Roe v. Wade: What Can Business Owners Do

Leela Sinha: 00:00:01

So, good morning to everyone, except the Supreme

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Court of the United States, which seems to believe that

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bodily autonomy and freedom are not somehow American values. I'm

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confused. And this is a bonus episode of PowerPivot, where we

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talk about power, ethics, leadership and community, and

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how we as business owners can do something to make the world a

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better place. So obviously, I could not keep quiet the Roe

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decision just dropped this morning, I have been mulling and

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chewing and drafting and redrafting, because, oh, my God.

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What do you say? We knew this was coming. It's not a surprise.

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But I'm still mad about it. And what happens now? What happens

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next? All kinds of things could happen. I'm not a lawyer, I'm

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not a jurist. I'm not qualified to be commenting on that. But I

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do know that there is a narrative that has been building

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for quite a while, that your average rank and file person

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can't really do anything about it. That we're kind of helpless

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in the face of gerrymandering, and the filibuster and

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capitalism and all the other factors that are making the

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world such a hard place to be right now. And making it

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especially hard for us who are business owners, to function in

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a way that feels like it has any kind of integrity, because so

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many of the people around us are invested in the idea that we

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don't have any power, that we can't do anything; and that if

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we do have power, if we do amass power, then we're somehow

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violating the code and that we're not supposed to do that,

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we're not supposed to want to do that. As you know, that's not my

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perspective. I think we are supposed to do that. We have to

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do that if we want to prevent this kind of thing from

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happening more, again, still, we have to accrue power, we have to

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become more powerful ourselves. And this is hard. It's a values

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conflict, because on the right they value conformity, they

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value followership. And on the left, we do not. We value the

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opposite of those things. We don't just not value, feel

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neutral, about conformity, and obedience; we actually actively

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fight conformity and obedience. Most of the time, a lot of our

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identity is often shaped around fighting conformity and

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obedience. So how do we get ourselves to pull together? How

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do we get ourselves to work together, to move together? And

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what, as business owners, can we do to actually affect some

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useful change? Well, there are a couple of things. First of all,

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if you're a business owner, and you stand out and you do

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something clearly politically aligned that that makes you

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distinctive, that makes you that kind of rebel outlier, that the

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left likes so well. So go ahead and be a rebel outlier company.

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And provide, like Dick's Sporting Goods, like a couple of

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other companies that have crossed my feed, like Chili

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Piper, provide financial support for your employees if they need

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to access reproductive health care outside the place where

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they live.You can do this, whether you've got all remote or

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whether you're on site, you can do this, whether you're small or

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whether you're large. If you have full-time employees set

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aside just a little bucket of money to help them access care

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if they're not going to be able to access care in their home

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area, in their home state. You can make a public statement

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about doing that. So you can lead. People will know. People

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will align themselves with you because you have made it known

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who you are, and how you are in the world, and that you are

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putting your money where your mouth is. This is not

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complicated. It's not hard. And it does make you an attractive

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employer. It does make you an interesting employer, it marks

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you in a good way. So you can be public about what you're doing.

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And you can do something concrete for the people whose

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lives you directly affect. If you have a database business and

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there's any chance that the data is going to contain something

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about reproductive health care, something about activism, you

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can go ahead and make sure that your privacy is watertight so

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that nobody can get to it. End to end encryption, that kind of

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thing. You can take a look at whatever industry, whatever

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space you're operating in, and ask yourself in what ways could

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my business be used for evil? And then take steps to

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counteract that.

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In the book 'Stealing Fire,' which I do not 100% endorse at

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all, but it is interesting. In the book 'Stealing Fire,' the

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authors write about a DARPA experiment where they were

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working on figuring out how to direct a donkey. Like how to get

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a donkey to go where they wanted by implanting pleasure-oriented

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electrodes in the donkey's brain. Right? Better than

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hitting the donkey when it goes where you don't want it to go.

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Give it a jolt of pleasure, when it goes where you do want it to

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go. Seems like a great plan, right? Yeah, well, you know what

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they use that for? Walking a bomb into a desert.

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Anything can be misused. So take a look at whatever it is you're

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creating, and figure out how it could be misused, and see what

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you can do to prevent that misuse and to promote good use.

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Now, of course, to do all of this, you have to have an

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ethical grounding, right, you have to have an ethical basis,

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you have to know what your personal ethics are, what your

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company ethics are, you have to have a way to uphold those

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ethics in an unfriendly environment. And you have to

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keep your ethics up to date, you have to keep moving them forward

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as our collective understanding of what is right and what is

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wrong moves forward. It's not a static thing. The tradition is

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alive, right? So in order to do that, you might need supports,

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you might need structures. I do this kind of training with my

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client companies, I help them figure out like, what do you

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believe, what are we going to do about it? But also, but also,

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you can take a look at, you can take a look at what you what you

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mean to be doing in the world, what your, you know, Simon

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Sinek's "big why." You can you can take a look at what you mean

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to be doing in the world as individuals and as an

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organization, and make sure that everything you're doing is

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aligned with that. And then again, be public about it. One

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of the hardest things is being out there doing something that

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is countercultural, when you feel like you're really the only

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one doing it. When suddenly there are 10, or 20, or 50

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people doing it, or 100, or 1000, or 10,000 or millions, it

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becomes a lot easier to do because you know you're not

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alone. You know you're not alone. Humans are social beings,

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our brains are wired to want to be in sync with other human

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beings. And so when we find ourselves alone, it's very hard

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to persist. When we find ourselves in good company, it

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becomes much easier. As a leader, you also have access to

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spaces that a lot of people don't have access to, you might

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have access to business owner spaces, you might have access to

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accelerator spaces, you might have access to spaces of

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particular kinds of wealth, or prestige, or whatever it is. You

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have access to some spaces that nobody else has access to. Use

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that access. And it doesn't necessarily even have to do with

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your status as a business owner, you might have access to places

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because you're white and blonde, you might have access to places

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because you're not white and blonde. Wherever you have

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access, you can make inroads, you can make changes. You can

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shift the culture, you can communicate clearly and expect,

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and require, clear communication back. You can help people

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understand what they need to know so that they can be in

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better relationship with you. And you can develop better

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relationships with them. And that creates not only a good

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setup for your business, but also a good setup for other

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kinds of interactions, interactions around heated

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topics, interactions around politics. You can violate the

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rule about talking about politics and religion in polite

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company. We do talk about politics and religion and money

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and sex in polite company. That's what we do. That's how we

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change the culture, is by saying those things. It's like that

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invisible rule about not talking about your salary with your

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colleagues. No, no, you got to talk about your salary with your

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colleagues. You know why? Because the only person who

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benefits from not talking about your salary with your colleagues

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is somebody who's making a profit off of somebody not

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knowing what their work is worth. And that's not an ethical

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setup. So if you're an employer, you want to create an atmosphere

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where people do and can talk about what they're getting, why

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they're getting it, and where you can have open conversations

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with people if they feel like they're not being fairly

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compensated. So all of this is like, it's business owner

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ethics, but it's also business owner, socio-political

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engagement. Because when you change the atmosphere when you,

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like Chani Nicholas did, when you publish a job description

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that lists all these amazing benefits that most people have

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never even thought of, then other business owners feel like

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they have to step up and meet that standard. And that's good.

Leela Sinha: 00:10:00

You're changing the entire business, you're disrupting the

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business of hiring. Likewise with providing reproductive care

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access. Likewise, with being public about the fact that

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you're providing reproductive care access. All of these things

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will change the atmosphere, will change, the conversation, will

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change what's normal. And when you change what's normal, you

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are actually changing the world, the space that you occupy. Maybe

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just a little piece of the world at a time, but you change your

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industry, and then it leaks across to the next industry

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that's adjacent. And suddenly everybody wants, I don't know,

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good, good benefits and reasonable working hours and

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great pay? And then suddenly, you have a stable, healthy,

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happy workforce.

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This doesn't seem like a complicated business question.

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That's a great business decision. You want a stable

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workforce, you want a happy workforce, you want a healthy

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workforce. So when you're moving yourself into public space, when

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you're recognizing that, as a business owner, as a business

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and as a business owner, your business occupies volume, it

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takes up space in the world, and that people will pay attention,

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people will perceive you people are going to follow your lead.

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That's a great time to decide deliberately what your lead

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should be, and how you're going to show up. So that it doesn't

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happen under pressure. Ideally. This is a moment when it might

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be happening under pressure, because this decision just came

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down. A lot of people are under stress. Somebody in Texas gave

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his company the rest of the day off to celebrate. But you know,

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not everybody that took the half day off was celebrating. You can

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recognize that, especially the more vulnerable people in your

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employe or in your company, or clients, everybody is going to

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feel more vulnerable right now. They're going to feel like their

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rights are more at risk right now. And so you can offer a

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little flexibility, you can offer a little more grace, you

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can offer a little more room, if there's something that you can

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send out to people that will be comforting, do that. If there's

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something that you can send out to people that will be

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invigorating, do that. If there's something that you can

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send out to people that will be nourishing, do that. Give people

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whatever it is you have, you don't have to have everything,

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we're all out here doing something. But give people

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something; recognize that this is not a non-issue, that it's

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not a non-moment. That it actually is occupying a huge

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part of people's brains right now. Because it impacts our

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lives so heavily. Just publicly recognizing that is a great

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step. But then do more, take it further. Make it bigger. Ask

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yourself, if you were your own employee, or if you were your

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own client or customer, what would you really want? What

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would you really want to get from the person that you're

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connected to? What would you want to see them putting out in

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the world? What would make you feel better about what they're

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putting out in the world? What will help? Because when people

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tell us that Mr. Rogers said "look for the helpers,"

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sometimes it turns out the helpers are us. And we're all

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going to help differently. And not every kind of help is going

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to help every kind of person. But we are not powerless. And we

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don't have to do nothing. A final note, if you know someone

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who would be good in office, start cultivating, nourishing,

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supporting that right now. Encourage them to run for

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something, something small and local to start. Right now. Get

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them involved. Because, especially for public service, a

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lot of people don't even think about it until somebody says,

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"Hey, have you considered running for office?" Because if

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we want a different kind of leadership, we have to not just

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elect it, we have to create it. And we do that in our businesses

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by offering people leadership opportunities, by offering

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people support, by offering people encouragement. The skills

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that people develop with you, they can take into the world. If

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it occurs to them, if you encourage it, and if you model

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it. Take a deep breath. Make sure you're staying hydrated.

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Take lots of naps. We're gonna get through this. Talk to you