The Society We Deserve

The society we desire may not be the society that we deserve: the first is a projection in our minds, and the second is the result of our actions.

If we focus our efforts on delivering value within our Organisations, but do so at a cost to fairness, to community, to compassion, then we drain value out of our society. But if we recognise that the walls of the Organisation are permeable, that we exist in service of society (not simply to make money from it), then we will be contributors to that realisation of society that we desire.

It may sounds like a philosophical conversation in a time of crisis, but it’s directly relevant: many of our people carry different weights. We each have different responsibilities, some focussed internally on our Organisations, many focussed out into our families and community. If we view that outward focus as beyond our concern, beyond our Organisational frame and story, then we are separating ourselves from society. But if we recognise equal value in each story, we are at least grounding ourselves in the society that hosts us.

The society that we deserve will be judged upon our individual and collective actions: but it’s worth remembering that someone always has to carry the weight of building. If we all neglect our wider social responsibility, if we neglect society, then society will fail to be civil, will fail. And in that failure will lie the moral failure of our Organisations: failing to be fair, failing to be kind, failing to do what is right.