Is your decision just really yours?

Seeing is believing. That’s what we’re supposed to believe right?

Look again. Or should I say think again?

Dan Ariely – one of my favourite behavioral scientists – shows that our belief in “seeing is believing” is fundamentally flawed. It is so flawed that it raises questions about that inner eye of ours which oversees our decisions. How much of what we think we judge as our own decision is actually a decision of our own?

If you’re interested in more stories like these: check Dan Ariely’s blog: Predictably Irrational or read his book Predictably Irrational.

Now what does this tell us about being superbly human?

When magic happens – how to turn something bad into something great

This is a story about change and how changing things is as much as about making changes as it is about allowing change to happen. This is a story about how something really frustrating and annoying turned into a great gift. This is a story about the power of being superbly human. Enjoy.

The last couple of months I wake up at night. Why, I don’t know. But when I’m awake I lay there listening and I hear a buzz coming out of the hallway. I was convinced that the noise was caused by my neighbour’s fridges. He’s running a bakery and his fridges are next to our hallway.

So I decided that I had to talk to him. But I kept delaying our meeting. And at the same time I started making up conversations in my head. I started to make scenario’s, started to design strategies about how to obtain my goal, how to anticipate a possible ‘no, I don’t believe you’ and so on. The more I waited, the more tensed I became and the harder it seemed to get in touch and talk about what I thought was happening.

I even got to a point where I thought I wouldn’t be able to keep calm enough to have a proper conversation. And so I talked about it with my coach. He wrote a wonderful letter, showing understanding and compassion. He was familiar with this experience and urged me to be compassionate towards myself and my neighbour. Bottom line was: give each other the chance to have a fruitful experience in trying to find a solution together.

My proposal for changing the world, for good.

The proposal is this:

At the beginning of the year every company publicly engages itself into establishing sustainability targets additionaly to their financial goals.

At the beginning of the year each of these targets are made public together with a suggested roadmaps.

The key rule is this:

Profits will not be paid out to any staff member, nor to any shareholder in the form of dividends if at the end of the year one of these targets isn’t met.

All financial gain should be reinvested into reaching the other targets until they are reached.

These targets are suposed to be:

• significantly more advanced than the targets the year before (if reached)
• reduction of ecological strain + advancement of ecological gain
• reduction of social strain + advancement of social gain
• reduction of financial strain + advancement of financial gain

What targets are chosen and how companies define advancement is left to their responsibility.

But what is obligatory is that these acts are made public at the beginning of each year and are publicly accounted for at the end of each year.

The penalty on still paying dividends and bonuses while not meeting the sustainability targets is this:

Nothing. Still, make no mistake, the cost of ignoring this rule will be tremendous. It will be so high and so destabilizing it will definitely make more sense to try and make things happen.

The tipping point is this:

This rule will affect positive change on a global scale if and only if:

• some companies who are willing to lead voluntarily adopt this proposal as a key part of their mission statements
• some national governments of nations who are willing to lead voluntarily adopt this proposal as a part of their legislation
• some stock exchange authorities who are willing to lead voluntarily adopt this proposal as rule for any company who wants to enter their stock exchane
• some people who are willing to lead voluntarily take it upon them to spread this message, bring it to the people who can actually make things happen in the places mentioned above and engage them in making the change

My appeal to you is this:

• spread the word
• make it happen