This article is a little different from what I usually write about. But it’s a topic I’ve been considering for a while. And the book “Betterness” by Umair Haque (the January pick on the 2018 reading list) eloquently describes a macro view of the problem.
What’s the problem? That production and a pursuit of progress don’t always lead to true societal progress.
Something feels off
In the business and design space, we talk a lot about the tools to get from one place to another. The tactics and mechanisms for producing change, faster, and at scale. Agile, portfolio management, design thinking, systems engineering, enterprise architecture, lean, product management, and innovation.
All of these are a means to an end. They create change for sure. Help focus resources. And can reduce some obvious waste.
But while some changes solve problems and improve lives, others just disrupt to disrupt and can make existing problems worse. Claiming “success” once the processes are in place seems premature.
And adopting other status quo metrics for success like novelty, growth, speed, and volume never seems to tell the whole story. How many times have we put a company up on a pedestal and later learned that their “success” came at a cost to other issues we care about? How many times have we let it happen or done it ourselves?
Part of the reason why I started Recharted Territory was to help smart, ambitious people overcome blockers and align teams and enterprises around shared goals so they could execute them better and faster.
But the other selfish reason is that I want these companies to create a better world for the rest of us. So the content of the portfolio and the soul behind it mean just as much if not more than simply managing one.
You’re not crazy, something definitely is broken
What exactly are we missing? In his book, Haque describes the problem with how we measure prosperity. He compares using national GDP as a measure of progress to tracking the rev counter in your car instead of the speedometer. It tells you something about effort, but nothing about movement or change.
As someone involved in product design and enterprise transformation these two quotes from the book hit me:
“Ask yourself why, despite billions spent on ‘change,’ ‘transformation,’ ‘training,’ and ‘engagement,’ does the work most organizations offer seem so unfulfilling? Why is it that the unhappiest part of the day has been found to be… the daily commute to work, closely followed by being at work when so much of our short lives are spent at work?”
– Umair Haque
“Why is it that the globe’s trillions of person-hours of human effort are dedicated to.. designer diapers, disposable clothes, and pet Prozac?”
– Umair Haque
Change and restructuring don’t seem to lead to the outcomes we want as a society. Maybe it’s because we’re measuring the wrong things.
Redefining prosperity
Haque argues that the pursuit of profit alone has caused the diminishment of other forms of progress, like the emotional, social, intellectual, physical, and ethical growth of humans.
Profit isn’t good or evil, it’s a tool. It becomes a problem if companies gain profit by taking away profit from others, instead of creating new value. Then the societal pie never gets bigger, just redistributed or reduced, sometimes at the expense of our other desires.
He argues that the goal of creating wealth should be about helping others create a life that matters. Which involves a focus on creating relationship, environmental, organizational, human, emotional, and intellectual wealth alongside financial wealth. It’s more than avoiding harm, it’s about helping others thrive at an individual, community, and ecosystem level.
To contrast the “busyness” of business focused on output, he offers another option, “betterness” with a goal of improvement.
“Business says: ‘I’ll offer you a product or service, in exchange for your currency. You will have more.” Betterness says: ‘Through the act of exchange, I’ll ignite your human potential. You will be and become better – fitter, smarter, closer, wiser, tougher, humbler, truer, wealthier in terms that add up to a life meaningfully well lived.”
– Umair Haque
He says that in the future companies will be judged by their ability to create wealth. By their “generative advantage” instead of their “competitive advantage.” Their focus on creating new wealth instead of wrestling it from their adversaries.
And that shift will pay off. He references studies showing that profit tends to come to companies who are providing betterness. It’s not an either/or decision between making money and making a difference. Consumers are frustrated with the options and will spend their money with companies that also provide higher-order value.
Instead of maximizing profit, he says that organizations achieve betterness when they consistently, systematically, and habitually maximize human potential and minimize suffering.
Maybe our value frameworks need to include social, natural, organizational, human, emotional, and intellectual capital. If an idea scores well on multiple criteria it’s a good investment. If it makes any worse, it’s rejected.
Shifting the soul of our portfolio
His call to arms is to reconceive why our companies exist and what we want them to do for the greater good. And a practical way to go from business to betterness is by moving from vision, mission, strategy, and objectives to ambition, intention, constraints, and imperatives. From structuring our work around what we want to accomplish as a company to what we want our customers and stakeholders to accomplish, or the higher-order impact we want in the world.
He argues that vision statements are often focused inwardly on what we want to accomplish. In contrast, “Ambition” statements focus on the wealth we want to create for the Common Wealth. Aka, the reason anyone else should care about our existence as a brand.
Going further, he says we should supplement missions with intentions, focused on how we’ll help others meet their potential on a daily basis, instead of what we will do on a daily basis.
And finally, set some constraints about what you will never do, about the ways you will never hurt the Common Wealth. And imperatives about what you will do every day.
As a business owner, I answer the questions in the left column and help other companies do the same for their own organization. There’s often a customer-centered focus. Yet the work is often framed from the perspective of what the company will do to deliver customer value. Therefore, it feels more removed than Haque’s direct approach. Like we constantly need to double check that we’re in alignment, instead of alignment flowing naturally.
So I wonder how a business could change with a Common Wealth-centered focus.
Launching an experiment
I’m interested in trying out this new framework in my own business and there are a couple of metrics that I’m curious to follow to see if they change:
- Does shifting focus to betterness lead to more financial returns like studies have shown?
- Are decisions made faster?
- Does it result in a brand that’s more engaging? With a wider reach and stronger customer loyalty?
- Is it more motivating to work every day in a company practicing “betterness”?
I’ll keep you updated on what I learn. If you’ll be trying this out with your own brand I’d love to connect and hear about your experiences through this journey.
How will you shift from business to betterness?