My friend Christina Jayne Duncan said in an email:
"The heart core of the issue is the only way!"
"Heart core" immediately made me think of "hard core" (mind out of the gutter please, just for the duration of this post).
So much of the conventional business world is about the hard core stuff - we are business MEN and must therefore must only make hard core MANLY "rational" decisions; we must be hard to WIN because winning is everything; hell, to SURVIVE we must stick to being hard - the business world is a dog eat dog one after all...
Nor surprisingly, we suddenly find ourselves mired in bureaucracy and cover-our-arses processes for just about everything we want to do in business. We eye everyone we do business or work with with distrust. Employee and customer loyalty is at an all time low.
Our advertising says all the warm and fuzzy stuff but our actions are hard and cold. Of course customers will just believe what you tell them.
If you went out and asked people how much they agree with the statement "business is heartless", the responses would not be surprising.
The bottom line is, if we don't engage our hearts when making decisions; if we just let our rational mind take full control, we run the huge risk of pissing off a lot of people, including ourselves.
Think of the last time you made a totally rational decision that your heart was against. Maybe you stayed in a job too long because you needed the money, or did something against your ethics and values because that is what you have been told, or buddied up to someone you distrust because they have good contacts.
What did that feel like? How easy was it to rationalise yourself out of that hurt?
