When a man with experience meets a man with money, the man with the experience will end up with the money, and the man with money will end up with “experience.” - Anonymous

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business. - Henry Ford

Dog eat Dog, Take no Prisoners, the Almighty Dollar…

We often think of business is a heartless endeavor, where the cunning and powerful exploit the naive and relatively powerless. It’s just business, the saying goes, and winner takes all.

But when we look at the day to day operations of the market, this type of win-lose activity is actually the minority of the business interactions.

In fact, it is the cooperation and coordination of talent and resources by people partnering towards a common cause that forms the heart of each industry and company. Certainly there is competition between companies vying to sell similar products to the same customer, or between people vying for the same promotion in a company, and in rare cases it can even get ruthless. However, it is the mutually beneficial, win-win relationships between suppliers, maufacturers, distributors, and retailers on the one hand, and investors, management, workers, and consumers on the other, that constitute the vast majority of business transactions.

“Business as usual” is in fact, a well-oiled machine of interdependence and partnership.

This is nowhere more clear than when the cooperation of business as usual ceases, and antagonism and conflict set in. When the oil of interpersonal generosity is replaced by the sand of anger and resentment, the gears grind to a halt, and everyone suffers. Companies drain their resources in lawsuits, departments lose productivity for infighting, the consumer gets poor service and higher prices, and the emotional environment becomes toxic.

To succeed in business and bring mission and meaning to our work, we must be able to resolve these conflicts when they happen, and more importantly, avoid them in the first place. Individually, we do this through better communcation and mutual understanding. As managers and enterpenuers, we do this through the skills of mediation.

Mediation is the art of assisting parties in conflict to find mutually agreeable solutions. It is creating a conversation in which the people involved feel heard and respected, and know that their values are included in the decision making process. Rather than person A sacrificing themselves to person B, or insisting that person B sacrifice themselves to person A, the mediator faciliates an agreement that addresses both persons’ values.

I had the great fortune to interveiw Johnnie Scott, a mediator and corporate trainer specializing in work related issues, especially discrimination on the basis of age, sex, and race. Join us in a 2-part episode, as we explore, not only how you can apply the practical skills of mediation and peace-making to your own situation, but be inspired by the personal and spiritual context that makes mediation an expression of purpose for this extraordinary man.

http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/money-mission-meaning/episode004-johnnie-scott-mediation.html

Conscious business. At first, the words seem like oxymorons. What could be less conscious than market forces? What could be less interested in business than the heart and soul that gives meaning to our lives.

What is more common than the denunciation of large corporations for tax with reprehensible social repercussions all in the name of the almighty dollar? In the same vein, who isn’t familiar with the moans of the “starving artists” whose visions of beauty and harmony don’t find purchase in the capitalist/consumer marketplace?

However, when you look past the standard politically correct dialog about the evils of business, the situation is far more complex, and far more interesting. On the one hand, a business must provide a service that people value enough to pay for in order to succeed. On the other, we each work at business is in order to both earn money to provide for our values and needs, but also to use express our talents and gifts.

This blog will explore how we can each bring more caring, heart, adventure, and soul to our fiscal and financial realities, while bringing more practical, brass tax, bottom-line mentality to our personal and private lives. By integrating passion and purpose, professional and personal, money and meaning, we can revitalize every part of our lives and helped to create a world which we all want will. Welcome to Money, Mission, and Meaning: the blog.

Do you wonder…is this all there is? Have you struggled to find meaning in your career? Does your work/life balance feel out of whack? Everyone has the sense that there is a deeper level of satisfaction to be had, no matter how happy they are. Everyone wants greater meaning from work, more freedom around money and deeper connections in relationships. Join me each week on “Money, Mission & Meaning: Passion at Work, Purpose at Play” to explore the insights and practices that integrate money, mission and meaning to experience a more profound relationship to the mystery and miracle you call your life. Each week, I’ll interview a business leader actively expressing value-based principles in their business or personal lives, exploring such topics as visionary leadership, the power of integrity, purpose driven business, following your bliss, and much more. Imagine waking up each day naturally excited to get to work and just as excited to get home. Through simple but powerful ideas around abundance, inspiration, motivation, manifestation, ecology and intention, you can create synergy between purpose and profitability. Learn to apply the art and heart of business to every aspect of your experience, building an ever-deepening enjoyment of the business of life.