Working for a living, after all the talk of job satisfaction and self-actualisation is about working for a LIVING. The cost of that living is on the up. Mortgage interest rates have risen and are unlikely to fall in the near future at exactly a time when the true value of those mortgaged houses could possibly decrease, even if temporarily. (Unless, of course, you live in a house constructed out of cheese which has doubled in price in less than a year. Sure there are short-term disadvantages living in a house of cheese, such as an inflated carbon footprint due to the increased refrigeration needs, but the long-term financial advantages are inarguable. Seriously, if you’d invested in a house of cheese a year ago, you’d be laughing all the way to the bank right now).
So, with interest rate rises and the price of cheese weighing heavily on the minds of your people, how can you help assuage their fears? Is a worried workforce a productive workforce? Stress shuts down parts of the brain and you and your people need those parts to concentrate on designing, making and selling goods and services with a customer-centric focus beyond the imagination of your grandparents’ generation.
Economic recession aside, the other primo disaster de jour is global warming. This probably isn’t worrying your people as much, even though it should be (especially if they live in a house of cheese!). Global warming has downstream economic impacts too with carbon taxes and so forth. More worries for your people but you can, and should, help.
Sustainability, both financial and environmental, is critical. Financial and environmental sustainability are inextricably entwined. They’re not just critical for the planet (although the science-jury is still out on that one – or is it?) It just makes sense but it requires a significant shift in thinking and a culture change from individuals and organisations. Such dramatic movements require strong, committed and inspirational leadership. This is the bit where you come in. You don’t have to be riding a white horse but it would really help the effect.
Saving your organisation, never mind the planet, is a big job. Best to break it down into manageable tasks first. Pick something that will grab everyone’s attention. Pick something that will scream, “Saving money, no matter now small an amount, will make us more profitable and enable us to ride out the downturn until the good times roll back and we’ll keep our jobs.” Pick something that also screams but in a caring way, “It’s not just about the money but it adds up to a better world that we can enjoy after work.” The towels for hand-drying in the toilets are a good place to start as it satisfies all those requirements. It’ll certainly get everyone’s attention. You’ve got to balance the whining about hygiene with the cost to the budget and to the planet. I’m not sure on the current technological advances in the hot-air versus paper-towel versus cloth debate but it must warrant a high profile investigation. Whatever the result and whichever system you implement, the most important element is a highly visible sign next to it explicitly detailing the benefits to impress and emotionally move both staff and visitors alike. You’ll soon be beaming with pride at how green your toilets have become.
While you are beaming, let’s give a thought or two to flushing the current financial system as well. How you vote will determine how much you pay for your toilet paper. And how much of the profit goes off shore to disinterested owners. Every three years (and we may have an election this year if anyone can sort out the electoral finances debacle) politicians call for energising our economic engine while clinging to three hundred year old beliefs about money mechanisms. Beliefs developed when people never travelled more than fifteen miles from home in a lifetime.
Today, we have sophisticated internationally linked technologies that inform, cajole, advise and intimidate. In a world where the pace of life is measured by watching the numbers on your microwave counting down your life, it takes courage to take the time to think. When was the last time you sat down with a glass of Pinot Noir and said “Hey, we need to really analyse whether the current system of money mechanisms is bullshit or not?” Doesn’t happen? For some of us it does. We have watched those times that social credit principles have been applied for the betterment of people around the world.
CH Douglas wrote Social Credit in 1924 as a proposed money system for the age of “automation, abundance and leisure”. He saw problems stemming from using interest bearing debt as the primary source of money and warned of the consequences to both our social and physical environment of market driven economic development. His system worked most famously in New Zealand as we built our first State Houses. Big state funded development, one off costs, no intergenerational debt.
Whether or not the planet is threatened or the economy is nose-diving is not as important as whether or not most people think they are. What people think is real may as well be. You can centrally dictate office supply purchases to ensure recycled paper is used and that it’s the cheapest available. You can set up a worm farm on your building’s roof for scraps from your cafeteria (excluding bread, citrus and onion skins.) More important than those very practical and desirable steps are the extent to which you can influence the thinking of people. Talk to your friend about the importance of what we stand for. Isn’t that the very essence of leadership? Or is it something about them influencing you? Maybe these questions are misleading? My mum always used to say, “What’s that got to do with the price of fish?” I think these days she’d be more concerned with the price of cheese.
Written By:
Neville Aitchison
Party President