As the temperature drops, the land starts to bed in for winter and days shorten, conference season in the purpose space kicks off in force!
As a very vocal ‘business hippie’ who loves to mark the passing of the seasons in our day-to-day operations- and a parent who has just ‘survived’ the summer holidays – it always comes as a shock to me that this energetic time of year falls now when, I’m not going to lie, I often feel exhausted. But then, year in, year out I am surprised by how much I actually need this time out with like minded people and businesses to rejuvenate, to stoke the passion and to come back to the team brimming with ideas and actions. So, from September, here are my takeaways from attending B Corp’s Louder Than Words and GoodFest, for which I am incredibly grateful. I hope they bring some positive warming vibes of sunshine to your autumn days.
The Power of Dreaming
GoodFest’s theme for 2024 was ‘Dream Big, Act Now’ which was at the forefront of all discussions. I was fortunate enough to attend a brilliant workshop with Carlos and Laurence from The Happy Startup School – check them out if you’ve not already heard of them! – who raised the topic of ‘Effortless Impact – do good, be happy’. That’s the dream, right? A lot of themes and learnings came out from this one session for me, but one of the most important learnings was to acknowledge the power of dreaming and the ideas that come out as a result of taking the opportunity to dream. Think about it – when was the last time you sat down and asked yourself things like, ‘What would you bring to life if anything was possible?’, ‘What would you love to master that excites your soul?’.
This power of dreaming really struck a note for not only me, but also for the whole event for it is indeed the dreamers and the creatives who will provide the solutions to the challenges we face.
In a particularly powerful session, Kalpana Arias, climate activist; ecosomatics educator and founder of Nowadays On Earth, referenced the brilliant Saidiya Hartman reminding us that ‘One of the powers of oppression is policing the imaginations’ and that it is indeed a privilege to be able to dream. And that dreaming cannot be in isolation and, as I will come to later, collaboration is as vital in future developments as it is for dreaming – on your own you are one crazy guy dancing, as Matt Hocking would share, but together we are a rave. Share those ideas and dreams, they might not go anywhere, but they might grow and in the case of our founders; 17 years later a 40 year old woman might be sitting at her desk writing a blog post about the power of dreaming and reflecting on how grateful she is that they followed their dream which allows her to follow her own to forge a career she is passionate about.
As Kalpana shared, ‘Don’t ask what someone needs. Ask what they dream of. What they love.’
Imperfection
This was my key takeaway from Louder Than Words. That striving for perfection in all we do is the enemy to progress. That isn’t to say that we can do the bare minimum and it’s ok, because we will build on it – music to our clients’ ears I am sure – but that if we want flawless solutions to everything we will never progress. The wider context for this was focusing mainly on impact reporting and sustainability goals and the rise of greenhushing in the wake of some very public greenwashing cases.
When it comes to our own sustainability and purpose led journeys, open dialogue and sharing imperfect progress is key to drive progress, because any progress is progress. Although transparency comes with risk, being more humble and acknowledging that this is new ground we are all treading will never be thought of negatively and will lift us all. Which leads seamlessly to my final takeaway.
Collaboration
We are lucky to work with fantastic partner agencies outside of the brilliant Wholegrain team, and in turn are part of collaborative networks within our communities – Clean Creatives, Business Declares, Better Business Network. It is through these networks of like minded people that we all learn and thrive, but it’s also pushing that collaboration forwards, beyond those that already know about us, to a wider, more diverse, audience to continue to learn, adapt and evolve – just like the very best networks in nature.
Ultimately, we can’t do this on our own or in isolation. Remember, together we are a rave. Together we are impactful. Together our small, single voice becomes a shout. As John Brown put it at GoodFest, when raising the ceiling we need to ensure that we are mindfully raising the floor too so we all start to rise.
So, there you have it. Just a quick summary of the key themes that stuck with me after the last few events and which have been buzzing around my head as I crunch through the leaves on lunchtime dog walks (avoiding the showers) and that I’ve already been bringing to the team. We’re off to Blue Earth Summit next week, which I am really hyped for as it’s always a font of incredible thinking and ideas, so we will be sure to share more. If you are heading over please do let us know and it would be great to catch up.