What exactly is the transitioning economy and what is the history that brought us to this point? What changes are happening and why are they important? And what kind of economy can we envision in the future? Let’s find out.

My two most recent posts were very much about looking at bigger picture elements of social and sustainable business, including the current landscape and the need for transformational leadership to effectively guide traditional businesses into the transitioning economy. I’m going to stay with this big picture lens for another post because as the state of geopolitical, technological, economic, social and environmental flux continues to permeate across the globe there are several interesting – and not so interesting – conversations happening about the drivers of this flux (right-wing populism, AI, inequality, climate change) and what we can do about them. One of the more interesting conversations in my opinion occurred on a recent podcast episode of The Ezra Klein Show by The New York Times called Yuval Noah Harari on Donald Trump’s Core Delusion, during which Klein spoke with Harari, a historian and the best-selling author of the books Sapiens and Homo Deus, about the core issues plaguing present day politics. While the conversation between Klein and Harari was wide-ranging it opened with a discussion about how Harari’s work, which stresses that cooperation has been the fundamental engine of human progress, stands in stark contrast to the views of right-wing politics, which claims human progress has been principally driven by dominance and force. 

It is Harari’s emphasis on cooperation and positive-sum relationships that I want to pick up on here (obviously) because a similar theme echoes across the foundations of social and sustainable business: the adoption of broad approaches to working collaboratively and sharing value is the fuel for positive economic growth and progress. And at a time when all this flux is generating uncertainty, divisiveness, instability and the like – making room for claims that may sound plausible but that are fundamentally at odds with our shared history and truths as a human species – it is critically important to stay connected to messages like Harari’s, which are rooted in facts and reality. Harari is very clear that it is simply not true that the whole of human history is based on brute force (otherwise we’d all still be living in hunter-gatherer tribes), but rather our positive progress has been driven by the quest to get more people to cooperate and trust each other. 

In the spirit of staying optimistic about our collective future on this planet during this time of flux, I must (as both a mother and a person) believe that we will learn from our past, challenge existing paradigms, appeal to our higher selves and together build the trust and capacity to chart a positive future for ourselves and our planet. After all, as Harari points out in the podcast, as humans we all have the same biological needs and roughly the same psychological needs – to be loved, to have dignity, etc. Given these similar core needs, when we live according to the shared reality of the good people of the world versus in the shadowy delusions of “strongmen”, it only makes sense to cooperate (rather than fight) to build a world that will be better for everybody. 

It is this same belief that keeps me optimistic about our transitioning economy. I believe we are learning from our past when we heed the warnings of Michael J. Sandel about how far we’ve allowed the markets to encroach on social and civic life. And when we thoughtfully consider how to overcome the failures of our existing economic structures and collectively develop new forms of resource allocation systems to better guide the world’s progress and prosperity. And when we understand that one of the world’s most successful investors famously amassed his fortune by systematically employing the same values that are rooted in the foundations of social and sustainable business, namely conscientious business strategy, long-term thinking and trust building.

I believe we are challenging existing paradigms when great leaders and thinkers like Melinda Gates, Amit Bouri, Mark Kramer and Michael Porter champion new and more effective ways of approaching philanthropy, investing and business strategy that rightfully consider a broader range of stakeholders and the need to drive social and environmental progress alongside traditional economic goals. 

And I believe we are appealing to our higher selves when business leaders from around the world share an honest, consistent and resonating message in their work with Brené Brown: there exists a deep need for more humanity and connection in the business world. And it is also in Brown’s work around paradoxical thinking and transformational leadership that I believe we are building trust and the capacity to work together to chart a more positive future for global economic, social and environmental progress. 

However, in our transitioning economy, capacity building does not stop there because in addition to building social and sustainable skill sets across the business world, we need to ensure those skills are put to good use in an economy that is in and off itself social and sustainable – enter the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDG). I’ve mentioned the goals a couple of times already in different posts; when referring to B Lab’s use of the SDG Action Manager as a way for companies working towards B Corp certification to start measuring their impact and when referring to Amit Bouri’s commitment to growing the Global Impact Investing Network to help fund the achievement of the goals and other sustainability related targets. 

In their simplest form the SDG are a set of 17 goals designed to end deprivation in the world, improve health and education and spur economic growth, all while tackling climate change and the protection of the natural world. But in their essence, when taken together, the goals are a blueprint for how to transition the global economy from one based solely on gross domestic product (GDP) to one that also assigns value to what really matters: the well-being of people and planet. And this will then shine a light on the work of organizations like The Happiness Research Institute, which quite rightly states that we as humans have failed to convert wealth into well-being and is focused on research to help change that. And this will then shine a light on the work of The Mind & Life Institute, which works to bridge the gap between science and contemplative wisdom for the advancement of knowledge and betterment of humanity, doing research in important areas such as technology and AI, interconnectedness and climate change, polarization and systems change. And this will then shine a light on other organizations doing meaningful and important work, and so on and so forth…

It’s quite satisfying (and validating really) to realize that this conversation has brought us full circle to one of my very first posts entitled Why Social Business, in which I say that the economy is a vehicle for doing purposeful and productive work in the world, not for generating a profit at the expense of everyone and everything else. And it’s hard in closing not to turn, once again, to the profound and prophetic work of Martin Luther King Jr. on this topic because King understood even then that when we have an economy that protects the dignity of people and planet that we will also have peace.

The transition to an economy that values not only economic progress, but also social and environmental progress, is long overdue. But the good news is that the signs and signals (granted you may have to look and listen a little harder these days) of this more enlightened economy – from the growth of impact investing to the growing number of impact businesses – are all around us. It’s time. 

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