A little while ago I was walking along the lane and found a bumblebee that had been hit by a car.
A couple of days later a large lorry had gone up the road,
Ripping branches and leaves off the trees as it went.
I stooped down to pick some up and felt the welling of sadness that this promise of life was gone.
Plants and insects are every bit as much as roadkill as the rabbits,
Squirrels,
Badgers and even deer that we do see.
But insects and plants aren't even acknowledged because they aren't seen.
Is this lack of seeing a problem?
I cannot see how it isn't.
If it isn't seen it isn't valued and if it isn't valued it will be destroyed.
And that's where humans come unstuck.
Life on earth is sustained by what we do not see.
Soil bacteria,
Plankton,
Insects.
These are our lifeline,
Literally.
There is more biomass and life in what we cannot see than in everything we can see put together and it is actively keeping our earth alive.
But unsurprisingly the health of our soils,
Seas and insect populations is in rapid decline.
We are seeing this in the more visible spectrum of life now but are we resolving the issues from the ground up?
Culturally we need to shift our focus to sustaining the foundations of life.
We need to do more to understand these aspects of life and start talking about them,
Seeing them and taking action to nurture them.
What we see in life we also see in business.
Business is both a reflection of life and a shaper of culture.
Our economies are of course capitalist in nature.
Profit is the driver.
This has created a business culture that is only focused on zeros.
In my sector this is reflected in the near constant promotion of strategies to hit five figure months,
Six figure years and so on.
Frankly it is exhausting to witness.
Where is the conversation and consideration of the foundations of business and how businesses are actively contributing to collective well-being?
To be fair the shift is underway but leading the conversation is no easy feat.
The collective audience is far from ready for the massive shift in perspective that is required.
In part this is understandable.
Our current systems are not stacked in favour of change which locks people into something they don't feel comfortable with but cannot see a way of changing.
Change is always possible.
The smallest of changes have the potential to create the biggest of impacts.
Something we can all do is explore our businesses from the top right down to the soil bacteria that nurture them.
This is fundamentally ecosystem thinking that will inevitably lead to some massive shifts in perspective and action.
Let's use the existing model to find out where our energies are really needed to build sustainable businesses.
If your profit requirement is a certain amount it is built from your audience and clients.
What is the health and status of this layer of your ecosystem?
What sustains your clients and audience?
Beneath this what is the most basic requirement that needs to be nurtured and nourished?
Life needs air,
Water,
Substance and warmth to thrive.
Where is this coming from in your business ecosystem?
This might be the belief landscape that underpins your audience's behaviour.
It might be their physical reality of their current life experience or it could be their disassociation with the path they are on.
There are so many variables that could be the very foundations of your business.
We have to pay attention to this otherwise our businesses are without foundations for life.
Most businesses are built on nothing because there is no anchoring in the ecosystem.
To acknowledge your foundations empowers you to do something about it.
It might be appropriate to directly address this through your business model or by collaborating with others.
It might be appropriate to achieve this through philanthropy or even activities outside your business entirely.
Following the process through even once will transform your understanding of your business and how to become actively engaged in its life processes.
See it as a living being that is part of the great web of life and it will never be the same again.
More importantly it will already be on a path to resilience and sustainability ensuring that it will still be here when many around it have crumbled.
We are at a tipping point in our global well-being and we have the power to decide what our future looks like.
Business is one of the most powerful opportunities we have to shift our culture and action in one of the fastest ways possible.
We know from politics that it is really business that drives policy.
That makes entrepreneurs with even the smallest of businesses incredibly powerful.
Let's use our power to ensure that the foundations of life are seen and accounted for in every decision we make.
This is the change that our businesses can bring.
It is our gift to life.
