Changing the values of humanity

Doing some work on values? How about doing it for the human race?

When I ask people what really matters to them, they usually say family, friends, health, love, happiness. But when you look at how our society and cultures are set up and function, that’s not what it seems to be about.

We have ended up in a place where most people in decision making positions and positions of influence seem to perceive ‘success’ as wealth, power and status. And what counts as ‘status’ is the big job title, the big house, the expensive car. Regardless of the consequences.

And where has that led us? 

A wildly inequitable and unjust world where fortunes and opportunity are enormously dependent on the place you happen to be born, the colour of your skin, your ethnicity, your gender, your sexuality, your body.

698 million people are living in extreme poverty. 2.37 billion people did not have access to enough safe or nutritious food last year. 82.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes. 50% of the world’s refugees are children, and nearly 200 million children are living in the world’s most lethal war zones. The climate crisis is causing temperatures, droughts, severe weather, rising sea levels.

And that was before Russia invade the Ukraine.

These things are all a result of human behaviour. There is plenty of money and resource in the world to go round – it’s just it doesn’t go round.

The irony that Steve Jobs – one of the wealthiest and arguable most ‘successful’ people on the planet - before his sad untimely death said that he realised life wasn’t about money after all. We need to start realising this before we’re on our death beds, whilst we are still in a position to do something about it.  

One of the biggest barriers is that the people in positions of wealth, power and influence – who have the most opportunity to make a positive difference - have to accept that their lives need to change. That perhaps it isn’t fair or right that they have so much when others have so little.  To accept that them getting where they have is at least in part due to privilege and inequality rather than only personal merit and effort.

So many organisations work hard to change and evolve their values, and to be purpose led. To guide behaviour and have consistency in how everyone treats each other, how they operate, how they make decisions. To have a common understanding of what success means for that organisation. But it seems to mostly translate into impact internally. Those values need to translate directly and clearly into external impact as well. And it seems to me we need to do this exercise for the human race too.

I fully embrace that human nature is to strive for better, to achieve, to innovate, to go faster, higher, further. And that is wonderful. As a result of this ambition and competitive nature the human race has eradicated diseases, travelled to the moon, created technology (for better and worse), created music and art that bring joy, inspiration and happiness. I competed for Great Britain as a white-water slalom canoeist – believe me, I fully embrace the competitive spirit. For me the question is not about striving for better. I think that’s probably hard-wired into human nature as part of evolution - wanting to fulfil our potential is a brilliant thing. It’s about what are we doing that in service of. The human race would thrive if it was in service of community, humanity, the collective good. Not personal gain.

Imagine if what gained us ‘status’ and therefore what CEOs and Politicians showed off about to their friends, was how they’d created an opportunity for someone else, how inclusive they had been, what they had given up for others, how they had contributed to their community, or how they had changed an approach because of someone else’s completely different perspective.

Imagine if the values of humanity instead of wealth, power and influence, were kindness, compassion and empathy. Imagine if ambition, achievement and innovation was about prosperity for all humans. Imagine a world where every single person believed that the only thing that really mattered was achieving equity and inclusion – a world where every single human had safety and opportunity. Every single human felt valued and loved, was protected from harm and had the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

We may not be able to initiate a values review for the human race. It does admittedly have some complications. But we can all be the change we want to see, and role-model kindness, compassion and empathy in our life and work. We can strive to fulfil our potential, and be purposeful, values-led leaders, in service of humanity.