Through reinvigorated people, passion and purpose at its hub, capitalism stokes mental capacity for gains lost over past decades. Let’s narrow gaps between what we believe about entrepreneurship and what we do to enhance free enterprise in winning ways.
Why do we tout capitalism as opportunity, then roll it out as mental toxins, and greed run amuck?
Marketed as entrepreneurship- capitalism can sacrifice talented people to egos who promote policies that force many out.
Umair Haque, in The New Capitalist Manifesto, said it this way: twenty-first century organization don’t produce goods, they produce betters. Ellen Maiksins Wood calls for a new kind of lived democracy – which reflects more of its Greek meaning, the people.
Do you see capitalism as rolled out into materialism or class politics? Both Haque and Wood challenge current systems that lead to unchallengeable structures. Both show a flawed capitalism that destroys the very people it depends on for its profits. You?
Both Haque and Wood offer alternative forms of prosperity and legitimacy that build community to enhance talents. Imagine capitalism that adds mental well being, for higher collective IQ. Capitalism that achieves positive, tangible outcomes would invigorate people to rebuild passion and purpose.
It appears in Haque’s manifesto that all actions remain driven by competition and profit maximization. But have you ever seen raw competition drive talented players out of the game?
Marketed as entrepreneurship- capitalism oftensacrifices talented people to a few egos who promote policies that force many out.
A new kind of conversation - from a cross pollenation of thoughtful people - could lead to innovative ways to narrow the gap between what we believe about free enterprise and how we shape markets for those beliefs to materialize as capitalism with more visible wins.
Capitalism where People Win
Organizations build goodwill for genuine growth through tone tools that open new opportunities. Life-changing dividends prosper people in healthy rivalry, just as skilled tone draws talents from everyday moments. The ebb and flow of winning capitalism parallels a moon attracting tides on an ocean shore.
Networks such as crowdsourcing bring people and technology together into innovative solutions. Across broken silos – capitalism can combine mental hormones for competition and consensus. When you engage others through brainpower tools you crack open windows in ways that prosper all. Do you reboot capitalism for effective change in individuals and organizations?
Capitalism refreshes itself by appreciating new ideas rather than criticizing lost opportunities. A gesture of genuine thankfulness extends its magic by unleashing serotonin into winning talents, for instance. Wherever serotonin’s molecule for well being thrives, people find cause to celebrate the wonder of team successes. A neuroscience of celebration can move people from current challenges to solutions for a new kind of capitalism. Have you seen it?
Capitalism as Heart of Passion
Build consensus across ages and cultures and watch passion arise for new wisdom out of every corner. Get to know people who differ from you by emulating their diverse offerings through respect. Connect more with people unlike yourself to capitalize on passion from valued differences.
Ask more than you tell or deliver facts, and capitalism listens before it acts on hot issues. I’ve discovered from MBA leadership courses I teach – that when people move beyond lecturies, they begin to build passion for answers together.
Would you agree that passion enhances capitalism when people act on collective answers from 2-footed questions? No question, this shift into genuinely free enterprize takes a new kind of energy!
Capitalism Fueled by Shared Purpose
Capitalism adds feet to winning beliefs when ethics guide its incentives. Have you noticed how people change even deeply held assumptions, when finer ethics color their rainbow?
An altruistic purpose allows capitalism to weigh differences so that people forgive faster and let go often.
It’s easier to sidestep cynics or bullies, when you build competitive solutions to stubborn problems with shared purpose at the helm.
Opposite conflicts, lie peaceful solutions, when capitalists draw meaning from multiple talents.
Remap Brainpower for Capital’s Default
Capitalism relies on leadership from high-performance-minds. Build people, purpose and passion with innovators, for instance, and you’ll likely sidestep traps that snare hebbian thinkers. Step out of comfort zones and capitalism enables you to embrace unexpected answers that lead to brilliant improvements.
Innovators remap mental capital by taking advantage new technologies that exercise the brain’s working memory for competitive edges.
Here at the Mita International Brain Center, we use smart skills to remap whole communities to compete, win and grow together.
Capital that Maximizes Wins
Would you agree that competition against self can power-up brains for capital-building together? Free enterprize at its best, harnesses rivalry and differences into wins
What’s your take – Is capitalism a barb or a boost to brainpower where you work?
Perhaps more importantly, How can we achieve more sustainable wins together?
To draw in leaders, for instance, one might ask: How will you stack up against life-changing capitalists for 2012?
Questions that begin to address people's talents as they align to new forms of capitalism - will go a long way to add the innovation that create changes many people crave.
Dr. Norman Doidge’s book – The Brain that Changes Itself, to show how capitalism can move past human hurdles that shut down brilliance for many.
Ellen, you highlight the need for new kinds of conversations and actions to reinvigorate capitalism. As long as discourse and policies related to capitalism are toxic and polarized, we are stuck in stalemates and nothing leads to forward progress to make capitalism work at the peaks as it could. When people are willing to take new risks together to progress in new ways, needed change will benefit all. Thanks for a very thoughtful post.
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Thanks Robyn, you build a good case here for moving past the stuck parts of a reinvigorated discourse on renewed insights.
One of the things I value most about the MIX participants is a willingness to reframe how we approach "stuck" topics.
Would you agree that we use terms that sound well - yet often fumble more when we apply what we discuss? I was hoping that a new and extended conversation might help to narrow the gap between saying and living -- so that Capitalism would stand a change of helping us into a finer future. Thanks for your thoughts! Ellen
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Great post ! If you have been around places like "Start up weekend" they truly believe and live what you've said. The best way for people to even face this question will be when it Hurts them personally or as a business.
I would also love to engage the college goers in this debate and show them the possibilities of positive capitalism and rules needed to keep it sustainable.
Teaching high schoolers about the joys of capitalism can be quite liberating - to see the sparkle that there is a future we can create with our own brains.
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Thanks for your thought Shalini, and I too so enjoy jumping on board with progressive thinkers like you who remain open to new ideas - yet ready to change with the diverse angles that enter the mix!
To your comment, "I would also love to engage the college goers in this debate and show them the possibilities of positive capitalism and rules needed to keep it sustainable," I'd like to encourage you to do just that.
I've been amazed at the openness of MBA leaders and leadership students -- and we implement these ideas with thrilling results because of their efforts and talents. You would love it!
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Ellen than you for the post. It is a heady subject. I would like to dive into the "Why?" As I reflect on my many conversation with organizational leaders - the larger the firm the more they focus on the shareholder as the customer and lose sight of the actual customer being of primary importance. To me this reflects the lost of why do we exist and who would miss us if we were gone. Many leaders today have come to believe in the symbol of money rather than understanding it as only a symbol. The philosopher and Medicine man Lame Deer speaks of how we move so many degrees away from our lives that we forget what our symbols represent. If we want to engage capitalism we will have to do it as you said through work of alignment of folks in organizational life around those things that really bring value to our customers not just the image of value via branding and marketing. It is like the Dalai Lama said, "We tell people they are thirsty then offer them salt water." For capitalism to work we need to provide water for thirst not the desire for more thirst. Keep the thoughts coming Ellen.
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Yes, I so agree that capitalism and the brain are both heady – yet when these come together in ways that folks like you can lead wins – they can add brilliance we missed in the last decades of capitalism.
So enjoyed the way you dove into the "Why?" That interests me also, Gary!
What a potent observation: “the larger the firm the more they focus on the shareholder as the customer and lose sight of the actual customer being of primary importance. “
That gets to the call (or suggestion) I am making here to toss in terms that will renew our discourse.
People, purpose, and passion get lost in the “old familiar terms,” or when found we discuss beliefs and then too often live as if we didn’t.
Would love to follow through further on another shared notion: “If we want to engage capitalism we will have to do it as you said through work of alignment of folks in organizational life around those things that really bring value to our customers not just the image of value via branding and marketing. “
It’s refreshing to find another leader who’s willing to move past the salt water," Gary. Your work sounds fascinating and I look forward to learning more about it soon.
Look forward to exploring more about what that water is and how it’s pumped together! Stay blessed! Ellen Weber
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Dear Ellen,
Very timely post because the results of runaway greed still affect many. Yet capitalism is not the toxic enemy. Greed is.
There are and have been wonderful entrepreneurs -- deep into capitalism -- who found the balance. Value driven for the customer with reasonable profits all around is a framework for success.
Thanks for a wonderful provocative post..... Kate
When the framework becomes detached from eith
er component is becomes the toxic reality you mention.
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Thanks Kate, you build a good case here for both the subtlety of flawed systems and the last ripples of workplace toxins. In two instances this week I’ll be meeting with top decision makers to help identify toxins that hold back productivity and suggest workplace opportunities that foster innovative growth.
Love your statement - “Capitalism is not the toxic enemy. Greed is.”
I agree that it takes a new kind of capitalism – that generates good balance. That very fact becomes our challenge going into the next era.
You stated it well when you suggested: “Value driven for the customer with reasonable profits all around is a framework for success.” Would you agree that it takes a new target and unique practices to move business away from flawed capitalist roll outs in order to move more in this prosperous direction?
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