The Quadruple Bottom Line

A customer sent me an email after my last post, A Family is a Team, saying it was “good to confirm my belief that your research and work is grounded in an understanding of human relations, not just work relations.”  Got me thinking about the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ – often expressed as ‘people, planet, profit’.  It’s a great idea, that you can put human capital and your ecological footprint on your balance sheet.  But he’s got me thinking that this doesn’t go far enough.

The operative word is relations.

When Triple Bottom Liners calculate the value of people, they do things like count their graduate degrees.  Ok, it’s a start but, really, a lot of overeducated people don’t bring more value to most enterprises, especially the ones who think it makes them better than other people.

Relations.  That’s the operative word.

Until we understand what happens when people relate – how they create synergetic value – and how to measure it, we’ll continue to ignore the wellspring of corporate creativity and never know when it’s running dry and what to do about it.

Why do we tolerate unproductive relationships at work when we don’t tolerate them at home?