Our current way of doing business is completely transactional. Meaning the way we interact is everyone doing things with an expectation of what they’ll get in return. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours, or ‘what’s in it for me?’
“Yes”, you say, “this is normal, and the problem is?”
Transactional is not a problem, in and of itself. Getting stuck there, as if it is the only way, or even the best way (idealizing it) is when we get into trouble. Here’s an example of where a transactional society leads.
A friend of mine recently moved to another country and hired a top tier, couture moving company to handle all the confusing ins-and-outs of an international move. The company was contracted to pack and label everything, load the truck, handle all the custom forms, drive everything to the new home, unload and unpack. My friend paid top dollar.
The company directly hired the packers, who did a fairly good job. For some reason, they subcontracted to the driver the rest of the hiring. So the driver was in charge of hiring the loading, unloading and unpacking crews. The driver is already once removed from the company (a subcontractor, not an employee) and is looking out for himself (what’s in this for me). He was paid to hire crews to do three days of work on each end, loading and unloading, plus hire people to unpack.
He’s figured out that if he hires the cheapest crews and pushes them to do the work in less time, he pockets the difference. In my friend’s case, he tried to get both ends done in one day each (instead of three) and threatened to not pay the crews if they took any longer. In both instances, the crews he hired wanted overtime to do it in one day, but hustled and did the work in two days instead of three. No one came to unpack anything.
The result? In my friend’s words, ‘a goat rodeo’. Mislabeled boxes, items that were going to his apartment ended up in storage and items that were supposed to go to storage are in his apartment. Things that were not supposed to be moved at all were packed onto the truck. He and his wife had to redo all the customs forms. And nothing was unpacked.
The two of them have months of work in front of them instead of being able to get to work in a few days – all because the norm of business is transactional, based in ‘what’s in it for me?’.
“Yes,” you say, “but that’s an extreme.”
Status Quo
Transactional interactions train us to focus on the immediate and exclude the broader, or longer term picture. Over time, this exacerbates and ‘extremes’ become the norm. This is a high end moving company, a place that caters to every whim.
And yet, their culture is such that the driver is only thinking about getting more for each load – cha ching – not that he’s killing his own reputation, losing the company referrals, that he might not get hired again, that the customer got screwed, that he shorted the crews, or any of the longer term consequences.
Why should he worry about any of it? It’s likely what he sees at the company that hired him. It’s certainly what he sees when he looks around, this is the way that business does business, this is the way we live our lives.
- We willingly destroy ecosystems that we ourselves need to survive (like spending trillions to exterminate the very insects that pollinate our food crops, break down our waste, control pest species and provide a critical layer of nutrition for animals we eat)
- We promote toxic bad apples, (people and businesses) who poison the whole environment simply for their ability to produce quick results — an unfortunate truth that erodes trust and creates further separation
- We train our children and employees not to think for themselves, to avoid deviating from the norm because they might not get their expected reward or, worse, might be penalized
This approach – based on goals, rewards, exchanges and negative consequences – leads to the very actions that my friend experienced. Collectively, we begin to lose the very things that make us human.
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- values and integrity
- questioning, creativity and exploration
- meaningful connection
- long-term relationships and alliances
- cooperation and collaboration
- community
We get caught in a devolving cycle, we become more mechanical and separate, which allows us to disassociate, which leads to less connection and more ‘me’ over ‘we’, and on and on. We are less and less connected and fulfilled, even if we’re “winning” the game. Maybe especially if we’re winning at this particular game.
As I said, there is good news. We are actually at the precipice of a whole new way of being. We’ve hit an inflection point and we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. The caveat – each of us has to consciously choose to step into a different way.
Taking Your Business to the Next Level
I recently heard someone say that times of chaos are also the times with the most potential for change. That not only made sense to me, it gave me a deeper sense of purpose -and hope- than I’ve had for quite awhile.
In times of peace and prosperity, not much changes, because there’s no need. In times of unrest, radical polarization and chaos, everything is on the table. It’s messy AND it’s pure potential.
Most importantly – we chose to be a part of this. I believe that choice was very intentional and that each of us holds a piece of the remedy for something that currently ails us on the planet. We are what will move us from being transactional to transformational.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
~Barack Obama
That is what motivates our entire team at the Soulful Leader. It’s what gets us out of bed.
So where do we start? What’s the process?
First and foremost, start looking at your own life, leadership and business and see where you could move it away from being transactional. Here’s a cheat sheet –
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- Identify a few places where you/your business defaults to transactional thinking (look for black and white/either or statements, for ‘ends justifies the means’ rationals, for places you knowingly look the other way, etc.)
- Start small and make a couple of changes. Tell the people around you what you are doing and ask for help, both in identifying problem areas and in finding news, more empowering ways of doing things.
- Check back and keep tweaking. This is not a one-and-done, or everything all at once change, it’s a process of awareness – and the results are nothing short of amazing.
A great example of someone who did this is Satya Nadalla, the CEO of Microsoft. He completely changed the culture at Microsoft one step at a time. Eventually, he eliminated the long held, transactional systems that were in place to hire, evaluate and fire employees. In its place, he created a comfortable environment where employees feel safe to share their ideas and concerns. He took a ‘what’s in it for me, have to know it all, throw your co-worker under the bus, immediate results’ business to an ‘employee first, growth mindset, learn everything, invest in the future’ environment.
Another person that may give you some ideas is Mark Silver. We interviewed him in podcast 176 “The Remedy for Toxic Business”.
In it he shares how businesses can shift from toxic transactional ways of thinking and acting, to having healthy, heart centered businesses that thrive.
The great thing is that there is no ‘single way’ to make this transition. Each of us has a part to play and brings something unique to the table. As you explore your own life and business, please let us know what you discover. Visit our Facebook or LinkedIn groups, or email us at support@TSLP.life.