'Bonus vs Pro Bono' - responses to presentations

• There is evidence that people want to open up to the spiritual in business and community life but don't know how to. The evidence suggests they are interested in spirituality rather than institutionalised religion.
• Religion and spirituality have been sidelined by secularism. A change of mindset is needed to overcome the common reaction of drawing back when religion or spirituality are raised.
• We need to find the place to outsource leadership with spirituality and to get leaders thinking spiritually. Obama is an example of a leader with a depth of spirituality.
• One issue to overcome is that of inadvertently causing offence. Potential for conflict exists because people don't know how to react to, for example, Muslim or Jewish women.
• Faith groups can assist in community empowerment by providing ways in to communities. Faith groups define identity for some and help their members grow into leadership. We also need to consider how people with no religious faith view spirituality. Sacred spaces in, for example, hospitals need to be places which are open to those with no religious faith.
• We have a responsibility of stewardship towards the planet and its peoples. Our legacy can be one of countering a system which depresses people's expectations in order to raise and exceed expectations.
• The first Muslim was a woman. Mohammad (pbuh) worked for a woman. Half of the first delegation of Muslims were women. 
• We are often too cautious through fear of giving offence. Muslims, for example, are not offended by Christians wearing crucifixes.
• Spirituality outside of organised religion is the common ground which creates space for dialogue and which has been the starting point for us in our discussions.
• Spirituality equals meaning. I have been influenced by David Bohm who identified ways in which we  misperceive time and space in everyday life. These are the two geometrics that I seek to draw in my wave drawings.
• Religion and spirituality are different poles or spectrums of the same concept and are not often valued. Talk about spirituality often alludes to a sense of difference.
• Spirituality can be a driver for better, more meaningful work. What helps people cope in business is often their value systems.
• For me, Bonus vs Pro Bono means personal benefit vs public good. The faiths commonly value giving to the wider community. St Martin-in-the-Fields is a church which runs a business with the profits funding its work with homeless people. There remain tensions around the way in which these go together.
• The mid-term elections have seen a person of faith (Obama) being slammed for not having sorted out the economy. Baroness Uddin has been criticised as a result of the Standards and Privileges Committee findings. Peter raised the issue of tolerance of imperfection. What happens when the inspiration provided by spiritual leaders is called into question?
• Faith traditions are often perceived as having disempowered women. What can women bring to such traditions?
• The Apprentice may define a part of the issue we are discussing in that it is a competition with one winner which operates on the basis of team exercises. There is an inherent tension in the programme between personal gain and collaborative working which may be symptomatic of the business world.
• Concepts of partnership can be found both in Islam and in the Co-operative movement. Shared equity is not a zero sum game. Such models work but we have moved away from them in our economy.
• A business contribution that benefits the community/wider society may be an attractive concept in the current environment.
• Success could be understood in terms of legacy - taking people with us through empowerment - but this is not valued within society, although this may be beginning to change. 
• Those who opted to work in the public sector wouldn't have gone into it in order to cut it. A big political tension currently is the Big Society in relation to the recession.
• The thought that 'bigger is better' has been a part of all our lives and we need to see a new way of sharing resources.
• We don't see spirituality as a resource, instead we see it as a stance. We need to understand spirituality as a resource for seeing higher purpose and for seeing our fellow human beings in a better way.
• Inspirational CEOs are cutting their own salaries.
• Buildings are intractable things to cut.
• Jesus told the parables of the lost sheep and lost coin. Of leaving 99 sheep in order to go after the lost one. However, this was done for the sake of the 100. The 99 were not whole if the one was not with them. The story speaks about the connectedness of us all. We need to think more collaboratively so that no one falls over the edge. Risky efforts have to be made to stop the one from going over the edge; a judgement has to be made about care for the 99 or for the one.
• The House of Lords was founded on feudalism. The history of the UK is built on inequity. There is a question to be asked about whether 'the great and the good' cover up or institutionalise inequity.
• Huge cuts are coming in health and social services. It wasn't hunky dory before the cuts and a debate is needed about how to share.
• I can't be happy if you are unhappy or I can't be safe if you are unhappy, which may be closer to Amartya Sen's phrase. The well being of the least for the well being of all. 
• The dead space and human capital freed up by cuts could be used as an incubator for micro or social enterprises.
• Spiritual leaders are the opposite of short-termism, yet leaders in the NHS are often only there for 18 months or so. Faith groups bring the long perspective and a wider awareness of time.
• It is difficult to stay with this territory. Act local, think global. Act in some way for the common good - credit unions, community gardens etc.
• Empirical evidence (a business case) exists for the benefits of workplace spirituality. Once enough pieces have been fitted into the puzzle a paradigm shift will be seen.
• How leaders handle cuts is an expression of spirituality; how they explain cuts, how they engage others with cuts instead of simply imposing cuts.
• Big bonuses for big bosses don't speak in that way.
• The celebration of community groups coming together is needed. Co-production is needed; the public sector and community groups together.  
• Mozambican artists have made powerful sculptures from weapons. We need symbolic representations of our issues.
• These ideas could be shared with Guilds and Livery Companies. These began for the benefit of ordinary traders but have in some senses become the reverse of their original purpose. 
• The City has a centre for interfaith relations in the St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace and a centre for spirituality in the London Centre for Spirituality. There is also the City Circle within the Muslim community. This may leave scope for a Centre for business ethics and spirituality which could also have an artistic dimension exhibition art, architecture and artefacts and creating visual representations of ethics and economics. This idea may be of interest to the Prince of Wales or could be linked to the space on the Olympic Park that had been proposed as a Mosque site.            

Profit vs Prophet: making money or making a difference?

Profit vs Prophet: making money & making a difference, are they opposed?, which is the first seminar in the Renegotiating 'value' series, includes a group of speakers able to provide a varied and stimulating set of responses to the above question:
  
Jay Lakhani is a Hindu Educationalist promoting Hindu education in schools, colleges and universities in the UK. He runs the Vivekananda Centre London and is Education Director of the Hindu Council UK. He is also trained scientist (theoretical physics) and believes science and religion meet at the level of the infinitely small. He believes that the Hindu idea of spiritual humanism manages to reconcile differences between religious and secular world-views and argues that religious pluralism offers the best prescription for making religions once again the cohesive force in our society.

Abigail Morris is Director of ResponseAbility, a new cross communal organisation which provides a contemporary Jewish commentary on cutting edge issues. ResponseAbility, which is in its first year, is seeking to bridging the two worlds of the Jewish and the secular, speaking to both and enabling the two worlds to meet and speak to each other. Prior to her current role, Abigail was artistic director at the Soho Theatre where she was the moving force behind the move in 2000 from the Cockpit Theatre into the former synagogue which is now its home. 

Mannie Sher works as an organisation development and change consultant in health and social care, industry, the financial sector, public protection agencies, faith organisations, the arts, charities, voluntary organisations and professional associations. He concentrates on redefining organisational aims, introducing new operational strategies, addressing staff morale, fostering inter-dependent systems of work and understanding the role of technology. His consultancy projects undertaken through the Tavistock Institute include conducting a major 2-year Transformational Programme of a foreign national bank penetrating banking systems throughout the country to improve cross-business collaboration capability; increase market share and share value (up 40% in 9 months).

You can register for this seminar, which is taking place on Thursday 7th October, 4.00pm - 6.30pm, at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation & Peace, online at http://stethelburgas.org/civicrm/event/info?id=216&reset=1 or by phoning 020 7496 1610. It is also possible to register on the door or the day but advance registration will help in our planning.

Shared faiths response to the credit crunch

The shared faiths response to the credit crunch included in this post originated in the ‘Ethics in a global economy’ seminar held at St Ethelberga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace and organised by Faiths in London's Economy (FiLE) in October 2008. A call for a shared faiths perspective on the credit crunch to be developed emerged clearly from the seminar and FiLE undertook to try to facilitate that process.

Two meetings to discuss a shared faiths response were held and two draft documents circulated to a group of interested people for comment. The overall process has included people from the Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain and Jewish traditions in addition to representatives of faith-based and inter-faith organisations. One organisation making specific contributions to the document was Green Equity.

The paper was published by FiLE in March 2009. The document was picked up by the Faith Engagement Team in the Department for Communities and Local Government and posted on the G20 London Summit site as part of the Faith Debate section. The full text of the ‘Shared Faiths response’ was published in Volume 12.3 of the ‘Faith in Business Quarterly’, was used by the East of England Faiths Conference as a discussion document for the Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP, then Financial Secretary to the Treasury, to respond to in an open session of their meeting, and  featured in a multi-faith conference in Basildon during November 2009.

Producing a common statement from a diverse group of people was a considerable challenge and FiLE undertook this project as an experiment to see to what extent there were shared statements that could be made by different faiths on these issues. We found much common ground and the ability to understand similar concepts expressed in differing phrases. The use that has been made to date of our document indicates the wider value of such shared approaches.

Shared faiths response to the credit crunch

1. Wealth means more than money

‘Wealth’ is all that human beings receive from others and from the world in which we live. So, shelter, clothing, our abilities, social institutions, our cultures, the Arts, our relationships, the environment are all ‘wealth.’ In most faith traditions, these are seen as divine gifts.

The creativity of human beings means that we develop means by which we utilise and distribute wealth. Money is one such means of wealth utilization and distribution, among many others (such as education or manufacturing), and becomes problematic when pursued in isolation from other means of utilization and distribution. One factor in the current crisis is that money has been treated as wealth and the value of money separated from any tangible reality. Derivative trading is, for example, trading not just in intangibles but in the reflection of intangibles and then reckoning wealth in those terms.

One small example of the broader understanding of wealth that we advocate is that surveys of Londoner’s levels of happiness consistently show that a characteristic of boroughs where Londoners experience the highest levels of happiness are those with an inbuilt lung of creation in the form of the river and parks. Epping Forest has traditionally operated in this way for Eastenders while we also note that those who are financially rich tend to spend their money on art and culture. It may be that, as a result, we should measure Gross National Happiness like Bhutan; a country where this measure signals an attempt to build an economy based on spiritual (in this case, Buddhist) values.

2. The value of work

Work is valued in most faith traditions with human beings viewed as representatives of the divine on earth, in some traditions this extends to human beings being seen as co-creators with the divine. The work ethic is seen as a noble endeavour in many faith traditions e.g. the Muslim Sufi tradition divides the day equally into work, worship and rest.

Hard work and creativity are valuable but are they always appropriately directed? We need to differentiate between the value of the work ethic and appropriate kinds of work. Not all work is appropriate or ethical therefore the value of the work ethic and of human creativity can be dissipated in work that is inappropriate or unethical.

Practices such as profiting from the process of charging and paying interest and lending what you don’t have which have been exposed by the credit crunch would seem to fall into this latter category. We should value productive work but are often divorced from the fruits of our labours.

We all tend to assume that paid employment is the natural means for gaining wealth but, as people of faith, we consider that this assumption disconnects us from divine or natural generosity. Society needs work done and a financial incentive is one way to get it done, but that doesn’t mean that work should be the only or main source of the wealth that we need. The credit crunch may provide an opportunity to consider alternative options, such as a Citizen’s Income.

3. Concerns about credit

The Hebrew Scriptures forbid charging interest to a fellow Jew while the Qur’an forbids charging interest to or receiving interest from others, instead encouraging trade and trade-type financing arrangements including equity based finance. Instead of credit-based banking systems, we commend trade-type banking and the approach of mutual building societies and credit unions. We need banks for current and savings accounts and for business loans (non-debt based using the profit and loss sharing system of equity financing), we need building societies (preferably mutual ones), and we need insurance (a legitimate pooling of risks); but the remainder, we consider are not required and should gradually be removed from the market in an equitable fashion.

4. Structures of greed

Western economies have been inflated through greed, with their economic make-up being based on self-centred acquisition. Economic and political systems tend to be based on immediate profitability not long-term benefits. As a result, much of what we do makes no logical sense. Why, for example, do we sacrifice quality time by working hard in order to have quality time while on holiday or why do we drive to a gym in order to get on a walking machine?

Concerns regarding our economic systems are also to do with transparency. Many faiths reflect on transparency and hiddenness (often in terms of the imagery of light and dark) suggesting that where actions can be hidden, injustice and wrongdoing often occur. Much of what has brought about the credit crunch has been hidden from view and from scrutiny. Transactions have been divorced from human interaction and have therefore been unregulated. Banking practices have taken place ‘in the dark’ hidden by technicalities. In the light of public scrutiny these practices have been found wanting. This is not about scapegoating but about the need for transparent practices.

5. The god of growth

Western economies have been predicated on unlimited growth and this has caused harm to the environment. Developing countries are using the same model. Many natural, God given resources are running out because we have exploited that which we have been given instead of stewarding and sharing them. The argument about whether oil and gas supplies have peaked or not remains unresolved but we are certainly running out. The failure of those two resources would impact on every aspect of our lives and would produce far greater misery that the 'credit crunch', as will climate change. We can’t ignore these wider issues most especially that of climate change. Sustainability and balance are therefore more desirable than growth.

6. Loss of relationships

There is a breakdown in the relational aspects of the economy. Exchanges are occurring in virtual space, trust is being lost and we need to return to our roots in relationships. Practices such as profiting from the process of charging and paying interest and lending what you don’t have, have led to banks no longer trusting each other and no longer lending to one another. In the past, there was a degree of trust in the markets summed up in the phrase ‘my word in my bond.’ It is important to work together in cooperation. There are also social consequences in terms of social cohesion arising from the credit crunch.

7. Support for emerging and developing economies

We should look for methods of ameliorating the financial/environmental misery that continues and develops around the world. Emerging and developing countries are using the same model of economic growth as the West despite the harm that it has caused to the environment. Economies throughout the world need rebalancing in the direction of wealth creation: education; the care of the vulnerable; manufacturing, creative and cultural industries; renewable energy; and agriculture.

8. Time for reflection and restructuring

There can be a sense of hope in this crisis; the credit crunch can be seen a watershed opportunity and not a catastrophe. A year ago people weren’t having the kind of conversations we are having today; that, in itself, is a positive change. Perception is vital in what is understood as being economically viable. 

Some faiths, but by no means all, understand periods of suffering as part of a developmental process. We need to reflect on our experience of suffering and look for causes (i.e. underlying economic fundamentals). There may be natural causes but these may also have personal implications to which we will need to respond. Reflection and action go together. For example, a recent survey found that 25% of respondents are praying or meditating more as a result of the credit crunch.

Not all faith communities think that suffering is ennobling and there can be a polarization around concrete political change versus inner personal change. Both are needed in dialogue, both are on the same spectrum of responses.

We need to reflect on the values that we share. The economy has spiralled a long way from real valuations. We need to link personal, moral and spiritual values with economic values.

It may be that we are at a point in time (like that at the end of the Second World War which led to the development of the UN and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) which will produce new structures for society. For example, the free market has been shown to be unable to provide its own banks without these being propped up by Government funds. We may be in a moment in time when recession, the credit crunch and the ecological crisis are combining to bring about profound shifts in the global economy. A ‘third way’ or ‘middle path’ is needed between nationalisation and capitalism based on agreed standards of ethics, environmental and social responsibility and a broad understanding of wealth and value.

If we are looking at a restructuring of the global economy, then we could see the economy rebuilt in terms of a broader understanding of wealth with new kinds of jobs (i.e. renewable energies, creative industries, and community empowerment) forming its foundation. Such a restructuring could also provide space for addressing the ecological crisis. Ecology cannot be divorced from economics. For example, the ecological costs of extraction and replacement of the world’s natural resources has in the past been excluded from company accounts but its inclusion would provide a very different picture of the effects of the global economy on the environment.

Companies need to identify and report to a wider range of stakeholders than shareholders alone and a strong business case needs developing for ethical and responsible business practices. All too often companies have associated ethics with bureaucracy, and greed has then led to the use of dubious and fraudulent practices. The extent to which a lack of transparency and fraud has contributed to the credit crunch and to the recession demonstrates the urgent need to form a strong business case and agreed impact assessment matrix for transparent and ethical business practices. We all need to acknowledge our complicity in what have occurred and to redress the extent to which greed has motivated our personal values and practices.

9. Constituencies for action

People of faith form a huge constituency and can motivate people to action. People of faith are also part of rooted communities (e.g. local authority areas) which in some instances are beginning to plan for greater economic resilience. People of faith need to be party to these debates and summits. We have allowed those in power to use the argument that faith is essentially private and not public. The consequence has been that our views are marginalised. This paper is one small means of reclaiming that public dimension for our faiths.

There is no quick fix but, together, we have a vast constituency, one large enough to start sowing seeds of change. We should look for methods of ameliorating the financial/environmental misery that continues and develops, around the world. A proactive assertion is needed from faith communities to argue for non-interest bearing transactions, mutual societies rather than shareholders (although many faiths do not have an issue with shareholders per se but with the view that a business is primarily accountable to its shareholders), and recognition of the role that artists and communities play in generating real wealth. All faiths offer ways of being that are conducive to human flourishing.

10. London, a melting-pot for change?

London has developed as the ultimate world city - in part because of the widespread use of the English language and our location between the New York, Middle East and Far East stock markets, especially Hong Kong and Tokyo – and this is something to be valued and celebrated. London’s position has been as the financial capital of the world. Market forces and financial institutions are at the heart of London’s economy and it is the market that is London which has given the city its social, ethnic and faith diversity. How will this change as a result of economic restructuring? Will London adapt and will it maintain its inclusivity as it does so?

Our hope is that London will adapt and change to a restructuring of the global economy that is focussed on a broader understanding of wealth than money gain and economic growth alone and do so in a way that maintains and develops it’s social, ethnic and faith diversity.

Renegotiating value in association with ...

Renegotiating ‘value’ is a seminar series organised by Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) in association with: Ethos HumanCapital; Faith Regen Foundation; The Grubb Institute; Mission in London’s Economy; St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace.


FiLE is a network-based organisation working with faith communities in order to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London's economy. FiLE's initial seminar, Ethics in a global economy, led to the creation of a Shared faiths response to the credit crunch. This paper was included on the faiths discussion page of the London G20 website. FiLE also provides on its webpage information on faith-based business organisations and resources through an alphabetical listing of organisations and a thematic listing of resources.

Ethos HumanCapital is Europe's first ethical holistic human capital solutions provider. Their knowledge, practical experience and deep networks in the Finance, Responsible Business, Media, Green & Charity spaces allow them to provide our clients and candidates with practical solutions to their recruitment needs.

Faith Regen Foundation is a unique national charity which works in the Employment sector to secure sustainable jobs for the most disadvantaged individuals such as BAME, women and those with disabilities. FRF works with the full knowledge that these individuals have many barriers and issues which have to be overcome before they even reach the stage of entering the labour market. However, they care and believe in the clients that walk through their doors; and that everyone’s journey is different and special. FRF simply wish to provide a safe and secure place where an individual is inspired to unleash their potential. They are a Muslim inspired multi faith organisation with a strong track record of achieving targets and outcomes to ensure positive change since their inception in late 2001.

The Grubb Institute is an applied research foundation working globally to enable leaders, managers and others to achieve personal and organisational purpose, using their values, passions, faiths and beliefs as resources to be more effective in their responses to the constantly changing geopolitical context, locally, nationally and internationally, transforming their organisations and institutions. As leaders and managers in a range of organisations we are likely to be filled with a range of conflicting thoughts and feelings, fears and anxieties as well as optimism and hope. The Grubb Institute sees 2010 as presenting enormous opportunities for transformation, development and growth for leaders and their organisations when able to work with the emergent realties in this chaotic context, resisting repetition of previously unsuccessful strategies and through a spirit of inquiry bringing forth creativity, innovation and wellbeing.

Mission in London's Economy which is a London wide ecumenical Christian organisation set up in 2005 which has set itself the following objectives: to co-ordinate the churches' interventions in discussion of London's economy; to respond on behalf of the churches to consultation exercises on London's economy; to recruit, train, support, insure and supervise workplace chaplains; to support Christians working in the institutions of London's economy; to educate churches in the issues facing London's economy so that they might be able to respond appropriately; and to work with other faith communities in order to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London's economy.

St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace has arisen from the ruins of St Ethelburga's Church, after its destruction by an IRA bomb in 1993. Now 10,000 people a year from all over the world meet there to share stories, skills and insights about how we can build relationships across divisions of conflict, culture and religion. St Ethelburga's welcome people of all faiths and none as partners in the work of helping people come to terms with difference and building peace. The Centre is a Christian-led, independent charity which owns the freehold of the site, managed by a Board of Trustees, chaired by the Bishop of London. It aims "to encourage and enable people to practise reconciliation and peace-making in their communities and lives". The Centre itself is independent of the Church of England.

Renegotiating 'value': what faiths offer 21st century business leadership

Renegotiating 'value': what faiths offer 21st century business leadership is a seminar series which seeks to explore the benefit and challenge of faith traditions in leading sustainable businesses through three seminars:

• Profit vs Prophet exploring whether making money or making a difference are opposed. Speakers: Jay Lakhani (Hindu Council UK), Abigail Morris (ResponseAbility), Mannie Sher (Tavistock Institute). Thursday 7th October, 4.00 – 6.30pm, St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG;
• Bonus vs Pro Bono exploring the place of inspirational leadership in renegotiating 'value'. Speakers: Peter Hyson (Change Perspectives), Bruce Irvine (Grubb Institute), Baronness Uddin. Thursday 4th November, 4.00 – 6.30pm, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ; and
• Stakeholder vs shareholder value exploring who it is that businesses are/should be accountable to and the difference this makes to their structure and operation. Speakers: tbc. Date: tbc. Venue: tbc.

Cost: £5.00 per seminar. For seminar 1 registration is online here or by phoning 020 7496 1610. For seminars 2 & 3 phone 020 8599 2170 or email jonathan.evens@btinternet.com. Further publicity will be added once the details of seminar 3 are finalised.

Renegotiating ‘value’: a seminar series organised by Faiths in London’s Economy (FiLE) in association with: Ethos HumanCapital; Faith Regen Foundation; The Grubb Institute; Mission in London’s Economy; St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation & Peace.

FiLE works with faith communities in order to create coordinated faith-community responses to the issues facing London's economy.