As the industrial age of machines shifts into the hyper-connected information age of the Internet, communities based on geography are giving way to those based on interest, making possible the power communities of the future: communities based on values.

It used to be that you could only hang out with people in your town or city, which 1) made building relationships relatively slow and cumbersome, and 2) made it unlikely that you would be able to find others who share your passion for 19th century Russian folk songs for example.

Through the Internet, 21st century global citizens can not only connect, but build interactive platforms on which to communicate around virtually anything that interests them. Do you love 57 Chevy’s, or vintage Napier costume jewelry, or differences in costumes between Star Trek generations? There is a group for that, or you can start one…often with members from around the globe. By collapsing the geographic space into a virtual one, the Internet is changing our understanding of “community” back to its etymological roots: Community is those we commune-icate with regularly.

However, although these interest communities allow us to connect with like-interested people around the world, sharing interests does not mean sharing values. While a Republican and a Democrat might share *interests* about the War In Iraq and be part of a community that “discusses” it online, they might understand themselves to be members of very different values communities.

Perhaps the real value of these platforms of common interest is their ability for people of like values to commune and cooperate. While our interest in a particular piece of software might last a week or two, we might meet people though that group who both become friends and introduce us to dozens of other interest groups.

Currently, companies and organizations focus on building interest groups around their products and projects. However, our hyper-connected Internet bazaar is making clear that which has always been true - people are not loyal to products, they are loyal to thier values. I believe the future will reward those organizations that attract communities of people who share their clearly articulated values, shifting the “brand” of a company from the functionality or attitude of a particular product to a way of life. At least, that is the world I want to create. SEE-Inc. A Beautiful Future Now! Creating A Game We All Can Win.

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

Politics, n: [Poly “many” + tics “blood-sucking parasites”] - Larry Hardiman

Politicians say they’re beefing up our economy. Most don’t know beef from pork. - Harold Lowman

In the lastest episode of Money, Mission, and Meaning, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Morler, PhD, MBA, and the author of The Leadership Integrity Challenge. We discussed the provocative model of emotional maturity he uses to increase the integrity and effectiveness of organizations. It cuts to the heart of the central challenge that businesses face and offers practical methods to deal with it - a great show. In this blog, I want to expand on the ideas we discussed and clarify how integrity can be understood in terms of the fundamental paradigm of our day: politics.

Politics. The very word can incite people to both passionately take a position and shake their heads in resigned frustration. It is the social reality and tension between people working together to acheive both common and personal goals. Politics, good or bad, can make or break your community, your nation, and your organization. How can we learn to work with the political realities we face while building projects that further our organizational goals? What would bringing integrity to business politics look like?

Politics can be an expression of personal and organizational integrity or dis-integration; it can be “positive” or “negative.” In governmental affairs, we see leaders who powerfully address pressing issues with honest creativity and politicians who “spin” the truth or out and out lie to increase their power base. In business, we find leaders who generate and execute creative projects that further the companies ability to serve their customer and office politicians who spin the numbers, take credit for other people’s work, and blame others for their mistakes.

Positive politics comes from leaders who integrate their personal goals with the organizations mission without sacrificing one to the other. They maintain and deepen their integrity in the context of the collective. In the process, they bring their passion to their position, and contribute their creativity and genius to the group. They add real value to the whole.

Negative politics, on the other hand, stems from people who cannot integrate their personal goals into the organizational mission. They either sacrifice their own goals to the common goals, or sacrifice the common goals to their own. While the former seems noble, it undermines their integrity, leaving less of their energy, creativity, and essential Self to give to the organization, eventually leading them to sacrfice the organization to themselves - becoming parasites that detract from the real value of the whole.

Ed Morler’s work addresses both how a leader can best integrate his or her own values with the values of the organization and how to facilitate others to do the same. The more we take on The Leadership Integrity Challenge he describes, the more joy and fulfilment we can experience in our work and in our lives. Join us as we explore the relationship of Money, Mission, and Meaning, bringing profit and pleasure to the business of life.

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.