Conscious Business by Fred Kofman

Fred Kofman speaks about his book "Conscious Business: How to Build Value through" as part of the Authors@Google Series. In the video below Kofman shares his experience of working with Google. It reminds me of my previous job at NTHV's Imagineering Academy.

The concept of Conscious Business and the concept of Imagineering are in my opinion quite similar as they both share the main idea of 'building value through values'. Below is a fragment of the video showing Kofman's introduction to Conscious Business. (You might want to skip the first 5 minutes as sound quality is disturbing.)

“So on the one hand there is this principle that if you want to be successful you have to sell out. Don’t hold on to your dreams. Postpone them. Let them go. On the other hand there are the people that share the same mental model – it are just a different sides – and say if you really want to have a life you have to drop out. Just let it go. Commit to yourself and forget about big business because the people who work there have sold their souls. So if you want to keep your soul you can’t work there. You can’t do that. Just go to the Himalayas and start a meditative practice.

So you can go spiritual, or you can go material and the twine shall never meet. They go in different directions. The reason I had to write a book is to absolutely fight against that and to prove that it is totally possible to act in a business in perfect alignment with your values.

In fact the way to build value is to come from your heart and to actually express in your practice - whatever your practice is - what is truly ideal to you, what is most important to you.
That is the fundamental idea: It is possible to integrate. That is a nice idea. The question is how do you do this?”

Conscious Business [50m:07s]

Interesting:

• Foreword to Fred Kofmans' The Spirit of Conscious Business by Ken Wilber
• De Brug naar Business Spiritualiteit: Radicale vernieuwing begint bij de wortels (in Dutch)
• Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership and Change
• Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World

Comments

[Raimo van der Klein]

Excellent!! This is what I preach aswell. Just check Purpose Driven Innovation or Contribution Marketing..

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

This is a fine video. There is a strong strand of emotional intelligence running throughout the presentation. He presents powerful ideas in a clear, simple way.

[Tom van Brunschot]

What is so interesting is his background. In this movie he talks about 'walking the ladder of consciousness': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8bk4e69a_k

We can see spirituality finding ways into business through people like him. What he preaches reminds me of Joseph Campbell's 'follow your bliss'. Every business should follow its bliss.

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

Hello Tom;

The follow up video was good. One important EQ connection is that the foundation of Emotional Intelligence is self awareness, of which living in the moment is an important part.

[Tom]

Hi Galba, interesting that you mention 'living in the moment'. Had a great conversation about this a couple of days ago. Someone who just got back from his trip to China, accompanied by a Buddhist, inspired me to go learn more about 'living in the moment'. Hopefully it will lead to bringing it into practice too. Any book tips you can share?

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

Hello Tom:

I strongly recommend Resonant Leadership by Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee. Do the exercises in the Appendix. First read Primal Leadership by the same authors. These books influence my EQ Leadership Learning Programmes. Also, at my blog, have a look

EQ and the New 3Rs series

http://tuneupyoureq.com/2007/07/19/eq-the-new-3-rs-of-leadership-pt2/

http://tuneupyoureq.com/2007/07/19/eq-the-new-3-rs-of-leadership-part-1/

http://tuneupyoureq.com/2007/07/05/emotional-intelligence-the-new-3-rs/

Also, have a look at my Leadership and Positive Change Series for the Brain Based Business Blog

http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/07/galba_brights_leadership_for_p.html

http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/07/galba_brights_leadership_for_p_1.html

http://www.brainbasedbusiness.com/2007/07/galba_brights_leadership_for_p_2.html

These resources will assist you.

[Tom]

I've added Primal Leadership and Resonant Leadership to my To Read List. I got some book tips of other people too and hope to post a list here soon. I have bookmarked your links. Thank you very much Galba.