B The Change Weekly: May 15, 2020
Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now on to the good stuff:
“It takes effort and purpose to go looking in on someone else’s world, and so many of us before the pandemic only paid attention to what was affecting our own. We were lacking empathy and the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference — that is, the capacity to place oneself in another’s position.”
The global pandemic has hit all of us, to varying degrees, as reflected in the above words from B Lab’s Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Ellonda L. Green, Ed.D. And while COVID-19 has separated many of us physically, it also has created the opportunity for new connections through empathy — a powerful emotion that the Certified B Corporation community can use to redesign and rebuild capitalism.
This week B The Change Weekly shares how B Corps demonstrate the necessity and power of empathy and equity in our work and our personal lives — and why those values must be crucial components for us to remake capitalism and shape the future of business.
Practice Transparency and Empathy to Find Stability
While having our lives upended by a global pandemic was not a choice, we can turn to transparency, empathy and planning to adjust our lives and business strategies.
Strengthening Workers’ Financial Health
With record unemployment and economic distress, it has become even more evident that the majority of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck — and why it’s vital for businesses to help workers with financial wellness as well as physical and mental health.
The Role of Empathy in Rebuilding Capitalism
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed what many in the B Corp community and others who work in Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) knew: Capitalism hasn’t worked, and certainly not for everyone.
Stay in the Know
Here’s your chance to catch up on recent articles:
- B Corps Can Create New Version of Capitalism Informed By Empathy: How Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) and Love Can Build an Honest, People-Centered Economy
- Forward-Thinking Strategies to Help Remote Workers: How Business Teams Can Rethink Collaboration and Connection
- 4 Steps to Ensuring the Success of an Internship Program: Done Remotely or On-Site, Summer Work Experience Can Benefit Businesses and Young Professionals
- B Corp Aims to End Mindless Consumption in E-Commerce: Swedish Social Entrepreneur Is on a Mission to Make Better-for-the-World Practices the Rule for Online Shopping
- How Being an Employee-Owned B Corp Played a Role in New Belgium’s Recent Sale: Lion Little World Beverages Says New Belgium’s B Corp Status Was a Key Driver of the Acquisition
- B Corps Make Giving Easier — for #GivingTuesdayNow and Beyond: Through Online Giving and Purpose-Driven Partnerships, Businesses Can Be a Force for Good
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
How Empathy Can Inform the New Capitalism was originally published in B The Change on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
