Carl Frankel
Integrating Vision, Strategy, Communication and Community
Personal Statement
Twenty
years ago, I abandoned a divided life that had me writing fiction for
meaning and business studies for money. I dedicated myself to business
and sustainability; I was integrating my life. I've been working as a
journalist, writer, entrepreneur and consultant in this growing and
crucially important field ever since, often at the cutting edge.I'm one part free-range thinker and one part hard-core manifester, and totally committed to doing all I can, at the levels of both theory and practice, to create what Bucky Fuller called a "world that works for all."
Over the years, I've published a newsletter on green business strategies, written for magazines specializing in business and sustainability, authored two books on sustainability (including the critically acclaimed Out of the Labyrinth), advised businesses and non-profits on the art and science of being green, and run my own ambitious (though ultimately unsuccessful) social enterprise.
Meanwhile, separately from my professional life, a local grassroots network ("Carl's List") grew up around me in New York State's Hudson Valley, where I live. I didn't set out to build community; community came and claimed me.
Over the years, I've transitioned in my professional work from focusing on what global corporations are (and aren't) doing to the challenge of re-engineering "enterprise DNA" so an institutional commitment to people and planet is truly foundational ... and ineradicable.
During this time, I've climbed the learning curve about how to bring positive change to a world where institutional inertia, human frailty, and cultural pathology are constant obstacles. I've come to believe that four distinct aptitudes are necessary to break through:
- Vision. The world's in a stuck place. Vision is the first step to getting it unstuck. Vision is expansive; it contains breath and light. Vision untethered, however, is child's play, nothing more. To be more than fluff, vision needs to be planted in the soil of the real.
- Strategy. Strategy is how we make our visions come true. Strategy without vision is an uninspired thing. Strategy with vision is a winning combination.
- Communication. If you don't say what you mean in a way that others can understand, you're on your own. This isn't good for you or the organizations you're working with. Communication is an art form -- and a precise one at that.
- Community-Building. It takes more than strategy and communication to manifest a vision. It also takes a community -- and not just any community, but a community that's aligned and inspired and empowered. You get this through community-building. And, of course, wise leadership.
