How we build an organization that truly makes the world a better place

Where Paul and I, Georg, as penniless people in our early 20s, took on five-figure debt to implement this idea of plastic-free drinking bottles, which many people neither understood nor approved of? Where we poured our heart and soul into building soulbottles for the last three years, without vacation, and with a salary that barely covered the rent after one year – and then didn't move for almost two years?

Where with the €1 per drinking bottle we donate about 8-9% of our turnover to drinking water projects, even if we make a loss?

Where we do everything in our power to live values like appreciation and support, honesty, and empathy in our daily lives? Not just writing them down on some piece of paper, but truly trying to live them every day within our team, with partners, and with customers?

For the first few minutes, I vacillated between anger (“What kind of self-righteous idiot is that?! She has no idea how expensive it is to produce everything in Europe instead of buying cheaply from China! She should look at my personal bank balance, then that would change VERY quickly!”) and guilt. “Are we really such nasty businesspeople? Is our margin perhaps still a bit too high? We can now pay ourselves salaries of around €1,000 net, which is a pretty decent living in Berlin, at least if you're under 30. Maybe she's right, and this new financial ease is a sign that we're overindulging?”

Because of the environment I grew up in, every criticism makes me feel guilty, like a Pavlovian dog who, in freedom, has to slowly relearn that ringing a bell doesn't necessarily mean food.

So, the feelings of guilt and the accompanying jumble of thoughts had nothing to do with reality, nor did the anger. Instead, they had to do with old patterns. I knew: I could only move forward if I applied what I'd learned over the past five years, namely, to first accept these outbursts of judgment and not condemn them further.

Instead of thinking, "What a bad person I am for feeling so much anger and guilt," I wanted to tap into my underlying vulnerability. Thanks to my training over the past five years, I've been able to do this pretty quickly and smoothly. In this case, it took about 10 minutes. A few years ago, it would have taken at least a few days.

What emerged on a deeper level was, above all, sadness. Pain that what we do, all the passion we put into truly doing business in a new way, and building an organization that is already trying to live the green, just, and happy world we all long for, isn't being seen.

I was also sad that I and our team had not yet done much to make this inner attitude, which I had never seen in such radicalness in any other company, visible to the outside world.

I can really understand the mistrust of organic products. There are plenty of companies that paint themselves as green and then charge a lot of money for their products without actually producing them in a green and ethical way. Without really being serious about it. And how is someone supposed to know, upon seeing the bottle and the price tag for the first time, that we're really serious if we don't tell anyone about it?

This article is a step toward changing that. And it's intended to give you some initial guidance to embark on such a path. If our approach appeals to you. ;)

How we try to live the world of our dreams now.

1. The 4 quadrants of an organization

Before we get started, I will explain a small mental map to you, which helps me a lot to analyze how far we are at soulbottles on different levels, and where we can most effectively start to become an even more radical world-improving organization: The 4 quadrants from the integral theory .

After the explanation, I'll show you specifically where we're already doing well at soulbottles and where we still have some homework to do. A little theory, then we'll let our guard down. So the theory is worth it. ;)

The 4-quadrant matrix is about the combination of four parameters: individual and collective, subjective and objective.
This results in the 4 quadrants:

Brief example: I experience a thought that comes to me phenomenologically (upper left quadrant). This thought has brain-physiological counterparts (upper right quadrant). The thought arises against the background of my cultural influences and development and is shaped by them (lower left quadrant). At the same time, this thought is also shaped and influenced by the social and societal conditions in which I live (lower right quadrant).

When applied to organizations, the following facets arise:

Top left is dedicated to the individual interior view:

How is the individual doing in the organization? How do they feel? What is their primary motivation for being there? Money? Fame? Security? Meaning? Community?
To what extent are certain needs met or unmet? How much does she see meaning in what she does? How strongly is she intrinsically motivated, how strongly is she extrinsically motivated? How connected does she feel to others and to herself? How much love does she have for herself and others?
So it's about introspection, the subjective observation of the individual person. How are they doing? Things that are difficult to quantify, but are primarily qualitative, determining where you need to fire up your emotional sensors.

Top right is dedicated to the individual exterior view:

What skills does the individual have? How much do they contribute to the organization's results? How often do they smile? How often do they hug people? How many emails do they answer per day? How much exercise do they get? How organized are they? How quickly do they learn new things?
How much money does she get for her work? What standard of living does this allow her? Can she afford to save enough for her retirement?
So all the things that you can look at from the outside like a camera, and that all quantified-self-nerds and NLP addicts Bringing tears of joy to the eyes. The outward expression of the inner world of experience (top left).

Bottom left is dedicated to the collective inside view:

What is the organization's culture like? What's the internal atmosphere like? How does communication work when conflicts arise? Are they swept under the carpet, simmering for a long time and perhaps exploding at some point, or are they addressed quickly and fully resolved?
Is there a shared vision and if so, how much emotional traction does it have?
Is there a culture in which people are encouraged to show their full potential, with all their strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities? Or is the prevailing culture primarily concerned with saving face, not showing any weakness, and protecting oneself internally? Is the leadership style based on inspiration and trusting collaboration? Or on pressure tactics and fear-mongering about consequences?
All the “soft” factors that are fortunately receiving more and more attention in the current leadership discussion, but are far too often considered separately from all the other quadrants.

Bottom right is dedicated to the collective outside view:

What are the organization's numbers? How much revenue does it generate, how much inventory is used, how many soulbottles are sold and shipped per month, per week, per hour? How much money is spent on marketing, personnel, and other fixed costs? What is the result at the end of the fiscal year? What are the organization's assets and liabilities?
What is the business model? What is the legal form? How many employees does it have? What is their socioeconomic background, and what proportions are they represented in? What is the age distribution, gender distribution, and the integration and representation of minorities? How is decision-making power distributed within the organization? How do the processes work? What does the organizational chart look like? Who owns the organization?
What is the organization's real contribution to the world? What is its social impact? Its carbon footprint? How does the organization engage with the public?
The 4-quadrant matrix can be applied to all kinds of groups of people, be it an organization, a family, a country, or the entire world.

In many existing companies, the focus is placed solely on the bottom right quadrant. Everything that can be measured in numbers "counts." Everything else is "nice to have." When push comes to shove, all initiatives that affect culture or individuals are subordinated to numbers and external success.

Unfortunately, this perspective also applies to many traditional NGOs. While the goal is to create a better world, the ego quadrants and culture are secondary. This gives rise to the many horror stories of NGOs in which underpaid employees end up suffering burnout in droves or power struggles break out that no longer have anything to do with the cause.

In response to this one-sided view of things, many people seek refuge in environments where only the remaining quadrants count. They do yoga, attend nonviolent communication or NLP seminars, and engage in a lot of group and self-awareness. At some point, however, even this reaches its limits. They try to incorporate these other quadrants into a right-bottom-only organization – and usually fail.

Unfortunately, many people in self-awareness circles stop at this point. They give up, work in unfulfilling, right-bottom jobs because they have to support themselves, and recharge themselves with seminars where only the remaining quadrants matter. If things go well, they become self-employed as seminar leaders or yoga teachers, living exclusively in the remaining quadrants. And often, consciously or unconsciously, they demonize this "lifeless, right-bottom world."

This either-or approach does not bring us any closer to a green, just and happy world.

Many NGOs and social businesses fail to take their impact on the world to the next level because they ignore all quadrants except the bottom right.
Many wise and educated people do nothing to change the systems that leave so many human needs unmet because they don't dare return to the lower-right quadrant, where real, tangible change would happen.

We need all 4 quadrants equally.

We need the and.

The genius thing is that when we include all four quadrants equally, a powerful positive feedback loop is created.

When I, as an organization, create spaces where employees can interact 100% face-to-face, without wearing masks, they are happier, more empathetic, more positive, and more motivated to work hard for the company. This has a positive impact on the company's external image, on customer relationships, and thus on financial results.

When employees can share everything with each other, it helps immensely in uncovering mistakes and problems and learning from them together. This much faster learning process continually takes the organization's positive external impact to new levels.

If I, as an organization, support my employees in their further development, both professionally and personally, they are happier because they experience greater efficiency and effectiveness in their own work, and because they are better aware of their feelings and needs and work through old wounds and beliefs that still prevent them from living life to the fullest.

This also allows them to establish even closer (heart-to-heart) contact with their teammates, improving the team spirit and encouraging others to show their commitment even more. The increased individual efficiency and further improved communication flow within the team, in turn, have a positive impact on the organization's concrete effectiveness and financial results.

If I structure an organization so that its activities solve a real social problem and it is self-sustaining through a functioning business model, this gives me the resources to support my employees in their personal and professional development and strengthens the sense of community, because there is nothing better than creating something together with people you feel connected to - especially when this something makes the world greener, fairer and happier.

This dynamic is what we are all about at soulbottles & soulwater.

2. Where do we stand at soulbottles?

Bottom left

1) Meeting culture

That we are "somehow different" becomes clear to new employees and interns at the latest during our "Personal Relations Meeting." Every two weeks, we meet for two hours in the afternoon at one of our homes for a moderated meeting that focuses solely on relationships within the team. (Many thanks to our In-house NVC trainers Kolja and Jonas , who encouraged us to do this.)

Resolve conflicts, express appreciation, share how you're feeling, and where you could use support. Five rounds of pre-arranged, moderated questions.** This meeting has the following benefits:

There's a dedicated space for addressing and resolving "simmering" conflicts, whose root cause is sometimes difficult to pinpoint, early on. This prevents things from building up, and we can fully utilize the learning potential inherent in every conflict early on.
Because the team repeatedly experiences that conflicts can be resolved, it is increasingly the case that conflicts are addressed and resolved as soon as they arise – because the fear of addressing them has gradually disappeared.
The quality of the facilitation is crucial to ensuring that conflicts are truly resolved and nothing is left hanging. In our case, it is an advantage that, before founding soulbottles, I completed intensive mediation and communication training and worked as a coach and trainer for Nonviolent Communication (NVC) was self-employed (see my old personal blog ).

I would therefore definitely recommend that founders or team leaders take a basic training in Nonviolent Communication. In my experience, this is the fastest and most thorough path to developing the necessary skills and, more importantly, the inner attitude. 

We also bring the personal aspect into our weekly all-hands meetings, but only for a brief check-in – "How am I feeling right now? How am I doing here?" – with the intention of then being able to let go of that and concentrate 100% on the meeting. Because emotions have their dedicated space, they are less likely to interfere with the factual level and thus reduce the effectiveness of the meeting. The likelihood of ego trips decreases. Moving forward together takes center stage.

2) Leadership culture

You can design your corporate culture on the drawing board as much as you like, but in reality, you'll get the corporate culture that you live by as a founder. If you have a problem with money, your organization will most likely have a problem with money. If you're afraid of conflict, your organization will most likely fear conflict and therefore struggle with escalating conflicts instead of resolving them early on. If you're afraid of personal growth, you'll tread water, and your organization will most likely tread water because you're holding it back instead of growing with it.

“Either you grow with your organization, or your organization grows over your head,” says Stefan Merath, by far the best entrepreneurial coach I know. His Books By the way, despite their questionable titles, they're amazing – and no, we don't earn anything if you buy one of his. ;)

That doesn't mean I believe I can "own" an organization. It's a ridiculous concept, really. However, it's definitely true that when you start an organization, whether for-profit or non-profit, you set the framework and culture. And not through your theories, but through your actual, everyday behavior.

For me and us, it's therefore particularly important to always present ourselves 100% authentically. Vulnerable, weak, insecure, and sad, as well as strong, enthusiastic, confident, and happy. It all depends on what's truly alive in me, in us, at the time. This signals to everyone else, "This is a place where I can present myself 100%." That doesn't mean everyone will do it right away. But the longer and more consistently I do it, the higher the likelihood that others in the company will relax and dare to show their full potential.

I still remember the one HR meeting a few months ago in which, in response to the first question, I said the following:

"I'm feeling pretty fragile and thin-skinned right now. I was just shopping at the organic store and witnessed how a mother was treating her child. The little boy was about to run away, and the mother stopped him by holding him back and threatening him with consequences. I saw the eerie coldness in her eyes. I heard the boy's screams and could understand so well that he wanted to run away from this merciless and coercive world. But what really hit me was the helplessness and deep exhaustion that I could see behind the mother's coldness. I walked out of the organic store and started crying. I found it so sad, so tragic that both mother and son had lost so much in that situation. Neither of them got what they needed. Neither understanding, nor lightness, nor connection."

And even as I told it, tears welled up again. When I looked up, I saw so many compassionate, loving faces with shining eyes. Damn, what power! Working with people who accept you 100% in moments like these, which initially have nothing to do with the team or the work.

And now you might be thinking: Uuuuuuh, self-awareness blah blah, they sit in a circle all day, throw cotton wool at each other and don't get anything done.

If you think that, you're stuck in the either/or again. How much passion for our shared work do you think is unleashed when we share such powerful, emotionally connecting experiences? How many mistakes do you think we as an organization avoid if everyone feels safe to speak up when they've messed up or are overwhelmed and ask for support? How much more fun do you think it is to work with people you can share these things with? How much does the quality of life improve?

In the knowledge: “How much strength does it actually take to show oneself weak and vulnerable?”

And we can also be quite "harsh" with each other. We place great value on expressing and accepting unpleasant feedback. Allowing it to touch us and learning from it, instead of falling into the "Who does she think she is? I'm the boss here!" trap. Enduring conflicts when they arise and fully committing to resolving them. Persevering with them. Not demanding, but persistent. Knowing that every conflict points to untapped creative potential. Such harshness is only possible if you also fully embrace the "soft" sides.

3) Recruitment criteria

To strengthen this culture, it is important to hire people who a) are 100% committed to it and b) are capable of supporting this culture. The further they are in their own personal development, the better. That's why we prefer people who have either been with us for 1-2 years or therapy or have, for example, completed an intensive NVC training (see above).

Top left

1) Be the Change

For us, the integration of the top-left quadrant means, above all, that inner work is an important component and a crucial prerequisite for truly contributing effectively to the creation of a green, just, and happy world. The now rather overused quote by Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world," is unfortunately still true.

Part of this is that, as founders, Paul and I place great value on our own personal development. Another part is that we're trying to gradually practice giving each other more honest and clear feedback as a team to support each other in our development. That's why we devote dedicated space to this aspect in our HR meetings.

We also use company resources for the aforementioned intensive NVC training for all permanent employees. And we ensure that the people we hire are already as immersed as possible in the "cooperation, abundance, ease, compassion, trust" paradigm and have internally transformed, as far as possible, the classic "competition, fear, free-for-all, fight, withdrawal" patterns with which we grow up in our society.

Unfortunately, this doesn't always work out the way we'd like. For many people, for example, going to the therapy mentioned above still means that there's something wrong with them. Even though, in principle, we're all perfectly fine. However, through school and beliefs like "Native Americans don't know pain," our society imposes a mental operating system on us that's geared toward blind functioning, not toward living our full potential.

It's like installing MS-DOS on a high-end iPad these days. The computer runs, but only uses 1% of its performance capacity; everything is gray and slow, and every now and then everything crashes. For people, this gray-difficult-everything-crashes-is called depression or burnout.

And our full potential as compassionate beings who live in great relationships, are happy and want to contribute as much as possible to the good of the world, is stunted.

With something like GRP In my experience, you then run something like iOS 7 on it. Everything is colorful, it runs completely different, great programs and games, and it crashes much less often. Life is much deeper and more fun. (Sorry for the Apple metaphor, that doesn't mean I approve of Apple's corporate policies and especially its production conditions – quite the opposite.)

"Being the Change" also includes the recurring review of one's own inner attitude. At least I myself constantly check: Am I acting out of trust and abundance, or out of fear and inner narrowness?

If I act out of fear and inner constriction, which I recognize, for example, when I develop a lot of inner stress and want to work more than 40 hours a week, or when I get angry at people in my team, I try to calm down with a good dose of self-empathy and self-acceptance.

That doesn't mean I'll always be able to do it, or that I'll always notice it early enough. What's important isn't doing it perfectly, but rather the commitment to keep trying and the willingness to resolve conflicts that escalate as a result.

2) Check how the values fit together

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink from it. We only allow people who want to drink into our team. This means that they have a strong drive for self-development, which isn't just expressed in words but also evident in their life path. And this means that we also check whether their core values and general vision of themselves (if they have one, which is an advantage) are compatible with soulbottles.

Anyone whose main goal in life is to get rich quickly and then, after five years, spend the rest of their life drinking Mai Tais on the beach in Bali would have to do a lot to convince us that that's the right fit for us. Although, apart from the horrendous _carbon footprint, we don't mind drinking Mai Tais in Bali every now and then. ;)

Top right

However, all this inner work remains mental masturbation if it does not at some point also express itself in the change of one's own abilities and actions.

The basic skills and activities we are concerned with are, in no particular order, the following:

1) Get all tasks done on your own shoulders with overview and stress-free

Regularly analyze your priorities with an overview and adapt them to external and internal changes. This allows you to notice early on when tasks are growing to the point where they are becoming too much, and act accordingly. This means either letting the tasks go or organizing additional staff. The Getting Things Done Method by David Allen. The Book This is our urgent recommendation to anyone who has too much stress and too little time. A thorough implementation of the insights from this method will save your life. Seriously.

2) Show empathy and non-judgmental honesty towards others.

Even if you feel attacked yourself. For example, if you're seen as a "savvy businessman."

3) Constantly challenge your own fear.

On the The "Fill Your Life With Soul" soul bottle I designed contains, among other things, the phrase "If it scares you, it might be worth doing." Writing this article made me want to run away and hide far more often than all the other activities I've done this week combined. It's not the most pleasant thing, but it shows me that this is also where, at least for me personally, some of the greatest potential for growth lies. So I'm taking a deep breath and trying to keep writing.

Given soulbottles' current growth rate, everyone on the team has more than enough opportunity to regularly take on new tasks they're not yet 100% comfortable with, to face their fears, and to continue developing. Sometimes a little too much, if I'm honest. But how can you know your limits if you don't test them?

4) Prioritize your own well-being.

To build a new culture, you need enough space for reflection, to calm down, and to determine whether we're still on the right path. Or whether we're unconsciously following conventional beliefs that prevent us from living life more fully. For this, sufficient breaks and enough time for relationships and recovery are very important.

That doesn't mean we only rest so we can work more efficiently later, although that is one of the positive consequences of getting enough rest. Rest and relaxation are also valuable in themselves. We don't live to work. We work, often very efficiently, which is great as part of a great, meaningful life.

5) Make unpleasant tasks easy and playful.

Not all tasks are immediately enjoyable. Productivity is often the secret to making unpleasant tasks enjoyable. For example, a tedious task like grinding grain by hand.

And depending on the role at soulbottles, there are also technical skills where it makes sense to regularly block out time to expand your abilities.

Bottom right

If a new attitude toward coexistence isn't also expressed in new structures, this new coexistence is always at risk of being overrun by the current direction of the existing structures. Many alternative projects and movements can attest to this. In the end, practical constraints or the legal situation prevail. At least, if one hasn't addressed the integration and thus transformation of these constraints.

Since we have spent the last two years primarily working on turning soulbottles into a self-sustaining, profit-generating company, this is where we still have the most potential for development.

Decision-making structures

What is already clear to us is that neither traditional hierarchy nor grassroots democracy works for us. Therefore, at the beginning of October, we will Holacracy an organizational system that combines the advantages of hierarchy and grassroots democracy without inheriting their disadvantages.

This means making quick decisions and truly involving everyone where it matters, with a good and clear allocation of responsibilities, and avoiding power struggles or the most persistent individuals winning decision-making processes. This won't get us there, but it is an important step in joint research into how democracy, efficiency, and reliability can mutually enrich each other. This joint research will likely accompany us for the coming years.

Profit orientation as a means

But wait, you say, if you want to make the world a better place, why are you profit-oriented?

There are two answers to this:

The bottom-right answer: While we are legally a for-profit limited company (GmbH) as soulbottles, we are impact-oriented by design. Making a profit is a very helpful way to increase your positive impact on the world, especially when the way you make that profit already has a positive impact. Since soulbottles reduce plastic production and CO2 emissions, give more people access to clean drinking water, and make people healthier through the absence of plasticizers and by reminding them to drink enough, that's certainly the case for us. A functioning business model also gives us the resources to finance intensive professional development for all of our employees. This, in turn, will improve our figures in the long term—although improving finances is not the main goal.
In concrete terms, this means that as soon as it is feasible in Europe, we will also adopt the newly created legal form of B Corp which, according to initial assessments, corresponds much more to this orientation.

The top-left answer: Money isn't inherently bad; it's just a means. And it's not the deciding factor for entrepreneurial success. Money is only what you project onto it. That sounds esoteric and weird, but it's true, and would fill an entire article of its own. So for now, here's just a reference to the best book on the subject, with the most ridiculous title: 30 blatant lies about money. I met the author personally at a seminar and can only say: This guy and what he teaches are fantastic and will liberate you tremendously in your approach to money.

Ownership structures & profit distributions

Currently, Paul and I are still the main owners of soulproducts GmbH, and we could agree to distribute the entire annual profit between us and the remaining shareholders. We won't do that, but we could. As a founder, I find profit distributions and the idea that I "own" an organization ultimately an absurd concept. Sure, I want to earn enough money to cover all my needs. But do I really need more than that? €60,000 net per year , beyond which increases in earnings no longer translate into increases in satisfaction? Especially if I make it harder for others in the organization to reach their €60,000 net per year? I don't think so.

Sure, I feel a great responsibility to ensure that the organization I initiated functions well and makes the world a better place. But that stems from my attitude toward the world (top left), not from a piece of paper that grants me a certain percentage of the company (top right). And if I don't earn quite the maximum, but we have more financial resources to initiate new ventures that make the world even greener, fairer, and happier, that makes me much happier than a new car would.

How do we implement this structurally?

The current plan is to establish an umbrella company in 2015, owned by Paul and me, but with the partnership agreement stipulating that profit distributions can only take place with the consent of all employees who have worked at one of the subsidiaries for more than six months. The umbrella company will then own shares in all subsidiaries, be it soulbottles or anything else we can think of.
External investors can also invest in the subsidiaries, so we don't fundamentally foreclose the opportunity to contribute to the effectiveness of a subsidiary through growth or further development. However, since we won't give any investor a majority stake in a company (we can also put this in writing), any profit distributions from the subsidiaries will largely go to the parent company, which can use these funds to build more great subsidiaries. So hopefully, at some point, we won't need external investors anymore.

In the long term, we can also imagine transferring our shares in the umbrella company to a foundation or a cooperative owned by the employees. It's particularly important to us that the shares in the umbrella company cannot be corrupted, and that profit-making doesn't sneak back in as the primary goal. So, the prospect of acting as "guardians of the vision and core values" for the next few years sounds quite good to us, especially since we don't directly benefit from it financially. But we're also very open to suggestions for making this even more meaningful. For example, feel free to comment below or email me.

The economic system

This topic would also warrant its own article, so here's a brief summary: We want to contribute as much as we can to ensuring that profit in our economic system once again becomes merely a means, and the purpose of companies is to contribute to the common good. Therefore, as a first step, as soon as we have the resources, we will become official supporters of the common good economy and compile a common good balance sheet.

The common good economy won't solve all the world's problems at once. But it is an important step in the right direction.

Employees

But here, too, the following applies: No matter how cooperative the structure may be, if it is filled with people who still think in terms of competition and are driven by fear and a superficial desire for security, the structure will, in the long run, move toward hierarchy or autocracy, and the culture will be submerged in power struggles and struggles for distribution. This means that inner work is an important part of the structure so that it can truly be filled with life.

What do I have against striving for security, you ask?

First of all, nothing. I just want to offer you the following perspective:

There are two main ways to fulfill your need for security. One is to create as stable external structures as possible. A secure job, your own home, a partner who will definitely stay with you, even if they might not be that exciting. The other is to develop your inner capacity and skills to deal with uncertainty.

I call the first way superficial because:

In a world where the pace of change is accelerating ever faster, the second strategy makes much more sense in my opinion. There are no longer any lifelong secure jobs. Those who can deal well with uncertainty are much better able to cope with major changes. And even the most stable living conditions can collapse from one day to the next these days. Just look at all the people who lost their jobs in the banking sector during the last financial crisis. This is an area that was considered an incredibly safe gold mine. Those who don't immediately feel the emotional rug pulled out from under them in such a situation, but instead see it as an opportunity for development, have a better chance of a happy life.

Bonus Quadrant: The paper on which the 4 quadrants are written

The basis of all our development in the four quadrants is our long-term vision. It is:

When we have achieved the transformation to a green, just and happy world in 50 years, they will write in the history books:
“Without the soul organizations, we might not have made it.”

To achieve this, we want to gradually expand the principle of "making the most sustainable alternative in one consumer sector cool, sexy, and comfortable," which works so well for soulbottles, to other consumer and service sectors. How else can sustainable behavior become mainstream?

Yes, that sounds huge and crazy. But it also releases so much energy—personal, emotional, and financial—that we might actually be able to do it.

epilogue

That was a lot of words. Hopefully they were inspiring.

It's actually quite simple: If you make sure that all four quadrants are making equal progress, your overall progress will be exponentially faster than if you focus only on one quadrant. You'll have more money, more fun, and more impact. You'll be better off, and the world will be so much better off. And that's actually pretty awesome, right? :)

I look forward to hearing what you think—and feel—about this in the comments. ;)

Footnotes

*The comment was on the Facebook page of a soulbottles retailer – the €2.50 premium over our online shop price is due to the fact that the retailer is located in Austria, and we don't set fixed prices for our retailers. Autonomy for our partners is important to us. Our only requirement is that they don't go below the €24.90 price, so the product's value isn't called into question.

** Here are the 5 questions we go through in rounds at the Personal Relations Meeting:

What is there generally (especially on a personal level) to celebrate and regret from the last two weeks – including what I did or didn't do towards others in the team?
Where did something others in this room do frustrate me? Where did I have a conflict with someone?
Conflicts raised here will be resolved immediately with the assistance of a moderator. Depending on the severity of the conflict, this can take between five minutes and one hour.
Where did something that others in this room did please me / fulfill my needs?
What are my current challenges in personal growth? Where would I like to go? What kind of support could I use to achieve this?
Feedback session/closing session – how did it go for me? What would I change about the meeting?
However, for starters, i.e. if your team does not yet have the mediation skills to maintain this, the following questions can also be helpful. It is best to have each meeting participant printed out and handed out:

To the person addressing a conflict (Person A): What do you want to express about how you feel about the situation, and who do you want to hear about it?
To recipient (Person B): What did you hear? What arrived?
To Person A: Is this what you wanted to be heard about by Person B? If not, what do you really want to be heard about?
Through questions 2-3, you continue to pass the ball back and forth until the answer to question 3 is "yes" and relaxation sets in. This can sometimes go back and forth very often, in rare cases even up to 40 or 50 times. Don't let this discourage you and trust the process.

If a “yes” comes without anything in the conflict being resolved, you either ask “Person A, is there anything else you would like to be heard on?”

Or you can leave it at that for now, recognizing that it sometimes takes time to build the trust to address even uncomfortable things. This trust grows fastest and most sustainably when you fully accept those who are afraid to address uncomfortable things and don't "push" them. Beware of the new extreme of "All conflicts MUST be resolved IMMEDIATELY" as well as the classic extreme of "There are no conflicts at all, so there's no point in deliberately giving them space." Because, news flash: As soon as three people are in a room for more than five minutes, there is a conflict, however subtle. Even among "enlightened" people. You don't choose whether there are conflicts, only how you deal with them.