The New Paradigm of Work: From Survival to Fulfilment -- EBBF's Annual Conference
- Participants at the conference
During the last weekend of September scores of people from over 30 countries—young and old, women and men, CEOs, consultants, and even the odd NGO type—filled the De Poort conference center, and overflowed into two neighboring hotels amidst the wooded flatlands of eastern Holland for EBBF’s 18th annual conference. In 1989 only a handful of people were to be found among the conference attendees. After all, who on earth was to be found interested in the unpopular and seemingly oxymoronic idea of applying spiritual principles to the cut and dry world of business? Wendi Momen, chair of the EBBF board, noted that this year there were more applicants than spots: “It’s a confirmation that the two things can go together.”
Beginning with a scrumptious dinner on Thursday evening, the conference schedule managed a peculiar combination of being both session packed and leisurely, with long breaks for chatter and schmooze, networking and laughter. There were keynote speeches and workshops to choose from, quiz shows, and question and answers that went well into the night, and even a session in which the participants helped create a model for a values based reward system. Speakers were quite varied including a managing director of a multinational in Poland who shared his experience promoting products that directly benefit malnourished children; a consultant turned performer turned director turned writer who spoke about applying principles of show business to running an organization in general; and a rags to riches, hedonism to service story of the owner of a now multimillion dollar company in the hotel industry—among many others.
Here are a handful of highlights from a few of the talks:
Ben Wolters, manager of the De Poort Conference center, told the story of how a nascent, virtually unknown, remote and cash-strapped De Poort overcame a significant infrastructure overhaul by thinking beyond its own needs, and encompassing those of a local energy supply company: They had an old, polluting oil heating system, and needed to switch over to natural gas but were absolutely broke. The board was inclined to put off the overhaul awaiting future solvency. But with a local gas distributor, they figured out how much sales would be generated for this family-owned company if De Poort were to change to gas. Thus a win-win solution was found: the gas company would entirely finance the change, and in lieu a substantial discount for the future large shipments of of gas, the conference center’s monthly bills would include payoffs for the loan. The deal strengthened a long-term, local business relationship and financed an upgrade of a polluting heating system. By stepping outside of normal business lines and by aligning itself with the deepest, noblest side of human nature—with people’s generosity, sense of mutual help, of interconnectedness—the idea became a compelling and effective force.
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- George Starcher and Ramin Khabirpour
David Patterson, CEO of Northwater Capital in Canada, managing $10 billion of large pension funds, gave the conference one of its most memorable lines, “Don’t do your best!” This is why: He reminded us that even though in our work we try to optimize the functioning of a given system (generally a company), these are just subsets of single system which we are all part of: the interconnected universe. While this supersystem is too large as an object for our intervention, we can choose the limits of the system which we work to optimize.
“We strive to optimize the whole. In any given system you can only optimize only one thing at a time. If you are trying to optimize your own job you aren’t optimizing the whole. I think I’m the only CEO in Canada who goes around to employees saying: Don’t do your best! We want you to do the best for the whole system that includes our clients, our families, the environment, and the community. This isn’t just about one’s self. (If a timpanist [the person who plays the cymbals] in an orchestra always tried to do his or her best and stay busy all the time, imagine how that would be!) Sometimes some people have to be inactive and sit on their thumbs. Sometimes people just have to have fun. If our computer person is always busy, then I have to make an appointment for some time in three weeks. You need slack in your system to make the system work. You need someone like a timpanist who comes in for just the last three bars.”
With a system broader than the firm as the object to be optimized, their goal goes beyond profit. The most important element in the system is the people, and the central strategy for Mr. Patterson is “to help grow the people, which is part of a reinforcing loop, which then helps grow the firm.” He and his partner, Dennis Cook, shared how Northwater is trying to do this: open no-walled offices, excellent healthcare, the fostering of social life and social service. Mr. Cook said,
“When people join we describe ourselves as a social network. This includes our clients, our workers and families, our suppliers, our community and the environment. Our central cultural principle is that we are one team optimizing the whole. So we think of an individual’s contribution in terms of contributing to the whole."
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The idea that businesses should be adapted to the needs of the human being, and to the fostering of his noble qualities, and not the other way around, was echoed in a brief presentation by EBBF heavyweight Beppe Robiati:
I am a CEO of industrial company. I’m sure other are here who are working in similar a position. What we all have in common is that we all work with people. Or we all deal with what some call ‘Human Resources’.
In answering the question, ‘Who are these human resources and how should we conceive of them?’, Mr. Robiati shared this quote from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh: “Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.” Mr. Robiati said that we have to look at people in this way, as mines full of gems. “What are these gems?” he asked us, and then went on to talk about three inner qualities that we all share and which are particularly relevant to our workplace:
First gem, No one can live on this planet without giving love and without being loved. Everyone here in the conference needs to love and needs to be loved. Second gem, When you love someone—when you love your partner—what do you do for this person? When you love someone you should want to serve this person. Love and service are connected. Third gem, When you love and serve, these two gems attract other people. We have been created to live together, not alone. So unity is the third gem. And all these must be developed together.
He then went on to explain the kind of love he was referring to.
It’s not the kind of love you think about, that I’m falling in love with the men and women in my factory! Here’s an example with Estefano. His child was sick, and I had to force him to spend time in hospital with child until he got better. ‘If you come into work tomorrow you are fired’. His wife later came in to thank me. This is love, you see, and there was no touching involved—not even his wife!
He pointed out that love means being thoughtful about other people. One story he shared was solving a significant source of discomfort for the many Moroccan workers in his factory by creating a special prayer room for their daily prayers. And noting the interconnection between work, workers and society, he remarked, “We see divorce rates rise in our society and we don’t want to contribute to this.” So they close the factory at six p.m. so people can be with their families."
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- Workshop presentation with Paul Hughes
Later on that day Julian Macqueen shared his own story of attempting to apply spiritual principles to his hotel business. He noticed early on when he began to work for others that everyone was obliged to keep “a strict separation between work and personal life. We were told that when we came to work we should leave our problems at home.” And he added: “This seemed like a recipe for schizophrenia to me. How can you separate yourself into two?” So he, too, like Mr. Robiati, strove to ensure that when he was the boss, he’d try to make sure that at work the whole individual was being taken care of. At the same time Mr. Macqueen was inspired and guided by a quote from the Bahá’í writings on the nature of work itself:
Every individual, no matter how handicapped and limited he may be, is under the obligation of engaging in some work or profession, for work, especially when performed in the spirit of service, is according to Bahá'u'lláh a form of worship. It has not only a utilitarian purpose, but has a value in itself, because it draws us nearer to God, and enables us to better grasp His purpose for us in this world.
His responsibility as he conceived it, then, was twofold: to create an environment where his workers could develop this spirit of service in their work, and to make sure that they were being looked after. What he called a ‘mission’ was created to make explicit these goals, which included:
To have fun; Where there can be an ongoing structure to check in with each other get the support for handling the day to day tests and difficulties that we are all faced with in our professional and private lives; Where management supervises and directs with a balance of goal achievement and personal acknowledgement and growth; and Where employees work together to make the company profitable and share in those profits.
One strategy they’ve used to provide support and foster a positive working environment, is the creation of a daily meeting where people have a chance to share openly the things that are going on in their lives:
… we check in on people, who have the opportunity to say, ‘I’m having a bad day; if I’m not 100%, this is why’. We also share announcements, birthdays, anniversaries, baseball game scores, and sometimes something funny to make people laugh.
He said that this spirit of service filters out into culture of the hotels and translates into how the employees treat each other and the guests. Another example, they have an average 17-year tenure for management staff in their hotels which he says is unheard of in the industry. The benefits of the spirit created are also felt in another way by the 600 employees themselves, as they receive yearly checks through a system of profit-sharing. He said: “I can’t tell you how much it means for a housecleaner to feel part of the company. People understand their role in the business whether they clean, change the linens, replenish the shampoo bottles people love to take, or work optimizing the fares charged.”
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On Saturday afternoon there were ten workshops to choose from, including on using consultation as a key decision making instrument in a business and organizational context, achieving a gender balance at work, and implementing a moral and ethical framework in one’s business. One participant said that “… they were all very tempting, it was so hard to choose—I wish we could repeat them again next year!” One I found very interesting was one in which the facilitator Kimmo Vesajoki asked for help creating a values-based bonus scheme, one which was requested by his bosses at his software development company in Finland. Starting with the values statement of the company—which includes promoting prosperity and well-being, an entrepreneurial spirit, the courage and ability to renew/reinvent, openness and transparency; honesty and uprightness, and commitment and loyalty—Mr. Vesajoki sincerely asked for help designing a scheme that would reward this kind of behavior. Two of the big questions he is considering are: How do you evaluate achievement of these values? And, How much of an employee’s salary should depend on demonstrating these values? The liveliness of the ensuing discussion and the challenge of consensus I believe belies both the newness of the concept as well as the difficulty of assessing someone else’s values. But nevertheless Mr. Vesajoki did leave with many ideas to juggle, including insights into the use of profit-sharing and including non-pecuniary rewards in the bonus scheme.
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The final word on the conference, however, belongs to the participants, whose degree of inspiration is the litmus test of the worth of any conference. EBBF is after all about ‘People inspiring responsible business’. A sampling of comments follows.
From a first-time attendee written to an EBBF organizer:
First I want to thank you for writing [to encourage me to] attend the EBBF conference. This for me has been one of the most outstanding events in my professional career. It has opened up a whole new horizon of possibilities and expectations to me. My head continues going over and over the events of and speakers in that gathering. On Saturday I took the time to join EBBF over their website. Please accept my apology for not saying farewell to you on Sunday. I was in a rush to eat lunch from 12:35 to catch a 1:00 taxi. Further at the lunch table I was caught up in some conversation with other guests. The time just [went] WHISSSSSH!
Another:
Congratulations on organising such a successful and constructive conference. The fact that all attendees were so impressed and found the event so stimulating and impressive should give you substantial satisfaction and encouragement. The theme of the conference, its programme, presentations, [and] speakers all helped create such a success. However above all of was the spirit of love and commitment which was so [pervasive]. Thank you to you and all members of the organizing committee. All the best and looking forward to the next conference!
And another:
I LOVED the Annual Conference. The programme was once again very interesting. A good mix of keynote speakers and workshops. And of course, the atmosphere, this very special atmosphere, I bathed in it. I had the opportunity to talk to a variety of people, each of them gifted me with some word of wisdom to take home. They really gave me a lot of inputs (and a lot of love, too). It was great to meet new people and it was such a nice feeling to see again friends. The mix (male, female, senior, junior) was amazing, you've achieved your goal manyfold!!! So yes, they did help me pick up my spirit and I am now implementing some of what they told me.
All in all it was a wholesome, filling conference, with bright humor to lighten the gray, drizzly skies. People left inspired, having understood a little more about how to apply these principles to create more just, more humane workplaces where human welfare isn’t seen as incompatible with business profit, having taken time to reflect on our own contribution to our respective enterprises, and helping us to take steps towards living out more useful and fulfilling lives. As individuals grow, Mr. Patterson said, so does an organization. EBBF’s growth after 18 years can be seen in the people standing in the conference hall to listen to someone talking about values in business, as there weren’t enough chairs to go around. Perhaps the conference’s title is applicable to EBBF itself, could it be well underway in the journey from mere survival to overflowing fulfillment?
Article written by Karim Beers
