Creating New Cultures

I’ve been exploring what’s been called Spirituality in the Workplace and more recently being  called Conscious Business. In my explorations I came upon a company called Zappos. It started in 1999 to do online shopping for footwear and later for clothing, accessories, housewares and more. They’ve been one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to work for the past seven years since 2009. They also train others how to create new business cultures for the 21st Century.

Every year they ask their employees to share what the Zappos culture means to them. Unedited, they publish them for everyone to see. I’m quoting one that represents what they’ve created as their unique and model culture. Ask yourself if you’d like to work in this culture?

This is what Kiersten S. wrote: “Culture is a smiling face when you pass by. Culture is someone opening the door when your hands are full. Culture is jumping out of bed because you’re excited to get to work. Culture is laughing so hard at work that you almost pee in your pants. Culture is going above and beyond to make a coworker’s day. Culture is working extra hard because you want to do a good job for your team. Culture is becoming a better person because the people around you are amazing!”  What’s your sense about this? How would it work for you?

Below are the ten core values they want reflected in everything they do including how they interact with each other, how they interact with their customers and how they interact with their vendors and business partners. This requires a way of Being out of which the doing flows. . .

1. Deliver WOW Through Service 
2. Embrace and Drive Change 
3. Create Fun and A Little Weirdness 
4. Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded                                                             
5. Pursue Growth and Learning 
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit 
8. Do More With Less 
9. Be Passionate and Determined 
10. Be Humble

What we’re changing in this first quarter of the 21st Century is the business culture that was created in the first quarter of the 20th Century which we’ve outgrown. It was an impersonal culture of assembly lines, sweat shops, command and control leadership, objectification of people, bottom line economics, quotas,  closed communication, no fun, no personal growth or learning and little to no opportunity to live into the fullness of ones gifts and talents.

We’re now living in a new world where the institutional communities are beginning to catch the wave of the present tide. In politics, manufacturing, education, religion, medicine, agriculture, construction, finance, law and every other industry there’s a growing call and necessity to do business differently. Treating people and the environment with dignity and respect is now being seen as more humane as well as more productive. To create a culture that reconnects with heart, soul, authenticity and compassion is the new way. What would it mean to join in?