News channel CNN is giving ‘influential bloggers’ a chance to ask world business leaders a burning question at the forthcoming world economic forum.
The question Fourcultures would ask is:
How much is there?
This question is deceptively simple. Think about it for a moment, then if you like, take the little poll to the right of this page.
The answers given at Davos would increase awareness of the way our assumptions are conditioned by the four biases described by grid-group cultural theory. Given the context – a meeting of world business leaders – it can be predicted that the most popular answer by far would be:
‘There is plenty, as long as we harness our ingenuity and hard work’.
It would speak of, in Rupert Murdoch’s words, ‘what happens when human talent, ingenuity and ambition is given free rein’. This is the world view of the individualists, for whom the world is a cornucopia, to be unlocked by innovation and personal prowess.
The second most popular answer would be:
‘There is enough, as long as we regulate it properly’.
This is the hierarchical approach, and it is to be remembered that, internally, many large businesses are effectively hierarchical bureaucracies.
Way behind would be
‘There’s not enough – we’ve got to change our values, share more and be more frugal’.
Unfortunately this is the answer of most egalitarians, including a large part of the green movement. I say unfortunately, simply because it’s hard for them to see that when they speak with business leaders they’re often speaking a different language.
Also unpopular would be
‘How should I know how much there is, let’s just spin the wheel and see where the ball lands!’
This is the fatalist worldview, and it’s extremely populareverywhere except Davos. But in their spare time, the business leaders of Davos may well apply exactly this approach to life; indeed there was something of this about the financial markets prior to the recent crash.
These four answers to the question ‘how much is there?’ don’t just contradict each other, they actively compete.
So when the Transition Culture website (a meticulously egalitarian and wonderful endeavour) works out its question for CNN, it’s hardly surprising that the question chosen starts with the words
‘On a finite planet…’
Picture the business leaders at Davos rolling their eyes and saying ‘Let’s just stop right there – who says it’s finite?’
For as long as business leaders think the environmentalists are really just defeatists, we have a big, big problem. Conversely, when the environmentalists learn to translate their words for the benefit of their hearers, we begin to have a solution.
Four Cultures 