March 23rd, 2009

Greenshootsblog.com is delighted to have a guest blog from Gordon Mclean, Planning Director at JWT NY, who gives us a welcome view into signs of positivity in the US…

Working in New York with a major bank that has both a large global footprint and a foot deep in the local US market one could say I’ve been working over the past few months in the eye of the economic storm.
I guess for this reason, amongst others, I’ve been pretty attuned to the gloom drenched headlines, depressing RSS feeds and less than chirpy tweets. The beacons of hope I’ve been drawn to are innovation, generosity and collaboration.

Innovation

With millions of jobs being lost in the US what we are seeing is something of a clearing of the old to make way for the new. The top man is committed to seeing through his ambitious technology and innovation plan. Obama conceived of many of these plans well before the current meltdown. The optimist in me, and others, sees the current economic meltdown as nothing short of a perfect storm and if necessity is the mother of invention this crisis can become the catalyst for a raft of essential innovations that will deliver a triple bill of social, environmental and economic benefits.

I recently came across a research study into the attitudes of US small business owners. I was surprised and heartened to see that over one-third regard the current economy as more opportunity that calamity. If innovation is thinking differently about something to realize an improvement then there’s plenty evidence of innovation at work in amongst small businesses in the US. Many small businesses in the US are re-evaluating their supplier relationships, rethinking their competitive strategies and reconsidering previously discarded market opportunities.

Generosity

While the major theme of recent months has been financial bankruptcy, near or in some cases actual, we’ve also borne witness to a moral bankruptcy on truly epic scale. What we’ve seen is capitalism as a green light to money making at any cost. Barry Schwartz – the author of The Paradox of Choice – spoke at the recent TED conference about a world gone mad with bureaucracy and our loss of practical wisdom . In the course of his talk he touched on the one of the key elements of Presidential Candidate Obama’s campaign appeal: he didn’t just promise prosperity, security and a restoration of America’s rightful place in the world; he appealed directly to our sense of virtue, duty and citizenship.

The new US administration is gradually re-setting our moral compass. This is both welcome and needed after too long a period where selling one’s grandmother for two pence could be excused by the pursuit of prosperity. For the most powerful man in the world to openly chastise the most powerful corporations in the world for their irresponsible, reckless and outrageous behavior is both admonishment and antidote. It’s also sending a powerful and popular signal that greed and one-upmanship is trumped by generosity and citizenship. Trendwatching recently captured this spirit as the emergence of “Generation G” .

Collaboration

If together we’re stronger then this virtuous reawakening is the very thing that’s needed for potent innovation to flourish. One of the hallmarks of this transition from greed to generosity is a simultaneous shift from competition to collaboration. The world-renowned design consultancy IDEO is currently capturing this nicely with their “Open Conversation” on Facebook . Each week they tackle one big question and open it to the floor. Both contributors and readers alike gain something from the collective brainpower and come away with new ideas, renewed vigor and a sense of great possibility that the current economy presents us with when we work with, rather than against, one another.

These are tough times but there are three good reasons to be cheerful: innovation, generosity and collaboration. The chaos of current economy is in many ways providing a powerful catalyst for much needed change. It’s also providing a cathartic release from the belief that greed is good and, in turn, a realization that generosity; moral virtue and civic duty are better. And, in the face of challenging circumstances collaboration is helping many to turn adversity into opportunity. If these three themes do nothing to lift your spirits then perhaps the latest innovation on the menu of the Turkish café in which I’m writing this will – a generously proportioned and modestly priced “Obama Sandwich”.

Nothing short of a fourth reason to be cheerful as far as I’m concerned.

Author: Gordon Mclean

Sources: TED, Trendwatching, IDEO, Facebook