The battle for business's soul

I watched the last ocean documentary yesterday (If you're in London you can watch it at the Royal Geographical Society on Thursday July 4th from 6pm). It provides the view point of the scientists based in Antarctica about humanity's impact on nature and in particular the Ross Sea. As you can see from the above graphic, even as scientists, they are describing their task as battling for Antarctica's soul.

I was watching the documentary as part of my research into the 7 building blocks we can take from nature that I believe also enable individuals and businesses to flourish. These involve the preservation of our own individual ICECAPS (through Integrity, Creation, Evolution, Collaboration, Action, Perspective, Sustainability as outlined in last week's blog ). As I watched the documentary I wondered whether preserving these ICECAPS was, therefore, a battle for our, and business's, soul.

Antarctica's soul is at stake because whilst the land is protected by the Antarctic Treaty the surrounding waters isn't. Self interest, desire for profit at any cost, blind eyes being turned, ego, abuse of power, lack of awareness and ignoring the experts have all resulted in waters that are no longer able to sustain the life it once did. It certainly sounds familiar in economies and businesses around the planet.

If humanity's soul therefore is at stake, then preserving our personal ICECAPS becomes as important as preserving the planet's icecaps. As I reflected on the the ultimate blog challenge this morning I decided, therefore, that the theme for the 31 blogs this month would be the exploration of the ICECAPS checklist. It starts with Integrity, ends with Sustainability and ensures individuals, organisations and economies flourish.

I hope you'll join me on this journey to our mutual flourishing.

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

The ICECAPS checklist is one of many tools I use in business to help individuals, teams and organisations release the blocks to their own flourishing. Find more on the ICECAPS process here on Pinterest and Facebook.