(with permission Simon Business School Panel Cliff Smith, David Primo, Maria Jose Pereira, Ed Deci)
Globalization, digitization, democratization -- oh my.
The hardest part about being me is that everything is so integral it is difficult to take a section and make meaning out of it without including the whole. The whole, however, is too complex and needs to be simplified. I have been sitting on a post for three weeks waiting for brilliance to land. It hasn't landed. I feel compelled however to let out what clarity is here at this moment.
Recently I was lucky enough to meet and learn from Maria Jose Pereira. Maria wrote the book Money, Love and Virtue by my publisher Triarchy Press. Maria was a guest speaker in Rochester for Simon School. Part history, part philosophy, part economics I can see the value of this book being woven into curriculum across the globe that foster comparative and integral programs. As Maria writes in her forward:
I have come to believe that money, love, and virtue are not alien, nor even opposed to one another, but intertwined. They thrive together. Money permits our material welfare and wellbeing. Love fulfills our emotional and spiritual needs. And love inspires virtue, which allows the person to live in harmony with the world.
Trade and reciprocity have always been a part of the economy. We are moving much more into a collaborative economy as we learn from Michel Bauwens @MBauwens, a platform economy as we learn from Haydn Shaughnessy @haydn1701 and an attention economy as we learn from Michael H. Goldhaber. Collaborative, platform and attention economy frameworks all involve an exchange of value and a community. How value is determined and the currency utilized is dynamic and changes. What stays the same, however, are the needs of the community such as the need for confidence, trust, transparency and communication.
Business today is at the speed of social and all social networks accelerate and amplify the need for transparency. Transparency either strengthens or weakens our confidence - which ultimately impacts who/what we trust. More than anything else in this dynamic economy is our need to trust ourselves. Money, Love and Virtue asks the hard questions that cause a mirror. Are our choices in what we value and who we trust representative of our highest selves? Might we need to look more reflectively into our own spending? Do we know about the ecosystems of the brands we admire and support? Each person has the right to answer these questions very personally; however, consumption becomes autobiographical in big data narratives due to the internet of things. We need more self-respect. We need more contextual intelligence. We need more self-confidence. We need to be more proud of who we are and what we stand for. We need to care more deeply for a larger vision of the ecosystem we are participating in.
Thank you, Maria for your generous time and thoughtful insight. We will be chewing on these very important concepts for a very, very long time.
In earnest,
Jennifer Sertl
Co-author Triarchy's Strategy Leadership & the Soul
(with permission Jennifer Sertl & Maria Jose Pereira at Victoire)