Applying the Principles of Humanism to Business

 Discussing how to apply the philosophy of Humanism to the business of business.

If you want to learn more:

• Take a course at https://humanistlearning.com/
• Get my book on Applied Humanism: https://humanistlearning.com/new-book-applied-humanism-how-to-create-more-effective-and-ethical-businesses/
  Or - get the short pamphlet book: https://humanistlearning.com/book-and-video-principles-of-humanistic-leadership/
• Or take one of my online courses:
• Certified Humanistic Leadership Professional - 16 hours
• Certificate in Applied Humanistic Leadership - 8 hours
• Principles of Humanistic Leadership - 2 hours

What I learned about management from Amnesty international

I am a trained activist. And because of that - I am a trained leader.  I was thinking about this as I have been watching the protests to end police brutality.  I am no longer active - but my heart is with the protesters.

Effective activists get trained. It's like any other project. If you want to be successful, you need knowledge of history, what has been tried, what works, and how to encourage people in power to come to the table to negotiate with you for the changes you want to see made.

I spent years involved with Amnesty International. And received so many training opportunities from them I lost count. They taught me:

• Leadership
• Volunteer management
• Public speaking
• Co-creation
• Egalitarian leadership

A big part of the reason I am able to teach these things in the world of business is because of the training Amnesty International gave to me.

What are the management lessons we can learn from social justice movements?

Passion and values is central to what you want to do. Ethics isn't secondary to organizing and management. It's central.  If what you are doing isn't going to make things better- don't do it.  We have a limited amount of time and resources and big problems that really need to be solved. Don't waste time on things that don't matter. 

What will work with the least input? We have a limited amount of time and resources, this is true of every movement. So - how do we create the most impact with the least amount of input? All conversations about strategy - take this into account.  And if you've taken my Reality Based Decision Making course - you will recognize this principle. 

Great leaders create great coalitions. No one gets anything done by themselves. There is always a coalition of people working in common cause that gets things done. Great leaders - built great coalitions. They don't care who gets credit - as long as the work gets done - and the work gets done - through coalition and that requires giving up ownership - and allowing people to co-create solutions together. 

Invest in people. The more skills your people learn - the more they can contribute. Amnesty International invests in it's volunteers. It teaches them how to be activists. How to lead, how to create and build coalitions, how to advocate for what you want and more.  I received more training from them as a volunteer than I ever have from any of the companies I ever worked for.  Most jobs I had - expected me to learn on the job. Invest in people. Teach them how to do better and be better at whatever job they have. And make this an ongoing part of the culture- learning and sharing.

Never take your eye off your goal: All activism serves a goal. I was taught to always keep that goal in mind and to take wins whenever you could.  Progress is made in small changes. Those small changes add up to big wins over time.  And yes - incremental change can be really frustrating - but there is no other real way to succeed. 

Treat people - including your adversaries - as potential allies: All activism is designed to either encourage or force people to change. If you can encourage people to change - great. If change has to be forced - ok - but try encouragement first.  When forcing change - you have to give the people you are trying to change - space to change. If you treat them as evil - you give them no space to do or be good. Always assume people will eventually choose to do the right thing. And encourage them - and accept them when they do - regardless of what went on before. Give people - a safe place to land in the new reality you are creating.

Share space with others and allow others to lead.  No one knows everything. Everyone I met along the way - was able to teach me things I didn't know before. I met people from so many parts of the country and so many backgrounds and life experiences. All of them had something valuable to contribute and each and every one of them was a capable leader when given the space to lead.  It is easy to see how this lends itself to a humanistic mindset. Like Confucius - I was taught that everyone is capable of being a moral person and everyone is capable of leading. They just need to be given encouragement, teaching and opportunity. 

Learn more:

I have a 16 hour online certificate program in Humanistic Leadership - https://humanistlearning.com/certified-humanistic-leadership-professional/

 

And a new book on Applied Humanism - how to create more effective and ethical businesses - https://humanistlearning.com/new-book-applied-humanism-how-to-create-more-effective-and-ethical-businesses/

Why be engaged with the world around you?

If you don’t pay attention to where you are going, you could end up someplace you don’t want to be.

Being a Humanist is not just about trying to be a good person. It's about taking on the responsibility to actual do good things that help yourself and other people.

That means - knowing enough to make good decisions. And that means - paying attention to what is going on around you so that you don't make decisions blindly.

Pay attention to the world around you. Pay attention to people, places and things.  All this knowledge can be drawn upon when it comes time to make decisions about what sort of person you want to be and what sort of work you want to do - and even - where you want to live.

You have choices in your life. Big choices and little choices. Choosing to not choose - is itself a choice.   If you don't pay attention to those choices - the little ones and the big ones - you may just end up someplace you don't want to be.

To help- I have a 6 week online course that teaches the basics of how to make good decisions - the way a Humanist does.  Most people find having a framework to think through their problems as it makes decision making easier when you know what all you should be weighing.   

And no - you don't have to be a Humanist to benefit from this course.  The point of it is to help you clarify your values and help you learn ways to think through problem solving for yourself. 

https://humanistlearning.com/livingmadesimpler1/

What I learned about leadership in high school because my teacher - was absent - drum major edition

In high school - I was the band's drum major for 3 years. The drum major is not the baton twirler. They are the conductor of the band.

That's me - in the yellow uniform and the cool shako - leading the band. Giving them directions, telling them what to play. You get the idea.

 I was elected assistant drum major at the end of my freshman year. The senior who was drum major had her locker next to mine and she suggested I try out.  I was elected.  It helped that I was friends with a lot of the seniors as a freshman.

It was also probably important that the previous drum major - was also female - so I had a female leadership role model. I was either assistant drum major or drum major from my sophomore to senior year.

What I learned - mostly - besides how to wrangle a group of 100 teenagers to cooperate on a project was how to work in a team to get things done. I learned this because our band director was ALWAYS absent. He was a professional touring musician with a big band and he was tour, a lot.

Because he was absent a lot - for anything to happen (like music chosen, and copies ordered, scheduling and things like that - everything a band requires) the band president, treasurer and me had to work together to make it happen.

It was up to me to teach the band how to march. It was up to me to help them learn the music. But I didn't have to do it alone. I worked with my fellow students on the band executive team to pick out music, designed the shows, teach them, rehearse them and more. Oh - we also fund-raised on our own to afford the things we needed.

 I wasn't just out there - marking time, which was the core part of the job. I was part of a leadership team that kept the band functional because our band director - was mostly absent.

One year we organized our normal band camp at the end of the summer (to teach incoming freshmen how to march and to start work on the half time shows). The band director had no part in this. I doubt he even knew we were doing it. At the time,  my mouth was wired shut from oral surgery. I couldn't talk or give people directions. My friends and team members - covered for me to get the work done and the music and formations learned. We did such a good job that some members of the band didn't even know I had my mouth wired shut until a month later when the wires came off and I could speak again.   That's what team work can do!

Learning #leadership at an early age - what I learned is that leaders aren't alone. You can't lead by yourself.  Leadership is collaborative. To do it well - you have to make space for others to lead and take on responsibility. It may look to outsiders like the drum major is ordering people about. But the reality is - the performance is a collaboration between all the members of the group.

Note: I don't want it to see like our band director was bad. He was pretty awesome. I adored our band director. He opened up so many musical opportunities to me and introduced me to so many really amazing musicians. He recruited me to play in a big band with him actually and I spent most of my teen years - playing professionally at gigs several nights a week with adult professional musicians.  Heck - I got to meet Frank Sinatra Jr!  And Jack Wheaton (who was Stan Kenton's protoge!)  Some of my fondest memories are playing next to him in the big band while he's making jokes with his hand while while playing his tenor sax.

I learned so much from him. He mostly taught through the experiences he provided us. His absence at school created experiences that his presence would not have. It gave us the space and necessity for me and my friends to step up into leadership roles. And it opened up some amazing musical opportunities. So while at the time it was kind of absurd that our band director was - usually absent - we just dealt with it and learned from it and from him.

What I learned about leadership from my absent teacher - was that if we collaborate - we can accomplish  - anything. 

Constructive Capitalism

In February - my colleague Elizabeth Castillo from Arizona State University was the guest on the Humanistic Management Lunch and Learn. Her topic was Social Accounting and how to think differently about resources. She brought up an interesting concept - constructive capitalism.

Here are some of my notes:

If we want a more humanistic capitalism, or a more sustainable capitalism, we are defining success as something sustainable.

How it works: by integrated or social accounting it helps you build capital or capacity.

Focusing only on money as capital – tends to be extractive – and not sustainable – because extraction – never is.

If – however, you develop capabilities/capital, you are being constructive. You build more and more capability and then the possibilities grow. It’s not extractive, it’s constructive.

Our problem is we tend to think of capital - as money and that's too narrow. If we think of capital in terms of our capabilities, we think differently about success and we think differently about the values of our various capabilities and the support and investment in those various capabilities.

Money capability is not our only capability. 

Humans represent another capability your organization has. So are the raw materials (which probably come from natural resources).

Social Accounting or integrated reporting helps you capture all your capabilities and therefore – all your possibilities in a way that only accounting for money – does not.

This can also be used for personal purposes.

For instance, my company – lost money last year. Not a lot, but it was my first year net negative. On the other hand, I accomplished so many things. I published a book, got a 5 year contract with the government, and more. I increased human capabilities through relationship building for instance.  I feel like I’m way more capable now. But if you just look at my balance sheet – you would not know that.  This is the benefit of social or integrated accounting. It helps me look at all my capitals/capabilities and how I might leverage them in the future. 

This sort of - accounting can also be used for personal growth as well as organizational growth. What are my personal capabilities and how might I nurture them and ensure their and therefore my growth? This question will probably lead me to value my friendships and time invested in my friendships more highly than if I am only looking at my financial situation. 

If you want to learn more about Elizabeth - here is her professional website: https://asu.pure.elsevier.com/en/persons/elizabeth-ann-castillo

If you want to learn more about the lunch and learn and the international humanistic management association - visit: http://humanisticmanagement.international/ 

Is Humanistic Leadership Communicative Leadership?

Communication as a leader is a huge part of humanistic leadership. But actually – humanistic leadership is so much more than that!

Humanistic leadership is about applying the philosophy of Humanism to the task of leadership. And Humanism isn’t just about recognizing our common humanity.  Here are 4 principles that guide a humanistic leader.

1) Compassionate communication – because – we are all humans – individuals with flaws and strengths.

2) Compassionate problem solving – when a human doesn’t perform right – understanding how to help them fix the problem rather than punishing them would be preferred and more effective because behavioral science is really clear that punishment makes things worse and is counter productive

3) Critical Thinking and reality based decision making so that what you are working on and why you are working on it a) make sense and b) will make a difference. Leading people to do stupid counter-productive things would not be considered humanistic leadership.

4) What and why you are leading people to do certain things is based on – not greed – but on how to make life better for everyone.

Resources to learn more:

If you are interested in learning more about humanistic leadership check out these resources:

First mine: 

1) Jen Hancock’s Handy Humanism Handbook – available free when you sign up for my mailing list: http://www.jen-hancock.com/handyhumanism/offer.html - this will get you familiar with the philosophy if you aren’t already.
2) Online program – Principles of Humanistic Management - https://humanistlearning.com/?p=2237 this is 45 minutes long and provides 7 inter-related principles about how Humanism the philosophy applies to the world of management and leadership.
3) 7 Sins of Staff Management – this is mostly about communication and responsibilities of a leader understanding that your team is made up of real humans – and you are human too - https://humanistlearning.com/?p=2248
4) Planning for Personal Success - https://humanistlearning.com/planforpersonalsuccess/ - this is about decision making in a reality based and strategic way –as well as understanding your motivation and helping you to uncover your ethics in the context of goal setting.

Other Resources:
1) Humanistic Management Network - http://humanisticmanagement.org/ is a global collection of academics helping to transform how business management is taught. They have SEVERAL books.
2) Speaking of books – here is a list of books I recommend - https://humanistlearning.com/shop/  Attuned Leadership is a good one to consider.