January 13, 2020: Learning about Creating the Virtuous Organization
Ever since I was a little girl, the idea of saving the world by championing a social cause resonated deep within me. Poverty. Education. Human rights. Racial inequality. Gender discrimination. You name it. If there was a wrong, I wanted to right it. And throughout college, my education continued to reinforce this idea that nonprofit work and social entrepreneurship was the only noble--and innovative--way to address these massive problems and do some good in the world.
And so I became ardently involved in nonprofit work. At the same time, I grew suspicious of the abilities for-profit organizations who engaged in the harsh realities of doing business centered on profit-driven commerce to make a positive and lasting social impact. To further my point, the American entrepreneur Dan Pallota gave a TED Talk in 2013 entitled, “The way we think about charity is dead wrong”. He mentioned that charity giving in the U.S. has been stuck at two percent of GDP since the 1970s. In fact, “in 40 years, the nonprofit sector has not been able to wrestle any market share away from the for-profit sector”. In addition, from 1970 to 2009, the number of nonprofits that crossed the $50 million annual revenue barrier is 144; in contrast, the number of for-profits that crossed the barrier was 46,136.
Two thoughts occurred in my mind: 1) Did that mean nonprofits, unless they gained more of the market share, could never solve these long-lasting issues and move humanity forward? And 2) If social businesses continued to occupy only two percent of the market share, then there was a whole other 98 percent dominated by for-profit business!
The first thought discouraged and disheartened my do-gooder spirits; but the second thought sparked a curiosity to learn more about for-profit organizations. Maybe, just maybe, businesses driven to make money could also help lift developing economies and change the world. Maybe businesses could do good and be good. They could engage not just in charity or traditional corporate philanthropy but become true and virtuous organizations that do well by doing good.
Since I am learning more about things like engaging in corporate social impact/responsibility and creating a virtuous organization, I have been able to see that social impact is not reserved only for nonprofits or social ventures--private sector businesses and companies can also actively participate and revolutionize the human condition and help each of us realize our full potential. That’s what a virtuous organization strives to do and become.
One of my favorite sections of the “Creating a Virtuous Organization” booklet is the impact section. Once a virtuous organization recognizes its deep purpose and identifies its core strengths and values, it “goes beyond just embedding the intention to do good into the fabric of the organization…[It] realizes that it can move the needle on solving social problems, creating value and have a meaningful impact”. I like this because it distinguishes from the pitfalls many businesses fall into when they want to get involved with charity or philanthropy. It goes beyond traditional volunteer efforts and engages deeper than time, money, and resource donations. Instead, a virtuous organization takes its unique abilities, strengths, and skills and incorporates corporate responsibility into a necessary part of its structure.
I still have lots to learn about what it takes to create a virtuous organization, but one thing I know from my experience is this: if we accept the fact that for-profit businesses--coupled with nonprofits and social ventures--can move humanity forward, then it is of paramount importance that we help empower businesses to invest in the right kind of social change and to give them the tools to do so.
February 27, 2020: Engaging with Businesses Interested in CVO Principles
This was one of the first of several introductions to the good that comes when businesses engage in virtuous practices and corporate responsibility. After being impressed by Yummy's consistent customer interactions and commitment to quality food and eating environment, I conducted an interview with the owner of Yummy's Korean BBQ, located in Orem, UT, to learn more about the social good they are engaged in. I then used the interview response to build a case for why Yummy's BBQ was a good model for the CVO principle, "Humanizing the Corporation".
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March 2020: Discovering Humanizing Principles
Our cohort decided to host a Creating the Virtuous Organization Conference in late March in which several Utah businesses convene in a space devoted to learning about select CVO principles: driving missions to maximize signature strengths, overcoming barriers to CVO implementation, humanizing interactions, and practicing accountability/leadership.
Eagerly, I chose to craft the "Humanizing the Corporation" session, and, along with with my fellow teammate, busily got to work identifying our conference session structure, potential panelists, and case examples of businesses who incorporate humanizing principles well (and not-so-well).
As a culmination of our brainstorming sessions, we created the top 10 principles of humanizing that were applicable to businesses and potential attendees. This list represents a summation of the principles we learned about as a class in the CVO librito and highlights key teachings we hope conference attendees would resonate with and soon implement into their business practices.
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March-April 2020: Humanizing the Corporation Priming Tool
As part of the conference experience, we designed a priming report on humanizing for companies who would be attending. I created priming tools for three companies: Chatbooks, Podium, and Malouf. This priming report included humanizing insights to help orient companies to the principle; potential questions to get their minds churning for discussion; and an analysis tool, which ranks the attendee on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = No Evidence, 5 = Strong Evidence) according to humanizing principles such as "Employee voice valued" or "Personal language". Ideally, this tool will help those in attendance see their humanizing strengths and also see some areas for improvement. Above is an example of Chatbook's priming report.
