[Ailist] What is the Life Force (Vital energy/ Prana) of Business?

[Rob Voyle]

Hi Lionel

Money has for many become the life force, but it is not capable of giving
life. Much of our economic woes have occurred because people saw money as
life- giving. 

The purpose of any business is to make a worthwhile contribution to the
well- being of others while receiving a worthwhile benefit in exchange.
Justice requires that the worthwhile benefit does not deprive others from
the opportnity to pursue that which is life-giving. 

The life force may vary from company to company, but if you do an AI in
the business you will find what is life giving are things like:
creativity, caring, enthusiasm, novelty, inspration, encouragement,
vision. etc.  Money can't buy or sell these. These life-giving realities
and how we are connected to that which is greater than ourselves (our
company with customers or society) through the offering of our products
and services are spiritual realities, that organizations need to attend to
or they will die, or cause others to die.

Executive coach Brian Guest, a former banking executive and I have started
loking at these issues from the perspective of Priest and Profit.  How do
we integrate these spiritual realities with business realities. It is not
enough to simply trying to balance them as that leads to all sorts of
unsustainable tensions. When we integrate them we can create sustainable
business rather than buisnesses that strip-mine the physical, social and
spiritual environments they operate in.

Rob

Robert J. Voyle, Psy.D.
Director, Clergy Leadership Institute
For Coaching and Training in Appreciative Inquiry
Author: Core Elements of the Appreciative Way 
http://www.clergyleadership.com/
503-647-2378 or 503-647-2382     

On 10 Nov 2009 at 6:41, Lionel Boxer wrote:

> Money is the life force of business.  One may argue this, but if you dig
> deeply, if it is anything other than money then the organisation is
> something other than a business, which is perhaps directs to a more
> important question.  That is, what should a business be for it to best
> serve humanity and the ecology, which is what John Elkington's triple
> bottom line / sustainability is all about.
>