Thought for the Week: Quaker business method
Jill Segger considers how the Quaker business method can be both antithesis and antidote to current decision-making processes
One-upmanship, adversarialism, having the last word, getting the upper hand. All these destructive tendencies are commonplace in our daily lives – in the workplace, at Westminster, on the streets and in our interactions with authority and commerce. We live in a culture which has been made mistrustful through fear of being ‘taken for a ride’ and which, increasingly, believes in getting its retaliation in first. This pervasive, low-level suspicion and hostility does not make for cooperation, nor for the creative thinking which seeks solutions rather than dominance. It cannot create a respectful and nourishing space in which old ideas may evolve and new thinking can flourish. It affects us all because it is the atmosphere we breathe and the climate in which we plant and cultivate our spiritual, intellectual and emotional responses.
