A beloved economy. Doesn’t that just sound like an economic ecosystem you want to be part of? Well, it can be. There are organizations out there who have innovated HOW they do work and broken out of business as usual – to stellar results. And the great news is that everyone can contribute to practicing a beloved economy – reorienting how we work to share power and unlocking well-being, meaning, and connection.
Joanna Cea and Jess Rimington are co-authors of Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work. They spent seven years researching the common traits of successful beloved economies across diverse teams and enterprises. Today Joanna shares what is a beloved economy and how to transform business as usual in a “loveless” economy. We discuss the role of “bad actors” in breakout innovation, and Joanna digs into two of the seven practices – seeking difference and trusting there is time – and explains why they work and how they can be applied.
To access this episode transcript, please scroll down below.
Key Takeaways:
- The way we work together matters – and it is a potent force for change, not just making the work environment a warm and fuzzy place.
- We need leaders to step up and take ownership of doing something different than what has been done before. People want to be doing things in a different way but are often too afraid to speak up.
- The rules are created by society. If we don’t like them, we can work together to change them.
“The economy is something we all make and remake every single day. Yes, there are big structural forces at play, but there’s also the accumulation of 1000 little decisions and actions that we each make every day.” — Joanna L. Cea
About Joanna Levitt Cea, Co-Author, Beloved Economies
Joanna Cea is dedicated to reimagining investment and funding practices to lift up the well-being of all. She has worked in community-driven efforts to stop destructive investments that threaten local livelihoods and ecosystems, and she has also helped launch solutions that enable communities to determine our own economic futures. Joanna led the human rights organization International Accountability Project for eight years, and served as founding director of the Buen Vivir Fund with Thousand Currents.
About Jess Rimington, Co-Author, Beloved Economies
Jess Rimington is a next economy strategist focused on the design and ethics of emerging post-capitalisms. Her practice and research is grounded in historical analysis, accessible truth-telling, and present-day experimentation. Jess’s work is informed by over a decade of experience leading two global organizations–as both an Executive Director and Managing Director–building cross-cultural staff teams with innovative work cultures rooted in power-sharing.
Connect with Joanna L. Cea and Jess Rimington:
Beloved Economies Website: https://www.belovedeconomies.org/
Book: Beloved Economies: https://www.belovedeconomies.org/book
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FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW:
Welcome to the empathy edge podcast the show that proves why cash flow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. I’m your host Maria Ross. I’m a speaker, author, mom, facilitator and empathy advocate. And here you’ll meet trailblazing leaders and executives, authors and experts who embrace empathy to achieve radical success. We discuss all facets of empathy from trends and research to the future of work to how to heal societal divisions and collaborate more effectively. Our goal is to redefine success and prove that empathy isn’t just good for society, it’s great for business. A beloved economy, doesn’t that just sound like an economic ecosystem you want to be a part of? Fact is it can be. There are organizations out there who have innovated how they do work, and broken out of business as usual, to stellar results. And the great news is that everyone can contribute to practicing a beloved economy. reorienting, how we work to share power, and unlocking well being meaning and connection. Joanna, Cea and Jess Remington are co authors of the book, beloved economies transforming how we work, they spent seven years researching the common traits of successful beloved economies across diverse teams and enterprises. Jess and Joanna both served as a visiting scholar with Stanford University’s Global Project Center, where they co facilitated research with more than 200 collaborators to identify co creative practices that awaken next economies. Their research led to identifying seven common practices as a framework to cultivate economic imagination, contributing to and building on visions of collaborators. These practices can help you reimagine work. Today, Joanna is here to share what is a beloved economy and how to transform business as usual in a loveless economy. Joanna is dedicated to reimagining investment and funding practices to lift up the well being of all, she’s worked in community driven efforts to stop destructive investments that threaten local livelihoods and ecosystems. And she’s also helped launch solutions that enable communities to determine their own economic futures. Joana led the human rights organization international Accountability Project for eight years and served as founding director of theBuen Vivir fund with Thousand Currents. Her co author Jess Remington, is a next economy strategist focused on the design and ethics of emerging post capitalism’s her practice and research is grounded in historical analysis, accessible truth telling, and present day experimentation. Today, Joanna and I discussed the role of bad actors in breakout innovation. And she digs into two of the seven practices highlighted in their book, seeking difference and trusting there is time and explains why they work and how they can be applied. Mostly, this discussion will inspire you to stop waiting and start transforming the way your organization gets work done. Take a listen. Welcome Joanna Cea, co author of the book Beloved Economies: Transforming How We Work, which you co authored with Jess Remington, welcome to the empathy edge today to talk about beloved economies.
04:26
Thank you so much, Maria, for having me here.
Maria Ross 04:29
And I love this topic, obviously, which is why it’s such a great fit for the podcast because I truly believe we need to change the way that we work, especially given that we spend the bulk of our time at work. So let’s get right to it. And let’s talk about what you mean by the term beloved economies.
Joanna L. Cea 04:46
Hmm. It’s a very good question. And it’s one that doesn’t have a quick one liner answer. And I think it’s hard to explain what we mean without also contrasting it. With the dominant economy that we’re in today, which we ended up describing in the book as the loveless economy. And because this is the water we’re all swimming in and have been swimming in for so long, it’s hard to realize that anything else could be possible. But the way we kind of break things down in the book is looking at business as usual, which we operate in right now. And the way that it, the whole structure of our current manifestation of capitalism in the US is rooted in maximizing the accumulation of profit for a few in a way that actually ends up feeling pretty loveless for everyone involved. And the what we explore with beloved economies, and I’ll say in a moment who shared that framing with us, is the possibilities to still be successful and thriving. In metrics measured by business as usual, you know, when it comes to financial success and resilience, and exceptionally high quality products and high retention on your team, and also be achieving things that do make life feel more beloved, the teams and groups that we followed in the research, all we’re achieving kinds of success that people involved, not just the staff, but stakeholders, community, members, clients, whoever, many people involved were describing as bringing more purpose and sense of connection, and even joy. And the question that Jess and I really started with that began this journey many years ago was, if something else is possible, why are we so often trapped in very draining harmful modes of work, and what is possible when we innovate out of them. And so we ended up looking for examples of kind of bright spots of entities that were really departing from mainstream ways of work in their field in a significant way, and who are achieving kinds of success that felt very beloved to those involved, and that journey, and what we found and what we ended up kind of surfacing together with all those groups is what became the book that is now beloved economies.
Maria Ross 07:24
So when you were doing your research, did you find that people were using that term of Beloved, were they talking about love when they were describing where they worked? Or what they enjoyed? Or what motivated them? How did you come up with that term?
Joanna L. Cea 07:37
So we thank you for that question, Maria, because very importantly, as we lag in the book, we did not come up with that term. We were several years into the research, when we learned about the work of Dr. Virgil a Wood, who is an economic activist, and theologian and educator in his 90s, who has been working on these issues since his involvement in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. In the US, and Dr. Wood upon hearing about our work and finding said, it sounds to me, like what you’re describing is a beloved economy. And we were both just instantly haunted and compelled by that frame. Because, you know, it of course, links to Beloved Community, which Dr. Martin Luther King and so many others spoke to. And it also it’s such a provocative kind of dissonance, you know, like how could beloved and economy go together. And something that Dr. would emphasize, which was also something we were coming to in our work is a beloved economy is not like a top down prescription that is exactly, you know, this mechanism and model, it’s more something that emerges from the bottom up, and is deeply informed by the way we work together. And by new possibilities for care and shared ownership, and different models of ways that wealth and the benefits of working together can be distributed, that make the economy feel more like an ecosystem and less like something We’re surviving every day.
Maria Ross 09:20
I love that idea of making it an ecosystem and not just something to be survived because that is the tragedy to me is that we talked about this before we started recording this idea of this is where we’re spending the bulk of our time exactly. Shouldn’t it be a place that’s nourishing us and where we’re able to bring our full selves and where we’re able to thrive and collaborate and I often talk about, you know, the workplace being a playground for developing the skill of empathy because it’s an auto immunity for us to practice. When we’re in an environment where there is so much give and take. There is you know, there are so many diverse individuals with different needs and different goals and different desires. And so I love the idea of let us it would be so great to stop looking at work as this drudgery that we survive until we go home at the end of the day, or the end of the shift. And I know that’s a luxury for some people. But if we could adopt this idea that this, what I call the both and, and I talked about it in my book, like we can be compassionate and competitive, we can have cashflow, and compassionate and we can have ambition meshed with kindness. Why do you think and in your research? What did you find to be the reason why even with all the research, even with all the data, you know, I had a guest previously that talked about all the data points around how well purpose driven organizations do versus ones that don’t have a clear purpose? I feel like all the data and research is there. And yet, we’re still operating in this, you know, kind of what you talked about this loveless model? What do you think is the hesitancy? Is it just fear? Is it they don’t know what to do? Is it just this is the way it’s always been done?
Joanna L. Cea 11:08
Her? It’s a very important question. And it’s one we did look at a lot. And one of the chapters in the book explores that in particular one called they may try to stop you. Because we found there’s a lot of fear and resistance to reimagining how we work, both before you start. And then most baffling sometimes in the cases that we were following groups were starting to be incredibly successful, based on big departures, going more toward purpose and empathy and care, as you’re saying, and then, you know, someone would shut it down, or a few people would freak out. And even if it This success was in their best interest. And so really looking at where this comes from, you know, there’s no definitive answer. But depending on who we are in our identities, and know many of us in our lineage, or communities lineage, have histories of economic alternative efforts being very violently shut down. And we also are all operating in a system where, you know, we emphasize that the economy is something we all make, and remake and reify every single day. So yes, there’s big structural forces at play. But there’s also the accumulation of 1000 little decisions and actions that we each make every day. But that’s not a message we get often we tend to be a formally taught event that the economy is this, you know, monolithic thing and structure external to us that we need to operate in its rules, or we won’t survive, you know, and the most exciting kind of big picture takeaway of our research, because many of these groups we followed for as long as seven years through the course of a pandemic, everything that the last few years have held. And we can see and quantify that when teams successfully reimagine and overhaul how they work in ways that center shared power and purpose and well being, it’s actually a very important force for economic transformation, we saw a ripple effect happening, like for many of these groups, their success, then embodying that something else is indeed possible, ended up sparking shifts in norms in their sector, it ended up like reinforcing labor, organizing efforts, even changing what can be on the table for policy. And so the kind of overall call to action, if you will, from our research and book is, hey, the way we work together matters. It’s not just a warm fuzzy for SNR teams, it’s actually a really potent force for change. And yes, we all have different kinds of latitude and different constraints, you know, facing how easily we’re able to question the rules. But generally, we all have a lot more latitude than we think we do. And this the last thing I’ll say on that is, especially right now, well, it’s very fresh, having come out of the pandemic, you know, we all just witnessed, we can rewrite the rules of business as usual, overnight on mass. And so what if we really lean into that on our teams, but rewrite them in a way that enables us to step into being examples of economies that do feel more like love?
Maria Ross 14:27
Right, right. And that’s, you know, so much loss, it’s hard to talk about the silver lining the pandemic, but it’s amazing what we’re all the things we say we can’t do until we’re forced to do them. And wouldn’t it be great if we, as humans can learn our lessons time after time after time and say, maybe if we can be proactive about this transformation? If we didn’t have to have some horrible catalyst that made us transform that forced us to budge? It would be so great and I feel like we come out of crises And we say that that’s how we’re going to operate. And then we get complacent again, as human beings, right. And I know that’s just, that’s the way our brains work, our brains don’t like change, and just the way it is of the human condition, but I know the kinds of changes you’re talking about, can lead to great transformation. When you talk about the approach you take, and you talk about the most seven practices in the book, in order to break out of business as usual, that can be really scary to someone who is like, yeah, I want to do it. But oh, my gosh, where do I start? And what if I’m the only person, you know, I’m just one person within this giant organization or giant company. So you know, like, I talk a lot about spheres of influence, and that you can become a model, you can almost create a micro culture within your team or your sphere of influence. What do you say in terms of someone listening to this going, I want to create a culture like that and an environment like that. But how do I even start? Is there a way you can give us a little bit of a summation, or maybe one or two of the principles because we want folks to pick up the book? But where are some starting points and access points for people within those seven practices?
Joanna L. Cea 16:12
Sure. Great question. And I will share that No. And I’ll also say we because we get this question. So often, we included a mini kind of bonus chapter at the end of the book called Getting Started, because that’s the hardest thing is getting started. And you mentioned the seven practices that we found in our research. And we did not expect to find those we weren’t going out trying to find you know, a list of best practices or a code or something. We were just exploring what happens when groups, you know, really boldly breakout a business as usual and are successful what’s happening there. But over time, we ended up realizing that even though the group’s in our we called it our CO learning community, so the cases we followed became part of the active participatory research group, everyone was doing very different things in their day to day work, we have everything from health care providers in the cardiology department, to a youth led social movement organization, to a tech startup, to educational groups to disaster recovery planning. I mean, it’s all over the map. So the language everyone’s talking about of their day to day activities is very different. But we started to realize there was a deeper underlying pattern in how they were working. That was very similar. And we were actually able to do a first in person gathering of folks in the color and community way back in 2016, and then keep the conversation going. And that’s how we together kind of did a sense making process to surface what are these deeper patterns, underlying list access of these groups, and you know, how they’re working. So we like to emphasize, you know, this isn’t a kind of abstract framework that Jess and I just cooked up, it’s actually kind of a backward sensemaking thing collectively surfaced by all these interesting organizations. And finding those seven practices and how strongly all these groups felt about them. That’s what compelled us to write the book. Because it felt like wow, there actually is a framework for how we all can get started and work together and have a greater chance of coming to the kinds of outcomes and ways of work that these groups are that feel really repetitive and replenishing in the context of our current economy. So I’ll just list the practices here. And then I’ll talk about one or two, but in no particular order, they are shared decision making power, prioritize relationships, reckon with history, seek difference, source from multiple ways of knowing, prototype early and often. And trust there is time. And maybe for your question of getting started, I’ll pick two I’ll do seek difference and trust there’s time. So I think one we often kind of don’t underestimate the power of seeking difference and seeking difference in the way that we call the groups in our cool learning community breakout actors that these folks do. So this isn’t just you know, check the box dei work is very important. And we also know some people do it in a problematically check the box kind of way, but we really saw breakout actors be courageous and who they’re bringing to the table together and in the way they’re making that table feel and operate so that everyone really can bring their brilliance and insights and opinions to the table. Whether those are factory managers and factory floor workers or suppose it beneficiaries of a disaster recovery process being brought in as designers are often when we feel stuck like well, I don’t know where the answer is the simple act of bringing together a group that broadly reflects the kinds of lived experience and roles and people who are impacted by our work or the question at hand. That, in of itself unlocks all kinds of wisdom.
Maria Ross 20:16
And it’s also getting a different perspective on the problem. If I’m in a room with people that just see things the way I do, there’s so much I missed, there’s so many other facets of the challenge, or the idea that because of my own experience, or our own experience, we’re missing out on we’re missing out on that innovation and creativity. And, you know, I’ve interviewed several people on the on the show that have talked about this idea of, you know, smart leaders, you know, hire people that say no to them, smart leaders hire people that say, Well, why don’t we do it this way, or, you know, they ban the words like we’ve always done it this way, their vocabulary, because they know that they come up with better solutions. And it might take a little longer to get there. But they waste less time, you know, on the long run. So I love that that’s actually a trait within these amazing breakout teams. And I love the term breakout actors, as a way to identify people who might have often been told in their work environment, they’re too much. They’re a squeaky wheel, right? Not that I’ve ever heard that. But you know, it’s a nice framing of like, the people that are going to challenge you and challenge the decisions. It’s actually good to tight those things with fire to test ideas to test processes. And because in the end, you come up with a better forged product, you come up with a better forged process. So I love that that’s actually a key. I like in what you’re saying to finding what like the common recipe was across all these teams, like what was the what were the you know, it was like, a dash of paprika. Everybody had it? You know what I mean? And so I love that that is actually one that very clearly came through in your research was this idea of like, once again, proving differences good if we embrace it in the right way. And that’s really where I see empathy playing a role is empathy is the fuel that helps difference work. Otherwise, you’re just a bunch of people disagreeing with each other and, and not thinking your point of view is valid over mine, or what have you. Empathy makes it all run. So sorry to interrupt you, I was just so excited by that being one little is what are your main practices? So? So what does that look like in action, like that particular practice? And then I do want to talk about the trust there as time because I think that’s an important one. But we’re what are some ways, you know, someone’s listening, they are a leader, they’re in a company. And they know, you know, from like, you were saying they need to work on D IB initiatives. But what are some ways they can start to seek difference within the teams they have now and start to put foundations for the future in place to start creating that beloved, economy within their organization?
Joanna L. Cea 23:00
You know, no formula for this. But one of the kind of simple practices we saw across breakout actors was, rather than just having one person who’s in charge of ensuring the EI or you know, that it’s really about whatever the key question or issue is at hand, asking multiple people who else needs to be here, who isn’t here right now? Who is impacted by this question, we’re asking by this work that we’re doing. And in kind of a meta way, you seek difference even in seeking difference, right? Like you ask a variety of people in a variety of positions in the organization, what kind of lived experience, job experience, training, whatever, you know, they think needs to be there. And sometimes that in itself, really opens up some new ideas. And then I think just that a number of the groups too, we saw kind of take these steps in widening circles. So you’d, you know, bring an initial group together and then think, collectively, both who else needs to be there? And also, how do we need to be inviting people in during this process so that it is really set up for each person to feel safe and be able to give their full meaningful contribution? Because I’m sure we’ve all seen that mistake done a lot of times to where good effort at recruitment, but not enough effort at process for it to be functional. But then hearing that I know can kind of feel paralyzing like, Oh, what if I do it wrong? What and again, it’s like if we kind of share that and we bring together even if it’s a small group, but with diverse perspectives to help think through that together. We’ve seen that be an effective baseline. So I love this
Maria Ross 24:47
concept of the other principle about trust. There is time because I mean, time is such an enemy of time crunch is such an enemy of innovation of creativity of rethinking the way that we do Do things, because we’re constantly feeling and I think part of it is a narrative, we tell ourselves that we’re short on time. And it was good talk to us a little bit about that principle and how it manifested in the research and in the CO learning groups.
Joanna L. Cea 25:13
Sure. This was actually the last practice that came into view, if you will. And then once we saw it, it was like, oh, yeah, yeah.
Maria Ross 25:23
For everyone, we need to that needs to be a seventh one. Yeah,
Joanna L. Cea 25:26
yes. And it’s the most challenging. I mean, for me, for all, it’s so wrong for exactly the reasons you said. And, you know, we open the that chapter in the book about that practice, saying, you know, this sounds so hard in the context in which so many of us literally feel starved for enough time, I mean, people working multiple jobs, deadlines, having very real consequences, if you miss them, so it’s, this principle isn’t about a idealized like, oh, just live a more spacious life, you know, take time, it’s more about kind of alluding to what you said earlier, Maria, like the go slow to go fast, it can feel hard to even carve out time for a conversation about how we might want to change a process or make it work better for effectively seeking difference or whatever. But when you create that time, and focus on kind of the fundamentals of how we work together in a way that are very transaction Do do do achieve achieved, achieved culture doesn’t usually let us do the results that come out, make it very worthwhile. So it’s this kind of paradox of you let go of a quick means to an end, we have operating to actually then get to an even more meaningful end. And what a lot of breakout actors talk about with this practice. It’s not just about, you know, pushing back to create time for this thinking about how we work for, you know, the time it takes to define what each of these practices will mean for us, and how we are going to activate them in our groups. But it’s also about when you do that, and attune to these things, people tend to kind of drop into a different quality of presence. So it’s both about that, you know, yes, the number of minutes we set aside, but it’s also kind of creating space for profound things that enable us to attune in a different way and even tap into different parts of our insight and innovation. And, yeah, that deeply fuel our work and help kind of reinforce people realizing Wait, it is possible, and in fact, imperative to create time together like this.
Maria Ross 27:44
Yeah, and I think that’s such an important aspect. When we talk about social and emotional intelligence, when we talk about building meaningful relationships at work. When we talk about forming friendships at work, we often see those things as distracting from the work that needs to be done, when those are the very things that enable the work to be done. And no matter how many times we try to tell people, it just seems like you said in the midst of deadlines in the midst of like, order clothes in the midst of Oh, our sales numbers are flagging, what are we going to do to you know, bandaid things, right now, we don’t have time for team meetings, we don’t have time for you know, mentoring, we don’t have time for all these things. But those are the very things that enable you to get through the tough times. And especially if you can be proactive to build those foundations first. And I love what you’re saying, because it’s almost like setting the tone as a leader, have that mindset of like, No, we have enough time. This was the meeting we were going to have but clearly this has come up. We’re going to address this now. And you know, we’re going to talk about different things that we might be, you know, especially right now with like, for example, so many companies doing layoffs, it’s like what is important to shore up and keep those relationships and that community intact, so that it can continue to function. And what I’m seeing is the smart leaders are making time for that in the midst of chaos, finding a way to make time for that. And I know that, you know from my own personal experience, maybe you can relate to this is as someone who’s very type A and very just like go go go. I did always appreciate those people in the meeting who sort of didn’t say anything for a while. And then would speak in a very, you know, even just speak in a very measured way. Like they would just take the temperature of the whole room down so that we can actually take a breath and think clearly. So I was really appreciated them and in the end, right? You’re like, Oh, someone like, you know, gave us the proverbial slap in the face to calm down. Right, actually, you know, someone I had on the show in the past talked about the fact that we actually need to spend more time asking the right Question than trying to come up with the solution. We should actually be spending the time on that and going, Is this really the problem we’re trying to solve? Is this really the issue in front of us? Or is it something else? And you can’t do that when you don’t think you have enough time?
Joanna L. Cea 30:15
Exactly. Yeah. And it’s interesting, because, you know, as we, in the process of writing the book, and each practice has its own chapter, there’s a little vignette in front of it. But it’s very hard to separate the practices from one another, because they all are, you know, very intertwined. And like you’re saying, you know, that operating in that kind of grounded way is very linked to also prioritizing relationship and tapping into other ways of knowing and, but what you’re sharing is making me think of one of the people in our cool learning community. Antoinette de Carroll is the founder of creative reaction Lab, which is a group that has really shaken things up in the design world, in internet helped pioneer at field of design called equity center and community design. And the way they work brings in very diverse stakeholders, if you will, as fellow designers and really gets to asking the right questions, and does processes differently so that you hear those really innovative ideas. And we ultimately decided to feature creative reaction lab in the vignette before trust, there is time. They had so many great stories have like their first session with any clients. It’s like, okay, we’re going to spend, you know, X number of hours today talking about power dynamics, and doing some deep look, history and power dynamics and stuff in our field and our organization. And they almost invariably get an initial big pushback and discomfort of like, wait a minute, I stepped away from my to do list to come do this thing. And you’re telling me we’re not going to get from point A to point Z by the end of the today. And we’re asking these big nebulous questions and, and then by the end of the day, people, or even the end of the session, people are incredibly present. No one’s looking at the clock. They’ve had breakthrough conversations. They saw things they never did before. The questions around history have sparked empathy that they didn’t have before for one another. And they’re like, this is incredible. We can’t wait and incident jianxin She and her team are like, do you remember you didn’t want us to do them so
Maria Ross 32:29
convenient? And not for nothing, but we told you so? No, I love that
32:36
hard to feel like we have permission to do
Maria Ross 32:38
that. Yes. And then you know, it’s a perpetuating cycle. Because in a culture where we think we’re going to be punished for trying to create that flow and create that time, then we don’t do it. And really, it’s what everyone is craving. But no one wants to speak up unless you get a really bold, brave leader that says we’re going to do this differently. Yeah, it gives everyone else permission to say Thank God, we’re gonna do it differently. Because this was not working. Yes. And so it’s almost like we’re in, you know, we’re in dysfunctional relationships. So often in work environments where I think individually, people know the way they want to work. But they’re stuck in this groupthink and this environment where they’re not psychologically safe to say, I want to try to do something differently. And it’s just sad, because everyone, there’s so many people that have the same idea of what they want. And then they go into this office environment together and they’re miserable together. It just erase me sad.
Joanna L. Cea 33:38
No, and we, along that research with the book, so many people, we ask the question like, okay, the phrase, beloved economy, you don’t know anything about what it means or where it came from. But what does it mean to you? Like, what would it feel like if you woke up one morning and stepped out your front door into oblivion economy? The things that people want and dream about are so similar? Yeah. It’s so and then it’s that, like, we are all wanting something very different. So why are we all document what we’re stuck in right now. And our hope is that this book can help us wake up to the power we have, especially with our teams and groups, to choose to imagine and build outside of it. You have to support one another to be living examples that other ways are indeed possible.
Maria Ross 34:29
I love that. I think we’ll just leave it there. Because this is such an important conversation. And I hope listeners will check out the book, beloved economies transforming how we work. Thank you so much, Joanna, for your time and your insights today and for the book that you and Jess have written because I think it’s important that we all embrace. We talk so much about innovating products and services. We don’t talk enough about innovating the way we work. Yes, you know what I mean? And so that’s, you know, what I hope to highlight In this podcast, I’ve highlighted a few other guests. One in particular is coming to mind. Rebecca Freese, who runs a culture of workplace innovation and culture firm called Flynn consulting. And she wrote a book called The good culture. And in the subtitle, it’s something about like creating a workplace that doesn’t suck isn’t the metal. That’s really where we’re not innovating there. We might be innovating with apps and technology, and, you know, ride sharing services and all this kind of stuff. But the organizational structure or the culture structure is still so outdated, and in desperate need of being revamped
Joanna L. Cea 35:38
the culture structure and the ownership and decision making and return structure and that we call that out too.
Maria Ross 35:45
Yep, absolutely. And the beautiful part of this, as I often talk about with rules of leadership, and the way we engage with each other is those are all rules we created, not laws of physics, and so we can change them at Linden if we don’t like them. So let’s do that. So let’s start with your book, beloved economies. Joanna, thank you so much. All your links already have the opportunity to be here. Yes. And all the links will be in the show notes. But for anyone on the go right now. Where’s the best place they can learn more about you and justice work?
Joanna L. Cea 36:16
Sure. You can learn more about us the book and the whole campaign around it at beloved economies.org.
Maria Ross 36:22
Wonderful, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Maria. Take care. And thank you everyone for listening to another great episode of the empathy edge podcast. If you like what you heard you know what to do, please share it with a friend or colleague. And don’t forget to rate and review if you have an opportunity. Until next time and our next insightful guest. Please remember that cashflow, creativity and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Take care and be kind. For more on how to achieve radical success through empathy, visit the empathy edge.com. There you can listen to past episodes, access show notes and free resources. Book me for a Keynote or workshop and sign up for our email list to get new episodes insights, news and events. Please follow me on Instagram at Red slice Maria. Never forget empathy is your superpower. Use it to make your work and the world a better place.
