The Cure for Culture

Recently a CEO decided to regale with me how their culture might form part of their sustainable competitive advantage.

I braced myself for the inevitable inward eye roll.

I try not to be cynical but I knew exactly what was coming down the pipe.

Sure enough she proceeded to chant from the same laundry list held by every identikit wokerati management team; diversity, climate change, social justice, blah blah blah… certainly nothing everyone can agree on.

Is it any wonder our culture is in the toilet?

Yet it’s not even that hard to raise the bar.?

I have this trick I used every time I got a particularly dull storyboard to sell.?

I’d see if I could smuggle in some spiritual values.?

As a recovered addict, a practical spirituality is something I know a bit about.

The the 12 steps are an entire spiritual toolkit.?

Put simply the ideas behind the steps are acceptance honesty surrender, hope, faith, integrity, courage, willingness, humility, forgiveness, self-discipline, consistency, awareness, love and service.

So I’d look at scenes filled with the usual product demos, spurious claims and smiling punters and think, ‘how can I sprinkle in a little higher order thinking/"

It’s not that difficult. And really quite fun.

t raised the energetic and emotional tempo of the project through a little positivity, optimism and, dare I say, love.?

As time went on, I developed a more streamlined approach that also applied to the deck’s aesthetics based on the universal values of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Nothing original there, they’ve come to be known as the Three Transcendentals.?

Beauty, Truth and Goodness are the three elements of life we all crave.

What is real??

What is right??

What is lovely??

Philosophers through the centuries have called these three cosmic values the transcendentals.?

Something that exists beyond the time, space and matter.?

They describe a universal reality that goes beyond our everyday sensory experiences.?

Western thinkers and theologians also revered the truth of these cosmic values as truths of general revelation but grounded them in the nature of the Divine.?

The big idea is that when God created, He imbued the cosmos with Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.?

Now... contrast this with the values we see in the culture today.

The values in advertising are mostly based on what's new, what’s cool, and narcissistic faux compassion.

We've cobbled together a superficial form of morality which consists merely in outward displays of invisible non-realities.

That creates a perverse version of a sacrament in a world in which people can no longer discern the inward signs.

We are a culture at the mercy of the worst kinds of grifts because we’re so spiritually thin.

Do we blame it all on social media and a culture of comparison that fuels inadequacy and low self-esteem to drive ad revenue????

Or the media led political polarization leading to a toxic public discourse and a lack of civility in politics??

They’ve both fused together to create an overwhelming pressure to conform which lead to feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness and a lack of individuality.

The solution, my friends, is to turn our eyes upward.?

But when we pursue truth, goodness, and beauty in this life and in this world we are tracking the majesty of the transcendental.

When I’m working with a client I first thing I do is look to see how we can weave a massive dose of Truth, Beauty and Goodness to their Conversion Story.

A dose of transcendent truth resonates with all.

It’s the difference between knowledge and wisdom.?