Take a look at this recent headline from Harvard Business Review:
Indeed. Seems great. And they should.
But will they? That’s an entirely different story.
The goal to most people — and especially people who become “business leaders” — is not this stuff. This feels fluffy, not their job, and far off. Even though voting rights and climate have a much more significant impact on the future of society than whatever widget they peddle, these guys (still mostly men) are not trained to care about this stuff.
They have short-term goals around pleasing the market and pleasing shareholders. That’s the biggest bucket.
The bucket beyond that is trappings of success, nice house, nice car, political clout, invited to the right events, ego constantly massaged, wife who “looks the part,” etc.
It’s about getting your nut, and the window to get that nut is limited. Some of these guys fear “cancellation” might come for them, because they’ve seen it in peers, which means the window to get the nut is even more limited. So are they going to prioritize doing something about climate change, where every article is framed up as “… in 2100…,” or are they going to try to build a bigger house in the right subdivision adjacent to their HQ?
Usually it’s the latter, not the former.
It’s nice to write headlines like this, and write corresponding articles. But until you contemplate and understand the base-level psychology of those who come to run organizations, you’re basically just throwing content into the void discussing this stuff.
