I caught myself saying (and meaning): “that shouldn’t even be a factor”, about an emotional influence on a business decision.
It shouldn’t even matter.
…
Because that’s what business has been all about, ever since The Wealth of Nations, and the notion that business is about profit first and only.
I didn’t realise how indoctrinated I was! It took me several hours to realise the depth of the wrongness of that moment. Of course it’s a factor. The simple humanity of my colleagues. How things feel. They are things that matter.
Organisations are human enterprises first – and humans are equipped with an excellent moral compass! To ignore its guidance during the pursuit of “business” is to become a senseless machine.
Well. Off to work on some basic human decency skills, and unschool some classic capitalism…