The Business “Consilium”

In ancient times, “Philosphia” refered to the "love of Wisdom”.

OK, don’t panic! I won’t slide into an etymological discussion. This post is not really about philosophy nor is it about consilium (the Latin word for wisdom). This is rather some “food for thought” on how each organization sets its path of growth with a “nurturing wisdom”: The business “wisdom”.

Let us start by drawing a line of distinction between the philosophy of business and business “wisdom”. More often than not, business “consilium” carries several dimensions: Vision, Values, Processes and Principles. Any business “wisdom” resides in the relation between those dimensions and the organization’s very existence.

Now, for a little storytelling diversion with Thales, a Greek philosopher who while star-gazing, fell into a ditch. When he cried for help, an old woman commented: "How can you expect to learn all about the heavens, when you can’t see what is under your feet?" The links to business logic are crystal clear; some organizations, gaining perspective through their philosophy, make the whole greater than the sum of its details. Conceptually, that makes sense.


Socrates, on the other hand, called philosophy down from the heavens and placed it in homes. He did it by talking to people, about the things that concerned them: from life and love, to growing crops. The business cliché here is that an organization’s “wisdom” would be based on taking the path of step-by-step success to achieve growth and prosperity. To be fair, that makes sense too.


Pragmatically speaking, Thales and Socrates were speaking of a “Wisdom” and “Philosphia” that we curiously continue to adopt or to doubt. Stepping away from that for a moment, another perspective of “wisdom” can be mirrored in a great example from Alexander the Great, who marched towards India with his armies. As he approached the city, he looked up towards the King of India who stood firm upon the stone wall and shouted: "My name is Alexander the Great, and I demand you surrender immediately!" Laughing, the King asked, "Why should we surrender to you and our army outnumber your troops?" In response, Alexander turned to his troops and commanded them to march towards the edge of the cliff and jump one after the other. The soldiers obeyed their leader and jumped to their death. After the 11th soldier, Alexander gazed back at the King of India who was completely astonished and surrendered immediately.


This King of India surrendered because of the power of Alexander’s “wisdom”, that which his soldiers believed in and for which they defied death. Does this sound out of context? Well any business “wisdom” should have solid grounds in terms of defining the commitment to the organization’s “Philosphia”; otherwise, it would remain suspended in air.


Back to the present, business today touches nearly every aspect of our lives. The arguments laid out here would imply that in today’s competitive market, the guiding “wisdom” in any organization would mirror its whole “Thales” path or “Socrates” step-by-step growth. Creative, transparent, efficient and sensible "Business Wisdom” is one that moves beyond fancy statements to purpose, process, and people, allowing forward business philosophers to run winning avant-grade organizations in their business playing field.


Business “Wisdom” has come a long way since ancient times, and the face of the business has changed. The point I'm selling here is that, recognizing the lessons we learn and tackling the challenges we face, will drive businesses forward by simply setting ubiquitous customer-centric “philosophia”.


With customer-centric “Wisdom” in mind, organizations should engage every customer with a partnership-based approach using: Effective Communication, Innovative Thinking, Transparent Processes, Out-of-the-box solutions, Passionate Efficiency… Lots of boring buzz words? Not only are these the backbone of any business, but for companies selling product X or providing service Y what makes them meet customers’ expectations through tangible value, is a differentiated “wisdom” to help them excel in a competitive market. A winning combination would be to couple that with a potential-over-experience team of professionals, who are driven by a clear “wisdom” and creative intuition to overtake challenges and build on opportunities, “Alexander the Great” style.


The End, in fact, would only be the beginning as we continue to grow and advance, our “wisdom” stamps every aspect of our life, holding us to it, in a promise to provide successful experiences and to exceed expectations.

Discipline is great, Creativity is GRAND!

This post could be an easy way to write boring texts about our interesting and exciting brain, but it won’t go down that route. There won’t be any stuff about cerebral hemispheres or the way the nerves in our body work.

Putting that aside, the strange thing is how the traits and characteristics we possess depend on the dominant part of our brain. Simple English: the human brain has two very different ways of thinking associated with the most dominant part - Left or Right!

But how is all this relevant?

On the storytelling side, if you are a left brained person, this means that your personality has an urge towards being more logical and less emotional. In other words, when faced with a problem a left-brained person would bring logic to analyze the situation and give a more analytical approach to solution, whereas a right-brained person would have a more imaginative influence and a less logical approach. So if you rely on the right part of the brain this would make you more intuitive and emotional.

In a simple explanation of right / left brain theory and its relevance to painters, Marion Boddy-Evans explains how “When you start a painting, you need to be able to visualize the final painting in your mind (right brain, working from the whole), then develop the painting and choosing the elements”, “but at the same time be able to look critically at what you're doing (left brain, being analytical).” (1)

In brief, our left brain is logical, fact-finding and analytical (things are either white or black); while our right brain is all about being creative, inventive and artistic (things can be colorful). Not surprisingly we’re born with both creativity and logic.

Here comes the twist!

Based on this, the premise of this post is based on the argument that Right-brained (CREATIVE) people will rule the knowledge age, with a side note that our world was previously dominated by Left-brained people. (That doesn’t necessary mean that Left-brained people are now old school.)

Speaking of schools, Thomas Edison is quoted as saying "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety- nine per cent perspiration" sometime around 1902. With this in mind, one perspective would be that the next generation would require a new set of skills and tools to lead in the 21st century; skills and tools that integrate knowledge, out of the box thinking and innovation.

More pragmatically, old school “left-brained” people among us may be falling behind in the knowledge- based world. BUT, the good news is that it is never too late as creativity may be learned through exercise.

A possible scenario would be that “left-brained” people are ousted as leaders in the new century. Then our argument would be based on the idea that “Right-brained” people hold the key to success in the 21st century.

You don’t agree?

What do you think about Facebook, a website-pardon my word- a business worth BILLIONS, or Twitter and other profound Internet innovations that are redefining the way we socialize and communicate?

In his book "A Whole New Mind," Daniel Pink explains that one of the trademarks of the Conceptual Age is the outsourcing of traditional white-collar jobs such as law, accounting, and engineering to less-expensive overseas workers, particularly in Asia. But as he points out, you can't outsource creativity.(2)

Allow me to “philosophize” things up:

Be it economically, politically or even militarily speaking- you name it- if we think that the Third World War is to happen, it will most probably be about economies and resources. Accordingly, in order to compete in the knowledge age, states need to empower the next generation with “right-brain” tools.

On the global level, whether at the G20 summit, in the EU countries and elsewhere the buzz now is to review how to better integrate a sense of innovation and creativity into the aged discipline-based policies as well as the social and economic strategies.

As the information age is changing the way we learn and advance, the bottom line is that we need a provocative new approach about the new century that is “déjà” here. For the new generations becoming the traditional accountants, bankers, lawyers, or engineers- or any type of traditional thinking careers (with lots to discipline) that our parents had infused into our generation’s ambition a long time ago- is not sufficient anymore to keep pace, win competition, or be innovative, as the future belongs to people with the right brain tendencies - inventors and creative thinkers.

In today’s business world and everyday life, creativity is not only about legendary creative geniuses Picasso, Michelangelo, Mozart or modern-day artists, writers and musicians, but rather about all the aspects of our knowledge age life in order to avoid falling behind.

On the right-brain side, creativity and courage is all about clear thinking and clear understanding, at heart. Saying the obvious in pretty words would be that the knowledge age is creating the world’s right-brained elite, which leads us to the final question: which part of your brain is dominant?

 To test which side of your brain is dominant, check out the below link:

http://www.where-what-how-why.com/?p=111

Sources:

1-http://painting.about.com/od/rightleftbrain/a/Right_Brain.htm

2-http://articles.cnn.com/2009-05-07/living/o.Oprah.Interviews.Daniel.Pink_1_brain-outsource-oprah-com?_s=PM:LIVING