Great article in the New Yorker on the benefit of Benefit Corporations!

Great Article in the New Yorker - The Benefits of Benefit Corporations by James Surowiecki

He sums up the trend nicely here!

"It’s easy to be skeptical of the mushy rhetoric surrounding B corps. Yet the desire to balance profit and purpose is arguably a return to the model that many American companies once followed. Henry Ford declared that, instead of boosting dividends, he’d rather use the money to build better cars and pay better wages. And Johnson & Johnson’s credo, written in 1943, stated that the company’s “first responsibility” was not to investors but to doctors, nurses, and patients. There were problems with this way of doing business: it was paternalistic and often inefficient. But what replaced it—the fetishization of shareholder value—has inflicted serious damage of its own, encouraging corporations to focus on short-term prospects and share price at the expense of everything else. The rise of B corps is a reminder that the idea that corporations should be only lean, mean, profit-maximizing machines isn’t dictated by the inherent nature of capitalism, let alone by human nature. As individuals, we try to make our work not just profitable but also meaningful. It may be time for more companies to do the same. "

Couldn't agree more!

Business Rainbow

Once upon a time we lived in a world where there was a knight in shining armor for every damsel in distress.   Until we discovered that some damsels preferred damsels, and some knights preferred dresses, and the very idea of damsel and knight are really just points on a continuum.   And we’re learning that this is ok.

Our LBGT friends understood long before the rest of us that the world is not simple, not binary, not digital.  It’s wonderful shades of every imaginable color including hues we can not see but perhaps hear with our hearts.  And science keeps collecting the proof:

• In a Brazilian cave there is an insect who’s female wears the penis in the family.  
• It is the male seahorse who is man enough to do the work of incubating eggs in his brood pouch.
• All clown fish are born male.  The largest turns female and rules the school.  When she dies the next biggest fish switches gender becoming head honcha.

Once upon a time business was limited to sole proprietorships.  Then came partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability companies, corporations (S and C), nonprofits, ESOPs, co-ops, and now social enterprise companies.  Like our concept of family, we’re learning that the free market can mean many things to different people.  Each business type having it’s place, it’s role and it’s due respect.  Business too need not be black and white.   While once upon a time it was understood that the only business of business was to make a profit for owners.  Today’s entrepreneurs feel freer to design a business around what is meaningful and important to them.  And for a growing group of social entrepreneurs, profits are not enough;  profits are a means to a more important end - solving some social or environmental problem.  But just because they are not driven by money doesn’t make them any less serious and it doesn’t make their businesses any less viable, scalable, or legitimate.

I remember awhile ago being told that someone I knew was transgender.   “I knew something was off,”  was my flippant response.  In reflection I realize how dismissive and disrespectful my statement was.  It was said in the same way that I’ve heard traditional business folk talk about social enterprise - as if it’s “off” in some amusing or disturbing way.   But it’s not.  It’s a reasonable, natural business approach, a response to the world we find ourselves in.  

And it isn’t going away.   Social enterprise is here to stay.  It is a hybrid, it’s out of the closet.  So say it clear and say it loud -  We’re social enterprise and we’re proud!

Connecticut passes America's most comprehensive Social Enterprise Legislation!

At 7 minutes to midnight on the last day of the Connecticut's legislative session, a law passed giving you the right to run business whose primary aim is to solve a social or environmental problem.   And just as the passing of civil rights did not an equal society make, this law in and of itself will not transform our business landscape, but it's an important milestone in the movement toward embracing a different way of doing business.

It took a village to get here. We started with the desire to make CT a hub of social enterprise and realized that to get there we need this legislation. It's important for three reasons:  It enables impact investors  to find and screen companies they want to invest in - businesses that can provide both social and financial returns.  In addition, social entrepreneurs can now take on investors without fear of being sued for considering social impact at the expense of maximizing financial returns to those shareholders.   And lastly, the bill also legitimizes the concept of social enterprise.  While it's possible to establish a social enterprise without legislation (I did), it's expensive, time consuming, and seems fringy.  We've been acculturated to think that the only legitimate purpose of a business is to make money.  And while this isn't really so, and has not always been the case, today that idea is so pervasive as to be unquestioned.  But for a social enterpreneur profitability is a means to an end, rather than the end itself.  It's the idea of eating to live rather than living to eat.    Now we have a law that acknowledges that saving the planet (or some small corner of it) is a legitimate raison d'etre for business.  The law makes the concept more mainstream - Main Street.

Four years isn't such a long time to get legislation passed when you learn that it took more than 50 years for women to get the vote.  It takes time.  Ghandi described the phases of a movement: first they ignore you, then they laugh, then they fight, then you win. In that first year we didn't have a clue, and figured as soon as we explained the idea behind social enterprise everyone would leap on board and we'd be done. We raised little interest or attention - we were largely ignored.  Later, when we were given audience it was sometimes offered witha generous serving of condescention; they thought the idea was naive, patted us on our well-meaning heads and sent us on our way.  They laughed.  But we didn't go away.  That's when we met concerns that maybe social enterprise was code for something more sinister.  You'll note the similarity between social enterprise, socialist, and socialism! The fight was on.  We still didn't give up.  We became more educated and better organized; we got strategic, we enslisted support and we moved the ball forward.  We educated anyone who would listen, won over some opponents who fought us because they misunderstood what we were about, and explained that there's nothing more free market than being open to other goals. The third year proved to be the charm.  We had familiarity, momentum, and lots of support on our side.  We pressed hard and we brought it home. We, and by extension, all of us, won.

And in doing so Connecticut can boast having the most comprehensive social enterprise legislation in the country.  Because only in Connecticut can you, if all of your shareholders agree, lock in your status as a social enteprise, protecting in perpetuity its status as a social enterprise.  For a business owner that wants to leave a legacy in a company that will always have at it's core the purpose of making our world a better place, Connecticut has it!  

We did it!  In terms of our overall goal of making Connecticut a hub of social enteprise this is of course only the begining.  This law is an important, foundational cornerstone in the social enteprise movement and our goal to create a vibrant social enterprise community here in our state.  With this law in place, Connecitcut can encourage and demonstrate the transformative power of the free market when it is harnessed to impact.  With this law Connecticut is open for social enterprise business.

It was a high five moment, one to celebrate.   

The legislation passed!  I wish it sounded more grand.  A marathon is run.  A mountain scaled.  A victory  won.  And our bill passed - sounds more like gas or a gallstone.  There should be a more triumphal word.  But whatever - it is a relief!

The bill passed.  The movement goes on :>)

Get the picture?

Quick - Woman business leader - what image comes to mind?  If you follow popular media the picture you probably have is of a woman in a tailored suit carrying a briefcase in one hand and possibly a baby in the other.  Get ready to get real, because as Sheryl Sandberg says, “you can’t be what you can’t see,”.   

According to a recent New York Times article Sandberg’s nonprofit LeanIn.org is partnering with Getty Images to provide images that show the true multiplicity and variations of women (and men) at work and home breaking down the stereotypes we've become accustomed to but which are no longer (if they ever were) reflective of reality.

There’s plenty wrong with media and the way it distorts and distracts us from what’s important, but there’s no denying the power of media to open up a portal in our minds to a place where something brand new becomes possible, then acceptable, and at some point very normal.   I don’t think it is coincidental that there were black presidents portrayed in movies long before Obama was elected and that several hit programs featured likable gay characters as we watched the national support for gay rights soar.

   

I love the idea of seeing more real images of powerful women and nurturing men included in our daily mashup of images.  

Leadership Lessons - Letters to my Teenage Son: A Valentine

I love you!  And please remember…

1.  I will always be behind you.

2.  I am not as dumb as you think I am.

3.  My name isn't Rover.

Vacation Space

It was not just my inbox that was over-crowded - every facet of my life seemed to be bursting at the seams, including my heart and my head.  The tools that should help me control my life  were instead controlling me.  And then I went on vacation.  I did check email every couple of days but I only answered one time-sensitive critical message. The rest were simply sorted into 4 categories - Urgent (to be dealt with Day One upon my return), Important (by the end of Week One upon my return),  It Can Wait (and still is), and Junk which I immediately dispatched to the trash with delight.  But that was it.  The only other apps I used were Harbor Master (don’t judge), Kindle (still blows my mind how much easier it is to pack when you don’t need space for reading material!!!), and an atlas app to help me understand where in the world we were (it actually holds promise for remediating my embarrassing deficit in geographical grounding).

I came home a changed woman.  The buzz that was the accumulative ricochet of millions of often useless but ambitious data bits screaming for my attention had died from neglect.  To wake up with the only decision being where to ski and who gets to choose a dinner spot is bliss.  A space opens up where everything slows down and  you can actually pay attention to one thing, one person, one strand of thought for more than a minute.  It’s a blessing and a cure.  Now the trick is to see how long I can hold on to this peace.   No illusions.  I’m 5 days back and I’ve already been pulled into the deep end of overload, but I’m aware of both the falling, and the coming back to center.  I’m aware of both the need to retreat and the way to do it.  See it, distance it, let go and breathe.  

One of the first things I did when I returned was to sign up for a mindful leadership retreat.  If there’s one thing I need for myself that will also do the most to benefit my work, my family, and my friends is to hold onto this space, for the clarity it provides feels like intelligence, the calmness like joy.

Alba di Canazei -Photo by Steve Silk

Happy Tetris

When I spend the weekend working on a portrait I find it impossible to sit politely with anyone for days after  without analyzing their facial bone structure and how I would translate that onto canvas.   “Hello?” my patient husband asks when he catches me just staring at him across the dining room table rather than answering a question.   After reading Shawn Achor’s book “The Happiness Advantage”  I realized this is the Tetris Effect, and I plan to put it to use in my life, my business, and my relationships.   

He explains that when we play video games for long stretches our brains habituate.  He describes a study wherein students were asked to play Tetris for several hours three days in a row after which they found they couldn’t turn it off.   The students describe seeing Tetris blocks falling and fitting into the landscape around them be it buildings on the horizon or cereal boxes on the grocery shelves.   Think about what that means to those of us who tend to focus on the negative - the bad, the sad, or the people who irritate the snot out of us.  Achok talks about the problem that professionals face when they are trained to find problems (lawyers, accountants, IT network troubleshooters…):  If all day every day you’re looking for problems you’re playing Problem Tetris.  And not only is it less fun than Happy Tetris, it reduces your creativity, raises your blood pressure, and comes home with you - oh joy - Mom’s home with another suggestion for how to improve domestic efficiency!  

The good news is you can retrain your brain.  Achok reminds us that our brains have very sophisticated spam filters to protect us from having to absorb the bazillions of data bits coming at us every day.  So we can (with focus) take charge of what get’s our attention and what gets filtered out.  And when we train our brain to focus on the positive, screening out the unnecessary crap we benefit in three important ways:   Happiness, Gratitude, and Optimism.  And if having more happiness, gratitude and optimism in your life isn’t reason enough, studies demonstrate that these emotions lead to greater material success as well.  

A simple method for retraining your brain is to make a daily list of the good things that happened at work and at home.    By writing down just three positive things you’re forcing (retraining) your brain to scan for the positive.   Or rather than journaling about the problems you’re facing spend 20 minutes writing about a positive experience.   Studies show that not only do changes in your happiness quotient appear quickly, they last.  Count me in! 

The Happiness Advantage explores six other principles of positive psychology and how it applies to home and work.   Read it and smile :>)