Breaking news! Pfizer announced a 90% efficient vaccine against Covid-19. We expect that launching this vaccine reignites controversial conversations around vaccination. Why is the conversation increasingly polarising? We talked to anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers to understand their perspective. What surprised us the most is what appears as a paradox: pro- and anti-vaxxers are more alike than we thought.

We spoke to 23 people, both for and against vaccines, and touched all continents and all generations. Listening to different opinions, feeling how they feel to get to an understanding of what drives their point of view. People are passionately divided in what seems an impossible dialogue, full of misunderstanding, anger and fear. Anti-vaxxers are easily perceived as detached from society and reality. Neither side feels they are being heard. We will explain how we came to meaningful conversations next week.

Here first some surprising observations that we did: 4 shared beliefs of anti-vaxxers and pro- vaxxers.shared desire for a harmonious world

• Pro-vaxxers think anti-vaxxers have a predilection for conspiracy thinking and government mistrust. They want to destroy society.
• Anti-vaxxers think pro-vaxxers don’t dare to care, are too lazy to challenge the system, and just follow the flow.

However, they actually share the same worries and views on society. We live in a polarized world today where division, chaos and dissension are extreme. Both want a more peaceful, harmonious world. A more just and equal society, where we can be stronger together.

Shared trust in science and medicine.

Pro-vaxxers think anti-vaxxers are utopians, mistrust science and believe pharmaceutical industries want to sell products regardless of harmful consequences.

Anti-vaxxers think pro-vaxxers are misinformed. They lack the ability to discern and don’t question the information they receive.

Surprisingly, in our post-truth world, both sides believe science research is the only way for society to evolve. Though they interpret some of the data differently, both rely on science to inform themselves, protect their body and their children the best way they can. Science drives their decision making.

Shared care and love for nature and body

Anti-vaxxers believe pro-vaxxers rely too much on modern chemical treatments on health issues, forgetting about the body’s own healing mechanisms.

Pro-vaxxers believe anti-vaxxers see their body as a holy temple they only treat with natural products.

In reality, both believe the body and health wellbeing are crucial. Love for nature and a proper wellness routine is needed everyday to take care of it. Both adopt things like: spiritual practices, mental and emotional health, integrating exercise, healthy eating habits in their routines.

Shared desire to evolve the vaccination system

Anti-vaxxers believe vaccines are harmful with dangerous side effects. Current information does not provide enough space for discussion, information exchange or questions.

Pro-vaxxers believe vaccination should be mandatory for everyone, that it is a symbol of a healthy civilization. This means we should all give full compliance and support to build a resilient world for the next generation.

You may be surprised to find out that both pro-vaxxers and anti-vaxxers want to evolve the vaccination system. Pro-vaxxers believe one size does not fit all; they rather wish for more freedom and more room for an exchange of views and customized solutions based on personal profiles.

Anti-vaxxers wish to improve the system, to be given more freedom to discuss, and more transparency regarding side effects. Those are the starting points for them to re-evaluate vaccination and rethink their decisions.

So how does this make you feel? Anti-vaxxers and pro-vaxxers sharing beliefs. It is almost mind-blowing, right? It was for sure for us the case. Anti-vaxxers are not detached and rejectors of science. They actually want to use science to better the vaccination program and to better society. We realized that with empathy we could stop polarising conversations and find a shared way forward.

 

By: Jasmine, Moniek and Mai 

If you are a marketeer, a strategist, a social activist, or actually just a person who uses the internet, you have heard about cancel culture. Yes, that faceless movement that has been stirring up across countries and continents, wrecking havocs for countless brands. From RedBull in Thailand, TRESemmé in South Africa to Oatly in Europe and North America.

Triggered by as little as an offensive tweet to as complicated as an investment deal, a canceling wave can take a brand down in a matter of hours. The scale of impact and how quick it can hurt a business would have been unimaginable without social media and our generation’s masterful use of it. It’s all a spider web of interlinked influence.

By the time a marketing manager realizes what is going on, sales have been lost, images have been tarnished, products have been taken down from shelves. It is fascinating to think about the amount of power at our fingertips, isn’t it?

But, what is the point of this canceling act? Yes, of course we want to punish. To send a message to those businesses. To show that we are not here to be tricked. We are not fools. What else? Isn’t it also about crying out loud for business to do better? Isn’t it also because we desperately need alternatives that actually align with our beliefs? So yes, we should cancel bad brands for good. But how about supporting good brands to build a better future? Are we doing that enough?

So, I set off to build a social listening search query in English across the US, UK, RSA, India and Australia to see how much are we ‘canceling for good’ versus ‘supporting for better’? How much are we using social media to stand up for brands that do good? How much are we tweeting to let our followers know a nice brand that aligns with our values actually exist?

Not to my surprise, canceling bad brands is so much more popular than supporting good brands on social media platforms. People are more triggered by and more likely to respond to scandalous news. But also, I get that canceling (stop buying) something is less costly than supporting (buying more) something else.

What is shocking, to me, is the insane magnitude of imbalance between these two types of social conversations. On average, social posts to support good brands only account for 5% of total mentions, leaving the whopping 95% of conversations in this topic fully about canceling the bad guys.

Why in today’s world, are we so much better or enthusiastically engaged in boycotting brands who don’t share our views than in supporting those who do? A possible explanation to the scalability of cancel movements is in how “hurt” as an emotion, can become internalized and owned by everyone, making it the thing that unites us against them. Whereas, a good experience a person has with a brand is often limited to that single person.

If this is the case, the way forward for brands could be to start investing in hashtags that can activate a lot of good stories to be aggregated. I am not talking about #VivaPatagonia or anything in that line of brand centric promo. It is about uncovering and tapping into something powerfully human and good, that everybody wants to take and make their own. Things such as #LikeAGirl or #AmericaIsBeautiful, both of which triggered sizable social movements that spread love and set the brand as an igniter of positive changes.

If hate talk is social then love talk needs to become social as well. Brands need to train their empathy fitness to understand the people they serve, to feel their tensions and aspirations. From there, nurture and enable a collective who talks love and spreads more positivity around.

By: Linh Nghiem

Last month for Climate Week, a new digital clock was unveiled in Manhattan’s Union Square, designed to tell us exactly how long the world has left to act before an irreversible climate emergency alters our existence. As of Tuesday 27th of October, it displayed 7 years, 66 days! Scary right?

At Innate Motion we have witnessed with joy the rising importance of environmental sustainability and social impact on brand management agendas, moving central place from what used to be side CSR activities.

Yet our frustration too is rising: all too often do we hear brand teams negotiating exclusivity deals with their societal impact partners. Really? We want to shake our heads and roll our eyes at this trend as it does nothing but block others from doing their part for the planet, and slows down an important movement.

Today we are reaching out to the marketing community to shout: STOP! Stop using your well-intended societal actions to increase your brand differentiation.

Yes, creating a strong point of differentiation for a brand has always been a marketeer’s dream. But using your societal initiatives for that purpose is the wrong battle. You should be honored if your competitors copy you, you should encourage them to follow you – not prevent them from adopting such honourable promises.

When it’s a matter of societal impact, the barriers of differentiation need to be torn down at the favour of alliances with – dare we say it – your archrivals. And believe us, it won’t hurt your business: remember last year when Burger King launched the ‘Day Without Whopper’? They stopped selling Whopper burgers and asked their clients instead to buy from McDonald’s who was giving $2 to childhood cancer for every BigMac sold. The campaign had a very positive impact for both brands… and for the cause.

We would like to see more marketeers take inspiration from this.

We would like to see more brands and industries build partnerships at the favour of greater environmental and societal impact.

We would like to see more brands be so people-focus that they forget about competition when they have the opportunity to have more impact.

We ask you to wake up and understand: in the fight to save the planet, competition is not the enemy.

The Climate Clock reminds us that we have seven years left to save the planet.

We don’t have time for exclusivity deals.

And we don’t have time for every brand to try to reinvent the wheel.

 

 

By: Muriel Soupart and Thais Gyurcso 

During qualitative research sometimes people get stuck on a thought or an emotion. They struggle to articulate or express what they are thinking and feeling and why. By building in creative and projective techniques we can help to free their expression, which gives us richer insights into the topic at hand.

We believe strongly in using both creative and projective techniques. Not only does this approach keep a session alive and interesting, but it helps people to express their most natural perspective on a topic. It brings them to deeper emotions. It lets people step by step conceptualize the unknown, leading to answers that are more genuine.

Here are a few of the projective techniques we keep in our toolbox that help lead us to deeper and more meaningful insights. You can read the article about our creative techniques here.

Projective techniques help to express without limitations

The Q&A approach focuses on the left brain answers, which are primarily logical. Using projectivity unlocks the right side of the brain. This approach steps away from generally accepted beliefs, norms and values. It opens up imagination. Especially around sensitive topics it allows to get to more depth and understanding.

Sharing the output is key to let people purely describe what they see and feel, but never challenge their imagination – only probe for better understanding on your end.

Photosort

This is a basic projective technique that takes little preparation and execution time and has a great result. From a set of images people select the image that represents the feeling that they have around a concept, design or brand. They then describe what they see in the selected image, what associations it created for them.

Why does the photosort work? Talking about the image explicitly and implicitly about the topic makes people relate to the idea in a new way that is not connected to the obvious.

Tip: Do not ask to explain why they chose the image, because that only leads to them rationalising the choice. Know what you are probing for.

Spaceship

This requires more skills of the researcher to bring people in the right mindset. If applied well it has a rich result. We invite people on a trip with a spaceship and slowly bring them into a world of imagination. People have some time to disconnect from their current situation and step into the imaginative world. We guide them wandering around with questions. Back on earth they describe their observations.

Why does the spaceship work? While still verbal, this exercise taps into creativity and imagination and allows people to go beyond the limitations their brain puts on what is possible.

Tip: No rush, no jokes that interrupt the imagination. Prepare relevant questions for this tour.

A world without

This exercise reveals and builds on deep desires and fears by asking people to imagine and describe a world without something dear to them.

Why does the world without work? The extraction or adding of an element forces people to choose. To really imagine the impact of that element in their lives. It is pushing the boundaries of their imagination. It allows them to step away from logic, tapping into the emotions.

Tip: Make sure to explore nuance. Not making it a black and white picture.

Transparent body

When working with a concept or product that impacts the body, using the transparent body exercise helps to get to people’s true feelings and understandings around the idea. You invite them to imagine that they’ve been given a new ability, to see their body in transparent layers, how it functions. Then you ask them what happens when they inject or are exposed to the topic at hand. Have them describe in an imaginative, not scientific way, what happens.

Why does the transparent body work? This helps people move beyond rational logic, breaking down barriers and norms to express how they feel about the topic.

Tip: Give this one a bit of time. People need time to project this and to feel the impact, so don’t rush it.

Be perceptive and flexible. Empathize to find what works for them. For example: Are your respondents more Pinterest oriented than collage oriented? Let them find an image that represents X in Pinterest. Or do you find they are too educated or prejudiced about a certain technique? Help them to succeed in the exercise by adapting to who they are.

Be confident and comfortable. It’s important for the moderator to embrace these exercises and lead them with confidence. If you act like they’re weird then people will feel uncomfortable or struggle to fully participate. Go ahead and address that it’s something different and a bit “out there”! Then people are able to relax and explore the topic with a free and fun approach.

Let us know if you know of some great projective techniques we should try!

Moniek Tersmette and Megan Pratt 

As a white (or a non-black) person do you sometimes feel fake to support the Black Lives Matter cause? Or even as a non-American person do you feel supporting the Black Lives Matters feels fake? Are we just jumping on the bandwagon?

I certainly felt fake at the time back in South Africa in the Apartheid era. Yes I had black friends, yes I co-started a student movement to improve the conditions and the dialogue with black students, yes I was picked up by the police and I was pressured to leave the country. But still it was not my story and hence I looked at the cause as not my own. What I know today is that you have to own the story to truly own the change. And it was the idea of “the rainbow nation at peace with itself and the rest of the world” that helped me own the story of change in South Africa.

To stop feeling fake about supporting the Rainbow Nation transformation I had to change my frame of reference around the cause. I had to humanize the cause and see it for what it is, an injustice to humanity and abuse of power on the basis of skin colour, something I cannot tolerate for myself nor for others. Hence, together with a group of innate social justice strivers, we created Innate Motion, a global consultancy business focused on humanizing business. Together we strongly believe business becomes infinitely more valuable for everyone when humanized and today we believe this too about the Black Lives Matter movement.

So if you are hesitating to support this movement, don’t, rather ask how it can become part of your story that you and your business can live it everyday. Here are 5 ways of how we at Innate Motion strive to contribute to the fight for social justice and inclusion. We strive to live the story through our practices, values and the people we are:

In practice we help organizations and brands become empathy fit, so they can connect with greater human and business sense. Like Rene Brown so beautifully illustrates “empathy connects, sympathy drives disconnection.
We champion feminine values like generosity, co-creation, empathy, intuition, flexibility and play (maybe the last one is just me). We make them part of who we are and want to be.
We work hard to improve our #BCorp scores so we can use our business as a force for good
We assure we are a 100% transparent company ensuring that people across the world and across gender or colour divides can benefit from our incentive and remuneration systems without discrimination.
And last but not least, we believe in ownership of inclusion. All people in innate motion have a right to ownership if they choose

Is this enough? Surely not, but we will become better each day.
Christophe Fauconnier,
Co-founder and CEO Innate Motion

Lockdown. It’s a unique situation to be in that none of us expected — a far cry from the hustle and bustle that is our usual everyday life. 

For many of us it is the first time that we have been really, truly “home” in a long time. The home is often more of a base where we keep our stuff, sleep, and stop briefly to fuel ourselves to continue with our busy schedules. 

To be confined has been a revelation for some — about how they keep their space, what bothers them about it, whether they can see themselves reflected in it or not. How many people do you know who took the lockdown as an opportunity to declutter and organize? But that’s not the only way people have dealt with rediscovering their home, or releasing their pent up frustration into the spaces they’ve been stuck in. 

Our environments can have an incredibly significant impact on our mental and emotional wellbeing. I wanted to know more about how people’s space has impacted them now that they have the time to really dwell in it, and how they have been putting their energy into their home during this time. 

To explore this idea, and the motivations behind it, I talked to some of the Innate Motion Business Humanizers. Despite the idea of a home office being nothing new for them, the extra time spent inside sparked something that caused them to make some changes. 

 

Home as an anchor 

Moniek – The Netherlands 

For many years Moniek’s reality was being constantly on-the-go, traveling to meet clients, manage projects, spending holidays away. When the world shut down she was suddenly faced with the fact that she felt like a visitor in her own home. She also became overwhelmed by all of the organization projects that had piled up over the years. 

The lack of travel, social obligations and family visits gave her the time and the mental and emotional space to tackle the organization bit by bit, and in the process put a bit of herself back into her home. Her biggest project has been decluttering the family’s extensive book collection. 

“It did help me with landing in the house. That was kind of confrontational actually; because of the life I live I am kind of disconnected from the place. It brought a sense of groundedness, but also a bit of panic. Where does it stop? What else do I have to do?”

Though she has more tasks on her list that she’d like to accomplish, she notes that she has gained a sense of calm and focus from the progress she has already made. It has helped her to take charge over her space, and to ground herself more in her environment.

Home as a place to enjoy, together and apart

Benoit – France

Benoit’s home in the South of France is usually enjoyed by one or two people at a time. So when his family of 7 agreed to quarantine there together, he quickly realized that he needed to make some changes to better accommodate so many people in the house. 

He moved the TV from upstairs to the common area, and rearranged the furniture and added an additional table to make it a more comfortable communal space. In parallel he made a private workspace for himself so he could better concentrate during the workday. By rezoning he created the distance needed to coexist for such a long period of time. Even more important it provided the space to better enjoy moments of togetherness.

“The TV room downstairs has allowed us to watch a few movies together, though to be honest the biggest use is for the boys in the house to play on the PlayStation. Not bad, that gives the room a cosy feel.”

Home as a comforting cocoon

Katie – The Netherlands

Katie had noticed before that her living room felt a bit cold. Between meeting friends after work and volunteering, most of her time spent not working was out of the house, so she didn’t prioritize warming it up. 

Once COVID changed her evening activities she realized that she didn’t have a desire to be in that cold room — it felt uncomfortable and uninviting, and limited her ability to feel at ease in her space. She felt that she really needed that comfort and feeling of safety. Not only because she spent more time at home, but also because she felt more anxious about the world around her and needed a place where she could cocoon and retreat from that anxiety.

To solve it she brought in a beautiful Persian rug that belonged to her grandmother, and she rearranged the space to be more comfortable and inviting. It completely changed the environment and gave her a cosy place where she can spend her time peacefully, feeling secure and protected. 

“It’s amazing how changing something so small in your space can make your home feel really different.”

Home as an outlet for creative me-time

Muriel – Based in UK, quarantining in France

For Muriel, lockdown has been spent in her home away from home. Her family’s temporary escape from the UK to their holiday house in the South of France unexpectedly turned into an indefinite stay.  

Since she is usually only there for a few weeks at a time she never really takes the time to decorate, so she decided to use this opportunity to unleash her creativity to make the house a more beautiful place to spend time. But with the reality of being confined in the same space for weeks at a time with the whole family, her decorating endeavor also turned into a pleasant form of escapism. 

“It’s my me-time, a way to have a little self time away from the family. It’s the only little bubble I’ve had during lockdown, so it has definitely been a bit of an escape.” 

She has a stunning rose garden that she rarely gets to enjoy, so she decided to use that as inspiration and bring the beauty indoors. She took photographs of the flowers that she plans to frame so that she can beautify the house and appreciate the roses any time of year. 

Home as a space that works for everyone

Cilla – Indonesia

Cilla’s home office was situated to not only be her workspace, but to also facilitate a moment of connection with her daughter each day. She had a long desk with two chairs situated next to each other, and for about an hour each day she would get to enjoy working side-by-side with her daughter as she did her homework. 

With the abrupt shift to homeschooling that hour suddenly turned into the full workday. Between her own calls with clients and colleagues and her daughter’s calls for school, the situation was no longer workable for either of them. 

To adapt she created a new workspace for herself in another area of the house. What seemed like a very practical change was also a bit of an emotional push to give her daughter a new level of freedom. 

“We had to do it, but to be honest I kind of already wanted my own little office corner, so it’s the right opportunity. It’s really more about my daughter though, giving her more independence.”

Home as a source of vitality and hope

Rachel – Singapore 

When the COVID crisis began, like many of us, Rachel experienced a sense of helplessness over her ability to control the situation. Something in her compelled her to start buying plants, despite the fact that in the past she couldn’t even keep a cactus alive. 

She explained, “Having some kind of living thing I could care for was very comforting. Something clicked inside me that said, there’s chaos out there that I can’t control, but plants, if you take care of them, they grow. You give to them and they give back.”

As a result she has developed a new skillset, and a deep respect for the plants she has brought into her home. She now knows precisely how much water and light (and love) each type of plant in her home needs. The ability to master something that was once seemingly impossible has given her a sense of satisfaction. 

More importantly, the addition of vivacious green plants in her life has brought her joy, and a reminder that despite all of the chaos out there life does go on. 

Home as what we need it to be

This unique moment in time has given us a jolting reminder of how profoundly our surroundings can impact our emotional state and wellbeing. 

Yes, home is a functional habitation, but it’s also a social zone, an outlet for creativity, a space to feel safe and a place to be anchored. The beauty of it is in recognizing what we need it to be — identifying where our own tensions lie and adapting our space to resolve that need in our own way. 

After long existing as the backdrop to our lives the home is on the forefront again, reminding us of its many facets and what it has the potential to be, in lockdown and beyond.

By: Megan Pratt 

Rick Warren’s story dates back to 1979, when he was doing much of the groundwork to find a place where he could establish a new church congregation. He wanted to build a church for the unchurched. During his search for a new location he stumbled upon a description of a place called Saddleback Valley in Orange County California. He learned it was the fastest-growing region in the fastest growing county, in one of the fastest-growing states in America. He spotted the market opportunity with hard facts. As far as he could see, there were a number of churches in the area, but none large enough to accomodate the quickly expanding population. He also contacted religious leaders in Southern California who told him that many locals self-identified as Christian but didn’t attend services.  

Before gathering any hard data about the opportunity, Rick gained some deep insights on how to start building a church for the unchurched while working as a missionary in Japan. The best insights he gained were from a man called Donald McGavran. Donald McGavran was focused on building churches in nations where most people hadn’t accepted Christ. In these countries the barriers to adoption were high. 

 

Meet people where they are

The advice Donald provided Rick was that missionaries should imitate the tactics of other successful social movements by appealing to people’s social habits, social identities and support systems. In short, work on strategies to fit and connect before you start to think about how to stand out. 

Donald wrote: “only the evangelist who helps people to become followers of Christ in their normal social relationships has any chance of liberating multitudes.”

For Rick this insight served as a revelation. Donald instructed church builders to speak to the people in their own language, to create places of worship where congregants saw their friends, to play the kind of music they already listened to, and experience the Bible’s lessons in digestible metaphors and familiar ideas. 

Armed with hard facts and deep insights Rick arrived in the Saddleback Valley. He spent twelve weeks going door to door asking strangers why they didn’t go to church. He worked hard to be empathy fit.  He listened and learned that for many potential community members the answers were practical – it was boring, people said, the music was bad, the sermons didn’t seem applicable to their lives, they needed child care, they hated dressing up, the pews were uncomfortable. 

For the practically-minded, these were easy things to address and Rick’s church addressed each of those preferences. He told people to wear shorts and Hawaiian shirts – if they felt like it. An electric guitar was brought in. And Rick’s sermons, from the start, focused on practical topics, with titles such as “How to Handle Discouragement”, “How to Feel Good About Yourself”, “How to Raise Healthy Families, and ‘How to Survive Under Stress.” His lessons were easy to understand, focusing on real daily problems, and could be applied as soon as parishioners left church. Rick was applying Donald McGraven insights with rigor and passion. The church was growing fast and Rick was working eighteen hours a day, seven days a week, answering congregants’ phone calls, leading classes, coming to their homes to offer marriage counseling, and, in his spare time, always looking for new venues to accommodate the church’s growing size. Like any good C.E.O, Rick had a clear strategy, he knew what to do. The problem was that it all landed on his shoulders. He had many implementation issues. 

One Sunday, in mid December, Rick stood up to preach during the eleven o’clock service. He felt light-headed, dizzy. He gripped the podium as he began to fall. Rick had a breakdown, it had become too much.

 

Recognizing other co-creators of value

Rick took a much needed rest and befittingly went for a walk through the desert, where he  had an epiphany. Two things became clear to him. The first was that he should focus on the people and let God build the church. The second was that he had to figure out how to make running the organization of his church less work. Rick was humble enough to seek support, not only from God, but from the people he wanted to serve. He returned to Saddleback with the plan to expand a small experiment he had started a few months earlier to make it easier to manage the church.

His solution started out as a solution to a very practical problem. The practical problem he was first trying to address was his concern for providing a place where people could come for Bible study. He  was never certain he would have enough classrooms, so he asked a few church members to host classes inside their homes. He was concerned that people might complain about going to someone’s house for Bible study, rather than a classroom, but congregants loved it. The small groups gave people a chance to meet their neighbors, which is not always easy when you are moving to a new place. The small groups also gave more people the  autonomy to take initiatives and feel they could take responsibility for each other. They could take leadership and ownership of something they already dared to care for. And together they could build the success of their church. They were active co-creators of value for themselves and for others. They were an important stakeholder group of the church and key creator of meaningful value.    

As Rick states: “Now, when people come to the Saddleback and see the giant crowds on the weekends, they think that’s our success”. But the biggest benefit the small groups provided people of the church was that it created a safe place to practice faith and be vulnerable together. According to Rick the small group formation was one of the most important decisions he ever made. It transformed church participation from a decision into a habit that drew on already-existing social urges and patterns. The 5000-strong small groups made the church manageable, without which Rick would have worked himself to death and 95 percent of the congregation would never have received the attention they came there looking for.

 

Stepping stones to grow in ‘purpose’ .  

Growing with purpose needs more safety and less bravado. Where purpose leaders often go wrong is that they demand too much courage and bravery from people and communities to grow in purpose.  For Rick, the purpose of the Saddleback church is to help people in his communities grow in spiritual maturity. It is a clear purpose which many people and social groups both can and want to buy into. Rick designed pathways of commitments to grow in the purpose. 

He started by first allocating people in one of six levels of spiritual commitment:

The first level he called the Community and actually takes no commitment at all. It is  everyone within driving distance of the church. Nothing is expected from the people in this group – although he hopes they will come to the weekend worship services.

The second level is called the Crowd. Here a person makes a commitment to come to the weekend worship services.

The third level is once people come to the membership class. That’s where they learn what it means to be a member and get a chance to make a commitment to church membership by signing a covenant. When they do that, they become part of the Congregation, a part of our church family.

The fourth level is taking another class, where they learn about how to grow as a Christian. They focus on the great habits of the Christian life – prayer, quiet time, giving, and attending a small group. Then, just like they do in membership class, they ask people to sign a covenant committing to practice these disciplines. Once people make that decision, they move into the circle we call the Committed.

The fifth level is the next class to learn more about how God has shaped them for ministry. People learn a lot about themselves during this class. They also get a chance to meet with a guide who helps them find ministries that fit their unique spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality, and experiences (S.H.A.P.E.). 

At the end of the class, everyone is encouraged to sign a ministry covenant committing to use their S.H.A.P.E. in ministry. That moves the person from the Committed to the Core. 

Rick helped people grow in spirituality by defining categories for development and setting expectations for commitments. In most organizations these levels would be ranks or levels of expertise, but in a purpose driven church they reflect the level of commitment to the purpose with observable behaviors.   

 

So what can purpose leaders learn from Rick ? 

Rick is an inspiration for purpose leaders and organizations because his success provides us with another example of how to unlock a different kind of growth; growth which people can make meaningful together. Growth that is built on strong empathy foundations, starting with where people currently are. We have to be intentional about growing with purpose, and we need stepping stones and social expectations to progress with purpose. As a leader of several businesses, I can only share that creating value « people to people » has always mattered to me. What Rick highlights, however, is that large masses of people remain bound by personal ties. This is called social network value, and it is a value that organizations do not own. With the right purpose, they can enable this value and benefit from it. Rick also highlights that purpose has a personal, social and structural dimension. A meaningful purpose serves as an important guide to unlock value between us.

Christophe Fauconnier

We’ve been “remote” since 2007: as a company, we were born without an office, and after a few ridiculous failures (yep, my idea of opening a training center in Bali was bad), we decided we did not need one. So we thought the 50 people who work for Innate Motion across the world probably had tips to offer to those new to the art of remote work.

This week we opened a Google doc, and collected the tricks that make Innater happy and efficient home workers. Going through the contributions though, I was a bit underwhelmed.

You judge:

Make sure your work space is comfortable and with enough daylight (Annemarie).
Do Skype meetings with image, so it’s human (me).
Set clear time and geographical boundaries between life and work (Arya)
Exercise daily, ideally outdoors (Mark).
Forbid the family/friends to spontaneously pop up or even enter your office, unless someone is bleeding or the house in on fire (Mai).
Proactively plan digital coffee breaks, to share and socialise with your colleagues, like a coffee break in an office (Aurelia)
Etc…
I mean, they are really good suggestions, and they actually help. But I wondered, do they make the difference? That’s when I realized where the magic is. It’s not about our individual habits. It’s about our collective culture.

You see, we work remote ALL THE TIME. So we know each others’ boundaries and messed-up organizations. I know Cilla might return a WhatsApp message at 11pm on a Friday. I know Femke’s kitchen with the sticker-covered fridge and I know Moniek will gladly speak with me after her early Dutch family dinner. I know the sound of the birds in Muriel’s garden, and I know Rachel’s bedroom and her kids popping on the bed that serves as an office: they’re not a stain to their professionalism, they’re a chance to put a smile into a conversation. And everybody knows that I’ll interrupt a call to kiss my wife goodbye when she leaves to work!

For most people, the office is the place where you surrender to your company from 9 to 7pm (on lucky days). Body and soul, as if nothing else existed. In exchange for that, home is your island, off limit to the firm. We’ve never built respect for these boundaries, so we built respect for people instead. In our ways of working, it’s OK to ask a colleague to call later because the homework needs to be done. To schedule work calls around yoga classes. To relocate to Bali for 3 months. To just say you can’t do something because you’re busy. It’s OK because it’s also normal to finish a piece of work at night to ensure a document is ready for the client. To step in for a friend who is sick or needs help. To ask someone for a quick chat at 9pm, as long as the kids are in bed.

The vulnerability that we show others by opening a window into our imperfect lives, we exchange for the extraordinary chance to trust that they all will put everything in place to deliver and help. By opening our homes, we embrace each other, not just as colleagues, but as human beings. We create a closeness that make us perform better, and live happier.

We’ve created a culture that’s not about working “remote”, but genuinely about working “from home”. By accepting that the boundaries between our work and personal lives and time are muddy, we’ve grown able to value each other’s full lives. And that makes us richer.

This is life at Innate Motion of course. But if the virus leaves this legacy in more companies, we’ve gained something, no?

 

Benoit Beaufils

‘The art of living is a continuous task in the shaping of Life and the Self’. Continuity is essential, and under the looming haze of COVID-19, the art of learning how to continue living is particularly important. That is what I saw and found amazing when the circumstances became rough: people searched for a way to create a life of beauty for themselves. 

Just before Chinese New Year, we knew that we would have fieldwork in Wuhan after the holidays. The simultaneous translator who had worked with us for ages warned me that “The SARS is coming back, this time in Wuhan”, and I was like, “Nah… rumour!” 

It was during my middle school years, when China was devastatingly hit by the SARS epidemic, and the boarding school I studied in was totally locked down. There was speculation and conspiracy theories everywhere, and the Internet was not even thriving back then! 

When it came to SARS, there was simply no ‘competition’, or at least that is what every Chinese thought then. Well, it turned out there is a competitor, in the heavyweight class. On 20th Jan 2020, senior Chinese government medical advisor Zhong Nanshan confirmed that this new virus can be transmitted interpersonally, thus kicking off the national battle against coronavirus. Things escalated quickly, I remember waking up in shock on the morning of 23rd, the day before Chinese New Year. Wuhan was put under lockdown, the motorways were sealed off and the public transportation system was shut down. This was unprecedented. The slogan that was shared during this time “lock a city, save a country” touched the hearts of many.

Overnight, I saw everyone pacing through the streets wearing face masks. The news, entirely dedicated to informing the public on the Covid-19 updates. Soon, like dominos, all the shops, gyms, restaurants, tourist spots got shut down with a pink seal saying “due to the coronavirus, we are closed, we will update you when the situation changes”. Only a couple of shops and supermarkets were left open to sell the essentials. Shanghai applied the most rigid precautions and measures in the county just next to Wuhan, and I experienced something that I had only read in books: a ration system… on face masks.

It came almost too quick for people to even turn their heads around. How a holiday that was supposed to be a reunion became drowned in loudspeakers saying “Everyone stay at home, minimize going out to visit your relatives”. How a buzzing city turned into a ghost town, how people that should have been on their way to their annual overseas holidays had to be locked in, and how others should have been out on the busy streets, bargaining on the last purchases for the new year dinner. The virus stole the thunder. 

So, I was ‘stuck’ at my parent’s house for two weeks, and in the end, I can say that in a weird way, the virus was a blessing. “This is the first time in 5 years that you spent 2 weeks at home”, said my mom. And it was true. I started to develop a routine of taking regular walks in the park with my parents chatting about my childhood and their younger days. This was, until the day that the whole compound we lived in was put on restrictive quarantine, as a confirmed case lived there too. Not even taking walks were allowed. So, my mom suggested we climb over the fence and go for a walk! I was astonished partly because it would be a bit of an unusual thing to do in this ‘civilized world’, and partly because I didn’t realize that I have such a rebellious mom! It’s usually children who encourage parents to do ‘unlawful’ things, but I really enjoyed this, you know, discovering life could be a journey filled with excitement. From that moment, we became the fence climbing experts in two weeks. It’s funny to think we’ve been climbing over the fences just to do something that would have been super usual on ‘normal days’ – take a walk. 

August, a colleague of ours was also locked in for a whole month! After two weeks, it was hard not to fall into depression, but then, he started to adopt new life rituals.  During the Chinese New Year Holidays while being locked in, he read the famous Japanese book Danshari (about refusal, disposal and separation) and watched a Japanese TV drama called There is nothing in my home. And all of sudden, he had an epiphany of minimalism. He took the time to throw away boxes after boxes of stuff. It turned out to be the perfect opportunity to reflect on the relationship between himself and his belongings. And this went beyond physical things, to his mobile apps, to digital assets, to the one thousand facebook friends, and eventually, to all relationships. Through decluttering and organizing, he experienced ecstasy from order and method, which he admits to being addicted to now! 

At the end of the day, it comes down to… when the situation doesn’t work, you make it work. Having a positive and hardworking attitude towards difficulties helps people make life manageable under quarantine. I hear some people referring to this moment as a brilliant opportunity to start cooking, baking cakes, making milk teas, and creating fusion dishes. They can also finally appreciate a moment to fully relax. Lying in bed all day is in a way contributing to fighting the battle. E-commerce is trying out new approaches like delivery drones to make contactless delivery possible, to ultimately minimize the risk of cross-infection, school morning exercises, work recruitment and museum visits, even doctor appointments have gone online. 

As the crisis accelerates the ‘internet cloud’ of people’s life, the thoughts around what opportunities lie beneath are also circulating fast. Some say Chinese is only language in the world that translates crisis as “Danger+Opportunity” (危机), maybe it does so with a reason.

 

By: Cathy Wang and August He