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

“I have never seen the sky so blue in my hometown Shanghai.”

“We stopped shaking hands and hugging in our group of friends. One feels strange about it, but it seems the best for all of us.”

“No more meetings, no more travel. Only video calls. My work became easier in a way.”

“My business suffers because import from China is impossible. There is not enough production and there are no empty containers for transport. It is all a mess.”

“It’s finally possible again to see the sun rising in Angkor Wat without thousands of tourists around.”

“I am not scared about getting ill, but I am scared that I give it to someone.”

After a few months, it is clear that COVID-19 (CoronaVirus Disease 2019) leaves a greater impact on the world as we know it than just the health consequences. COVID-19 disrupts our existence. But this disruption is not only negative. Crises are often catalysts of change. Crises impose a re-evaluation of the actions, structures and systems we have become depended on. COVID-19 seems capable of changing the behaviour of people. Let’s look at a few positive consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.

Working with reduced footprint and in less hours

To keep the spreading of the virus to a minimum, companies impose habit changes in ways of working that can also be a benefit for people and planet in the long run. Working from home, video conferencing, avoiding unnecessary travel create more time for people in terms of work/life balance. We are re-considering our priorities. In the long run this can lead to more remote working and reduced travel. With a positive impact on the climate.

Dialing up the use of Robots and AI

The move towards using more robots and AI to substitute manual labour is unstoppable, but the COVID-19 situation seems to accelerate the urge for implementation. The virus has been a wake-up call for supply chain managers and risk managers across the world. While there will be an initial negative effect on some labour segments, robots and AI increase productivity, lower production costs, and do create new jobs in the tech sector. However, the human consequences of this will ultimately ask for a fundamental revision on human resources and labour in the 21st century, that can’t be fully fathomed at the moment.

A temporarily greener world

Pollution levels across China have decreased tremendously. Two months into the COVID-19 crisis, reports started to appear in mainstream media that showed Nasa maps with falling levels of nitrogen dioxide. The decline in air pollution levels coincided with restrictions imposed on transportation and business activities. This is a positive consequence, but most probably not forever. If production picks up, the pollution will be back.

Local to local businesses thriving 

With supply chains slowing down or coming to a stop, more than ever the world’s reliance on China as “the factory of the world” is starting to be felt. A trend that will most likely follow the coronavirus outbreak will be a further acceleration of the shift towards shorter supply chains on personal, community and industry levels. Shorter supply chains are seen as key in increasing sustainability through the reduction of transportation costs and consequently of CO2 emissions.

Without downplaying the fears and with respect for everybody that currently suffers from the outbreak, the implications of COVID-19 are not only negative. And who knows… they might even offer us a push to a better, more sustainable future.

As a B Corp, we at Innate Motion are always looking towards making business a force for good and maybe this crisis will be the rise of new opportunities for businesses to reinvent itself.

 

By: Ben Bogaerts

As the world changes, so does the politically correct. As we (hopefully) evolve as human beings, we come to realize that what was once considered to be ok, might nowadays actually be racist, homophobic, sexist, or just purely offensive. We at Innate Motion think of the politically correct as being empathy fit: the ability to understand, see the consequences of and act upon our changing environment.

Empathy fitness is a skill that needs to be trained and put into practice and it will be increasingly required in our personal and business reality. To give more clarity on what we mean, we have gathered a series of examples from around the world where big entities and society found themselves unfit for modern times.

CARNIVAL TODAY NEEDS EMPATHY FITNESS 

“But carnaval has always been like that!”
“Everyone makes such a big fuss about women now!”

I grew up with Globeleza. A character created by Globo, Brazil’s biggest television network, and elected yearly by the spectators. Her job is to dance on TV during carnival, practically naked, covered only by body paint and glitter. Sounds like carnival right? Maybe so, but having existed for over 20 years, Globeleza over the last decade has been a motive for discomfort for many women.

It wasn’t until 2017 that Globo did something about it, not spontaneously, but rather as a reaction to the chaos that was generated at the 2016 voting sessions. Then it became clear that women would no longer tolerate the objectification of the female body – in particular, the body of women of African descent.

To give context to the 2016 debates we need to look back at the history of Brazil. Globeleza is always, as referred to by Globo, a “mulata.” This is still a common word used daily to talk about a mixed race woman, but this word was introduced to the Brazilian vocabulary during the slavery period. Lasting for over 350 years, Brazil was the country to most receive enslaved people, with a count of over 50 thousand Africans. Seen as bodies purely used for commercial purposes, the women that sparked any attention from the “big houses” were raped and a large number got pregnant. The baby would then be considered as a mulato or mulata. Descended from a white father and a black mother, the child was referred to as being half human and half mule – the mule itself being an animal that results from a breeding between a horse and a donkey.

Although the name gives a pejorative connotation, “mulatas” became a symbol of desire because of their mixed features and historical context of domination. In 2016, a woman was rejected from winning the Globeleza competition because she was seen as being “too black”, so she did not fit that image of white desire.

This was it for a lot of women, who had for over a decade accepted Globeleza because it was part of a carnival tradition. The black feminist movements, in particular, started to make a lot of noise and to demand respect. They demanded for their bodies not to be treated as a product, and to put an end to this rooted colonialist and oppressive views still so present in society.

Finally, in 2017, women saw a small victory, as Brazilian homes watched the newly elected Erika Moura, who appeared clothed and accompanied by other dancers. She was portrayed as a beautiful woman and a professional dancer, performing traditional Brazilian dances in traditional clothes.

I remember this being huge! People of all ages, were revolted with this “nonsense” because in their view Globeleza was just a character. And I wondered why they could not see that this was a necessary change. Could they not empathize with women? Could they not see that the world had moved on?

Times change, points of view change, societies change. Globo, as the main broadcaster in Brazil, should and could have shown empathy for women in general and women of mixed race specifically at least 15 years earlier. But Globo lacked what we call empathy fitness: the ability to feel the direction the winds of change will take, the capability to uncover the yet unseen forces behind this change and the understanding of why these forces have a justified point of view by going against the path the majority in society still follows.

Of course Globo should have shown respect far earlier for more than half of its audience, and she could have taken an active role in making change happen, leading by example, inspiring others to do what is right and gaining credibility as a societal leader. Instead, Globo behaved as a laggard, merely correcting what was wrong in the first place. Interested? Give us a call!

By: Marcella Nigro

The Change Now Summit is the largest positive impact gathering in the world. Over the course of 3 days, we received visionary talks from a diverse range of speakers, including global business leaders already implementing impact strategies (both purpose or sustainability based), social leaders, academics, investors, and entrepreneurs who have developed sustainable solutions to some of today’s challenges. Around a packed timetable, several hundred solution providers, ranging from Engie to MUD Jeans, showcased the products they’ve created which contribute to a better world. These centered around Circular Economy, Education, Food, Green Mobility, Wellbeing, Low Carbon Energy, Sustainable Fashion, and Tech for Good. The magnificence of some of these creations made it feel like we were navigating the mind of a utopian sci-fi author. Meanwhile, the simplicity of some solutions begged the question how they hadn’t become mainstream already. 

Provided below is an overview of the key take home messages from the event. For the more inquisitive amongst you, I propose taking a glance at the event’s website where you’ll be able to take a closer look at many of the solutions displayed at the show. Who knows, the answer to your existing challenges may lie amongst them… 

Inspiration

As you can imagine, the entire event was doused in inspiration. The opening keynote (Bertrand Piccard) set the tone by emphasising that many of the solutions to today’s problems already exist. He implored that we don’t need to plough time and resources into ideating, creating, and inventing new solutions. Instead, we need to seek out, implement and scale-up the sustainable solutions which already exist, some of whom were exhibiting at the event.

Interestingly, Piccard’s perspective, shared by several other speakers throughout the event, was that the answer to curbing our damaging impact on the world is not to live a lesser life. He sees this as a potentially detrimental notion which curtails the natural development of humanity. Instead, he sees the solution in growth, deploying sustainable solutions to our challenges and, more importantly, losing old, destructive, habits. Front of mind for him was the prospect of reducing carbon emissions from airlines based on the fact he had single-handedly flown around the world based on solar energy little more than three years ago. Proof it can be done (in primitive form). The challenge lies 

with industries to scale the solutions and make them fit for mainstream use. 

Problem Ownership

Some large organisations (e.g. Adidas) acknowledged their contribution to current problems (e.g. environmental destruction) and explicitly took a responsibility to be part of the solution, making changes in their operations, processes and strategic priorities. This appeared to be authentic. Sustainability is now a fundamental part of their R&D process, meanwhile they recognised a need to ensure the welfare of the 1M people in their supply chain. Clearly the scale of making changes for such a large organisation is huge, so it is on partners, their customers and third party observers to simultaneously hold them to account and recognise that meaningful change in an ecosystem as large as Adidas is a marathon, not a sprint. 

Beyond the corporations sharing a sense of duty to change course, there was a sense of co-ownership of the problem across the entire event. The fact that it is our shared societies, and planet, which are in such precarious condition means that we all share a responsibility to change the current course.    

A Time to Collaborate

While this wasn’t an event aimed to dramatise the current state of affairs, there was no escaping the reality of our current plight. Given the predicament, and the shared sense of responsibility and desire to find solutions, there was a recognition that we need to extend beyond our traditional paradigms of competitive business in order to implement category and industry-wide sustainable solutions. Examples of collaboration between Unilever and P&G were shared, notably for the product re-use service (a step up from recycling) called Loop. Through category and industry level collaboration to incorporate better business practices, we mitigate the risk of competitors stealing a short-term advantage through non-compliance and facilitate meaningful behaviour change across the board. Courage, respect and integrity are needed for the process, with some academics and corporate representatives suggesting that objective, neutral, facilitators could have a role to play in the process. Elsewhere, there were cross-industry collaborations between insurance and pharma to help deliver better health solutions, and collaborations between academia, industry experts, entrepreneurs and big business across a variety of behaviour change programmes. 

The requirement for collaboration is nowhere more salient than the the food industry where one third of food currently produced worldwide is wasted. Married up against the knowledge that 800 million people worldwide are malnourished through a lack of food, and 650 million people worldwide are classifiably obese (with a further 1.3bn people overweight) it clearly shows an imbalance in the system. 

Exemplifying Piccard’s opening message, there were several examples of solutions which have the ability to significantly reduce these imbalances. Some lie in technology, some require the removal of regulatory obstacles, and some require a mindset change at a societal level. A genuine desire to tackle these injustices at the event suggested an aire of nobility returning to business which, at its essence, originated to serve society. Those businesses who take on this baton for change in a meaningful manner stand to make some serious gains, both in short term market performance, and in longer term brand equity. With food waste currently costing $18 billion in the US alone, in a food industry whose profits amount to half that at $9 billion, it begs the question how long we’ll have to wait for potential solutions, such as Wasteless (a dynamic pricing service which reduces the requirement for heavily slashed retail prices (and subsequent leftover waste) on the “use by” date), to become a mainstream reality. 

The Economic Argument for Change

It was notable amongst several speakers representing large organisations that economic reasons were key propellants of change in several situations. Leading figures from Axa, Roche, and Danone highlighted the economic reasons behind significant changes in strategy. Furthermore there were examples of sustainable drives having significant consequential financial benefit; Adidas’s first trainer made out of 100% recycled plastic became their fastest selling shoe. By taking a true market-orientated approach – showing a desire to truly understand their customers and how they can be served better – they were able to apply commercial creativity and provide innovative solutions to meet those needs, increasing market share in the process. The result appears to be a win for customers, a win for the business’s brand equity, a win for society (business being done with societal consideration), a win for employees (knowing their work is making a difference), and a win for shareholders. Notably, the executives sharing such stories did so with a sense of pride and joy, two emotions which are too often distant from the stereotypically serious and financially obsessive world of business. 

Final Thoughts

My overarching feeling from being at Change Now Summit is that the rules of business are changing. We’re seeing increased ESG investment, although the (self-reported) commitment amongst investors towards ESG investments does appear to be overstated. In the marketplace we are seeing sustainability increasingly integrated as a key consideration and more purposeful business being rewarded with increased market share and brand equity, and a return of the noble marketers and business leaders who meaningfully seek to meet the needs of the people they exist to serve.

Change Now served as a teaser trailer of what the future of business can look like. With a plethora of sustainable solutions on show at the event, business leaders providing proof of positive financial returns from incorporating purposeful strategies, investors excitedly exploring high-growth, sustainable, opportunities, and a recognition that we need to collaborate together to swing the tide, there is much to be hopeful about. 

By: Mark Hauser