Reciprocity in Business
The age of extraction is coming to an end.
We live in an age where businesses are built by exploiting resources in the most efficient way possible.
The expectation is that you earn more by consuming more and encouraging others to consume more.
More, more, more. In one direction.
This is the current definition of "success."
It's extraction. It's exploitation. It's totally short-sighted. (Seriously, who designed this?!)
We extract without considering the limitations of the resources we're extracting from.
We extract without realizing that if we keep extracting, the thing we extract from will be dead, and we will have no more life, and no more business...
At a Summit talk a few years ago, I heard Netflix CEO Reed Hastings tell the audience, in all seriousness, that Netflix's biggest competitor was sleep. SLEEP! Has Netflix extracted our attention from daytime hours so much that it now has to extract us from our sleep?!
This made me so mad...
It's time to put an end to this business culture.
I've been thinking recently about the need for reciprocity in business.
This is a beautiful, life-giving quality found everywhere in nature, and it's a value I've learned from traditional wisdom keepers.
Reciprocity is a give and take. It's an acknowledgement that if you want to keep having things you need or enjoy, you have to give back to it too, so it can replenish itself.
This occurs naturally in the natural world. Animals eat a rich diet of natural foods, poop on the ground to fertilize the soil, and therefore support the growth of healthy plants which means better nutrition for the animals eating the plants. Or think about bees: bees fly around collecting nectar and pollen to feed their colonies, but they don’t just take, they are also playing a crucial role in pollinating the flowers for continued healthy growth.
Humans are the only species that extracts without giving back. We are out of balance. Especially in our businesses.
The good thing is, with awareness and intention, we can change this.
So I pose this question to you: how can you start to build reciprocity into your business? How can you acknowledge the resources that you are extracting, understand that they are finite, and create incentives or programs to replenish them?
Here are a few examples:
If you run a food media business (like I used to), and the business depends on people having delicious food to eat and talk about, maybe you could invest in regenerative agriculture/soil initiatives
If you run a demolition company (like my family does) and your business depends on demand for new buildings in the city, maybe you could invest in local parks to make the area more desirable to live
If you run a company that plans to share traditional wisdom with business leaders (as I intend to), maybe you could invest in programs that protect indigenous rights
The possibilities are truly endless, and it's fun to use your creativity to imagine how you could use even a small portion of profits to help create a healthier, thriving society.
And one thing to note: this idea goes beyond mega corporations donating a few dollars for carbon offsets for PR purposes. This is about true, values-aligned reciprocity within a company that acknowledges, honors, and understands the impact all work has on the environment, and does something about it.
This requires courage.
Courage of leaders to take responsibility for the impact their business has on the world and dare to do business differently.
Courage of investors to support portions of profits going to regeneration.
Courage of employees to demand this from the companies they work for.
Courage of consumers to stop buying from companies that aren’t adding net positive value to the world.
You know that the root of courage is cor— the Latin word for heart. May you find the strength to build reciprocity in your business from deep in your heart. Tap in there, and you’ll uncover an endless well of energy to fight for the important stuff. Like life…!
