Share this article on...
Contact Us
- Report errors or inaccuracies topmba@qsnetwork.com
- Contribute articles contribute@qsnetwork.com
- Advertise advertise@qsnetwork.com
Humanitarian Corporate Development
Exit West is a social enterprise delivering the experience of international volunteer work to the corporate sector in a format which positively benefits all stakeholders. In this edition of the TopMBA Newsletter, we look at the value of such an experience and how it can enhance the corporate world.
Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, said “To be a great company today, you have to be a good company”. We believe that “good company” describes the purely social benefit of business. The economies of the West seem to be experiencing a change of conscience, with people considering the deeper global impact of their lifestyles and careers. This new awareness is engaged with products and initiatives like (Red)™, Al Gore-green/carbon offsets, ethical investing and the work/life balance.
In the book Firms of Endearment by Rajendra Sisodia, David Wolfe and Jagdish Sheth, the authors suggest that a “search for meaning is changing expectations in the marketplace and in the workplace. Companies are increasingly being held accountable for their humanistic as well as economic performance”. Corporate bodies have long been aware of social and economic performance measures, addressing them through triple-bottom-lines, core value statements and charitable donations showing marginal results.
We suggest a model for the organization to grow in correlation with personal and professional development. Most companies show due diligence and investment to these three spheres in separate initiatives, but could see far better ROI by adopting a more holistic approach.
The Person: The personal sphere is about employee fulfilment and motivation, which directly impacts retention. Retaining talent is a widely accepted best practice, but it is also a big challenge.
Well-intended as they may be, traditional incentive and reward programs have minimal impact outside of their luxury destination. Five-star suites, spas and champagne deliver temporary happiness and the occasional lawsuit. These systems generate an unhealthy sense of entitlement in the employee, and pressure the firm to exceed itself (and the talent competitors) at every turn. An unsustainable model of expectation and competition is created by this practice.
The Profession: In the dynamic sphere of professional development, there are consultants, coaches, facilitators and trainers continually seeking innovative and engaging approaches to experiential learning. Efforts to synthesize reality-based experience have shown us:
- Lego blocks for leadership development
- paper crafts for project management
- ropes courses for communication
- tango lessons for team-building
The impact of these scenarios is limited by the inherent lack of authenticity in that any ‘challenges’ used to build skills are artificially created by the facilitator. Any sense of achievement is therefore dissolved when the employee leaves the conference room or retreat centre and cannot integrate their experience with their working reality.
The Organization: Organizational development is the sphere holding together the macro-topics such as corporate culture, effectiveness, social responsibility and spirit. Here is where we find core values designed to reveal the humanity within the hierarchy. Consumer perception, brand association and stakeholder opinions weigh heavily in this sphere, with large donations and well-crafted value-statements coming in response. However, these activities don’t make a tangible difference that employees and consumers can connect and align with.
Aware that we’ve only listed challenges and failed attempts thus far, we’ll try to brighten the discussion. Let’s examine these challenges again in the context of humanitarian work in a developing country.
To help create a mental picture we’ll use the following criteria:
- A Work Team of 10 employees (Regional Directors) travel to rural Belize for one week to work alongside host community members building a school or other required infrastructure
- They stay at a locally-owned resort eating regional cuisine each day
- Daily Coach & Learn sessions address organizational challenges at the personal and professional level
- The DVD retrospective of the week gets played at national training conferences and family BBQs alike
Viewing the aforementioned corporate challenges through this lens of international volunteer work has the following effects:
The Person – has the “paradigm-shifting life experience” that so many professionals, young and old, are looking for. This “personal search” is a growing reason for employee sabbaticals; humanitarian work in a marginalized region of our world builds deep relationships, authentic fulfilment and personal motivation.
The Profession – Innovative application of professional skills is a daily requirement of working in a developing country. Custom-designed coaching and facilitation equips team members for ownership and integration of their experiences. Real challenges build real skills, developing real solutions, which affect real people.
The Organization – Your deeply motivated employees are grateful for the experience and contribute to cultural development, PR & communications. Brand awareness and domestic consumer loyalty is enhanced by tangible corporate citizenship. Outstanding professional talent is recognized, recruited and developed further, with greater retention. Emerging markets are engaged and understood in a holistic and sustainable framework.
The Community – Members of the host community have an opportunity to break out of poverty cycles and direct their own development. Established NGO partnerships ensure local and national sustainability of the project.
Authors of Firms of Endearment coined the term ‘share of heart’, which means to “earn a share of the customer’s heart and [they] will gladly offer you a bigger share of [their] wallet. Do the same for an employee and the employee will give back with a quantum leap in productivity and work quality”. Employees, consumers, shareholders and stakeholders are all human beings who decide a company’s fate. The human ingredient of a corporation is the bottom line. Authentic organizational development is a collateral benefit of deeper human development occurring in the person and the profession.
www.exitwest.org or info@exitwest.org
