Qunity Vortex™ (created by the company Qunity, www.qunity.net) is a model for building highly engaged communities.

Name: Starfish Group Oslo
Vision: Creating Mindful Business
Mission: Connecting Mindful businesses  
Starting point: Connecting mindful businesses in Oslo- Global reach, think global, act local 
How: Meditation in action, sharing and promoting mindful business practices 
Why: Increasing happiness, lowering suffering. 
Scope: Business issues, Inspiration and joy at work, finding meaning in your everyday work. Awake at work! Authentic communication , accumulating merit , right intention

Authentic communication:

Building upon existing  initiatives:           
Authentic Leadership in Action | ALIA Institute
http://www.aliainstitute.org/institute/home.html-           
- ACEM
- Integralnet
- BNI – philosophy Givers Gain
- Networking groups
- CSR Norge Network                   
- http://www.mindandlife.org/ The Mind & Life Institute 

Activities:
- Connecting groups and initiatives together, share experiences, create enthusiasm,
- Smaller events with presentations of mindful business practices  example Vigdis Reksten talks about her organizational values.
- Big conference? With BCC Brunstad Conference Center,? Mass meditation event? 1000 people meditating will get media coverage…        

Connecting mindful businesses: 
- Based on the internet,  use of technology, social media, facebook page, twitter etc, weekly/monthly newsletter? 
- New leadership model: Inspiration and facilitating
- Expressing your talents, finding purpose at work
- Raising consciousness on the role of ego in organizations

Building upon existing concepts: 
- Ethics
- Corporate Social Responsibility- CSR
- Social responsible investing
- SRI , see picture under 

Tripple Bottom-Line:
The triple bottom line (abbreviated as “TBL” or “3BL”, and also known as “people, planet, profit” or “the three pillars”[1]) captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success: economic, ecological and social. With the ratification of the United Nations and ICLEI TBL standard for urban and community accounting in early 2007, this became the dominant approach to public sector full cost accounting. 

One of our members, Thomas Hall, recommeded the following Executive Summary from the groundbreaking book Theory U, by Otto Scharmer. Click on the below link to download the PDF. Thanks Thomas!

Theory_U_Exec_Summary

Here’s a fantastic CNN article describing how Patagonia started off as a simple, environmentally conscious company and has now become a model humanistic company.

Here’s a small quote:

“Everybody that works at this campus truly believes in the mission of the company, which is, you know to build the best product, to cause the least amount of harm and to use business to inspire and implement solutions for the environmental crisis, which is a mouthful but at the end of the day, that’s truly what we’re after.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/07/14/patagonia.chouinard.environment/index.html?hpt=Sbin#fbid=H2LVdoDEQeS

Well done Patagonia!

Hello LS members!

One of Learning Societies members, Stephan Jackmuth from Amsterdam, posted the following in the ANCE group. Since the blog function of this site is now operational, I have added Stephan’s wonderful addition as one of our very first blogs posts. Here’s what he posted. Thanks Stephan!

“In 1985 Brunello Cucinelli bought a village near Perugia, Solomeo, as a base for his ‘humanistic company’. Since then his company has become the leading retailer for luxury cashmere knitwear. http://www.brunellocucinelli.it

Are social ideas in business and consumers ‘buying it’ the new expression democracy?”

The philosophy and values stated within Brunello serves as a prime example of what Learning Societies is all about –  to serve as a catalyst for people within companies to embrace the undeniable power of human based values representing their company instead of merely the “profit only”  based motive. 

Due to Stephan’s initiative, and as the administrator of Learning Societies, I will contact Brunello Cucinelli to see if they want to add their company’s name and reputation to the Learning Societies mission.

matt

The Power of Positive Thinking

We have the POWER!

Positive thinking is a mental attitude that admits into the mind thoughts, words and images that are conductive to growth, expansion and success. It is a mental attitude that expects good and favorable results. A positive mind anticipates happiness, joy, health and a successful outcome of every situation and action. Whatever the mind expects, it finds.

Not everyone accepts or believes in positive thinking. Some consider the subject as just nonsense, and others scoff at people who believe and accept it. Among the people who accept it, not many know how to use it effectively to get results. Yet, it seems that many are becoming attracted to this subject, as evidenced by the many books, lectures and courses about it. This is a subject that is gaining popularity.

It is quite common to hear people say: “Think positive!”, to someone who feels down and worried. Most people do not take these words seriously, as they do not know what they really mean, or do not consider them as useful and effective. How many people do you know, who stop to think what the power of positive thinking means?

The following story illustrates how this power works:
Allan applied for a new job, but as his self-esteem was low, and he considered himself as a failure and unworthy of success, he was sure that he was not going to get the job. He had a negative attitude towards himself, and believed that the other applicants were better and more qualified than him. Allan manifested this attitude, due to his negative past experiences with job interviews.

His mind was filled with negative thoughts and fears concerning the job for the whole week before the job interview. He was sure he would be rejected. On the day of the interview he got up late, and to his horror he discovered that the shirt he had planned to wear was dirty, and the other one needed ironing. As it was already too late, he went out wearing a shirt full of wrinkles.

During the interview he was tense, displayed a negative attitude, worried about his shirt, and felt hungry because he did not have enough time to eat breakfast. All this distracted his mind and made it difficult for him to focus on the interview. His overall behavior made a bad impression, and consequently he materialized his fear and did not get the job.

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