Worcestershire Ambassadors' Soapbox

Worcestershire Ambassadors’ Heartbeat newsletter

Soapbox feature, Autumn 2010 issue

In each issue we invite a Worcestershire Ambassador to get on their soapbox and share their opinion on a subject close to their heart.  This issue Sebastian Parsons, Chief Executive of Elysia and Chair of the English Symphony Orchestra shares his views on a ‘living business’.

“A business that is alive is productive and responsive, fun and terribly serious, it is the perfect place to work, challenging and rewarding, and it generates profit in an ethical and completely sustainable way” explains Sebastian Parsons.

“For me, a living business is one that is run with the heart taken in to account.  People are alive, they can think for themselves and they have feelings and determination.  So often business leaders wish that staff would just do what they are told… and compare their businesses to machines.  But the advantage a person has over a machine is that they can think for themselves, so that in a living business in which the team are self motivated, a great deal of thinking can be delegated.  This frees up the leadership team to be creative and innovative.  

What else is there apart from relationships?” asks Sebastian, going on to point out that most of us spend most of our lives at work, and that that surely meant we should try hard to ensure our working lives are meaningful and rewarding.  

“The Living Business model for business offers tools such as boundaries and communication channels, much like other models, but it gives these components a broader task by using the human capacity for feeling to drive commitment and empowerment.  This works by overcoming a paradox that lies at the heart of organisational life – the contradiction between on the one hand staff being expected to do what they are told, but on the other hand, no body, actually, in truth, really enjoying being told what to do.  A tricky conundrum…” observes Sebastian with a wry grin.

“All life has movement, flux, flow, pulse, rhythm, and it is with movement that the paradox can be overcome.  We take our clue from the living human being, noticing how we respond, and building that in to our business management processes.  The key challenge is to notice and manage the anxiety around prioritisation through engaged communication and negotiation, and then once that is done, to ensure there is a full engagement and negotiation in the delivery process.”  Sebastian stops and points a finger: “you think we’re creating a talking shop!” he exclaims.  

“It is a tricky path to find, but the key is to focus on listening, and take the attention away from talking. We have a motto: ‘hear what is said, and say what has to be heard.’  When this is really lived then there is a lot less talking, much less argy-bargy, much less going round in circles, much more communication.  In an organisation that is listening more than it is talking there is always enough time to find the right solution, get everyone’s buy in, and still finish the meeting early!

One of the big mistakes people make when watching a Living Business at work is to believe that it is lovely to work in a Living Business.” Frowns Sebastian, “there may be lovely moments, and the feeling of doing something purposeful really lifts the atmosphere, but the moment the aim becomes loveliness disaster will strike.  Loveliness is about putting the person first, when you make how the person feels the most important thing then that is a disaster, because how people feel can be influenced by so many factors, many nothing to do with the business at all!  Feelings can seriously throw a business off track”.  Leaning forward, Sebastian says: “It is the purpose of the organisation that unites it and it is the purpose that must come first.  As long as the human being is included in the purpose, then fulfilment and all the other benefits of a Living Business, will flow from that.  The business has to successfully achieve its task, and at a financial surplus, otherwise the music has to stop.

When people learn to listen and start to take up their roles so that they work to common purpose with their colleagues then there becomes time to examine how things feel, and to work out what is important and what is a distraction.  Suddenly feelings become useful.  Human beings are paradoxical, and we put a lot of energy in to ignoring that.  In a living business that energy is released to everyone’s benefit.”  Sebastian concludes: “Living Business is about taking maximum advantage of the fact that we are people and not machines!”

Elysia is the exclusive UK distributor of the multi awarding winning Dr.Hauschka organic skincare and cosmetics brand, as well as Liv, Elysia’s luxury eco/organic  Fair Trade lifestyle brand of clothing and home furnishings. www.drhauschka.co.uk; www.liv-uk.com

For more information about Living Business try www.grubb.org.uk, or contact Sebastian on sebastian@elysia.uk.com.