The Power is in Your Hands

 
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I have a real bee in my bonnet about something. Let me share it with you and you can make up your own mind.

We live in a world that, in terms of wealth and power, can be portrayed as a pyramid, where there are a greater number of people at the lower levels of the pyramid and as you move up to the point, there a fewer. Power and wealth are mainly concentrated at the top of the pyramid, in very few individuals. The world appears to be controlled by a small number of people… or is it?

We perceive that power is held at the very top. Why is that, when the power actually resides with the collective? Is it possible that we have the math all wrong? Doesn’t it make sense that the true power is where there are more people, and if all of those people spoke with one collective voice, then the people at the top would be forced to listen, wouldn’t they?

So, in my opinion, it’s all about the math and the calculations. Note, I didn’t say it all about the numbers. Well, it is in the strength of numbers but sometimes the numbers we are shown do not tell an accurate story.

Take the profits of a company for example. They can look really good on paper. Most often if the numbers stack up, no further questions are asked. Everyone gets a pat on the back and the relevant people get a bonus for a job well done. But who actually did the job, and where is their bonus?

Does anyone ever stop to ask how we arrived at those impressive numbers?

’What I would ask: ‘did we sacrifice anything to obtain the numbers? Have we forgone anything that is important? Have we cut any corners, sacrificed our quality, compromised our brand or reputation? How are our people doing? Are they engaged? Do they feel like they are part of the team?

In my opinion, it is not enough these days to take the numbers on face value. It’s not enough to measure wealth without looking at it in the context of wellbeing. If you obtain wealth by sacrificing things that are important to the masses, then you are not doing anyone any favours. The metrics are not telling the full story.

I’ll give you an example to demonstrate my point. In our economy, we measure unemployment. A lower level of unemployment indicates the economy is healthy and tracking in the right direction. Whilst this is certainly true, how many of the people who are employed are happily employed, connected, and fulfilled in their employment? How do these jobs pay? How are the jobs distributed among diverse groups of people? To look at the level of employment as a quantitative measure is very different to measuring it in a qualitative sense.

I recently listened to a TED talk by the First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon. Scotland is one of three countries measuring wellbeing as an economic indicator. The other two are Iceland and New Zealand. She also goes on to mention how, interestingly, each of these countries is led by women. Now, that is thought-provoking!

These countries are looking beyond the numbers and are shining the spotlight on the well-being of its constituents. A smart, brave and dynamic move by these inspiring woman, who I have no doubt will prove to the world that things can be done differently, and it is about time!

And this is where the bee in my bonnet packs an almighty sting.

When are we going to take our power back and affect real change. Let’s face it, we are all sick of the usual political stories, strategies and games…. and by politics, I am not only referring to our governments. We are all sick of the negativity and the fear incited by the media. We are all sick of advertising which gives us the solution to the problem we never knew we had until they created it or brought it to our attention.

Back to my point about our failure to challenge the numbers. One very important consideration of any business decision must be: what is the impact of our decision on the environment? What strategies can we employ to reduce any negative impact which may result from our practices?

By my own admission, I don’t always do what’s best for the environment. I am not a careful and diligent recycler. I hear what people are saying about climate change but it wasn’t until recently that I actually started listening properly. Let me tell you, it awakened me to the fact that I need to do my part.

So, you know all of those American doomsday movies, well that stuff is about to become real. If it’s not in my lifetime, it will definitely be in my kid’s lifetime.

“Houston… we have a problem…” and let me tell you, Will Smith, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Tom Hanks are getting a little too old to go save the world… so we are just going to have to do it ourselves.

What do we need to do? We need to get serious about this stuff. We ruined the planet by exploiting resources in order to give us more, make things cheaper, more convenient. We have become a greedy bunch who want what we want and we want it now. Not happy to wait until watermelon is in season, we want it available all year round.

Seriously, what did we think was going to happen. We cut down trees and don’t replace them. How do we think we are going to breath when there are none left? We disturb the natural order of things by messing with ecosystems. We take what we want but we don’t give anything back to replenish these natural resources. Like everything and anything, the planet needs to be in balance in order for things to work the way they should.

We humans have a lot to answer for, and whilst the discussion around climate change is getting stronger, it’s going to take an enormous amount of power to steer this ship so as to avoid a huge collision with an iceberg. We can do it, but it needs to happen fast and it needs everyone to be working together.

Remember, when I said the power is in the collective. As consumers, we need to demand that governments do what is best for the planet, not what best for businesses, not what’s going to get them votes. We also need to hold businesses more accountable for the choices they make. We need to refuse to purchase certain things that are made without adequate consideration for the environment. We have to be serious though; we need to accept that we can’t have everything we want, when we want it, and at bargain basement prices. This is what caused the problem in the first place.

The power is in the people. We are the ones who vote in our governments; they work for us, not the other way around.

Consumers have the power. We are the ones purchasing the goods and services. Businesses exist only because of us. We demand what gets produced, we need to start demanding how it gets produced.

Shareholders are the owners of big business. They are the ones who hold our businesses to account. The executives work for them, they pay their wages. We have the power to tell them how we want things done.

Factory Workers are the ones who get the job done. There are more at this level than at the top. We have the power to collectively affect change in our workplaces.

Why is it that we fear those who occupy the pinnacle of the pyramid? Why do we give them the power to dictate how things get done? They wouldn’t be at the top if it wasn’t for everyone else at the base, holding things together. This is where the true power lies, it’s in the foundations, at the very core and in this case, it is very much in the numbers.

The quicker we realise that we have the power in our own hands and start speaking with one collective voice, the quicker we improve our prospects, both in the short term and in the long term, for our kids and those that come after them.

The bee has been effectively removed from my bonnet.

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