CBI Connections - December 2017

By Kristin Vesa,
Sr. Director, Conscious Business Initiative

This month, we celebrate the Conscious Business Declaration Principle 5: Business must behave as a positive and proactive member of the local and global communities in which it operates. Conscious business is done in community. I’d like to express my deep gratitude for the CBI, Sunrise Ranch (see below for our consulting work with them), and the greater Conscious Business Community; knowing we are one community acting on local, global, and universal levels.

Please take a moment and reflect on your business’s positive and proactive participation in community during 2017. Where would your business be if it weren’t for community? How might you serve in a greater way in 2018?

Thank you all for being a part of the Conscious Business Initiative during 2017. Wishing you all the joy of the season and looking forward to expanding our impact as one community in 2018.

By Stephen Dynako, Managing Editor

The CBI consulting team at Sunrise Ranch. From L to R: Kevin Farrell, Craig Elkins, Stephen Dynako, Sunrise Trustee Ruth Buckingham, Steve Farrell, Sunrise Trustee Phil Richardson, and Kristin Vesa.

After months of conscious planning and preparation, CBI delivered its first consulting engagement to pre-beta client Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado on December 1-3.

Steve Farrell, Craig Elkins, Kristin Vesa, Kevin Farrell, and I held a series of dynamic discussions with Sunrise’s leadership, community, and staff to understand the current state of the organization and sense into the potential for the ranch to better realize its vision.

The onsite work was preceded by administering a survey called the Conscious Business Assessment Tool (CBAT) to all Sunrise Ranch leadership, community, and staff members. The CBAT is an assessment of how aligned an organization is with the seven principles of the Conscious Business Declaration (CBD). It was a product of a collaborative effort of CBCAs led by Craig Elkins, and the consulting team used the CBAT as a means to inform the focus of the live discussions.

The framework of CBI’s consulting offering follows a 1-2-3 methodology, item 1 being the CBAT and the onsite discussions, which we’ve already delivered to Sunrise Ranch. Items 2 and 3, respectively, are developing a report, highlighting strengths and opportunities for improvement, followed by a proposed roadmap to help bring the organization into alignment with all CBD principles. These latter portions are in progress and any follow-up work with Sunrise Ranch is to be determined.

All in all, we learned a great deal in delivering this consulting engagement, and we’re excited about the prospects for evolving this endeavor further in 2018. We'll continue to keep you informed as the work develops.

Since last month, the CBI Facebook group has gained 60 more members, bringing the current community count to 460! Help us keep pace to grow the group to over 500 members by inviting your friends and colleagues to join.

As always, you are invited to join us for our daily 11-minute meditation series, which happens over Facebook Live Monday through Saturday mornings at 11 AM Eastern U.S. time. Even if you're not able to join us live, you can always listen to the recording of that day's - or any day's - meditation for centering and inspiration. Special thanks to Michele Risa for coordinating the schedule of volunteers who deliver the meditations. Due to Michele's efforts, we recently added Saturday to the schedule, so we're honored to provide you with sacred time to go within six days a week.

If you're not already a member of the group, click the link above and make a request to join. Alternatively, in Facebook, search for "Conscious Business Initiative."

Congratulations to the 2017 graduates who recently completed the Conscious Business Change Agent Training course! We honor the time and effort they've put into this important achievement. Their next step will be to pursue credentialing as Certified CBCAs (Conscious Business Change Agents). Certified CBCAs are professionals who have the expertise to guide companies - either as a leader within a firm or as a consultant - through the transformation process to become a conscious business.

CBI's new self-paced course will launch in the new year. As it becomes ready for registration, we'll inform you in a special mailing, as well as in a future edition of the CBI Connections newsletter.

The next Conscious Business Change Agent Training & Certification Program begins later in 2018. For more details and enrollment, please
email cbisupport@humanitysteam.org.

Sustainability is wonderful, but there is something more. The Oxford Dictionary defines regenerate: (of a living organism) regrow (new tissue) to replace lost or injured tissue. Kristin Vesa attended a talk by Gregg Braden, five-time New York Times best-selling author, speaking to evidence of the natural ability for human regeneration. He has been discovering data worldwide for decades showing past and present examples of how the human body is more regenerative than modern science makes us believe.

While attending the Purpose X Profit Conference in Los Angeles, Kristin Vesa met Finian Makespeace Co-Founder of Kiss the Ground. His panel was titled The Regenerative Nature in Business. Finian is also an artist, who incorporates both elements in his most recent work: click here for a simple story of regeneration of the earth and all living organisms in its atmosphere.

Conscious Business is regenerative in nature. Storytellers are encouraging businesses to embrace the solutions that lead to prosperity and flourishing for all. These are just a couple examples of what is possible as businesses focus on regeneration and become conscious businesses.

Expand the reach of the Conscious Business Declaration by sharing this newsletter and inviting your friends and colleagues to become a part of this community.

CBI Connections welcomes your contributions. Please share your ideas for content, suggestions, or general comments with us: cbisupport@humanitysteam.org.

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