A+B+C+

In an update by Dr Richard Claydon he offered thoughts about two modes of thinking and he asked which mode we prefer.  As clear distinction it allows us to think about two different ways an organization can focus their attention, with the road less travelled being the more authentic rather than more branded way.

His options brought me back to the thinking of Eric Fromm when he offered his two modes

HAVING MODE
BEING MODE

Organizations are set in the "having" mode also, that is what the push for growth is constantly about, but there can be ways of doing business which are about being and that does not involve joining a large organization but working in a freelance capacity with minimal overhead.  My visceral response to Claydon's two choices was to think of the relationship between Authenticity-Brand-Culture or A+B+C+.   As I thought about it I reflected on the raw base reality of organizations which are deeply in the having mode and see the purpose of business to solely be to be organized for the purposes of profit and for the benefit of its owners, the shareholders.   As ownership is separated from those who are employed to meet that hierarchical relationship, the down in the dumps reality that can emerge is A-B-C- which I cited as Asshole-Bullshit-Crap noting the word culture derives from agriculture - which is based on tending and cultivating.  If we are not really tending and cultivating then culture is simply crap.

George Carlin never minced his words or his humour at this view of culture as bullshit :   It is easy to use the BS language as a coarse way of looking at life and that is not the way I look at BS, for I think the baseline of economic existence is built with this reality.  It is the alternative to this reality which is really taxing, really difficult and as far as I am concerned, is worth the effort.  If happiness is what Aristotle says it is which is based from the cultivation of virtue, then this is not where most people prepare their minds and thoughts for.  For sure they will tick the boxes and nod their heads in agreement that life should be virtuous but deep down they accept life's baseline - the very baseline we then laugh about in private by listening to people like George Carlin lifting the carpet on where the dirt is brushed.

If A+B+C+ really has a chance to be the actuality as BEING, rather than A-B-C- being the actuality of HAVING then we need to focus on character.  Here the movie The Big Kahuna provides a great moment where Danny Devito's character talks about what character is : For me to be a part of A+B+C+ is to know that I am working with others with an equal conviction that they too operate from a way of life that is in this BEING.  Otherwise we identify with platitudes and opinions that have no real basis in the way we self-organize, especially if this organization is about the present.  Otherwise A+B+C+ is an exception and not the rule.

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