Ten years ago I wrote the book, Shift: Indigenous Principles for Corporate Change. Its genesis came from a revelation I had some ten years prior to its writing, which is that the time I was spending in Native American ceremonies and immersed in indigenous culture was making me a better businessperson. It seemed counter-intuitive when considering that the march toward economic growth and expansion lies at the center of the cruel policy of manifest destiny, which was the justification for the genocide of Native American people and the theft of their land.
But truly I was getting better at business the more time I spent in ceremony, having my heart cracked open, brought to my knees (metaphorically and literally) through hours and hours of grueling sacrifice for the sake of meditative prayer and experiencing a kind of beauty I never thought possible.
Fast forward another ten years to today, looking back on the book I wrote I can see after another decade of personal growth and revelation that if I were to write the book today it would be a different kind of message.
I still stand behind every word I wrote in Shift, it’s just that I can see today with clarity that what I learned from the ceremonies and culture of Indigenous people was not making me a better businessperson, it was making me a better person, because I was learning to return to myself.
In my early years in the corporate world I readily conformed to the business culture I found myself working within because I thought that was what I needed to do to be successful. What I didn’t know then was that by conforming to the culture around me I was losing myself.
In ceremony, as my heart opened through long hours of song, tobacco, sage, cedar, intensely hot steam, and contemplative prayer I began to see the truth of who I was. And as I gradually discovered my truth I began de-conforming and exploring how I could show up in the world as a more authentic me.
The ceremonies led me to my truth, and my truth led me to a different way of doing business.
In having this awareness I’m perceiving that what I’ve been doing with much of my blogging and brand strategy work has been to cultivate a deeper kind of authenticity. Maria and I help our clients go deeper into an understanding of who they are and what their business vision is, and then crafting a business and marketing strategy around their authentic vision.
We’ve turned the traditional model of marketing upside down. Whereas traditional marketing says we go find an unmet need and fill it, we encourage people to go within and discover what seeks to emerge from within them. Then we help them ground their vision into a discernable marketing strategy.
We say, find what is within you — that thing that you feel passionately driven to bring into being — and then craft your business around your vision and you will naturally attract customers and clients by the nature of their resonance with your authentic vision.
Steve Jobs was noted as saying that he didn’t design computers for what people thought they wanted, he designed them for what Steve and his team thought they would need. His perspective was that people didn’t yet know or understand what computers were capable of or what people would ultimately want from them. In his hubris, he perceived that his vision and that of his designers was more enlightened than the consumers.
If I were to write another book called Shift: Indigenous Principles Revisited, I would say that the values of indigenous culture can lead us back to ourselves, and by returning to ourselves we get better at everything, not just business. By becoming more authentic human beings we recognize and understand the values that are core to who we are, and in understanding our values we do business differently because we put our values before profit.
Maria and I have been working with a tribal college for the past year and a half. We began with the brand strategy, helping them clarify and articulate what their vision is, who they are, and what they stand for. Then we designed a logo, color scheme, style guide, and re-designed their website to more accurately reflect the truth of who they are.
It’s been a slow-moving project and yet gratifying in many ways. The tribe we’re working with is the Zuni Pueblo, and while they have many similarities to other indigenous cultures, they are also unique. For example, the Zuni language is a language isolate, meaning that it is not based on any known language or family of languages. And it feels to us like their culture is unique as well within the broader Native American culture.
Zuni people are strongly values based. They proudly display their values on posters and in flyers, on websites, and in meeting agendas. They often begin meetings by talking about their values. I even observed them post their values on a bulletin board in the men’s room of the college. When we worked on the values portion of their brand strategy process we engaged in lengthy and highly nuanced conversations about their values and what they mean to them.
It appears (and we are only observing their culture from the outside) that Zuni people are hardwired for values. But where does this come from?
The single greatest insight I garnered from my years of participation in indigenous ceremony is that of intentionality. Ceremonies are a construct made up of formalities and protocols. From the outside it can seem either restrictive or meaningful depending on your perspective. But in either case it’s important to know that every formality, procedure, or protocol all have stories behind them. They are not random, and they are not forced upon people for the sake of control. They are there to form an intricate interplay of offerings, song, dance, prayer, and physical movements that work together to continually reinforce the notion of intentionality.
Meaning, that if we partake in ceremonies because they are beautiful, enjoyable, meaningful, or even if only because they are established traditions, they are providing us with a practice in being, doing, and acting with clear intention. And it’s the practice that then carries into our daily lives.
From my observation, Zuni people are more firmly rooted in their ceremonies than most other indigenous cultures I’ve encountered. It’s as though their ceremonies are not an option; they are a given. That during certain times of the year all will participate in their ceremonies in one way or another.
Christianity has driven a wedge into many indigenous cultures in that some will participate in their ancient ceremonial traditions, while others will abandon them completely for the sake of baptism and church. Again, I’m no expert on Zuni culture, but from my observation there seems to be less division in their culture between ceremony and Jesus. And it shows in their culture. Valuing and continuing to practice the intentionality of ceremony leads Zuni people to a deeper practice of intention. And by practicing intention they are constantly venturing deeper into their values.
This is key to understanding how we can become a more values driven society. We don’t impose values through laws. Laws are merely there as a deterrent against bad behavior. Holding values in high regard comes when we venture more deeply into the truth of who we are. In other words, we find our truer selves. And we don’t discover ourselves in one super powerful ceremony or impactful life experience, but by living intentionally, talking about intention, feeling into it, exploring what went wrong when we fall short, and celebrating those times when we rose above our fears to hold true to our values.
Indigenous principles are there for all of us, as we all have indigenous roots if we go back far enough in our history. The ceremonies represent a vehicle to practice intentionality more deeply so that we may connect with the intention for which we’re here.
In last week’s post What Is My Culture? I wrote about the modern marriage ceremony and how there are many attributes that we still adhere to without thinking much of their implications. Like the concept of the father giving away the bride, as though he owns her in some way. Another is the bachelor party with strippers. The justification being something like, this is your last night of freedom. Which implies that marriage is a form of bondage.
What if we flip the modern marriage ceremony upside down, and along with it our concept of freedom. Freedom isn’t license to do whatever we want, but rather an awareness of our shared responsibility. And in this context marriage is the opposite of bondage, but rather a kind of freedom of moving into a deeper kind of commitment — in mind, body, and spirit.
If we follow the example of indigenous culture and their traditional ceremonies we could flip the model of so many of our modern-day ceremonies, such as high school and college graduations, coming of age, the first time driving a car alone, beginning a new career, first child born, and so on. Seeking greater intentionality through a re-crafting of our ceremonies to reflect something closer to our authentic selves.
This would be the message were I to write the book Shift: Indigenous Principles Revisited.
If you’ve enjoyed this post please like, share, and subscribe. The way the DEEPER side of things reaches a wider audience is through word of mouth. Thank you for your support.
Your criticism of the notion that we can change how business is done from the inside out is not uncommon. There are many who share your sentiment. We have worked with mostly small businesses, but some large ones too. Our experience in working with large organizations, as in 3,000 employees and up, is that they are largely clueless as to the kind of shift we have endeavored to offer them.
But not only is it possible to change large organizations, it's actually happening. It's just that the change is so slow that it's hard to notice. One example is that Exxon presently has two activist board members who were nominated and campaigned for by an activist hedge fund who seeks to identify highly qualified board members with and ethical and environmental orientation to nominate and campaign for their inclusion on boards of publicly held corporations. 2 of 10 on Exxon's board is not a majority, but they are able to plant seeds of change and make it extremely difficult for Exxon to implement wholey unethical policies and decisions.
Exxon arrogantly assumed these nominees would not have any chance of winning that they did not even meet with them prior to the vote. Imagine their surprise when their shareholders actually elected 2 of the 3 submitted. It's a small change, but not insignificant.
But there is so much to your comment that I think I'll write a post just to this question: Is real change within a capitalistic mind-set possible? And if so, how? Stay tuned.
I believe you may have a positive influence on small businesses but the huge corporations are heartless and soulless beastswith money is there only motivation. If you do not believe Boeing, Lockheed, Raytheon, Exxon, Media... ect are not the government you have never come up against them. There was a headline this Mothers Day morning on MSNBC "The weaponization of motherhood". This is the most liberal large corporate "news" there is. The Zuni have the values and a strong family community which is missing in most of this country and I am at a loss on how to change this. As I have changed in my life it has not drawn my fracted family any closer, indeed the opposit. I appluad your efforts and would love to hear feed back on changes in a business to the positive.