Chapter 1

Big-Picture Pressures on Decision-Makers

In This Chapter

Identifying the forces putting pressure on decision-makers

Working in a complex, uncertain decision-making environment

Restoring ethical integrity to business

Designing business cultures to make better decisions

Decisions are being made all the time, every minute of every day, and most of them are made automatically, without much intentional thought. Subtle yet pervasive forces influence the accuracy of every decision. Most decision-makers aren’t aware of these forces, yet their impact has huge consequences on company fortunes and people’s lives. With each decision, small or big, that you and I make, we shape the experience of life and, more boldly, the design of the world.

In this chapter, I show you how big-picture pressures are forcing business decision-makers to engage in higher-order thinking, to see things from multiple perspectives, and to embrace rather than fear uncertainty and complexity. More importantly, you discover how adapting to these changes lets you become a leader who is purpose-driven — someone who leads by example, inspires confidence in his or her employees, and creates a working environment that is healthier and gets everyone working together toward success.

Making Decisions in an Ever-Changing World

Although believing that your situation or your company’s fortunes are beyond your control may be easier than facing the alternative, the truth is that experiences — yours or your company’s — are shaped by the moment-to-moment decisions. Unfortunately, in business, many of those decisions are made under duress because the fires you have to fight every day can distract you from seeing the situation from a different perspective. When you’re under pressure, routines — even inefficient ones — can feel like a lifeline.

To move forward, you need to step back from those routine patterns so that you can gain insight and see the opportunities you’ve been overlooking.

The ground shifting beneath your feet

Your beliefs guide what questions you ask when you assess a new situation and how you view the information you uncover. They also act as a filter for the ideas that inform your reality. In business and in life, dismissing what doesn’t fit is natural. But in the end, it also makes you resistant to change. After all, you can’t change what you can’t see.

In this section, I outline the big-picture trends impacting businesses today, explain how traditional beliefs about how business is done collide with today’s reality, and show you what it means to you as a decision-maker so that you can select which beliefs to keep and which to change.

The reliance on intelligence rather than force

The first big shift is the growing reliance on intelligence (engaging in a higher-order thinking) rather than force (surviving at any cost) when working with natural resources and human potential. According to the old mindset, resources are unlimited, and waste is considered acceptable, despite the inefficiencies. Because nature’s contribution to the economy is difficult to count, the best solution is to leave it out or dismiss it as an externality. The new mindset says that nature’s resources can’t be counted, but they do count.

The error of the old way of thinking is becoming more evident. One 1997 estimate calculated nature’s annual contribution to the economy at $33 USD trillion!

Companies that value nature’s contribution are far more profitable than those that do not. A fast-growing number of start-ups and private and semi-private companies in many sectors — even beyond the more obvious sectors like clean technology — readily grasp this concept and are growing rapidly. Global companies such as Novo Nordisk (http://www.novonordisk.com), Canon (http://www.canon.com), and Unilever (http://www.unilever.com) are examples. Non-profit B-Lab (http://www.bcorporation.net/what-are-b-corps/the-non-profit-behind-b-corps) has certified over 1,000 companies as B-Corps in 33 countries. B-Corps must pass rigorous social and environmental performance standards to provide consumers with transparent reporting. You’ll find those companies listed at http://www.bcorporation.net.

The rise of professional networks within and beyond a company’s borders

The second big shift affects how employees are viewed. Today, business performance is powered by professional networks that exist both within and beyond a company’s boundaries. These professional networks, which are engaged in achieving a shared goal, extend well beyond the control of internal management and, as a result, require a shift in management style. With technology as a major disruptor of how work gets done, work between colleagues around the globe can now easily take place collaboratively in a flash via a Google hangout, a Skype call, or a custom app on your mobile device.

The old belief that employees are replaceable and have to be constantly told what to do is giving way to the belief that people are knowledgeable and want to contribute their talent. The growing movement for creating great work environments — places that tap people’s potential and creativity, invite and honor their contributions, respect and value them as people, and count social and environmental health as essential — is a natural outcome of the understanding that good decisions and great work comes from engaged employees who work well together and feel good about their accomplishments. Ethical decisions are a natural result of a healthy workplace. Double bonus!

When workplace and management conditions make it difficult, if not impossible, for employees to contribute meaningfully, their talent is repressed as they are forced to fit into preconceived roles, a situation that creates stress-related illnesses that cost companies in the U.S. $300 billion annually. Unfortunately, workplaces have been slow to adjust, as employee disengagement statistics show. Yet as leadership skills become deeper and more universal (Chapter 13 tells you how to develop these skills), workplace health and — ultimately — workplace decisions will improve.

The changing perception of business’s role

The third big shift is the changing perception of business’s role. The traditional view has been that business’s sole purpose is to be an economic engine, to make money. The new perspective is that business is an integral part of society and a subset of the larger ecological system and that it can be a force for good. This purpose can be achieved when companies engage their employees in a higher purpose, one that goes beyond mere profit.

This shift has occurred largely due to the size of the issues demanding solutions, coupled with a deep yearning for meaning and purpose. Addressing these issues demands imagination, collaboration, and the highest level of inspired innovation ever achieved by humanity. In this climate, business as usual isn’t an option.

The old way of doing things promotes “either/or” thinking: either profit or doing good (service); either the environment or the economy. This kind of mindset limits companies’ capacity to spot opportunities to adapt to the emerging new realities. So don’t think in “either/or” terms. Instead, insert the word and: profit and doing good; the environment and the economy. See how this little tweak enables you to broaden your thinking?

Companies that recognize they are part of society and have, in addition to their money-making role, a responsibility to the environment, their communities, and so on, are more profitable. Their relationships with employees and customers is genuine and trustworthy; they look after the environment because it is the right and smart thing to do, and they find creative ways to embed social and environmental responsibility into profit-making endeavors. Their comfort with working in unpredictable, complex situations gives them the edge.

The rise of social media

A change in the way people communicate and access information brings us to the fourth big shift. Social media and mobile technology is changing how consumers and employees acquire information and make their career or consumer purchases. In short, current technology makes it extremely easy to get information quickly across political and geographic boundaries. The effect is to broaden perspective.

Before social media and modern technology, businesses followed a model in which they produced products (or services) and then coerced customers to buy. The goal was to do whatever it took to compete and win. Today, however, social media and global connectivity enable the consumer to quickly hold companies accountable for the consequences of their decisions.

In this way, consumers are now change agents. They select which companies to support, using apps, like Buycott (http://www.buycott.com), which allow them to buy products that reflect their principles, and they give their loyalty to companies whose ethics and values align with their own. (Buycott is pretty neat: To use the app, you scan a...