CSoc – The Seven Tenets

1st Tenet: Transparency

• Better decisions are made when the information and facts on which a decision is based are true and complete
• An ethos and practice of transparency builds trust which:
• Opens the heart and mind to foster creativity
• Drives innovation
• Solves problems, wins competitive advantage and builds success
• The practice of transparency at the highest level (e.g. sharing of financial information) supports the practice of transparency throughout

Transparency Fosters Success

2nd Tenet: Inter-Dependence

• We produce that which others need, so although each organisation is separate it actually depends on others
• Independent yet dependent – inter-dependent
• Acknowledged and understood inter-dependence fosters collaboration
• Security is enhanced as individual organisations in the network can fail without financial contagion spreading
• Stability is enhanced as organisations are not incentivised to merge

Which all stimulates collaboration…

3rd Tenet: Collaboration

• The biggest problems can be solved by stable organisations prospering in a collaborative network
• Organisations are not incentivised to merge as wealth is not distributed when organisations are taken over
• Transition of control of organisations is brought about according to merit not wealth
• Access to shared common-pool resources of analysis, training and consultancy deepen individuals’ understanding of their organisation and its context
• With no market in shares, shareholder value becomes irrelevant, so organisations manage for the long term
• Organisational size is therefore limited by leadership and management ability – collaboration, rather than merger, is the natural outcome

Wise collaboration can solve the most challenging issues

4th Tenet: Fairness

• Being treated fairly opens people’s hearts to engage and feel that they belong
  • Your organisation’s productivity becomes personal and meaningful
  • When you belong you take responsibility
  • When your heart is open your creativity blossoms too
  • Fair management of profit
• In mature enterprises a third of surplus profit drives cultural development
  • Sharing a further third of surplus profit with co-workers is fair and motivates all to manage costs and push for success
  • Smaller organisations (see previous slide) have a lower differential between highest and lowest paid
  • Sharing profit in proportion to remuneration is simple to work out and fair

A fair system opens hearts and minds…

• People have different gifts but equal rights
  • All do best when each can be their best
  • Allow people to shine at what they are good at
  • Reward ambition and focus power
  • Meritocratic leadership – to purpose – in a transparent environment – where success is shared
• Transparency prospers in a fair system
  • Secrecy is only needed when practices are unfair
• The Civil Ecology Corporation is democratically controlled
  • One person one vote
  • Co-workers, investors and supporters eligible to join

…to foster creativity, release potential and underpin success

5th Tenet: Purpose

• Purpose can align an organisation and the people in it
  • Testing against purpose provides a consistent guide for effective decision making
  • “A thing is right when it enhances the stability and beauty of the whole ecosystem” (Stephan Harding). The most powerful agreements are made when all are engaged, and, in light of all available evidence, feel happy the decision will best achieve the shared purpose
  • Accountability to what was agreed
  • Outcomes tested against purpose
• Purpose holds meaning that co-workers may notice aligns with their own purpose
• Member organisations’ purposes are consciously aligned with the Civil Enterprise Corporation’s purpose
• The Civil Enterprise Corporation provides a purpose lock to its members

Purpose is precious because it makes working life meaningful

6th Tenet: Entrepreneurial Spirit

• Entrepreneurship is personal and the entrepreneur must be left free to manage the organisation
  • Leading an organisation to success demands creativity
  • Leading an organisation requires skill
  • Independent organisations led by entrepreneurs / directors who know what they are doing are accountable only to themselves within the law
• Profit is handled differently in ‘immature’ enterprises
  • Start-ups require entrepreneurial sacrifice
  • Only some people are interested and capable of starting an organisation / enterprise
  • The capital value of a successful start-up is therefore the property and reward of the entrepreneur
• The release of the start-up capital to the entrepreneur at the enterprise’s maturity marks full entry to the Corporation for the enterprise

Entrepreneurs generate organisational substance and so entrepreneurship is respected and cultivated

7th Tenet: Capital - managing surplus

• In “immature” enterprises profit supports development of capital and the rewarding of entrepreneurship
• In mature enterprises profit is managed in three ways
• Rewarding co-workers
  • 1/3 of profit is paid back to the co-workers who made it
  • In proportion to remuneration
  • Only if the co-worker has personally become a member of CEC*
  • Paid through CEC, not directly
• Investment fund
  • Providing cash to buy enterprises into the CEC
  • Providing development loans for enterprises in the CEC
  • Growing the CEC
• Cultural development fund
  • Funding training, research and consultancy
  • Funding cultural realm enterprise
  • Growing the capacity of the CEC to grow

Surplus profit from established enterprises drives three virtuous cycles to develop motivation, investment and capability