How can I support your efforts towards building an ethical business?
I'm going to be taking next week off to do some DEEP work on resources for Ethical Business building. And I have a question for you..
First, about why I approach deep work like this:
The writing and creating buzz is hitting me and you'll see me taking a bit of time off to capture this energy. I'm using the idea that Daniel Pink shares in Drive — 20% time. He describes an Australian software company that uses so called 'FedEx' or 20% time in their company. They call it FedEx time because they 'deliver' on something cool.
Basically, the concept is to put aside some time regularly (5-20%) to work on a project. Google has given their employees this time to work on internal projects with anyone else in the company and given the resources to do this. This is how Google Translate and Gmail were created. Yes, it's a less than ethical company, however, this particular praxis is excellent for small businesses to use.
I combine this with learnings from Leela Sinha. Leela created a framework for intensives — individuals who work better in bursts, where they work very deeply on a project for a time. Zi (they use neopronouns) contrasts with expansives who are more comfortable with consistent effort. I am an 8 on zi's SEIF index. It makes sense to create pockets of time to create for me instead of trying to schedule this time regularly.
What's your approach making time/space/resources for big projects and the non-everyday types of deep work in your organization?
This deep work week is going to be focused on creating the resources and worksheets for my new services, Start up 360 and Discover 360 for Business, especially around personalized ways to make sustainable change in their business.
Some of the challenges I see small businesses facing when it may be time to embrace strategies around ethical, sustainable, and personalized business solutions:
low repeat business, high employee turnover
low morale, a sense of overwhelm and dread in facing business decisions
lack of clarity with vision, direction, and action
lack of systems and structures to support and sustain the business
lack of leadership, low ownership of ideas, tasks, and systems
The two types of documents will be a) honing their identity as an enterprise and b) coming up with their unique approach and principles to their ethical business in terms of sales, marketing, finances etc.
So I come back to you, what would serve you? Yes, these resources I'm making, are for clients, but I also want to make something useful to you all. Is there problem that you're bumping up against that maybe I could make a small resource to support you? Respond directly to this email and I'll consider it! And yes, I will respond to you.
It would be something free for all of you, as a thank you for being in this community.
You'll be hearing from me over the next week with tidbits!
In solidarity,
Anuradha