This book offers an alternative way of thinking about our—human—relationships to each other, to nature, to businesses and other institutions, and to wealth than is dominant in much of the so-called developed world. It offers a way of thinking about transforming what we today call our economies—but that really are our societies with their embedded economies. It is not necessarily a new way, though. In fact, it is based in many ways on ancient wisdom—Indigenous wisdom and principles that give life to systems—that can help each of us do our part to transform our world for the better. Through these pages, I want to tell a new and very old socioecological-economic story that can potentially help us all shape a better future together. It is a story that places humans into nature, as part of her majesty and shifts economic thinking towards collective value1 for all.
This story is about creating a flourishing world of equity and dignity for all, where “all” includes nonhuman beings, too. It is about an emerging understanding of our interconnectedness—with each other and with nature. It is a story that recognizes that because we are interconnected and interdependent with nature humans can flourish only when nature flourishes. It is a story about working together to create and institutionalize this new story. It is a story about new—or very ancient—ways of being on the earth that provide meaningful ways for people to “be” and to connect with each other, including work that matters. New ways that draw in many respects from old ways that worked for millennia that need to be translated into today’s norms and living standards.
As I write these words, the world is facing the devastating impact of the novel Coronavirus/Covid-19 in 2020. “Normal” economic and social systems have all been turned upside down; people have been told to stay and sometimes work from home; whole economies have been fundamentally shut down, except for what are recognized as essential services. The whole experience has upended commonly held beliefs and is forcing many people to rethink how they—and we all—live in this world together.
Once the crisis passes, there will undoubtedly be significant attempts to return the world to what was once considered normal. Indeed, such efforts are already beginning. Many people in power already want our human socioeconomic systems to return to the economic ways that have been dominant since the so-called Reagan–Thatcher revolution of 1980, which put in place the economic ideology known as neoliberalism. That ideology has been sorely tested during the Covid-19 outbreak—and found wanting. It has hurt too many people and sent the earth’s capacity to support human civilization off a climate change cliff.
Collectively, we have an opportunity to change that now. But transformation can only happen if many more of us recognize that this system we believe is “normal” is highly problematic. It will happen only if we can tell ourselves a new story that helps us transform the world—to “build back better” as disaster response recovery experts say, not to return to the same old, same old ways. It will happen only if we then act upon this new story to make it real—to bring its precepts into practice. It is up to us. As the cartoon character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and it is us.”
More to the point, though, as Mahatma Gandhi said and many shamans say, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Businesses, our political institutions, and the organizations of civil society, along with each of us individually and collectively, share the responsibility for creating a more just, equitable, and flourishing future for all. Business, in particular, as perhaps the most powerful of today’s institutions play a vital role in shaping a transformed future—and will need to transform themselves as part of that process. But the systems that surround businesses—the ecosystem of social pressures and constraints, expectations and demands, and policy guidelines and requirements—is also vitally important because no institution, whether business or government, can make the significant changes that are needed without the whole ecosystem shifting, too.
I hope you will join in this journey towards well-being, equity, and flourishing for all through the creation of an economy and set of institutions that enhance life rather than wealth.
Transforming Towards Life aims to provide direction to a future in which all—humans, other living creatures, our institutions—business and other—and our natural ecosystems—can flourish. Of course, no one has the “answer” because this transition is a road yet untraveled. There is no roadmap. We can perhaps all imagine a world in which all humans, other living beings, and ecosystems experience well-being and the dignity that their very existence demands. A world in which all of life flourishes. To bring about a new vision, I will argue, it first needs to be articulated as a new story or narrative, supported by resonant memes. Then people with the capability of acting, no matter where they are in the world and no matter how big or small their contribution may be, need to do their part to bring about the change, creating new metrics and new systems oriented towards an encompassing yet flexible new vision.
This approach to system transformation means fundamentally rethinking today’s dominant narrative, which has led us to today’s ecological and social crisis points. We need to reframe how we—humans—relate to each other, to our societies and the economies that they spawn, and, importantly, how we relate to nature. In short, we need a new narrative and a new set of supporting memes (core ideas) to support a positive relationship between humans and the world around us, particularly today with respect to businesses and economies. Only then can the mindset shift, and the ability to transcend mindsets, that Donella Meadows argued are the most powerful levers of change begin.2 We need to find ways to enact or bring about this new narrative into the reality of day-to-day human and natural existence. That enactment involves reshaping both our major institutions like businesses and the societal contexts in which they operate so that expectations of what businesses do and why itself transforms.
A new narrative needs to inform our attitudes and beliefs and ultimately the behaviors and practices not just of individual humans and local communities, but also of all of our public or governmental institutions, businesses, and civil society institutions. In other words, we need to move beyond—transcend and include in many ways—the old narrative, accepting and understanding its beneficial aspects, while simultaneously recognizing that it no longer serves the world we are actually living in.
Before launching into this book, I want to acknowledge the many people who have been working on transforming societies and economies for years. I have benefited here from their wisdom. Without these efforts, none of these ideas could have come to fruition. While I cannot name all of them, some key influences need to be mentioned:
• The SDG Transformations Forum and its many participants, founded by Steve Waddell, and in which I am also participating, including the Bounce Beyond team
• WEAll, the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, and its progenitors, including the emerging WEAll USA working group, and all of its allies
• The Humanistic Management Network and International Humanistic Management Association and its leaders
• My Social Issues in Management and other Academy of Management colleagues
• My colleagues at Boston College
• All of my collaborators and mentors over the years
• Too many others for my poor brain to remember.
Sandra Waddock
Newton, MA
2020
1 Donaldson, T., and J.P. Walsh. 2015. “Toward a Theory of Business.” Research in Organizational Behavior 35, pp. 181–207.
2 Meadows, D. 1999. “Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System.” Harland, VT: The Sustainability Institute. Posted at: http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/