Iyas A

I’ve been privileged the last couple of days to go with some of my clients to 2 talks about recently launched books.

First, Nir Eyal’s “Indistractable”, which lays the case and an approach to from from distraction to traction. Essentially how to spend our time and attention with more intentionality on the things we want to focus on.

And then Naomi Klein’s “On Fire”, her perspective on the urgency of the climate crisis, the twin fires, one metaphoric being our politicians and corporation’s lurch to burning the planet, and the other of the literal fires spreading as various parts of our planet take light, and the fire of hope she has that we are waking up to the urgency and putting a fire under the system to fix it.

Unrelated. Except that Klein talks about the need for people to not be distracted by the bling of consumerism (note – I don’t think she used the word “bling”!), or of populism, and to focus on what needs to be focused on.

Being indistractable from the need to make a difference. Would Eyal buy into it?

2 great talks and 2 good books.

I’ve been privileged the last couple of days to go with some of my clients to 2 talks about recently launched books.

First, Nir Eyal’s “Indistractable”, which lays the case and an approach to move from from distraction to traction. Essentially, this is how to spend our time and attention with more intentionality on the things we want to focus on.

A few of us then went to a talk by Naomi Klein on her latest book, “On Fire”. her perspective on the urgency of the climate crisis. She talks about twin fires, one metaphoric of our politicians and corporation’s lurch to environmental destruction for profit, and the other literal, the fires spreading as various parts of our planet take light. She adds her own third fire of hope, which is that we’re waking up to the urgency and putting a fire under the system to fix it.

Unrelated books. Except that Klein explicitly talked about how we needed to not be distracted from the key mission of saving the environment by the bling of consumerism (note – I don’t think she used the word “bling”!), or of populism, or of being polarised, and to focus instead on what needs to be focused on.

Being indistractable from the need to make a difference. Would Eyal buy into it?

2 great talks and 2 good books.

You’ve seen a lot about how purpose is good for profit. It can be. Sometimes it’s not. But regardless, pursuing purpose on that basis is a dangerous road to go down.

The more we talk about companies needing to lead with purpose and values because this is more profitable (which I hear A LOT) – in other words, the more we justify purpose on the basis of its impact on profitability – the deeper we make the doctrine that maximising profitability remains business’s primary and ultimate goal.

Which means that as soon as purpose is no longer profitable, you drop it like a hot potato and look for the next thing to increase profit.

Purpose is good. Full stop. It shouldn’t need any further qualification. And profit is essential for the survival of your business. You need both.

In ideal world, they are symbiotic. Your purpose improves your profitability, which in turn allows you to better serve your purpose.

But that’s NOT the reason why you should pursue purpose. You should pursue purpose simply because it is the right thing to do.