Empathy in Big Business and Entrepreneurship
John Rainford helped market and launch Shell Global Solutions, a start-up company that was born out of a desire for ecosystems based on global collaboration rather than competition. It grew to become a $5 billion company. He has helped both start-ups and Fortune 100 Companies develop new patents and business models to become market leaders.
John has worked with companies like Shell, ABB, Rolls Royce, Unilever, Boots PLC, in some cases devising their 20 to 50 year business plans. He has taught his Entrepreneurship and Technological Innovation programme at some of the top universities in the world. His latest ventures include exploring quantum technologies to facilitate entrepreneurial insights into new innovations for the benefit of humanity. He kindly wrote this piece for Woodhill Park Journal.
Finding your purpose?
“The meaning of Life is to find your gift. The purpose of Life is to give it away.” Pablo Picasso.
There is a story about a child in Japan, whose father was a celebrated artist. He was teaching at a local University – his 5-year-old daughter asked her Dad where he was going. He said, "I am going to teach people how to draw." His daughter smiled and said, “Did they forget how to draw Daddy?”
This resonates with me because we often forget that children have more wisdom than we give them credit for – I was told at school that I couldn’t draw and I believed my teacher. Somehow years later I would rediscover my gift, and then my purpose.
For me ‘purpose’ has always been about striving for one’s full potential in life and my purpose now is guiding young people, parents, teachers and carers to have the skills and wisdom to find their own path – and wherever possible helping them to remove the barriers to self-actualization, contributing to society by doing whatever they do best. Sometimes their ‘best’ needs to be re-kindled or discovered.
My passion to help change the way we think and care for each other has a lot to do with a car accident that involved my whole family. We all (the family) suffered from PTSD for many years afterwards. In some ways this was a turning point in my life. Before this tragic event, I would help develop leaders of industry all over the world to reach their true potential – could I do this for my own children? Well, I had to try. My starting point was to revive my ability to draw and paint – it was therapeutic and comforting after the accident and I needed to heal. It opened other doors of healing and compassion that were dormant.
We have all experienced pain or perhaps disappointments in life. These experiences can hold you back and stifle personal progress in work or in your community. They could be childhood experiences that affect adult behavior or a myriad of setbacks that remind us all that we are not superhuman. The good news is that these negative experiences can also be catalysts for action on your journey and help you find your true purpose in life, as it did for me.
My purpose is about a vision, a legacy that I promised my children. Through compassion, connections, systems thinking, and bringing value and confidence to other people's lives by helping them to find their inner gift and their sense of self-worth. I am doing this on an international scale in the Middle East with moonshotechs.com - in India learnwithleaders.com - in Africa - through 'The Foundation' and the rest of the world through hherf.org - I am also helping organizations in the US who care about the schoolchildren’s well-being. My methodology seems to have captured the imagination of the education world, the health sector leaders and communities that care about sustainability and the wellbeing of our children. It goes beyond ‘normal’ learning and helps to create new realities.
I want to change how we think in a nonlinear dynamic way (systems thinking) so that all generations can learn how to think for themselves and see the bigger picture. These processes are being considered by governments and world leaders who want better prospects for their citizens and their children. We all need a sense of belonging and being valued, it’s in our DNA. Sometimes adversity can provide a window of opportunity. I have had the privilege to work with the disadvantaged who feel they are not supported by society.
When was a child – my life was about survival on a day-to-day basis. My father unfortunately was an alcoholic who would drink as soon as the supermarkets opened in the morning. Though he undoubtably suffered from depression, his misery affected our family and the families of others. We were ashamed and shamed.
I learned early on what survival and resilience meant, but I was lost until I learned how building confidence can shape my prospects. Having confidence in myself, despite adversity, would help me to find my own true purpose. There was a yearning to learn and better myself. How might I handle conflicts and bullying in a better way that was nonviolent? I went to a grammar school and learned to play Chess (strategy) and my ego was bolstered by winning the Liverpool Chess Congress when I was 15 years of age. I won the first Creative Writing prize, the first ever awarded at my school in Liverpool. These accolades came from adversity - and I learned that being creative could free me.
"Low self-confidence isn't a life sentence. Self-confidence can be learned, practised, and mastered-just like any other skill. Once you master it, everything in your life will change for the better." Eleanor Roosevelt.
When I was young I felt I was unworthy of love. Building up a sense of self-worth is hard when you don’t think much of yourself. However, as I got older and my hard work was being recognized – I realized that if I persevered I could overcome my shyness and help others find their creative inner self. They could manage their self-confidence and find their gift and purpose in life. When we ran an Advertising Agency (Strawberry Fields) there was a farmer who was about to go bust (seems more common these days) and I managed to convince him that if he believed he would go bust – he would. However, if he believed he had a chance to succeed, he could – yes, we had to plan for success – but why plan for failure? I see the brightness and potential in everyone and whilst many might see empathy as a weakness, I see it as a powerhouse. I am proud of the fact that he is now a very successful businessman who exports his products all over the world.
The good news about my children and PTSD? My children, now grown up, all have fantastic careers and huge salaries, with no school qualifications. More importantly they have a love of life that is inspiring as well as practical – which is why I am on this journey to change the world for all our children, no matter where they come from and whatever their circumstance - to support parents, teachers and carers.
We were foster carers and we helped children who came from challenging backgrounds to believe in themselves. Some children who were crying every day at school would go on to volunteer for plays in school. Their Headmistress could hardly believe the transformation. There seems to be no provision for confidence courses for fostered children, which is quite sad, since they need it more than anyone.
Psychological safety
I remember when I took executives through a Leadership Mentoring Programme, we would often come to blocks that stemmed from unresolved conflicts in the past. Often we are triggered by past events that people are not consciously aware of. Creating the conditions for psychological safety is conducive to good decision making. When we are building teams that work closely together it is important, if we wish to be creative, that we lay the groundwork to optimize innovation by providing a safe environment, where people feel free to express doubts and challenges.
Some tips from my classes on Leadership, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (MBA)
Learn to say ‘NO’ – if we say Yes to everyone, we are creating problems that compromise our ability to make good decisions for ourselves and/or our teams. There is never a bad time to build your self-esteem. Silence the critic in your head that says ‘you are not good enough’ – by using self-talk – turn negative thoughts on their head. Say to your self ‘I am good enough’ and repeat this several times (not too many times or you will get a big head)!
Visualize success – if you imagine you are successful – the chances are you will be (the opposite is also true). You should use this visualizing technique wherever possible, with meditation or visual stimulation.
Meditational Healing Music
Read an inspiring book – there are always books and films that give you a good feeling. Try to choose ones that are uplifting – perhaps a friend or carer can suggest a book or a film. There are always lessons to be learned. For my MBA class I made my students watch a film about leadership - they had popcorn to ease the experience. Then we would reflect on the learning that ensued. You can anchor positive memories in the past (say from a film) to help you in the present moment.
When I was teaching women entrepreneurs about business at University, I would start by asking them to write down all the negatives and positive things they thought about themselves. Then we would systematically and symbolically destroy their negatives, on the basis that they didn’t have to keep the negative comments unless they wanted to.
Surround yourself with positive people. Although, confidence comes from within – not from others – you need to love yourself first before you can give to others. Low self esteem often arises from internalized negative beliefs about yourself or from unrealistic expectations that people put on you. Finding your purpose without addressing your inner beliefs is like pushing water up a hill. It is better to address your self-esteem and purpose in concert.
We often retreat into coping strategies or avoid facing problems. Building confidence and reviewing our purpose can make a difference. The driver of confidence and purpose is creativity. Creativity, in turn is governed by culture, the ontological and epistemic structures of the mind, the way we perceive the world. Our beliefs and convictions are dominated by our environmental upbringing, our physiology, our biological patterns and ultimately our ability (or inability) to adapt.
However, we can rethink our world view and act with compassion. We have developed a process called ‘systems thinking’ that is entrepreneurial and creative that can serve our psychological needs and increase our skills sets through enhanced interpersonal communications.
A bit about John Rainford
John supports Charities like Young Enterprise, Young Foundation, the Samaritans and Mind. A Finalist judge for Global Tycoon Entrepreneurs (over 20 thousand schools in 90 countries), he Joined hherf.org as Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Imagination Officer for learnwithleaders.com
"John ran the Entrepreneurship MBA course for 6 years. His Creativity for Competitive Advantage course was mandatory for all of our MBA students." Jonathan Michie, former Director, of the University of Birmingham Business School and Professor of Innovation & Knowledge Exchange at the University of Oxford.
