TALKING ABOUT BLUEPRINT IN THE USA
Charles Wookey
Helping business leaders to navigate the journey of creating a purpose-led organisation, in a high trust, fun and curious environment. Leadership consulting, teaching & speaking.
At the end of last month I went to the USA for a week. I was there to give a presentation at a University in Minnesota, and then had a series of meetings in Boston and New York with people who had expressed interest in A Blueprint for Better Business. I was very curious to understand the cultural differences and explore how what we are up to here might ‘land’ there.
My first answer came pretty much immediately at the US immigration desk at the airport. The conversation went something like this:
Border Guard (BG): What’s the purpose of your visit to the USA?
Me: Business
BG: What is your business?
Me: I run a charity
BG: What’s the charity for?
Me: We work with business, to help them think more about how they treat people rather than just about making more money
BG: Seriously? What kind of charity is that? Are you a consultancy then?
Me: No, we don’t take money from business
BG: That’s weird. So what do you get them to change? Is it how the bosses behave?
Me: Yes, that’s part of it
BG: (quietly) Well we could do with a bit of that here...have a good trip
And with a languid wave, he ushered me through. It was an immediate reminder that the kind of organisation we run – which is unusual enough here – didn’t compute.
At the university, I was giving a talk about our work and its background (it is here if you are interested). In one of the conference discussions, there was a conversation about the word “capitalism”. I said that I’d been advised not to use the word in our work – by Peter Sutherland - who was at the time London based chairman of Goldman Sachs International. Peter said that we didn’t need the word, and by not using it we escaped having an ideological argument which using the word always risks.
In Europe, this strategy makes perfect sense. Initiatives (and there are many) that have the word “capitalism” in their title by definition tend to have to qualify the word in one way or another to address an implicit criticism.
But in the US everyone talks about capitalism as uncontroversial. It's like using the word “society”. Pretty much everyone I spoke to seemed comfortable using the word, and with the idea that America was a capitalist society. So what does it mean to you? I asked. One business leader replied: “Charles, it just means you are not a communist. If you use the word capitalism, it permits you to be heard. If you don’t use it or are uncomfortable, that gets picked up, and you get typecast. Don’t worry about the word. Get over it.”
I also very aware how language is used to distinguish between businesses and NGOs. The categorisation of “for-profit” and “not-for-profit” is clear and elegant, but it does subliminally reinforce the dominant Friedmanite view that the purpose of business is “for profit”. I was struck by how this contrast underlines the way in which financial considerations loom large in US culture.
On a fleeting visit it’s only possible to skim the surface and dwell on fragmentary glimpses. I was struck by how different capitalism in Boston and New York was, and those I met in both places reinforced how different again each felt the culture of the Valley was. It has often been said that the UK and USA are divided by a common language. It certainly felt that our work on purpose and people will not find an easy hearing in some places. But equally that with appropriate translation there are opportunities to connect different traditions and ways of thinking in service of both better business and a better society.
Social Impact Consultant & Spiritual Care Practitioner
6 年Thanks for the article Charles. To second Antonin, you must spread your work across the channel to France! And on the cross-cultural aspects, would highly recommend The Culture Map by erin meyer if you don’t already know it (builds on Hofstede’s work mentioned by Steve).
Advisor and Author in Leading Change and Managing Operations
6 年Thanks, Charles. I love how you describe the interaction with the border guard, and I wonder if even more insight can perhaps be drawn from this. You articulated your mission as "helping businesses to think about how they treat people." I believe this is what resonates most with fellow humans at all levels in organisations, as it did with the border guard. I wonder if the qualification "rather than just making more money" may even perhaps be unnecessary, especially if it stirs up all kinds of assumptions, perceived judgements and cultural associations that distract from what I understand is your main message - helping organisations and people to thrive???
Hi Charles. It’s been a long time... In France, I do not know whether you have been developing a conscious effort to develop your activities. Still, what you have been doing at BBB has had a lot of impact. I would say that people are more prone to using the words “common good”.. of the enterprise rather than purpose which does not translate clearly enough. As you know well since the late Prof de Woot, we have “finalité”, “but”, “objectifs” and... “raison d’être”. Though people used to speaking English, would simply say “purpose” assuming everybody understands. This being said, the underlying idea is becoming well known even though the cosmetics are still very active. The advantage of the expression Common good is - contrary to “purpose” which is essentially inwards and forwards looking even though potentially encompassing the external world - that it allows more easily to (1) accept the existence of some different common good in other organisation, to (2) invite the organisation to find their own common good in coherence with a common “common good” shared with other groupings and (3) puts the inter organisation/ inter social levels reflection/conversation at the appropriate level. Many thanks for putting us on the right track...!
Reward Leader at Gatwick Airport Ltd.
6 年Charles, not sure this is helpful, but when at Bupa International (profit driven, owned by it's 'members', with a clear vision, and British), we really struggled to integrate businesses that we had acquired? in Miami (we realised too late that the culture was Cuban, not American!), and Copenhagen (We knew they were Danish, but we didn't realise what that meant, they looked and sounded so much like us!). When we discovered Geert Hofstede's work, it really helped us to understand where they were comming from. It didn't solve all our problems, but it did give us a great insight.? If you have time here is the link. you might find it interesting.? ?https://www.hofstede-insights.com/product/compare-countries/
Chief Value Officer & Company Secretary at Coast 4C | The Earthshot Prize Finalist 2024
6 年Charles, I enjoyed reading that immensely. I’d been leaning towards “Conscious Capitalism” as a name for the area I’m interested in until I spent a week in the UK, and realised there it is all about “Purpose”. In Australia, we are tending towards “Social Licence [to Operate]”, coloured perhaps by the stories of ordinary folk as victims, that we are hearing daily arising from the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.