A word or two on love

Some time back David Weinberger wrote that the motivating force behind the internet was love. It was the basic human desire to connect that made it all hang together. At the time I admired his idealism and indeed bravery at being so open about something we have all been trained to dismiss as at best personal and at worst a sign of weakness.

In contrast I have just finished reading Joel Balkan's The Corporation in which he exposes the fact that corporations are legally bound to do just one thing - maximise share holder value and that in fact to be motivated by higher ideals, or indeed love, could be considered detrimental to that overriding purpose if it impacts the bottom line in anything but a positive way.

Where did all this come from, where did the idea that the most powerfully motivating force in the world had nothing to do with business? We spend most of our adult lives in the workplace and at work we bring about the most important and long lasting changes to our society and our planet - and yet we are not encouraged to talk in terms of love. OK we just about get away with "loving our job" our "loving success" but start talking about loving colleagues or loving customers and you'll have people running for the door. And yet isn't this what makes great people and great places tick. A deep sense of connection with each other, a depth of purpose beyond the every day that sees customers as more than merely stepping stones on the way to returning that value to the shareholders?

A couple of weeks ago we had a closing down party for DigiLab, my small but perfectly formed department at the BBC, and the next morning I started to write a post about love at work and what a powerful motivating force it can be. But I stopped myself. I let myself be influenced by those grown up voices in my head telling me not to be so silly - certainly not in public! But the warmth and affection we felt for each other, for our physical space in Television Centre and yes, sorry guys, for the punters who we dealt with on a daily basis over the years had more to do with love than anything else I can think of and certainly little to do with those extrinsic motivators - money, corporate goals and efficiency that we we were meant to have taken so seriously.

Love is also the powerful force you unleash when you start to introduce social computing inside organisations. Hugh Macleod wrote a while back about the disruptive effects you should expect but the disruption results from stronger stuff. The stuff David was talking of. The desire to connect at a very deep human level. To see colleagues as intrinsically linked and capable of pulling together in ways that those who promulgated scarcity and competition as organisational drivers will never begin to understand.

Over the last four years of watching the BBC's internal forums grow to their current population of half the organisation I have seen so many examples of love and connection - some of which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I mean real examples of people selflessly helping each other, genuine affection and concern shown between people who more often than not never physically met, and as one of the participants once said a greater sense of 'one BBC' than any of the corporate initiatives that came and went over the years.

Maybe love does have a place in business after all. Maybe more and more of us will start to have the courage to begin to talk about what really matters to us about work and our relationships with each other and to push back the sterile language of business that we have been trained to accept. Maybe we will realise that accepting love into the workplace reminds us of the original purpose of work - not to maximise shareholder value but to come together to do good things, to help each other and hopefully to make the world a better place.

Maybe ....

Oh and by the way if the above is too new age and namby pamby for you I reckon social computing is capable of talking 25% out of the running costs of most businesses - so there!

Technorati Tags: meaningoflife, organizations, work, management, socialcomputing, business

Comments

[Sarah]

Euan - Having been a small part of what you've described, both giving & receiving, it's rather wonderful seeing it "vocalised". And it certainly makes work far more pleasant.

[Mike Armstrong]

Careful Euan, there is a world of difference between public service organisations like the health service and the BBC where there is a shared sense of working for the people, and a commercial company where people are hired to fill the shareholders pockets.

I would recommend one of Charles Handy's books where he goes into this in detail, but I burnt my management boats a year or so back and took all his books to Oxfam to make space. The point he makes is that the private sector managers just can't believe how the public sector managers get so much work out of the staff for such crap wages. Belief in the purpose of the organisation seems to make all the difference.

So what was true for the BBC may not reach out to the corporation....

[Jon Husband]

.. hey ... I seem to remember some guy that looked like you, talked like you, walked like you .. giving me grief over long posts ?

;-)

[Jon Husband]

Was the Charles Handy book The Hungry Spirit or The Elephant and the Flea ?

[Euan]

Not sure what you mean by "careful" Mike but thanks for the concern. I am well aware of the prevailing level of understanding in the world of commerce. I have also read most of Charles' books and indeed met him a year or so ago.

The point of the post is the one you make yourself in your second paragraph - that meaning matters, caring matters and it affects the bottom line too! I was encouraged to post on this topic partly by conversations I have had with attendees at my workshops in Australia as I become more open about what I believe is behind this stuff. People want meaning in their lives and I believe more of them are ready to take the risks that it entails to say so.

As to what works for the BBC not working elsewhere I wouldn't be so complacent. I have been talking to other organisations for some time now and people are people wherever they work. Indeed some of the characteristics of the BBC made this stuff harder than it need have been and having a clear bottom line is something I hve envied in the past.

Interesting that your concerns really do touch on the assumptions we have been encouraged to make about the world of work.

Thanks!

[Claire]

Agree - less cynicism please :). I am working on knowledge management, learning and leadership development programmes in the private sector in Australia and previously UK, and the issue of authentic communications and business is impacting how we do things, possibly the knock on effect from 9/11 and how journalism / business thinking has developed since then?. We make content freely available to everyone in our business via our intranet from www.getabstract.com and the most popular titles downloaded are in the personal development / building relationships area. Continue to trust your gut feelings!

[Mark]

Nice post Euan. It seems obvious to me that if you treat someone with respect and genuine affection then you are likely to get a greater long term return than from someone who is doing it to pay the mortgage and bolster the bank account. I can think of many examples of situations where I have "gone the extra mile" with someone and the really positive results have been felt long after any financial effects would have faded away. Take it from a Welsh man doing missionary work in England being kind and considerate to the less fortunate is always rewarding :->>>

[Mike Armstrong]

Euan, by "careful" I mean, take care not to jump to conclusions too early about such a powerful subject. There is something orwellian about using love to serve other means.

I agree with your comment about the lack of a bottom line in the BBC making life hard sometimes, but I think that's tied into a lack of clear leadership. Bottom line is easier to communicate and set goals with, than serving the audience.

Jon - I think it was The Hungry Spirit but I could be wrong.

[Ross Mayfield]

Great post, Euan.

Wonder how you would value the Total Cost of Hate (TCH).

[Neville Hobson]

Thoughtful, Euan, and well expressed. Thanks for a great post.

[Euan]

TCH - I love it Ross. Over the years I have experienced that cost on several occasions and seen its insidious effects quietly ruin many a life.

[david galipeau]

Euan, like the post - been there but probably not as deep as you - but now that I am working with the international organization set and I'd like to say that there is a difference.

But I am not sure at this point.

The passion is there, the reasoning is there; it's not all about net present value and shareholder returns - it's about trying to help and create change, using every tool that's in the box.

BUT there is still this bipolar relationship - the polarized worlds between IT and the web.

IT departments lives in the world where change is avoided, risk is not wanted , 'if it ain't broke, don't f*ck with it'. Change for the IT team means that they have to test and there is a definite increase in work and possible finger pointing.

The web world is exactly the opposite - change is good, risk is the definitive quality that pushes the envelope and makes things happen, forces people within an organisation to talk to each other, contextualize their information and create value or knowledge. Is there a way to bring these two world together and keep the peace? I wish there was.

If you know, pls do tell!

[Euan]

IMHO you have to show them the way, be relentlessly optimistic and flow like water when you meet immovable objects.

[David Wilkinson]

There is an old saying. Love makes the world go round. It's still true...

[Chrystie]

So /that's/ why I feel like I'm trapped in Rogers & Hart's "I wish I were in love again!"

[butuki]

I am a teacher at an English school run, unusually, by three women here in Tokyo. When I first started in the school eight years ago there was a real sense of camaraderie and friendship among the staff and with the students. So much so that everyone used to gather after classes and go drinking at least once a week. Some of the students even got married. And on average our classes held 12 students each.

Ever since the president hired a management counselor (male) the whole tone of the school changed. Now it's "It's nice that you're friendly with the students, but remember to keep it professional." I've always been professional, but I believe that when interacting with other people treating them like people, not figures in an account book, makes all the difference in how they will stay loyal to you. Now we have on average 2 students per class. All those regular students who used to give so much life to the school are gone. The school is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. I can't remember the last time anyone even mentioned going for drinks after work. When I point out that the new attitude hasn't helped the school at all, the administration just blithely tells me that I know nothing about business.

So much for love.

[Ian Glendinning]

Hi Euan.

Great post. Just linked and posted some comments here.
http://www.psybertron.org/?p=1257

You may get the trackback too.

Regards
Ian

[net500cg]

Insightful and correct. I now see why Paolo Valdermarin was so adamant about 'dropping what I'm doing and read' your blog here. Funny how life begins to have so much more clarity as we get older. Well, maybe it's not funny, in the humerous sense, but more in the causing puzzlement state. Regardless, the clarity for such profound simplicity seems to be a daily occurance once a person passes the age of 45. Thank you for your courage and conviction to say it. The more each of us does so - the greater the effect will be over a wider area. This is just a another 'ball park' in the greater "Field of Dreams". All we need to do is say it and others will follow. Amazing, yes. Easy, no. But it really is just that simple.

Kind regards,
les

PS.. I will be passing this forward.

[plasmo]

To me, this post recalled bell hooks' "Communion: the female search for love". She talks at length about the varying attitudes to love, and teases out the implied weakness.

[Sam]

Of the thousands I've read during the past few years, this remains one of my favourite blog posts. Thank you again Euan, for your humanity and eloquence.

[Murano]

Would be nice but I don't think love and the workplace are ready embrace each other at this present day and age.

[Euan]

Why?

[Berkley]

Of COURSE we're ready to embrace love in the workplace! Now is the time to do it! We create whatever we say. It's called a Mission Statement. There are many organizations that are founded on respect in the workplace, caring about each other, helping the planet. It's a matter of making it a priority and then seeing how it fits into the global perspective as well. Is it really profits that drive business? Is making a profit the only thing that humans care about? No- we want a nice life, we want quality, we want to be able to pursue an education, feed our families, be HAPPY! The problem is that we think profit is what will give it to us. What we really want is what profit "promises". Financial freedom, happiness, satisfaction, ability to create and explore. However, people sacrifice these dreams in order to make a profit. Imagine if they could be provided a workplace in which they felt respected, cared about, understood, supported. Imagine how much more loyal they would be..imagine how much MORE profitable they AND the corporation would be. This is an area of business that is HIGHLY neglected and could make a difference for domestic AND international business and relations.

[Robyn]

Damn right, Euan!