacon project promoting rational reductionist science has given some a quality of material life and prosperity, but has left us with a life without much meaning and little appreciation for the inherent goodness of what it means to be human. 

The institutions that perpetuated this myth of man was formalized with Descarte’s wisdom – “I think therefore I am” - dividing the body (matter) and the mind (the thinking thing) leaving out the natural and the spiritual world - for science to shape the rational, reductionist left-brained mind to accept the external world through the five senses on one hand - to the right brained contextual and spiritual - bringing into perspective our oneness with nature through the humanities, art and the mysterious - on the other. 

This mastery by the mind controlled the material world defined by money and power - created a competitive and reptilian world caught up in greed, ill-will and delusion.  

 

This denies the modern industrial human the wisdom of nature’s interconnected and interdependent quantum universe, which is holistic, spiritual and mysterious.   

 

Descarte's contemporary, Francis Bacon - accepted as the father of modern science, said that science and the inventions do not “merely exert a gentle guidance over nature’s course; they have the power to conquer and subdue her, to shake her to her foundations.”

 

Bacon originated the idea of conquering nature for the sake of relieving man's estate and Descartes promoted man to be “like masters and possessors of nature”. (vi)

We continue on this treadmill of mindless conditioned thought and life, made worse by the corporate consumerist propaganda conditioning our egos to consume more, as that defines our external success, yet deep down questioning the meaning of all this stuff. 

This has to change if we are to find a meaningful transformation for this planet to sustain it itself.

Getting to the Core

Making a difference requires a shift in consciousness with individual leaders - a transformation from a linear, task-oriented management to an inspirational leader balancing intelligence with sensitivity to the human condition and the environment through values and spiritual integrity.  Then it becomes personal, human and close to nature.

In a Guardian interview, Unilever’s Paul Polman was critical of companies claiming their fiduciary duty to maximize profits for shareholders in the short-term, arguing it a narrow a model of Milton Friedman's old thinking. 

If we focus our company on improving the lives of the world's citizens and come up with genuine sustainable solutions, we are in sync with consumers and society and ultimately this will result in good shareholder returns - (Polman 2012).

This change in consciousness and behaviour is not easy with the rational, reductionist worldview supported by education.  A more holistic education with a focus on the complex-self as well as the external world from a young age will help in the long run.

However, change is needed now and courageous leaders like Polman are going against the grain.  Among thousands of corporate leaders we count few like him - Anita Roddick and Ray Anderson.

This is why adult learning programs on leadership for sustainability like former Bath University MSc for Responsibility and Business Practice and the Ashridge Business School’s Responsible Business Masters are important.  

In the book, Leadership for Sustainability edited by Judi Marshall, Gil Coleman and Peter Reason (Greenleaf; 2011) who founded the original Bath University program with Anita Roddick, pondered as they planned; “What gives people sense of agency, resources, awareness, the approach and the crafts to practice to take action in the service of a more environmentally sustainable and socially just world?”.

They created a leading-edge course helping participants to step outside and challenge current formulations of society and business - as transformation requires knowledge, wisdom and courage to question the status quo. 

Sadly - both these programs, which have contributed over 500 mindful global leaders -  are no more as it runs counter to the corporate culture - when employees become ethical responsible managers and hold their companies to account, it does not serve its profit motive.  

MIT-Sloan School of Management’s  Edgar Schein speak of assumptions we make based on values that are ingrained through long-term acceptance – this is the way business is done – and how its contrarian when going against this grain. 

This is what Marshall, Coleman, Reason and Roddick were trying to unhinge by designing the innovative course in a traditional school of management to influence change through action-research and self-reflective inquiry, mindfulness, systemic thinking, power and diversity, acting with and against organizations and communities. Thus was born the concept of the “Tempered Radical” who influences change from within. 

This innovative MSc was transformative for many, including myself and inspired new leaders to face the sustainability challenge head on. Alumni are leading the way in the sustainability space, but we need many more enlightened leaders to influence the corporate world to transform.   

Mindfulness and Spiritual Intelligence

Invoking this change is not complex. At an individual level, it requires a shift in mindset - to quieten the mind by focusing on the breath to meditate, reflect, inquire and accept personal responsibility for our own words and action that may impact the world. 

Mindfulness meditation has been practiced for over 5000 years as a way of creating deep self awareness. Western proponents such as Ekhart Tolle and Jon Kabat-Zinn are promoters of mindfulness bringing these practices to the mainstream.    

Mindfulness practice focusing on the breath - helps us to realize our oneness with nature - when we inquire into where this 'life force' - the breath originates and recycles in our interconnected nature. 

 

The practice helps people to differentiate between thoughts and pure awareness or knowing.  It makes the distinction that thoughts may be loaded with emotional biases through past conditioning as opposed to awareness, which is the present – paying attention to the unconditioned here and now, just as it is.  

This distinction enables us to put stress, anxiety and other forms of mental pressure in perspective as they arise from thoughts and feelings. When we bring them to the conscious rational awareness through mindfulness, we may act with clarity.

We can alter the perceptions by focusing on the feelings and the reason for them to have manifested – a need met or not met – which can move us from emotion to rational awareness in order to alter the self talk – the rumination that perpetuates stress and anxiety. 

By quietening the chatter of the conscious mind through a mindfulness practice, we can reach the subconscious mind to unhinge hardened narratives embedded in us – such us our competitive nature, the material consumerist mind, our single minded focus on growth at any cost and the lack of understanding of our interconnectedness with nature. 

This may help us as business leaders to change our deluded narrative to become more ethical, open and purposeful to consider options that are outside the paradigm of profit at the cost of externalities – impact on health and well-being of people, pollution and other harmful effects on the environment.

According to Ricardo Levy, Chairperson of Catalytica Energy Systems, executives are trained for action—contemplation is not part of their rulebook. In his own career, he discovered the need for spiritual guidance in crucial decisions. Levy's guidelines are:[v]

·        Quiet the mind.

·        Reach deep inside. Go beyond the ego to hear the
          inner voice.

·        Don't fear ambiguity; rest in the unknown. "This is the
          most difficult piece," Levy admitted. "We're not  
         comfortable unless we see the path."

·        Stay humble in the face of temptation and power.
         "Being humble is a key issue. It's good for a leader to be
         reminded of the intoxication of power." 

This is a typical mindfulness practice which makes a person
 aware of what is going on within them and the surrounding
 world. That alone helps one become more responsible
 and ethical, especially when faced with ethical and moral
 dilemmas.  

At the core, us humans have an inbuilt nature for
empathy and sympathy for self and others and will become
aware of consequences of our decisions and 
actions. Mindfulness also brings about an awareness of the
entire eco-system of cause and effect leading to impacts.

The UNGC articulates it’s 10 principles well 
 with guidance. Mindful awareness enables us to quiet our
 minds to really understand what they mean and take 
 authentic action to make meaningful change in the way
 corporations behave to create a better world.  

Spiritually intelligent purposeful business leaders will go beyond the benefit of good PR to make a real difference in the world to
 meet its dire needs to develop the SDGs to create a fair, just
 and a happy, harmonious world for now and the future.

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[i] https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/does-spirituality-drive-success

[ii]                  https://www.unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/mission/principles

[iii]                https://www.dw.com/en/un-global-compact-is-big-business-saving-the-world/a-40614516

[iv]                 https://www.aamc.org/download/488400/data/4framemodel.pdf

[v] https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/does-spirituality-drive-success

 (vi) https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/masters-and-possessors-of-nature