Today we have a blog post from Dov Seidman, author of HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything…in Business (and in Life), and the CEO of LRN, a company that helps businesses develop ethical corporate cultures and inspire principled performance. He also writes a regular column at BusinessWeek. He will be appearing at 92Y with Thomas Friedman of the New York Times this Sunday.

No longer can we focus so intensely just on WHAT we do – our products and services – without giving thought and attention to how we behave in creating, manufacturing, distributing, marketing, selling and consuming those products and services.

In large and small ways, as we are painfully experiencing, the way we have been behaving has led us to a state of crisis – financial and environmental crisis – threatening our health and happiness today, and our very existence in the future. The frameworks that shape and guide how we behave today are out of date and inadequate, having been created for a world that was not as flat, interconnected, and thus interdependent, as the one in which we find ourselves in today.

We need a new framework for our behavior that maps to today’s needs and allows us to forge a better path ahead. We need a new source to connect us to the work that we do and to each other in a deeper and more sustainable way.

We have to act now to solve the problems we face as citizens and institutions to ensure we create a world worthy of our future generations. Confronting these challenges forms the basis for the event on December 13 when I am honored to share the stage with New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman. Together we will seek to shine a spotlight on these issues and discuss our path forward.

It is urgent for all of us to understand the implications of the hot, flat and crowded world that Thomas Friedman has illuminated for us, especially in the just released paperback version of his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded 2.0. Now is the time for us to come together and help inspire a shift in behavior and leadership habits uniquely suited for this world.

A more hyperconnected, hypertransparent and interdependent world makes change a necessity.

How individuals and corporations operate has to change. Only by getting our HOWs right can we ensure that we are sustainable. This can only be achieved when we are guided by, and grounded in, sustainable values – and not here-and-now, situational values.

Sustainability cannot be guided by situational values dedicated to the pursuit of size and scale – in other words, by the strategy of becoming “too big to fail.” The global economic meltdown occurred because too many financial companies became disconnected from fundamental values and long-term sustainable thinking. Instead of nurturing sustainable collaborations, banks, lenders, borrowers and shareholders pursued short-term relationships founded on inadequate levels of trust and durability.

Sustainability, ultimately, is about the mindset and behaviors which connect and sustain relationships with family, colleagues and investors, in the business world and the natural world.

This mindset, with an accompanying shift in behavioral philosophy, will result in the sustainability we all want: sustainable values, sustainability businesses and a sustainable planet. And in this regard, businesses should outperform their competitors by outbehaving them. Outbehaving means conducting business by consistently exhibiting values and principles that differentiate and win in the marketplace. Outbehaving in action is the hospital in Michigan which taught its doctors to apologize when they made mistakes. The result was a dramatic cut in malpractice claims.

One powerful way to outbehave the competition is to outgreen it. Outgreening the competition is key to ensuring sustainability. Outgreening involves more than installing solar panels and wind turbines. It means creating a collaborative environment in which companies and communities are committed to generating lasting value and more growth. Companies that outgreen their competitors achieve competitive advantage and greater levels of profitability and innovation.

Sustainable value is driven by inspiration, not coercion and motivation. Inspirational leaders now understand that real value is achieved by generating power through people rather than exercising power over them.

Values and trust help employees navigate situations far better than any rule book or regulatory framework. Placing a premium on principle elevates people to take action based on knowing what they should do, not what they can do.

We must reconnect with the values that propel and guide human behavior and rebuild the trust that has been betrayed. Historically the United States has produced trust and created value better than others. We need to do it again. It is my hope that Tom Friedman and I will adequately explain HOW!

Readers of our blog get a special discount; use code TAB at checkout to receive 30% of ticket prices.

[Lectures and Conversations at 92Y]

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