Ayelet Baron
Most authors dream of becoming New York Times Best Sellers, but not Ayelet Baron, whose dream is to open as many hearts and minds to what is possible in today's world, especially when it comes to business. Instead of leading with structure, she discovered her purpose in the Amazon Rainforest and began having conversations with pioneering 21st-century leaders from around the world. Our Journey To Corporate Sanity: Transformational Stories From The Frontiers Of 21st Century Leadership is a collection of these stories woven together by Ayelet to take us on a journey of our own to create a sane world where we lead with purpose. Her dream is to create more humane organizations where people matter deeply. The following are a few questions I asked Ayelet about the book and what’s its purpose was.
1. Who is this book written for?
While this book is focused on pioneering leadership in business, I also wrote it for anyone who is ready to participate in a journey of exploration and co-creation for a higher purpose. It is written for those who want to become 21st century leaders, with a focus on creating opportunities instead of being stuck in old ways of problem-solving and blaming. It is also written for those who understand that trust, community, and relationships are key to this era, and who want to learn how to transform themselves and their organizations. By sharing the stories of 33 pioneers at the edges of business, this book can help us envision new approaches to life and work, and chart a much better course for businesses—locally, nationally, and around the world.
2. The title sounds like a business book. Is it, or is it also more personal?
Our Journey to Corporate Sanity is not just another business book—it is bringing together so many visionary leaders who are offering a new path for us to recognize that we are in the human-to-human era where purpose and experiences matter more than mere transactions. It is time for conscious 21st century leaders to drive shared purpose in becoming whole, integrate our teams around new ways of being, and co-create in trusted communities and unlikely partnerships.
Business is an intrinsic part of our human experience, but somehow we get so wrapped up in number crunching and profit margins that we often forget that businesses are made up of people. We have constructed a superficial division between work and life in an attempt to find a mythical balance, when in reality, we are one person who no longer needs to be divided. More and more people want to show up as whole people, at work and in all areas of their lives. This book asks each of us to leave our limiting beliefs behind and realize that our journey is one big adventure to be experienced. And it is personal.
3. When I first met you, you would tell people you fired yourself from your corporate job. What type of response did you get and why do you think that is?
Saying that I had fired myself resonated with so many people I talked to. But it also made me sad, because people who attended my talks would applaud and cheer me for making this move and yet tell me that although they would love to do the same, they couldn’t because they had to make a living. There was such a strong sense of how stuck people felt, and I think this book can help them find a different path. For some people, leaving the corporate world would be the best option for them, but for many others, I want to help them see how they can shift their organizations and help them thrive, while helping themselves to thrive, too.
I would love for us to see more people-centered organizations, where people would not feel the need to fire themselves, or to simply suffer through it just to make a living. There is so much opportunity for finding shared purpose in business and transforming how we work.
4. How did you choose the people to be in the book?
Along the road, I have met many leaders who have generously shared their stories with me. They each came into my life in a unique way, and although their stories are all unique, they also share a similar underlying transformational spirit that aligns with the purpose of the book as a whole. Some are people who I already knew, some I met through friends, some arrived from the communities I built on social media, and others just showed up.
5. You've said this in not a "how to" book. How would you describe it?
There is no manual that is universally true in all the details, whether in business or any other area of life. Cookie cutters only work when you’re baking. At the same time, there are certain core principles that we can all tap into when we are in touch with our intuition and our reasoning capabilities. This book is meant as a guide to help people discover these core principles and start living their own stories in the most holistic way possible. I also outline seven signposts that can serve as guides to building thriving 21st century organizations: (1) conscious leaders, (2) shared purpose, (3) becoming whole, (4) integration, (5) new ways of being, (6) co-creating, and (7) LIFEworking.
6. What do you hope comes as a result of the book being published?
I want to open hearts and minds and introduce people to the human-to-human purpose and experience driven adventure that is waiting for those who are ready.
A significant part of creating a sane and healthy world requires us to recognize that we can create a different path for business. So much can change when we recognize how business can bring us together to live in deeper community and partnership. It is part of many ancient philosophical/spiritual traditions to seek greater self-understanding, more profound wisdom, and better alignment with reality, and now such ancient teachings need to be brought in more explicitly into corporations and organizations. I want to bring people together—not in a naïve way that tries to force agreement or false compromise, but in a genuine way that looks at reality as it is rather than how we may fantasize it to be.
7. Your book title includes a phrase I’ve never heard before: “Corporate Sanity”. Do you think that corporations are insane?
Yes and no. On the one hand, how can it be sane to value profit over our own well-being and the well-being of our shared planet? If we destroy our environment and make ourselves unhealthy and miserable in the process, then what is the point of generating endless revenue? At the same time, I am not being unrealistic—I am not against making a profit. As the former Chief Strategy Officer for Cisco Canada, I helped propel Canada from the sixth to the second largest revenue generating country for Cisco at nearly $2 billion, so I appreciate the importance of driving revenue. But when profit is the fundamental priority or the ultimate goal to be achieved at any cost, that easily leads to doing things that are self-destructive—that are, in a word, insane. The documentary The Corporation makes this point well. But corporations don’t have to continue acting insanely. They can transform, and they can become a genuine force for good. They can strive to make products and offer services that are of great benefit, and our drive for profit should support this higher purpose for business. The transformational storytellers in this book have transcended beyond the insanity of pursuing profit at any cost, and they offer great living examples of how we can all move forward on our journey to corporate sanity.