Corporate Intermittent Fasting

It is known that Intermittent Fasting is good for the body as it reduces blood glucose levels and circulating insulin. It helps move the body toward Ketosis and the burning of fat for energy. It allows the digestive system recovery time and encourages cleaning and detoxification. Could it be that similar benefits could apply in an organisational setting? Breaking the habit of continuously ‘grazing’ is difficult. I used to insist on having a full coffee cup and a pile of biscuits between rounds of toast with marmalade. The quality of the food was poor but it satisfied both habit and craving. I finally weaned myself off the biscuits by substituting them with nuts and very dark chocolate. How might organisations wean themselves off ‘busy work’ so that they could spend their time re-orientating their businesses toward ‘For Benefit’ working? The 20th century Capitalism model has failed. The drive for constant, and unsustainable, growth is threatening our very survival as a species. Sadly it’s already too late for the hundreds that we have driven to extinction before us. For too long the fixation on maximising quarterly profits has dominated business culture. Today’s industry needs to adopt the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ accounting model of People, Planet and Profit recognising that protecting our environment is the only way we can protect our future and respecting people is the only way to create equality and engagement. Millenial workers are not interested in following in the footsteps of Baby Boomers who have trashed their inheritance. They want to know what their organisation’s values are and why they should spend their precious time working for them at all. Perhaps the time has come for greater selection working where unless a job fits with an organisation’s values it just isn’t taken on. Will it strengthen my community? Is it good for the planet? Is it carbon neutral? And of course, is it profitable? Initially it may feel economically suicidal not to maintain the momentum of the operation but our current rate of resource exploitation promises suicide of the species. We need today’s best minds working out how to transition from current business practice to models with meaning and where the wealth created is more fairly shared. Corporate intermittent fasting allows the organisation time to retrain in new skills, better understand their market and to forge a wider collaboration between companies. The aim is less of creating a ‘Lean, mean fighting machine’ and more one of ‘Healthy, happy, harmonious interdependence’. The age of ‘Co-opetition’ has arrived.