Idealism lives in virtually everyone. In some, it is an ember, awaiting the oxygen of inspiration. In others, it has been burning more brightly, often finding expressions very different from the youthful activism that I remember.
I think of Dick Boysen, the fellow we met earlier at the Guilds' School. Dick was a student at Berkeley in the late 1960s. His "hippie" idealism thrives in his work as CEO of the school, which serves children from birth to three years old who have developmental delays. Dick has wanted--and has worked to create--a world where the smallest among us are treated with the dignity they deserve, a world where they know they are believed in, and a world where ultimately all children will be treated by the same standards.
And I think of Lee Mercier, a trustee of the Cathedral Foundation who served in the Peace Corps forty years ago. That spirit lives today in his board service, as well as in his law practice, where he muses over how he can best serve estate planning clients in choosing the philanthropies they want to support.
(The very idea that we can expect our work-a-day world to hold meaning and be authentic to who we are is a new notion that arrived with the baby-boomer generation's coming of age.)
People like Lee and Dick who have been active in the social sector, whether as staff or volunteers, have been joined in their idealism by a growing number of others who directly express their aspirations in the business world. Unprecedented attention is being paid to corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and social entrepreneurship, or simply humanizing the workplace. The lines between the sectors have been blurring, as making money is interwoven with contributing to society.
The world's largest corporate citizenship initiative, the UN Global Compact, seeks to "unite the power of markets with the strength of universal ideals," says former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In 2004, more than 400 leaders from business, labor and civil society gathered for the Compact's first worldwide summit (facilitated by David Cooperrider using appreciative inquiry, as a project of the emerging Center for Business as Agent of World Benefit). Hundreds more were on a waiting list, hoping to attend. In his opening remarks, Annan told those who had secured a seat that "far more of you were determined to attend than we anticipated in our wildest estimations."
One of the first to speak up during this working session was Lord John Browne, CEO of BP.
Browne was the first oil company executive to acknowledge the role of human activities in global warming. "Denial is the wrong response, but so too is despair," Browne has said about the importance of remaining optimistic even in the face of such large challenges.
What strikes me as most significant is that Browne is on the board of Intel, whose chair Dr. Gordon Moore has given billions of dollars to scientific research, conservation, and higher education.
The conversation has changed.