A recent blog from Seth Godin spoke of working to make things better being achieved in small steps rather than big bang, improvement coming incrementally and by repeating and repeating the steps.
Of course, we can give impetus to those steps in the objectives or intentions we set…a process that’s a regular feature of organisational life.
The question is are our objectives too narrow? Undoubtedly we would all wish for a better world, not just for our own circle but for all. So, perhaps we need to be more intentionally global in setting our goals. Imagine what impact we might have if every objective focused on the performance of our organisation was also aligned with contributing to the greater good. And imagine if that was repeated by every organisation.
There are organisations and leaders working in this way across the world already (though more are needed). The B Corporation movement is home to many of them. ESG reporting is one of the steps moving the corporate world to greater consciousness of its impact. And the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework to work towards better.
If we look at the state of our world and wonder what difference we can make Godin’s suggestion of small steps repeated is a good place to start, mixed in with making a choice to raise our sights and our game.