Most people in the UK believe that key institutions in society – arts and culture, schools and universities, the media, government and business – encourage us to be selfish rather than compassionate. Just think, for example, about the pervasive cult of personal achievement, where prevailing over others, rather than helping them, is so often the mark of success in our society.
We have seen a hint of the change we need in some responses to the pandemic, where protecting and celebrating the NHS, a caring institution, has been a major theme. Likewise, the rationale for taking personal action to reduce transmission has been protecting the vulnerable rather than oneself. Of course there have alway been many powerful stories of concern and caring in our culture, but they are overwhelmed by a dominant narrative of ‘look after number one - because you’re worth it’.
Much of the sustainability agenda focuses on organisations’ direct impacts on people and planet, especially their carbon footprint. As we learn how values influence attitudes and behaviour, it becomes clear that organisations’ effects on people’s values – an organisation’s ‘heartprint’ perhaps – have extraordinary potential to catalyse the political and social transformation we so urgently need.
As more and more people realise most others are actually concerned and caring, we will reach a social tipping point where the dominant narrative flips to celebrate and reinforce the best, rather than the worst, in human nature. A narrative that everyone matters, that collaborating and sharing to look after each other and the living world, is not just desirable but simply normal. Where the emphasis is not ‘me’ but ‘we’.
Leaders of every organisation can be part of making this happen by nuturing its heartprint. Every business, every government agency, every charity, every school, college and university, in fact every organisation, can not just talk up compassionate values, but more importantly weave them into every policy, procedure and communication, so leaders, managers and staff bring concern, care and collaboration to every aspect of their work.
These changes will cascade through the organisations and into wider society:
- Working in, and with, compassionate organisations will enhance the lives of staff, clients and stakeholders.
- As everyone touched by the organisation experiences the truth that others are concerned and caring, their natural predisposition to act for social and environmental good will be unleashed.
- And their actions will open the eyes and hearts of others, who in turn… and so on.
Many organisations are already working along these lines, some as a deliberate policy, others almost incidentally as they adopt purpose-led approaches, such as members of the B-Corp movement. Organisations that communicate and engage with large numbers of people (e.g. in education, arts and culture, media and advertising) have an extraordinary potential because of the size of their heartprint.
Is it stretching the metaphor of the heartprint too far to imagine compassionate values flowing through society, bringing it back to a more balanced and healthy life, like a clean water allowing a land ravaged by drought to flourish?
Information, inspiration and support
Common Cause Foundation works with values to create an equitable, sustainable and democratic society. Their research Perceptions Matter: The Common Cause UK Values Survey is the source for the evidence that most people are compassionate, and that the think others are selfish. They have worked with Manchester Museums to develop practical and interesting ways of showing ‘compassionate’ values in action; more details and links to their guide for cultural organisations here.
Several of us at Natural Change and Realise Earth have collaborated closely with Common Cause over the years. Values are a thread running through all our work, including an action learning programme recognised by UNESCO for its contribution to learning for sustainability. Contact us at Realise Earth if you’d like to explore how we could help you bring compassionate values to life in your organisation.
A slight tangent, but another aspect of how values work is that fear without an opportunity to take action tends to make us less compassionate. Given the prevalence of stories in the media about war, death, economic and environmental disaster, etc, it’s little wonder so many people feel powerless and disengage. However, when a fearful situation is combined with potential solutions the result is hope – along with evidence that despite bad things happening many people are working to improve the situation. The Solutions Journalism Network “trains and connects journalists to cover what’s missing in today’s news: how people are responding to problems”. It seems they have no members in the UK. Time to change that?
If you know of work in different sectors that puts compassionate values into practice, do let us know so we can help spread the word.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Osbert is a facilitator of sustainability-related events and a consultant on green behaviour change. He draws on 20 years of working with inspiring thinkers and innovators in government agencies, community groups, businesses, universities and NGOs. Osbert has been an Honorary Fellow at the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh and a member of the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund and WWF Scotland’s advisory council.