Signs Of The Times: Why 'Being Prepared' Is Taking On New Meanings

The corporate world is driven by business. What is good for business is ‘in’; what is not good for business is ‘out’. But this way of thinking is now changing, caused by emerging new realities that create head-spinning arguments; that what was once ‘bad’ for business is fast becoming indispensable; what was ‘good’ for business yesterday may make your market share disappear tomorrow.

Of course this is not the case for all the good’s and bad’s. But it is for some. The first obvious ‘good’ of yesterday, turning ‘very bad’ today concerns sustainability. In the US, a couple of years back Ford F-150 gas-guzzling trucks were the number one sellers in any category. Today, selling too many of those is bad for your image. So you need to throw a good number of the mini Ka model into the market. But a few years back doing so would have been really bad for your image. Well, times are changing – rapidly.

Leaders and managers these days must pay attention to variables that in the past were off their screen. The marketplace is changing too fast for dogma to rule the day. Many managers I know are ignoring the ‘quiet revolution’ phenomenon of the exponential increase in interest in spirituality. A few years back, I started working with the top executive structure of a large multi-national. The first thing I was introduced to was a ‘secretive’ circle that some of them were members of, that used to meet frequently outside the office, outside office hours, to discuss spiritual matters. Today it’s not ‘secretive’ any more. People are outspoken in their need for spiritual nourishment. And, in how spiritual insights are increasingly important for business development.

Why so? Well, at the end of the day all business is fundamentally about one thing: Delivering goods and services to human beings. If there is a shift in moods and behaviour patterns, business better take notice, because progress takes no prisoners in terms of brand loyalty. We are loyal to what we perceive as ‘good’ and ‘in’ and these perceptions can have increasingly short ‘shelf-time’ these days.

Due to the rapid change in progress, the leaders of today need to take into consideration a much broader, deeper picture than they had to just a couple of years back. The error that some make is to try to explain the change by exclusively pointing to emerging trends from within the framework of the problem – from within how the world has come to be. In doing so, a ‘little’ bit gets left out: The fact that the planet is part of a much bigger and hugely influential system that we call: The universe.

To embark on the little foray into this truly gigantic territory, let’s contemplate a few seemingly unrelated facts:

Top scientists are puzzled – very puzzled – by the fact that over the last two years, sunspots have mostly been missing. Their absence, the most prolonged for nearly a hundred years, has taken even seasoned sun watchers by surprise. "This is solar behaviour we haven't seen in living memory," says David Hathaway, a physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Some scientists are relating to this phenomenon as the “quiet before a massive electro-magnetic storm” that is projected to happen at 2012, that may cause massive failures of electrical grids around the world, the pumps that enable water supply, GPS satellites, the Internet, mobile connections… Can you imagine the havoc?
Feminine power is on the rise. Global networks such as Women On The Edge Of Evolution and Feminenza that are intent on pioneering what they term as a new spiritual age in human affairs that is bringing with it a new balance of power between men and women are gaining enormous popularity and participation.
Volatility is every sector of living is on the rise. In world stock markets, one day the economy is “showing signs of growth” and the next “going down the pan”. Processes that once used to take a few years to culminate are changing polarity every other day or week.

At first sight, the above three – and many more can be added – seem to have little or no connection. But they do, they do. And for the reason given earlier on: The planet we live in is a part of a bigger world that, like radio waves, saturates the air with its own unseen influences. How it works is an enigma, but the thing is: It works. The more we connect deeper to ourselves, the more we can feel and perceive its influence in us.

Now please don’t get me wrong: I am not one of those doomsday people. I am, however, a realist that has spent the last three decades engaging in a serious R&D process to come to grips with the motives and drivers of human behaviour and can confirm the obvious: The general picture is divided between the ‘good’, the ‘not so good’ and the ‘outright bad’. We are ever so fortunate that the good part – human ingenuity and the ability of humanity to prevail – may cary us forward into a new, enlightened age. BUT it may not be within the terms and conditions of our comfort zones.

The future is a mystery that is in the process of unfolding. We are now in the midst of an ‘interim’ time – a change of epoch – moving from a ‘slow’ to ‘fast’ time. And the only way to connect to the magnificent spirit of the new time is through a process of real personal development. The innate potential that exists in the human is truly mind boggling. But its realization is not automatic – it must be explored, discovered and developed.

The future depends on our personal development – probably more than we realize. So who will still be intact in 2013, after the projected 2012 ‘universal Y2K’? Those who will be well prepared, leading themselves and their business – or nations – in a way that ensures that the truth ceases to be a victim of the ultra-short-term bean-counting pressures and stresses that much of the world is caught by.

The way to get there..? There is only one way, which is to work together. No one person has the answer, but by learning to use our collective intelligence we can do the impossible and get there, whatever “there” is meant to be. This is, after all, what the human is made for: To create what is not there through thick and thin and find the motives why on the way.

Signs Of The Times: Why 'Being Prepared' Is Taking On New Meanings

Add comment