| The New Bottom Line for Business
On 9/11/01, Howard Lutnick saw his young son off to his first day at kindergarten. Because of that family joy, the CEO of the brokerage firm Cantor Fitzgerald arrived late at the World Trade Center. Once there, he hopelessly tried to reach his employees on the 101st to 105th floors. Tearfully he explained that, just then, the second plane hit and he ran with thousands of others to get ahead of the smoke. That day Lutnick said he lost not only his biological brother, but also 700 members of his work family. The company has accounted for only 300 of 1000 employees, but Lutnick said "I have to do something for the 700 families. Seven hundred families. I can't say it without crying."
In confronting death, Lutnick realized something every businessperson needs to know. Our workplaces are not just gatherings of strangers who assist us in our livelihood. In a very real sense they are a second family, the people we've come to know as well as we know anyone. On September 11th, nothing mattered beyond the lives of those thousands of coworkers.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ The Bottom Line??
The idea of profit as the bottom line is part of a 400 year old Newtonian model of the world as a machine with separate building blocks and one substance that lies underneath it all. Modern science never found that substance, but they discovered something far more interesting. We know from quantum physics and systems theory that everything is connected to everything else. Profit is essential to business, but it can't be tracked separately from all other factors, as though profit were that elusive atom, the building block of all matter. The physicists themselves have given up their search for the ultimate building block of reality and realized that relationships--yes relationships--stuff you can't see-- are the ultimate building block.
In the quantum world, relationships are not just interesting; to many physicists, they are all there is to reality." Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science
If our underlying assumption is that we are in business only to grow and make a profit we will ignore the value of these work relationships, but highly successful companies have discovered the value of making relationships the new bottom line.
Why?
Whether paid or not, everyone working in an organization acts like a volunteer. Some are committed above and beyond, others are not. When people aren't inspired, their performance is lackadaisical at best. Honest leaders recognize that people want meaningful work and want and need to share a vision. They want and need to know their own talents are being used. Customers want to be heard. Indeed, every sustainable advantage relies on the growth of intellectual, motivational, and relational capital. Organizations can't afford to dismiss the knowledge held by stakeholders at any level, from the factory floor to present and potential customers. How can this energy and knowledge be tapped? People aren't faucets that one can simply turn on. The complexity of human motivation requires that planners create an atmosphere where everyone feels respected, valued and included. In other words:
You can increase motivation,productivity and profit, and decrease pain, by using the power of great relationships.
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