My mother’s most often instruction to me was to be “considerate”. What she meant was that I needed to think about the affect of my actions on others. It was good advice although I did not appreciate it in the moment. She was also quick to point out when I was only “considering” myself, not uncommon for most of us. She helped me understand that I was affecting much more than I knew by my actions, but also my words. The term, “considerate,” which was impressed on me as a child, came back later in life as “internal and external considering”. I learned to reflect and ask whether I was only wrapped up in myself, e.g. internal considering, or to what degree I am considering my affect on others (e.g. external considering), in wider and wider rings of affect. It is a very good practice and relevant to the question of personal and corporate responsibility.
As I entered the world of economics and business, it was clear to me that the same concepts held true. I wanted to find a way for business leaders to see that being “considerate,” had to be scaled. I aspired to evoke this sense of responsibility in business. To care is really about “considering”, that which is external to our immediate life, and to do so in greater rings of consideration. The term “considering” is, to me, more descriptive of what goes on inside of a person or a business when it is working on responsibility. It is a way of thinking and being that requires us to ask different questions than current responsibility programs tend to ask. And it has business implications.
Internal considering that makes up most of what corporate responsibility looks like, is signified by businesses viewing actions and implications only from the perspective of the business and a few preselected targets. This leave them free to not be considering of their actions on others not on their list. It is not much different than an individual being considerate of our close friends and family and then going on to ignore the impact of their actions beyond that, since it would not matter if they cannot see how it affects others they do not know. My mother would not have accepted that excuse.
There are so many “descriptors” that get in the way of the kind of caring that links u to being considerate. Corporate Responsibility has become associated with best practices and certifications meaning no one else has to be in a state of reflection on such questions and responsibility is taken off the shoulders of the company. What to consider is held by an officer in the company and perhaps a small group of folks and taken off the shoulder of the people who run the business every day. But, without the reflective process of “considering”, we do not connect with the real caring that is required and experienced in responsibility. It is the process of reflecting and considering that leads to responsibility. That is what I mean when I say that to be The Responsible Business, you have to be considerate and in wider and wider rings of external considering.
It is also good business to be considerate. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdnini, points to the “norm of reciprocity.” It turns out that people feel an obligations to return the favor when they experience that another is giving them something first. When people are considerate of them, they are considerate in return. As Cialdini points out it is the best kept marketing secret. It creates a social obligation. An interesting blog by Noel Goldstein reports on the benefit to business of being considerate.