The easy rider is a gonner
Uh oh. Going to work is no longer an intellectually passive activity. Just when you were beginning to understand the rules and structures of doing business, they go and change the rules. Business is morphing into project-based alliances, connected global networks, virtual teams, niche communities of interest. Some of these changes are due to globalized technology, but they are more to do with a change in the way business leaders are being forced to do business. One thing is for certain: the obsession with delivering results via that network of resources means less room for passengers.
Are you faster than a suit?
What does this mean for you? My belief is that, to flourish in the new business world, you will have to learn how to define your own goals, to schmooze an unwieldy coalition of owners, do-ers and users, as well as to keep those that pay you more than happy with your progress. And that requires a skill set closer to that of the social activist than the civil servant.
In an ever-shifting network organization you can no longer rely on the job description and a hope that someone up there likes you. The hierarchy cannot protect you from the market any more. You must protect yourself. But how? First, by becoming values-led, clear about what is important to you as an individual, able to point to the evidence of your value in day-to-day behavior. Second, by being true to yourself. Third, by focusing on delivering benefits. This last is the hub of project management, the part of your job your employer most wants you to love. Making things happen, delivering benefit to the customer, the shareholder and, in a good firm, to others. Enter the change activist.
You are more in control than you feel, but you have to be proactive. It is easier to act your way to a new way of thinking than think your way to a new way of acting.
Intangibles equal bottom-line power
Let me explain why. The firm is likely to be valued (at least partially) on the value of its intangibles. Coca-Cola's market capitalization, for example, is based almost entirely on its huge brand power and the human know-how needed to exploit the goodwill of its marketplace.
As brands assume greater importance, consultants and brokers emerge in the new field of “reputation management”. Why? Because all it takes is one big (publicly known) question in your developing-world supply chain, and suddenly people don't trust the whole operation. You need to have solid, ethical networks in place in this new world of global transparency or risk the consequences. Ask Monsanto, Nike or Gap. A bad judgment call can destroy years of consumer trust, as the current Boycott Esso campaign shows. Exxon Mobil is suddenly rolling out the greenwash PR after a bad start to the year when it claimed that fossil-fuel emissions were actually not doing the planet any harm at all. Many of us disagree, it seems.
The less-than-responsible brand quickly becomes a fashionable hate figure, loathed by the media, the public and by City folk.
So it makes sense that business leaders want to recruit and retain a workforce that can predict, manage and communicate squeaky-clean global operations (while managing the balancing act of good shareholder returns). Business leaders want people with both principles and profit instinct. This isn't easy to buy. People who demonstrate it are loved and repeatedly head-hunted. Those who don't are not. Simple demand and supply again.
This potentially spells trouble for those who cannot shake off old-world “entitlement mindset”, who believe that they simply have to show up to get a bonus. It spells good times for those who put forward a personal, demonstrably valuable contribution to making the world a better place. The latter sounds like a change activist. Does it sound like you?
Socially responsible principles become reputation management, which is good business. Are you in there with a chance to make it personally profitable yet?
Bottom-line power is based on you
Socially responsible business is good business – which means change activists have a lot to offer the corporate player with ambition. Activists tend to question the status quo and wonder how it can be improved. Think about the campaign to abolish slavery. Think about women getting the vote.
Think about the strategy consultants who choose to take a day out of their schedules to paint a local nursery, and get a facilitator to help them evaluate the teamworking lessons. Think about the publishing house (Pearson) that recently decided to work on a book to help people get back into the workplace – and decided to contribute all labor for free. More and more people are putting social objectives into their daily work – it helps the team feel connected to society and, more often than not, energizes the team with purpose.
Society has changed through the voice of forward-thinking individuals. Change activists have transformed the status quo by meeting a higher moral law again and again. Market conditions have changed to the point at which the business status quo has got to change. Some firms are getting it right and they need good people. Right now you have the chance to out-do your peer competitors by showing that you have the focus, you live the principles, you have the networks. You are the one for the job.
An age of new career radicalism is at hand, fuelled by the economic overthrow of fixed assets and hierarchy. These are now replaced by fast data and transparent principles. The world of slow ego-driven hierarchies is, mercifully, ending. Dinosaurs and mammals all over again. The warm-blooded fast firms have specialist skill invisibly wrapped around common purpose or, even better, common values. These firms are overtaking everything.
Just consider the implications for your own career. What do you use in your current role? Who you are matters, and now more than ever you need to be true to yourself to get the best career benefits. Being true to yourself is the fuel for your future success, just as the values of good companies are becoming the underpinning of consumer brand confidence.
Building consumer trust will be good for your company. And becoming a change activist will, I promise, be good for you.
Carmel McConnell is an author and consultant on socially responsible change. She has worked with investment banks, on media convergence projects and advised on film studio business processes. She was also a full-time anti-nuclear campaigner.
‘Change Activist’ is published by Momentum at £15. The author has donated her book profits to the Magic Sandwich (a child poverty charity). For more information on change activism, contact the author carmelmcconnell@btinternet.com