PermissiØn

An article by Scott Johnson

It’s a funny old thing.

From school age, we’re trained to ask for permission. To conform, and to comply. To do as we’re told, and not to rock the boat.

That training makes us good, obedient, easy (ish!) to control little humans. Some might say it also prepares us for entry into the workforce.

For many of us, a need to get permission before we do something stays with us as we grow up, and it can become a limiting belief.

Birds just… fly.

Before we continue, a small observation from nature.

Baby birds hang about in their nest, and shout, squawk and holler for food. Until they don’t. One day they crawl to the edge of the nest, and fall out. At which point they discover they can fly!

They don’t seem to lack belief - they trust their wings to work, they trust gravity and the air and their eyes. They trust themselves, their abilities, their nature.

Birds don’t need permission to fly.

They just… fly.

And that’s a curious lesson for us humans.

We apes with big brains, who second-guess things, have come to trust data rather than our intuition, have been taught to ask for permission to express ourselves, instead of just expressing ourselves.

We follow along with the status quo, in life and in business, so we don’t rock the boat. So we don’t get rejected by the tribe.

‘Business as usual’

This is conformity, writ large. And many generally accepted business behaviours are damaging for people and planet.

Company directors get paid the most, despite not doing much of the actual work. Shareholders get most of the reward, despite doing very little to generate those rewards. And the pursuit of profit is the primary motivator for every activity.

We have pyramids and hierarchies, where those at the top benefit most from the efforts of those at the bottom, and where the natural world has been seen as a free resource to be exploited.

And many of us so far have generally accepted that as fact.

But it needn’t be that way.

(Almost) everything is a choice

Just because those things are the established status quo, it doesn’t mean we have to follow them.

Shareholders don’t have to receive dividends, it’s only a business convention. Directors don’t have to be paid more than every other employee.

Companies don’t have to make profits and hoard cash.

These things are aspects of ‘business as usual’, but they are choices.

And when we acknowledge that, we learn that we have the power to make different choices.

Mother Teresa

Another diversion, if you don’t mind?!

There’s a quote attributed to Mother Teresa which says, “If you want to change the world, go home and love your family”.

I love this, it’s a great question. What does “loving your family” look like? And, if we zoom out a little, what does “loving your community” look like?

Then, a curious follow up question; what is the business version of “going home and loving your family”?

That’s a question we at Kung Fu Accounting asked at the beginning of 2024. And our answer lies in our new mission.

We’re making our home town a wonderful place to live.

That simple statement drives every decision we make. We ask ourselves how we can demonstrate a positive benefit to our home town, with every choice.

Here are a few examples;

We offer part time jobs for people who live in Stroud. We create employment for our home town, keeping money locally.

We strive to walk or take public transport as much as possible, removing ourselves from the rush hour traffic, and reducing the environmental impacts of our work journeys.

We prioritise local businesses for as much of our spending as possible, again keeping money in the town.

Better than business as usual.

Maintaining the status quo, doing what everyone else is doing, because it’s always been done that way, is a choice.

Doing things differently is therefore also a choice.

That’s incredibly empowering for those of us who think differently.

Companies don’t have to pay dividends. Directors don’t need to be paid many, many times more than the lowest paid employees. Profit needn’t be the only motive in business.

So, back to the theme; permission.

Things are done the way they have always been done, until someone challenges them.

You are someone. So am I.

What are we waiting for?

Whose permission do we need to do things differently?

Maybe, it’s time to trust ourselves more.

Maybe it’s time to fly.

Scott is the founder of Counting change, helping bookkeepers and accountants be the change we need in the world