Good Green Vibes

Two of my referees for my return to Old Mutual were the same two referees when I left the company and ventured overseas 12 years ago. As part of my first day reading, I was going through the Annual Report to Shareholders which referred to the 175-year-old company motto of “a certain friend in uncertain times”. The line between colleague, client, and friend can become very fuzzy given how much time we spend dedicated to work. I like that fuzziness. I like the fluidity which recognises that we are not just cogs in the machine. I think the warmth with which I have been welcomed back reflects well on the company, in a world where we have to acknowledge that wealth is created in containers. That can sometimes lead to excess competition, secrecy, and dehumanisation. Old Mutual is both a 175-year-old institution and a large publicly listed company. It isn’t a human and doesn’t own the humans in it. I don’t want to deify or anthropomorphize it, but I do look forward to seeing the people in it again and working with them, and the various stakeholders affected by buildings with green roofs.

Touched with Green

Space for Choice

I am trying to think of a gender-neutral word for emasculated. Disempowered does not feel visceral enough, and disemboweled is, I admit, too extreme. I also do not like being infantilised or micro-managed. This distaste for hierarchy is not a dislike of rules. I really enjoy clear decision-making processes and agreements. A perhaps strange combination of a rule-abiding contrarian. Seeking permission sucks when you are the one who has done the work. I have no problem with other people making different decisions to me. What I like is space. Space to make imperfect choices, and space for others to see the world differently. Where accountability and authority live together, with honest acknowledgement that we are all making it up as we go along. A great part of being an adult, is tolerating and dealing with your own mess. Building your own process. Owning the fact that decisions have consequences. In positive and negative directions. Making agreements, and making decisions within those agreements.

Team Sport

Money making is not about you. Hand-to-mouth living is all about you. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” is all about you. Meritocracy, performance attribution, annual reviews, bonuses, status symbols and conspicuous consumption can become all about you. About being good enough. Being worthy. Leading a successful life. Being a really big deal. Capitalism done well is a team sport. A sport in which there is competition, but players and managers switch teams and everyone meets in the bar afterwards. No company exists without suppliers, customers, regulators, alternatives and complex knock on effects. If you want to understand money, stop thinking about yourself. The song is not about you. Start thinking about the needs of communities. Start looking at every business you come across. “How is money made?” is a question so much more powerful than “How can I make money?” that it can release you to change the What to a Who. Who (not what) do you want to be? Let Capital set our Labour free. Build Capital.