Today, many organisations are at a crossroads: for decades, modern capitalism has obsessed with maximizing efficiency, growth and share prices at the cost of human development, social and societal responsibility and our natural environment. Businesses and their leaders are now among the least trusted “institutions” in society and our narrow way of “thinking business” is increasingly jeopardizing our capacity to flourish on this planet.
In the Global Society for Good Leadership, we address this problem on three levels. For us, it is evident that to rethink the future of our work and guarantee a good life for all, we need three things...
A REBELLIOUS PROFESSOR & A BUSINESS INSURGENT
We are both passionate about developing organisations that are good for the people inside them, as well as good for the wider ecosystem. In our respective professional life we have tried to make a positive difference for several decades, and we feel it is time to bring together lessons learned - across academia and business, and across disciplines like philosophy, psychology, management science, sociology, anthropology, neuroscience. Our aim is to enable a global dialogue about how to craft good organisations and create a movement for positive change, to build back better.
Why now?
For decades, leaders have been trying to fix the mess they have created. Despite numerous initiatives, from Human Potential to Agility, the suffering, inequality and damaging of our planet appears to continue. We believe it is time for a new approach. The “anything goes” narrative of our postmodern world cannot be uphold. Our economy is not separate from society. Our life is not separate from work. We need to re-learn to put humanity first and craft “good organisations” that stop our suffering and enable human flourishing.
Postscript: The single purple flower superimposed on the "flower of life" is meant to symbolise how individual and collective flourishing are intertwined, and how as humans we can only truly live our individuality in a caring and compassionate togetherness. Purple is the colour of spirituality and nobility
We believe today's world is complex and defies simple answers. Unsurprisingly, recipes for improvement are often fragmented, siloed and not evidence-based. At the same time, change-ready practitioners require credible advice to reform their organisations and societal change needs a common narrative to scale. Hence, our approach is threefold: 1) We intend to enable a global community and dialogue among inspirational freethinkers, to hold and explore the critical questions of our organisations today. 2) We then will seek to harvest, integrate and crystallize the thinking into an evolving theory of "good organisations" to be validated with interested researchers. 3) Finally, we will write up what we have learned - preferably in an easily digestible format with a compelling narrative of hope. And share our inspirations in a “Salon” of humanistic leaders who are willing to make a positive difference in their organisations
What is a "Good" organisation? And what is stopping our organisations to be good in our current economic system? How do we change the context, especially if we assume that CSR (and similar initiatives) are not really working? How can organisations operationalise "goodness"? What are the most important levers, practices and initiatives to enable flourishing and foster moral and responsible acting? What are the most devastating organisational practices which should be abolished right away? How can we measure goodness? From which organisations could we learn about goodness ? What does it mean for leadership? And how can we foster a movement of change that accelerates organisational and societal transformation?
This website is intended to become a “living” hub to nurture and co-evolve our thinking - hopefully, we can bring business, psychology, sociology and philosophy a little closer, and all together make a positive difference. Please contact us, participate in our upcoming events, come to our salon, join our movement - or the many other movements we highlight on these pages. Thank you for being part of the community!
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