In the USA in August 2019, Business Roundtable announced the release of a new Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation signed by 181 CEOs.
Their pledge:
- Delivering value to our customers.
- Investing in our employees.
- Dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers.
- Supporting the communities in which we work.
- Generating long-term value for shareholders.
Lofty statements indeed. However, in reality engaged employees number just 31% according to Gallup. While other studies show declining mental health, uncertain job security, and global environmental deterioration. So, the challenge will be for leaders to turn great intentions into concrete action.
Why should we bother? Let’s turn to physics to look for a good explanation. And the opportunity we are looking at here for all of us as individuals.
I’m always really impressed by how a rendition of Dancing Queen by Abba or some other classic, Respect by Aretha Franklin for example, often sees a dance floor fill with people willing to throw off their inhibitions and gyrate enthusiastically in front of others.
There are some physics at play here of course. Sound propagates through a medium such as air, water, or solids. The sound waves are generated by a sound source, such as the vibrating diaphragm of a stereo speaker. The sound source creates vibrations in the surrounding medium. As the source continues to vibrate the medium, the vibrations propagate away from the source at the speed of sound, thus forming the sound wave.
So, our brains receive the sound via a sound wave. But why do we dance? We dance because the vibration of the music inspires many of us to get up and ‘boogie’. This is more than simply the physics of a sound wave. There is optimism, joy, feeling, freedom, sexuality…all communicated from the heart and soul of four Swedish musicians (in the case of Abba). But this connection repeats each time we hear the same recording – unless we hear it at a funeral, where the reaction might be different.
Equally, when the sound of a musical instrument is played near liquid, or sand on a flat surface, patterns emerge, harmonious and discordant depending on the sound qualities.
So, we can see that something that one person or group of people creates, can communicate with many others simply through the vibration that it somehow sends to other people.
My friend and one of our 60 interviewees in my Business Soul Interviews series, Erick Nwanshi, writes about a great initiative at a personal level. He is launching a new App called Initiate that seeks to connect people who are keen to volunteer with community causes that need their help.
Erick says: “With Initiate, we aim to simplify the process for businesses to get involved in community issues by increasing visibility of community needs, and at the same time providing a platform for collaboration to flourish between business and non-profit organisations.
“At the individual level, Initiate simplifies the process for getting involved in volunteering by addressing those perceived and actual barriers people typically encounter; enabling us to act more on that impulse to reach out and help others.”
Good vibrations indeed…
For more interesting articles, case studies and thought pieces about soul in business, check out www.soulcorporations.com/blog