Bringing back the Soul to Business

Gary Hamel nails the need for bringing soul back to business in this article entitled "The Hole in the Soul of Business"

A noble purpose inspires sacrifice, stimulatesinnovation and encourages perseverance. In so doing, it transformsgreat talent into exceptional accomplishment. That’s a fact—and itleaves me wondering: Why are words like “love,” “devotion” and “honor”so seldom heard within the halls of corporate-dom? Why are the idealsthat matter most to human beings the ones that are most notably absentin managerial discourse?

This article brought back to mind one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies - Dead Poet Society.

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. Weread and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And thehuman race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business,engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life.But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. Toquote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of theserecurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filledwith the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That youare here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goeson and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* andyou may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

The nature of our networked world in which we now have the power and ability to participate is pretty darn exciting.  We just have to remember to not strip technology from it's human essence.