" If not now, when....."

“If not now, when?”

It could not be more evident that our current economic systems, are not only broken, and distorted but that they no longer serve the people they should, equally or even fairly. They are extractive in nature, preferencing short term shareholder gains over longer term inclusive stakeholder, value creation. 

The enabling eco system on which business depends; finance, investment, tax, legal, policy constructs and incentives - at state, national and global levels- have created a networked system that ensures that making good choices for companies somehow remains a tenant of courage or a bold redefinition of success; that few have stepped up to. 

This current ecosystem virtually guarantees that our economies extract value and regenerate little. For human beings or our planet. Accountability, remains elusive, in the face of the ever present justification of “economic growth”. 

But its not just the ecosystem that is problematic. 

Our own narratives undermine even the best intentions. What do I mean by narratives? Well how many times do we hear, Government is inefficient and bad. Corporates are Bad. NGOs are Good. None of these are true in absolute terms. 

We need Government to play a role in innovation and creating enabling policies for growth. We need Corporations who have a tremendous scope for transforming social, environmental and justice issues at scale with the intelligence, experience and infrastructure they possess behind things. We need, most importantly Social Entrepreneurs and Civil Society actors of all shapes and sizes. Whose ability not only to stand with the communities they exist to serve is essential but whose view on where the most catalytic interventions can have the greatest impact; is invaluable. Social entrepreneurs in particular see the networked and interconnected state of broken systems and work directly into the holes and gaps. They are an essential part of designing any systemic change initiatives yet too rarely brought to the table and genuinely heard. 

Narratives and the stories we tell, create silos. They reinforce a lack trust, cooperation, duplication and splintered resources that do not lead to systemic transformation nor a more genuinely “just” result for anyone.

And then there is our planet. “She”, who in her priceless fragility, perfectly balanced and totally interconnected biodiversity, her adaptation and evolutionary mechanisms; has for so long withstood our blatant disregard, for her. 

Our collective, entitled mindset has looked only at what could be taken from her instead of what should be invested in her. Yet she is the source of all our prosperity, health and wellbeing and at the same time the source of our greatest risk factors in the future.

Over the last 10 years leading a development focused non profit Social Enterprise, my teams in India and abroad have worked deeply in rural areas. 

We have come to see the indisputable reality that it is our poorest most vulnerable communities, which face the results of our hubris. We have devoured and polluted the planet, our failure in building a safety net for her or the people whose lives are our collective responsibility, is where we stand today. 

We have witnessed the destruction of livelihoods, cultural heritage, community cohesion, dignity and worse; have seen the manifestation of these consequences on populations whose lack of resources place them ever more at risk; for bearing this ever greater, fragility. 

Migration, conflict, radicalised recruitment…. the exploitation, violence and underutilisation of women and an endless loop of intergenerational poverty….continues, despite billions poured into the humanitarian, not for profit and aide program, miasma. 

I believe strongly It is time for some pretty radical change. 

It is time, for courageous, new vision. Time to stop thinking we can fix what is already flawed and move in an accelerated way towards designing, in purpose built ways - for the world we want. For the needs of our planet and her boundaries, at the center. 

It is time for us to start telling new narratives. 

It is through the telling of stories and sharing of our dreams and vision, we inspire others, bring them inside, make them apart of and catalyse, movements of change.  

It is time for a new system. Because…… “If not now, when?”

___________

Hillel the Elder was born in 110 BC. A Jewish religious leader, sage and scholar who helped develop the Talmud, the centrepiece book of Jewish cultural life. 

He was popularly known as the the author of the ethic of reciprocity or what we know today as the Golden Rule…”that which is unacceptable to you, do not inflict on your fellow man”, its the western version of what we in india call Karmic retribution-  he is also the man responsible for the words “ If not now, when”? 

Hillel the Elder faced many difficulties and challenges along his journey. He sought to enter elite institutions and was barred because he was an ‘ordinary’ man. He had a progressive view on life, law and culture.

Hillel succeeded to champion many reforms, one of which….. a new law in Babylon that ensured the debts of the poor were not carried forward but settled in the current year, thereby protecting both creditor against loss of his property and the needy against being refused the loan of money, for fear of loss; forcing the institutions that gained from an inequitable system, to shift and change; in what he referred to as a move to “repair the world”.

Hillel understood something fundamental- that one cannot treat just the parts but must take on the changing of the system, end to end. 

Change, meaningful mindset shift, never comes without conflict. Old ways ceding to new ideas is always a painful process. This is a lesson I have learned profoundly running a social innovation organisation in India that works across more than 90 countries and thousands of rural communities - seeking to change social normative behaviour in more positive directions. 

The goal of our programs was to raise the participation of rural illiterate and semi literate women in decision making at home and in their communities. 

To skill them and to drive economic participation. 

We trained them to become fully functioning solar engineers bringing light and hope with their competency in renewable energy technology, their agency and self confidence through acquiring varied sets of knowledge alongside technical competency resulted in their beginning to see themselves as influencers and contributors, with power. There are many lessons we learned while scaling a model internationally that we had designed to address 14 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

First, Be prepared to be misunderstood. Prepare for the world to think you were dreaming fanciful things. 

Second, Be prepared to fail because nothing is built without the courage to try new things, fail, learn and try again. 

Third, Be prepared for radical partnership that leaves your ego at the door. Define success not individually or even as a balance sheet sum, but by “what we learn together” and by your own resiliency. 

Fourth, get rid of do-gooder arrogance. Cease buying into the narratives. We have three pillars in our society: Private Sector, Government and Civil Society. There is a reason for that. They keep each other balanced and they need each other to enable effective collective action that SERVES to balance inequalities, exploitation and power. Service is actually what we are all here for. 

Fifth, and most importantly, place personal purpose and passion, into the center of everything we do as individuals; place organisational purpose at the center of every mission statement; hold both individuals and organisations accountable for delivering on their purpose. 

To create the stakeholder value rich economic models we need, we are going to need to become “Servant Leaders prepared for complexity”. 

Narrowing the divides of inequality is going to take an utterly different approach than we have looked at our economies before. Mechanisation for example cannot be a linear conversation that results in leaving labourers and thier skill development at the sidelines. Models for scale and platform thinking must challenge itself to seeding more entrepreneurs able to access markets through those platforms. Changing our systems is going to mean co creation. 

Its a democratic transformation utterly different than what has traditionally been our model. Government too often imagine it must deliver programs that meet all needs, alone. Civil Society and Social Entrepreneurs must look to deliver programs in tandem with partners, not in a territorial land grab for funds offered by donors who want to have sole ownership of a program or impact but without the ability to fund the entire systemic change work that needs to be undertaken. Companies cannot continue to think deploying CSR or having ESG ‘policies’ in place is the same thing as reworking business models that encompass and internalise a genuine shift. We must collectively ask of our private sector to address to address not just what business does, but HOW it does it and WHO it benefits or does not.  

And yes, this kind of work is hard. Its complex and it takes enormous leadership. There is no silver bullet. Moreover, it demands we all work differently. 

I believe it is now essential tobegin again to TRUST one another. 

Trust happens when you collaborate openly and transparently; when you co create. Each concern, tension and friction can be heard and together, solutions can be arrived at and compromises understood….. by way of a mutual learning process, deeply rooted in empathy for each partners constraints and experiences. Opportunities can be seen quickly and skills leveraged from each participant in ways that bring ‘the best’ of each partner to bear against the outcomes sought. 

This is why when we speak of building new economies we are speaking actually of the three pillars of our societies partnering in utterly new ways to address challenges in the same way Hillel the Elder did. End to End. 

As I begin thinking about the system and how we must redesign it, in more equitable ways for farmers, using technology and a platform to help them learn, enabling them to make the healthiest choices possible for our planet and the quality of their produce- I am determined to ensure that they are incentivised and skilled here in india, for the 4th industrial revolution, not left behind. 

Time is running out. We cannot stay mired in a theoretical conversation. We need new kinds of leadership, NOW. Leadership is not a position, it is a kind of action. It demands, Radical Collaboration and Fearless Innovation. 

Leadership is found in the ordinary man and woman we overlook and underestimate. Young or old, formally educated or practically experienced- it is in the learning and listening, that our solutions are revealed. 

We need brave systems thinkers, collaborators, co-creators. Not those hiding behind vested interests and those resistant to change, threatened by new ways of working. 

Transforming work forces from a commodity to a capable resilient and adaptive resource, approaching the needs and aspirations of our most marginalised populations in ways that build their agency, understanding and enabling those being left behind, to reach THEIR aspirations- will be the key to Profit, Loss and Risk Mitigation in the years ahead.

This seems to me to be the way we need to construct with consciousness and compassion a much needed new economic reality and the narrative to go along with it. A more ‘socially just’ trajectory that assures the protection of our planet in a way that considers her and her boundaries alongside the people who depend on her, as equal and essential stakeholders.

       So “if not now….when”?