GoodBrand Wises Up

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? T. S. Eliot, ‘Choruses from the Rock’. The GoodBrand Community are meeting in Windsor this Friday to discuss wisdom and how we can nurture it in our personal and work lives. We shall be asking ourselves questions like: How would I define wisdom? Why is wisdom important for me in the work I do and aspire to do? These questions are actually part of a wider enquiry that we plan to conduct with business executives in partnership with the Euro China Centre for Leadership and Responsibility at the China Europe International Business School in Shanghai.

Corporations are now competing for a future in which sustainability has been inserted into their strategic frame of reference and with it high degrees of uncertainty about the plethora of sustainable initiatives and projects with which to engage. The demand for ‘quick fixes’ to complex ethical, social and environmental challenges in a highly competitive environment has given rise to questionable judgments. We need wise leaders.

Standing back from the competitive corporate framework, questions need to be asked about how judgments are being made by management and in whose interests. Investment and consumer markets are distrustful and suspicious of corporate motivations and brand claims. Business schools have not moved swiftly enough to prepare managers for the movement away from traditional business practices and certainties. The nature of moral agency at board level is under scrutiny as analysts assess how smart the CEO is at making judgments that are seen to be fair and wise to shareholders, employees, customers, NGOs and governments.

A larger question is looms concerning the notion of sustainability as a panacea for the future of the people and the planet. Sustainability is about maintaining and preserving – but is that enough for the growing world population? Is there not a cause for innovative and wise leaders to go beyond the knowledge-based maintenance paradigm towards enterprises that can multiply resources rather than simply conserve them?

How do the best managers and leaders make decisions? Sure, they need quality information and a solid knowledge resource. They need to use reason in making fact-based decisions. But is there anything more? We think so. We think that making wise judgments is the difference in consistently successful decision-making. But we’re not sure, so we’re going to ask a range of senior business executives to tell us about the keys to successful decision-making and whether wisdom plays a part and whether it can be defined and nurtured.

The kinds of questions we'll be asking are:
* What are the ingredients of wisdom? How does it differ from knowledge?
* How can wisdom be nurtured in you and your organisation?
* Where do you see wisdom in the world today?
* Where have you seen wisdom in the past?
* What do you think is the source of wisdom, how can you get more of it?
* What inhibits wisdom in you and your organisation?

We'll let you know how we get on.