So, uh, how are we gonna solve this crisis?

Dear Justin,

How to solve the crisis? I propose an unlikely solution that involves my favorite management maverick, Ricardo Semler. Semler was voted "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum. His rescue formula is called "natural management." He described it as, "Not capitalism, not communism, but something that is simultaneosly more trusting, productive, exhilarating, and, in every sense, rewarding." The basic tenant behind Semler's approach is very simple--align corporate policies with human nature and thereby harvest the potential energy of one's workforce. This is a win-win concept of major proportions.

Semler claims that his purpose as a businessman is not to make money or to satisfy the customer. Rather, his purpose is to create a workplace environment where "workers, whether working stiffs or top executives feel good about life." If the workers and executives feel good, Semler claims, then he will make lots of money and will have lots of satisfied customers.

I've studied human motivation for 30 years and I totally buy into Semler's natural-management concept. Western corporations fail "employee engagement 101." I can say this with confidence because only 31% of workers give a crap about their work (Gallup). On a college exam this would be a big fat "F".

Our hyper-rational culture, I'm afraid, is emotionally disabled, or emotionally dyslexic and has little understanding of the emotional forces that underlie human innovation and achievement. Our culture views rationality as hard and emotion as soft. This is horribly wrongheaded. Emotions are the forces that move us. As motive forces, they obey the laws of emotional "physics.' My first law of emotional physics is: A human being at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an emotional force--a feeling.

Human beings, I suggest, are primarily emotional and secondarily rational. Emotions tell us what we need to survive and our rational mind attempts to satisfy these primal needs. Semler somehow understood this and managed to interface harmoniously with human nature. The result was fantastic growth and innovation in a very chaotic economy (Brazil). Semler efficiently harvested the motivational energy of his employees by working with human nature rather than against it. If the business community emulated Semler's example, we could literally double GDP and create a hopeful future populated with engaged employees rather than disengaged employees. Let's all join Semler's natural management revolution!

Viva La Revolucion!

Paul Herr MS, MBA
Author and Independent Researcher on Emotion

Umm, like, hope and change?

of course the Young Global Leaders aren't going to come up with a solution -- the largest chunk of them are "the problem", i.e. wanna-be billionaires from "young business leadership."
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This is an echo of the big problem with Davos as a whole -- its domination by fat cats (and the'intellectuals' they own) who can only imagine solutions in which they maintain their economic (and consequent political) power.
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Davos has become the Golden Globes Award ceremony of the international business set. A place to network and be seen, but which signifies nothing.

@plukiasiak: some YGLS are wanna-be dewormers:
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http://www.dewormtheworld.org/

How are we going to solve this crisis?
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Well, that question operates on two postulates and neither has been proven.
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First, it presupposes that the current situation is a crisis. I am not certain that it is. The current restructuring of business, human activities and markets is a natural and desirable response to a structure which is no longer completely sound. So, how do you strengthen a structure that is unsound? Glad you asked. 1) Move parts around till the weak segments are augmented. 2) Tear it down or allow it to fail so that it can be rebuilt. What perverse mechanism allows someone to conclude that this is precisely a crisis? Nothing. So I say get on with strengthening the house or tearing it down for a rebuild. In either event, the house will ultimately stand.
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Second, it presupposes that there is a crisis for which there is a solution. Sometimes, there is no solution. How does one win at a game of tic-tac-toe among two equally skilled rational players. It is essentially a game with no winner. The same is true for tinkering with the financial markets. It is zero-sum. The only fair play is to make the rules clear and transparent and force everyone to operate using those rules.
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Ultimately, this leads to the conclusion that no stimulus or recovery bill is necessary. We need no further tax cuts, spending, etc. All that we need is for the rules of the game to be fairly laid out in a concise manner with an equitable enforcement mechanism. This will engender confidence in the system and convey a sense of enlightened leadership.

I'm not sure how Obama is a new template for global leadership. He's young (younger than me, sigh), extremely well-spoken, and he will be given a reasonable chance to succeed. But unless I'm missing something really obvious, there's nothing new and radically innovative with him or his ideas. Anyone?

Lemme get this straight, Justin: You're a Young Global Leader, but Barack Obama isn't, and never was. Right. OK. Just checking.