Conscious Business

Conscious Business Plot Summary

Introduction

The meeting room fell silent as Edward threw the financial report on the table. "This is a disaster! I can't bring it to the board. It's shameful," he exclaimed. Christina, who had spent days preparing the report, was stunned. "What? It's a perfectly good report! My team spent the last five days preparing it," she responded, her voice rising with frustration. As Edward stormed out, Christina collapsed in her chair, muttering, "What a jerk! Nothing is good enough for him. I have no clue what he wants." This scene plays out daily in organizations worldwide, where misunderstandings, conflicts, and communication breakdowns sabotage productivity and damage relationships. At the heart of these issues lies a fundamental challenge: how to conduct business with consciousness, integrity, and mutual respect. Through practical frameworks and real-world examples, we'll discover how taking unconditional responsibility, practicing essential integrity, embracing ontological humility, communicating authentically, negotiating constructively, honoring commitments, and mastering emotions can create extraordinary results in our professional lives and beyond.

Chapter 1: The Responsibility Paradox: Al's Shipping Crisis

"You're late, Al," says John with a grimace. "Again." John is the procurement vice president for Al's largest client, and he is clearly not a happy customer. "I'm sorry, John, my previous meeting ran over. The client was late and everything got delayed," Al explains. John's frustration only grows: "It's not the meeting, Al, it's the delivery. We are still waiting for your shipment, the one that was supposed to arrive last week! Our plant is starved for parts—your parts." Al becomes defensive: "Well, that's not my fault. The freight company dropped the ball. They screwed up the paperwork and delayed the whole thing." John's patience evaporates: "I don't give a damn whose fault it is. We can't afford delays." Al leaves John's office muttering under his breath about unfairness and how he's being blamed for problems he didn't create. The conversation fails on multiple levels: the shipping problem remains unresolved, the relationship deteriorates further, and both men walk away feeling worse than before. Al's explanations, while factually accurate, are the weakest and most unproductive part of the truth. They disempower both him and John, making it more difficult to resolve the problem. What if Al had approached the situation differently? What if, instead of explaining why he wasn't responsible, he had focused on what he could do to address the situation? He might have acknowledged the delay, apologized sincerely, and immediately proposed solutions: "I understand we have two problems: my being late to this meeting, and the more serious delay of your order. I feel fully accountable for both and would like to address them. What if I arrange to have a portion of your order shipped by air this afternoon, at our expense?" Response-ability is your ability to respond to a situation. It doesn't mean you're responsible for circumstances beyond your control, but rather that you always have a choice in how you respond to them. The victim focuses only on factors they cannot influence, seeing themselves as someone who suffers the consequences of external circumstances. The player pays attention to factors they can influence, seeing themselves as someone who can respond effectively. This distinction between victim and player represents a fundamental choice in how we approach life's challenges. When we adopt the stance of the player, we give up hoping for things to be different than they are. We take reality as the challenge that allows us to show who we really are and what we stand for. The price of power is accountability, but the reward is freedom, dignity, and effectiveness in every situation we face.

Chapter 2: Integrity Beyond Results: William's Sales Challenge

William did everything he could to avoid meeting with his boss, Zack. But the latest sales report dashed his hopes of keeping the bad news contained. The revenue shortfall would impact the bottom line of the whole U.S. operation. William needed to tell Zack the bad news even though Zack had made it clear that he didn't like bad news at all. "We will not meet the sales quota," William finally admitted. "Great!" Zack grunted sarcastically. "What happened?" William explained that despite their best efforts, several customers had canceled orders due to the recession. Zack's response was harsh: "Oh come on, don't give me that crap. This is exactly what we talked about in that Kofman seminar, all that stuff about taking charge and not being a victim. You can't avoid responsibility! Don't blame the recession. It's you who's screwing up, and if you want to be a player, you've got to fix it!" Later, in a coaching session, William expressed his frustration: "I am not a victim! My team and I are working as hard as we can, and we are still failing. Besides allowing Zack to blame us for the recession, what good is your notion of unconditional responsibility?" William had misunderstood a crucial point: taking responsibility doesn't guarantee success. There are always factors beyond our control. We can lower prices, offer incentives, or implement other strategies, but we cannot choose to make customers buy from us. In another scenario, Zack took a different approach: "I'm disappointed as well, but it is what it is. I'd like to work with you and focus on what we can do about this. Do you guys have any plans?" When William replied that there was nothing they could do because the recession wasn't their fault, Zack gently redirected: "Of course the recession is not your fault, but that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do. The rain is not our fault, but we open umbrellas to stay dry..." This opened a productive conversation about recession strategies and using sales resources for marketing and relationship building that would yield fruit in the next economic upswing. The distinction between outcome and process allows us to look at our actions differently. Every action has two purposes: to move toward a desired result and to express our values. When we act with integrity, we attain "success beyond success." The good news is that we can guarantee this deeper success, even in a world where ordinary success is beyond our control. We can always choose to act with integrity because we control our own behavior. This gives us a safety net of peace and dignity when things don't work out as planned.

Chapter 3: Multiple Perspectives: The Red-Green Block Experiment

Jean Piaget, the French developmental psychologist, conducted a revealing experiment. He met with a series of children and handed each a wooden block painted green on one side and red on the other. Sitting face-to-face with the child, he held the block between them with the red side toward himself and the green side toward the child. Piaget asked the child to identify the color they saw. The child always answered correctly, "Green." Then Piaget asked a penetrating follow-up question: "What color do you think I see?" Most children younger than five years old answered, "Green." They proved incapable of recognizing that the person across the table could see something different than they did. Older children gave the correct answer, understanding that while they saw green, the researcher saw red. These children had developed a sense of perspective, the ability to appreciate a situation from another's point of view. After fifteen years of consulting work, many executives have never learned this basic lesson. They never question the absolute validity of their own perspective. They assume that if they think a report is a disaster, the report must be a disaster. They see the proverbial green paint on their side of the block and assume that everybody else's side must be green as well. This ontological arrogance—the belief that your perspective is privileged, that yours is the only true way to interpret a situation—is normal in children but much less charming in adults. Consider an image of two stick figures looking through what appears to be a window. That's the common interpretation given by Westerners. When African villagers look at the same image, however, they see something entirely different: a mother and her son taking refuge from the sun under a palm tree. The image can be seen in two different ways, each as valid as the other, yet we rarely see both possibilities simultaneously. Ontological humility is the acknowledgment that you do not have a special claim on reality or truth, that others have equally valid perspectives deserving respect and consideration. There are many ways to look at the world, and each way has its bright and blind spots. Only from the perspective of ontological humility can you accommodate diversity and integrate it into a more inclusive view. When we shift from ontological arrogance to humility, we stop taking ourselves so seriously. We relax our opinions and lose the smug notion that our views are obviously correct. This undermines our natural conceit and opens us to curiosity and wonder. Humor is often the royal road to ontological humility, as it shows us that our interpretation of the world is not the real world itself.

Chapter 4: Authentic Communication: Sharon's Difficult Conversation

Sharon ran the human resources department of a telecommunications company. Her boss, Patricia, proposed a change in the company's benefit policy that Sharon found unfair, and a move certain to destroy employee morale. Sharon wanted to share her frank opinion without offending her boss. After much internal debate, she requested a meeting with Patricia, who didn't respond for a week. Finally, she invited Sharon to her office. During their conversation, Sharon thought many things she never expressed: "She's not even listening to me," "This is going to be a disaster," "She doesn't care about the employees at all," "I hate working for her." Instead, she kept her comments superficial, focusing on the announcement rather than the policy itself. Patricia remained equally guarded, and the meeting ended with nothing resolved. Sharon walked away feeling confused, hurt, and resentful. In a coaching meeting, Sharon related her frustration. "I know that I need to discuss this with Patricia, to tell her what I really think," she reflected, "but when the moment arrived, I hid my truth. I knew that there was little hope of scrapping the plan unless I revealed my misgivings, but if I shared my real opinion I probably would accomplish little other than exacerbating my bad relationship with my boss." This dilemma is common in difficult conversations. We feel we can't express our true thoughts because they seem too toxic, yet withholding them prevents us from addressing the real issues. The solution is not to dump our raw thoughts ("You're a jerk who doesn't care about employees!") or to swallow them entirely, but to refine them—to transform our left-hand column thoughts into productive expressions that can be shared safely. What if Sharon had approached the conversation differently? "Patricia, I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me. I have some concerns about the proposed benefits change that I'd like to share with you. My worry is that employees will see this as unfair, especially given the company's strong financial performance this year. I'm concerned about the impact on morale and retention, particularly among our most valuable team members. Would you help me understand the reasoning behind this change so I can better support it when communicating to the staff?" Authentic communication requires both productive expression (presenting your viewpoint effectively) and productive inquiry (learning about others' reasoning). The core of productive inquiry is not a technique but an attitude—a profound openness and receptivity, a commitment to listening with total attention. This can only come from a genuine desire to understand the other person, to discover their world with appreciation and respect. As Carl Rogers noted, "If I let myself really understand another person, I might be changed by that understanding. And we all fear change." When we communicate authentically, we create opportunities to address difficult situations with effectiveness while deepening relationships and enhancing the quality of each other's lives. We discover that what we thought was an unbridgeable gap was actually a path to deeper understanding and connection.

Chapter 5: Constructive Negotiation: Bruce and Larry's Vehicle Dilemma

"People are going to die!" screamed Bruce, the chief vehicle engineer. "I don't give a damn about your fuel economy numbers. This vehicle is already too light. If we take out any more mass, we might as well call them rolling coffins." Larry, the executive for regulatory affairs, shook his head. "You may not give a damn, but the government does! If our fleet doesn't meet the CAFE standards for gas mileage, there will be hell to pay." "You're going to have to get your compliance from some other vehicle," said Bruce. "This one is barely crashworthy as it is. Don't bother me any more. Get out of my face!" "Listen, you jerk, your vehicle is not going into production unless I sign off on it. If you don't make it lighter you might as well kiss its ass good-bye..." While Larry and Bruce "discuss" what to do about the new launch, their company racks up about ten million dollars in lost revenue and extra costs each day. Both men are pursuing noble goals—Bruce wants to save lives; Larry wants to comply with government emission standards—yet neither can get what he wants without the other's help. Conflicts are often messy and unproductive, but they don't have to be. The energy of conflict is not inherently destructive; the negative consequences stem from our inability to manage conflicts constructively. There are three factors necessary for a conflict: disagreement (a difference of opinion), scarcity (some limitation preventing each party from obtaining what they want independently), and disputed property rights (disagreement about who has the power to allocate resources). Most people approach conflicts thinking only about ego gratification, adopting the perspective of the narcissist. The narcissist is more interested in winning over the other than in actually getting what they really want. They would rather hurt their counterpart than improve their own situation. This approach stems from identification—when we identify so strongly with our ideas that we cannot distinguish the thinker from the thought, making any disagreement feel like a personal attack. Constructive negotiation offers a different path. It allows people to express and understand each other's needs and create new solutions. People become focused on winning with the other rather than over the other. They understand that to create the most value, they need a working relationship founded on respect for every individual's interests. This approach reveals people's preferences and constraints and engages everyone in constructing solutions that go beyond the original alternatives. The key is to loosen attachment to surface positions and focus on true interests. Instead of Bruce and Larry fighting over whether to make the vehicle lighter, they might explore their underlying interests: safety and regulatory compliance. This could lead to creative solutions like redesigning specific components to be both lighter and stronger, or redistributing weight reductions across the vehicle fleet to maintain this model's safety while meeting overall standards.

Chapter 6: Impeccable Coordination: The Promise That Matters

Maria, a marketing manager, was furious. "Carlos promised me the sales figures by yesterday, and I still don't have them. Now I can't finish my presentation for tomorrow's executive meeting. This always happens with him!" When confronted, Carlos appeared surprised: "I don't remember promising any specific date. I said I'd try to get them to you this week." This scenario plays out constantly in organizations. People make ambiguous commitments, interpret them differently, and then feel betrayed when expectations aren't met. The result is missed deadlines, strained relationships, and a culture of blame rather than accountability. Effective coordination requires clear requests and promises. When Maria asks Carlos for sales figures, she needs to specify exactly what information she needs and by when. Carlos needs to respond with a clear commitment: "Yes, I will send you the complete Q3 sales breakdown by 5 PM Thursday," or negotiate an alternative: "I can't get you everything by Thursday, but I can send the top-line numbers then and the full breakdown by Monday. Would that work?" A promise creates a relationship between two people—the requester and the promiser—and establishes a future that didn't exist before. When we make a promise, we're not predicting the future; we're creating it. This is why impeccable promises are so powerful. They coordinate action and build trust. In one manufacturing company, production delays were common because maintenance work wasn't completed on time. Investigation revealed that maintenance workers were making promises they couldn't keep because they felt they couldn't say no to production managers. A new protocol was established: maintenance workers were taught to make responsible promises based on their actual capacity, and production managers learned to accept realistic timeframes rather than demanding impossible ones. Within three months, on-time completion rates rose from 20% to 85%. The cycle of coordination has five steps: making a request, negotiating the request, making a promise, performing the promised action, and declaring completion. Problems can occur at any stage: unclear requests, ungrounded promises, poor performance, or failure to close the loop. By mastering each step, we create a foundation for trust and effective action. Impeccable coordination isn't just about getting things done; it's about integrity. When we honor our word, we demonstrate that we value our relationships and ourselves. We show that we can be counted on, that our word means something. This builds a reputation and a self-image of trustworthiness that becomes a virtuous cycle, making each subsequent commitment easier to fulfill because our identity is at stake.

Chapter 7: Emotional Mastery: David's Meeting Meltdown

David, a normally calm and collected executive, exploded during a staff meeting when a colleague questioned his department's budget request. "If you think you can do better with less money, be my guest!" he shouted, slamming his notebook shut and storming out of the room. Later, David was mortified by his behavior. "I don't know what came over me," he confessed. "I've been under a lot of pressure lately, but that's no excuse." Emotions can hijack our minds and trigger actions we later regret. Under emotional stress, our psychological defenses often collapse, and we revert to automatic patterns of fight or flight. These biological responses are entrenched in the most primitive part of our nervous system, known as the reptilian brain. When intense emotional energy overcharges our system, we blow the proverbial fuse. The ensuing short circuit puts the rational part of our mind offline and allows atavistic impulses to take over. Some people respond to this reality by trying to suppress their emotions, pushing them into a dark corner of their minds. But this strategy defeats its purpose. In the shadows, beyond the reach of awareness, emotions grow until they become strong enough to mount an assault and take control. If we manage to repel them, they revert to covert tactics, creating stress, anxiety, depression, and other psychosomatic diseases. Emotional mastery doesn't mean eliminating emotions—they are essential signals that provide valuable information about our needs and values. Instead, it means developing the capacity to experience emotions without being overwhelmed by them. This requires three key skills: awareness, acceptance, and appropriate expression. Awareness involves recognizing emotions as they arise, naming them accurately, and understanding their triggers. "I'm feeling anxious right now because this deadline reminds me of a time I failed publicly." Acceptance means allowing emotions to exist without judgment or suppression. "It's okay that I'm feeling anxious; this is a challenging situation." Appropriate expression involves channeling emotional energy constructively rather than destructively. "I need to acknowledge my anxiety and take a few deep breaths before responding to this email." Through practices like mindfulness meditation, journaling, and honest conversations with trusted colleagues, we can develop emotional mastery. This doesn't mean we never feel negative emotions; it means we can feel them without being controlled by them. We can experience anger without lashing out, fear without freezing, and sadness without collapsing. We can use our emotions as information rather than letting them dictate our actions. As we develop emotional mastery, we become more resilient in the face of challenges. We can maintain equanimity under pressure, keeping our hearts open and our minds sharp. We can respond to difficult situations with wisdom rather than reactivity, choosing behaviors aligned with our values rather than our impulses. This is the ultimate freedom—not freedom from emotion, but freedom within emotion.

Summary

Throughout these chapters, we've explored how consciousness transforms business from a mechanical process into a deeply human endeavor. From Al learning to take unconditional responsibility for shipping delays to William finding integrity amid sales shortfalls, from Edward and Christina discovering the power of multiple perspectives to Sharon navigating authentic communication with her boss, from Bruce and Larry constructively negotiating vehicle safety standards to David mastering his emotions under pressure—each story illustrates how consciousness elevates business interactions from unconscious reactions to conscious responses. The journey of conscious business begins with a fundamental shift in mindset: from victim to player, from attachment to integrity, from arrogance to humility, from manipulation to authenticity, from conflict to collaboration, from broken promises to impeccable coordination, and from emotional reactivity to emotional mastery. These shifts don't just make us better businesspeople—they make us better human beings. When we bring our full consciousness to our work, we transform not only our results but also our relationships and ourselves. We create organizations where people thrive rather than merely survive, where purpose and profit coexist, and where business becomes a force for good in the world. The choice is ours, in every moment, to wake up from unconscious patterns and embrace the challenging but rewarding path of consciousness in all our endeavors.

About Author

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Fred Kofman

Alternate Names: Fredy Kofman

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