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Revisiting Carroll’s CSR Pyramid

Revisiting Carroll’s CSR Pyramid:

An African Perspective

Article by Wayne Visser

This article has two primary objectives: 1) To use Archie Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Pyramid to illustrate the nature of CSR in Africa; and 2) To use the context of Africa to demonstrate the limitations of Carroll’s CSR Pyramid as a framework for understanding CSR. Anglo American is used as a case study to illustrate the debate.

The African Context

The debate over Africa’s future has taken centre stage recently, with the publication of Our Common Interest, the report of the UK’s Commission for Africa. The report calls for improved governance and capacity building, the pursuit of peace and security, investment in people, economic growth and poverty reduction, and increased and fairer trade. It is not hard to see that business has a key role to play in this transformation process, with much of its contribution capable of being to be framed in terms of CSR.

Despite generally negative press, there has been significant progress on the continent over the past decade. Fifteen countries, including Uganda, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, have been growing on average more than 5% per year since the mid-1990s. And foreign direct investment (FDI) rose to $8.5 billion in 2004, up from $7.8 billion the previous year. At the same time, Africa’s new generation of leaders, through initiatives like the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the African Union and the East African Community, are taking responsibility for development.

Nevertheless, Africa remains a marginal region in global terms: With 12% of the world’s population (around 750 million people) in 53 countries, Africa accounts for less than 2% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and FDI, and less than 10% of FDI to all developing countries. Of the 81 poorest countries prioritised by the International Development Association, almost half are in Africa. And even within Africa, there is highly skewed development, with the largest ten economies accounting for 75% of the continent’s GDP.

The extent of the challenge for CSR in Africa becomes even clearer when we are reminded of the scale of social needs that still exist, despite decades of aid and development effort: Life expectancy in Africa is still only 50 years on average (and as low as 38 years in some countries), Gross National Income per capita averages $650 (and drops as low as $90 in some countries) and the adult literacy rate is less than 20% in some countries. At the current pace of development, Sub-Saharan Africa would not reach the Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction until 2147 and for child mortality until 2165; and as for HIV/Aids and hunger, trends in the region are heading up, not down.

The Role of Business

The track record of big business in Africa is mixed at best. There is certainly no shortage of examples of corporate complicity in political corruption, environmental destruction, labour exploitation and social disruption, stretching back more than 100 years. Equally, however, there is …

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Adapted from: Visser, W. (2005) Revisiting Carroll’s CSR Pyramid: An African Perspective. In Corporate Citizenship in a Development Perspective, edited by Esben Rahbek Pedersen & Mahad Huniche, Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.

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Transforming Business

Transforming Business:

The Power of Perception

Chapter by Wayne Visser

Extract from Beyond Reasonable Greed

There is a growing body of literature on what could be loosely described as explorations in ‘new paradigm’ thinking. Included in this is an implicit belief about the nature of transformation. It is that revolutionary change is more often the result of new ways of thinking about things (i.e. changes in perception) than new ways of doing things.

This chapter attempts to apply this thinking to business, i.e. to explore more deeply the emerging new paradigm in business. What are the new perspectives which are beginning to challenge the old way of thinking about and doing business? And is there a common thread or theme which runs through the heart of these new insights?

So what are these basic assumptions about business which have come on trial of late? There are many but this article will focus on only three of the most important, namely profit, competition and rationality. Discussion of each will be prefaced by a belief statement from the old paradigm and concluded with a suggested new paradigm belief statement.

Profit

The old paradigm belief statement is: The ultimate and sole function, goal and responsibility of business is to make a financial profit.

Although this belief has been tempered by a growing awareness of social responsibility since the 1960s, the mindset of the vast majority of business leaders still places exclusive profit making firmly at the apex of the business pyramid. Everything else is regarded as peripheral to this core process.

This emphasis on short-term individual gain all too often results in the long-term wellbeing of employees, the community, society and the environment being sacrificed as pawns in a ruthless game of corporate chess. This approach – with its tacit assumption that people are primarily motivated by conquest and material acquisition – has been a major limiting factor in managers’ ability to tap the human potential of their organisations in any significant way.

The call now being sounded therefore is for what US futurist Willis Harman would call a new “central project” in business. This transformed focus could include service to society as the key goal of business. Enhanced quality of life could be its guiding principle and a strong set of ethics and values its foundation. Further, the search for meaning and creativity in the work place as well as holistic personal and collective learning could become the key measures of performance within an organisation.

This image may not be as far-fetched as many would suppose. UK business commentator Francis Kinsman for example, cites evidence from an SRI International study which suggests that a growing proportion of British society (currently more than a third) is becoming ‘inner directed’ in nature. These are people whose behaviour is typically driven by non-materialistic factors and whose emphasis is more on the esoteric and qualitative than the material and quantitative …

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Cite this chapter

Visser, W. (2005) Transforming Business: The Power of Perception, In W. Visser, Business Frontiers: Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Economic Justice, Hyberabad: ICFAI University, 5-10.

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Home

Home

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Home is wherever we feel we most belong ~

Where is home for you?
What place do you feel most drawn to?
Is there somewhere that longs for your return?
 
Perhaps home speaks to you of roots, of the place where you were born or grew up?
If you close your eyes, you can probably still conjure up the familiar sights and sounds and smells of your youth.
Or perhaps it is somewhere you have visited that felt strangely like home?
 
The attraction to our home – to that place where we feel we most belong – is like the irresistible pull of gravity.
Home is our centre of gravity, where we are in balance, content, not feeling like we should be somewhere else.
It is where we feel centred, grounded, like the bush trail sign for home – a circle with a dot in the middle.
Home is that place we return to and know for the first time, where we come full circle.
 
For some, this point of return, this place of belonging, is inseparable from the land – it is literally their homeland.
The land is the map of their heritage, the Rosetta stone for deciphering their history, the storybook of where they come from and where they are going.
It is their origin and their destination – the home of their ancestors is their home and the home of their descendants.
 
The urge to find our home and return there is as powerful as the vortex of a hurricane.
But it is not an ominous force.
We are drawn to our home because it is a place of rest, of refuge, a calm eye in the midst of the storm.
 
Home is where we feel most comfortable, where we can be ourselves, stripped of all our masks, without the pretensions we wear for the world outside.
We long for home because it is homely. It is the source of our energy, our identity, our self-esteem.
 
In one way or another, home is the tribe to which we belong.
Our tribe may be local, national, or increasingly, unlimited by geographical boundaries.
In today’s interconnected reality, we are free to seek out and find the group of people who most closely reflect our interests, passions, dreams and aspirations – our soul tribe.
 
Have you located your soul tribe yet?
Because on this web-linked planet, home can be wherever you lay your hat.
But, like the sorting hat in the Harry Potter stories, where you are placed is never random.
Your home must be where you experience the best fit, among a community of people who care about you because of who you really are.
 
What distinguishes a home from a house is people.
Relationships are the essential ingredient in the recipe for a good home.
Indeed, it is because home is where the heart is, that homelessness is so cruel and heartless.
The homeless are cut off from others, they have lost their connection to a supportive tribe, been left to wander in a desert of isolation.
Many more people are homeless than we see on the streets – people who are searching for their place of belonging in a bewildering world.
 
So how do we find our home?
It is not as difficult as we might first think.
We must simply follow the light.
 
What place makes us glow inside?
What tribe helps us to shine brighter?
Which relationships are full of the warmth of home fires burning?
Our answers will lead us to that special place that we can call home.
 
So as you venture out in the world today, be sure to carry your flame of belonging with you – your precious home from home.
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Generosity

Generosity

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Generosity is sharing that which you can least afford to give ~

Who do you know that is particularly generous?
How would you describe them?
Do they give without expecting anything in return?
 
We all know people like that (perhaps you are even one of them) – people who are always there to help, who share what they have, no matter how little or much that may be.
They rightly deserve our admiration, for we live in selfish times, all caught up in the age of the individual – my needs, my rights, my wants, my desires – it’s all about “me”.
 
Seemingly, it is no longer fashionable for individual aspirations to play second fiddle to community responsibilities.
In fact, if the rhetoric of commercial advertising is to be believed, our pursuit of personal happiness through self-pampering is not only desirable, but it’s our God-given right.
 
It is easy to become cynical in such a world, especially when we secretly admit our own complicity in perpetuating the myth of self-centred fulfilment.
But then a disaster happens, a catastrophe strikes, and the outpouring of public generosity revives our faith in humanity again.
 
Why does it so often take a crisis to bring out the best in us?
People pull together to fight a common cause. There is a sense of camaraderie that is infectious.
Suddenly, we find ourselves tapping into one of the most powerful human drives – the desire to make a positive difference.
 
Somehow, dramatic events manage to penetrate our psychological armour of indifference, reaching through and touching our emotions.
Crises invoke empathy.
We find ourselves thinking: what if that had been me?
And often, it so easily could have been – there, but for fortune, go you or I.
 
But what happens when the calamity slips back out of the headlines?
Does our generosity go back into hibernation?
And what about the much larger, creeping disasters – the slow, insidious killers like Aids and cancer, poverty and climate change?
What will trigger our generosity when the needs seem so overwhelming, so persistent, so far away, so unlike to affect me?
 
It is clear that we cannot rely on melodrama and CNN to draw out the spirit of generosity that lies like a sleeping giant inside us all.
Perhaps reciprocity is a more reliable catalyst for giving – you reap what you sow, what goes around comes around.
 
This is the ancient law of karma and the modern law of physics – every action has a reaction.
It may seem rather selfish as a basis for generosity, to only give in the hope of receiving back in return.
But then again, bargaining for favours is more endemic than we are willing to admit.
Even religious injunctions to generosity are laced with promises of heaven’s reward – pay now, collect later.
 
Or maybe we are overcomplicating things.
Think of the last time you acted with generosity.
How did it make you feel?
Good, right?
So generosity is nothing but enlightened self-interest.
 
Even so, what does it really mean to be generous?
To be charitable, of course, but in what way?
 
Generosity is being willing to give what we have least of – be it money, or time, or patience.
You can be generous with your donations, your attention or your love.
Generosity is also giving fully what we have most of – especially our talents and skills. We should not underestimate the importance of sharing our highest potential.
 
Being the best we can be – finding our calling and following it – may be one of the most generous things any of us can do.
Because, ultimately, generosity is all about giving of yourself. 
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Friendship

Friendship

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Friendship is the bond between hearts and the bridge between souls ~

Who are you friends?
What makes them so special?
How do we make friends, and what makes friendships last?
 
Our world is crowded with people and our lives are cluttered with meetings.
But so much of our interaction with others is superficial.
We don our personas as work, wear our masks at social occasions, and play our expected roles in public.
 
We communicate, but only as a means to an end, an efficient way to persuade others, an effective way to further our own goals; or else just to fill the space of time, to connect the dots of silence in our days.
We connect with people in a functional way, more interested in what they can do for us than who they really are as complex human beings; more willing to listen to their next line of dialogue than the incredible story of their lives.
 
Friendship is the exception to the rule of shallow relationships.
We make friends when we throw a line across the void of surface acquaintances, and discover someone on the other side; someone who is intrigued enough to throw the line back.
 
Friendship begins as a delicate thread between two people, which, with time, is first woven into a thin chord, and then plaited into a strong rope.
The bond remains tenuous in the early days of friendship – a careless tug or thoughtless breach of confidence can break the tie, and either side can simply drop the rope and walk away.
But as trust builds, so it becomes possible to string a rope-bridge across the divide, and to test its weight under strain.
 
If the friendship holds up under stress, the two intrepid adventurers can make their clutching way out to the middle of the swaying bridge and greet each other, face-to-face for the first time.
As friends meet and get to know each other, the bridge is made sturdier by adding planks of understanding, until eventually the rope-bridge is replaced by a wooden foot-bridge.
 
The friendship remains vulnerable to inclement weather or weakening if it is not maintained, but easier access strengthens the foundations of commitment.
With time, the foot-bridge may become a sturdy stone-bridge, and although no friendship is indestructible (for flash-floods and earthquakes can strike without warning), the longer it lasts and the more it is reinforced, the better its chances are for survival.
 
We look to friends for honesty in a world of half-truths and lies, for support when our lives creak under the weight of life’s pressures, for encouragement when we are shooting for the stars and only hitting the moon.
 
Friends listen when we need to talk, comfort us in our tears, and celebrate with us in our moments of joy.
 
Friendship is the journey of discovering the miracle of another’s being.
 
When we begin a friendship, we light a single candle in the dark room of mistrust and scepticism, and we are delighted by the hope it gives us.
As the friendship grows, as we reveal more of ourselves to each other, we light more candles, and are amazed by the glorious sights that become illuminated – parts of ourselves and our friends we never knew existed.
Occasionally, some of the candles may go out – blown by the winds of our changing circumstances, or snuffed out in our impetuous anger and frustration – but always, they can be relit.
 
The trail of light which is friendship knows no end.
For once one room is bright and our exploration of it complete, there are other rooms, other houses, cities, countries, planets.
The answer to “what are the limits of friendship” is “how many candles and how many lifetimes does it take to light the universe?”
 
There are no shortcuts to friendship.
Building bridges takes time and effort; lighting candles takes care and attention; sharing another’s world takes curiosity and endurance.
But who would want to take a shortcut when walking the path of friendship is in itself so rewarding?
 
So take hands with your friends today, enjoy their company, shed a little light on each other’s lives, and build a bridge across forever.
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Food

Food

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Food is a universal language spiced by delicious local dialects ~

Have you ever been away from home on a trip, or beyond the ready conveniences of the city, and started to miss your favourite foods?
Or if you think back, are there certain foods that you associate with particular periods of your life?
When is food a treat and when is it a chore?
 
So much of our lives revolve around food.
How often don’t we find ourselves planning or preparing food, eating or digesting a meal, or even just daydreaming about some or other delicacy?
 
From the moment we are born, food shapes us.
We are taught what is good food and what is bad food, when we should eat and when we should abstain, how much is too little and how much is too much.
We soon learn about the vagaries of appetite and appeasement, the possession of cravings and indulgences, the slavery of diets and binges.
 
Food takes in the full spectrum of human experience – from our highest virtues to our basest vices, from the painful ache of hunger to the blissful glow of satisfaction, from the wholesome fruits of earth’s bounty to the artificial concoctions of science’s manipulation, from the steady sustenance of staple foods to the delicate delights of fine cuisine, from the dreaded sight of the foods we loathe to the intoxicating joy of the foods we love.
 
Like so many things in life, food works on multiple levels.
In its most elementary form, food is all about nutrition. It is our source of energy, the fuel for our activity.
And yet, it is also so much more.
 
Food is the ritual which structures our day, the way in which we celebrate our blessings and mourn our losses.
Food is a symbol of abundance, a sign of plenty, recalling the harvest festivals of old.
Food represents the habits of generations past and the legacies for generations to come.
 
Our ancestors passed their remarkable food discoveries down through the ages – what flavours and what heals, what grows well and what preserves well, what grinds to flour and what presses to wine.
This wisdom owes its survival to a strong oral tradition – the telling and retelling of food stories.
 
The written word has been no less important.
Since time immemorial, recipes have been chiselled into tablets and etched into palettes, written on scrolls and inked on parchments, printed as scripts and published as books.
The swapping of recipes is a glue which cements families, a thread which ties friendships, and a yeast which leavens communities.
 
Food is the original tradable commodity, the seminal object of barter.
Even in mythical terms, Adam and Eve traded their innocence for an apple, exchanged their obedience for the fruit of knowledge.
 
Throughout history, food has been a stimulus for the discovery of new lands, a catalyst for the establishment of new civilizations.
The phenomenon of globalisation was set in motion thousands of years ago by the spice trade.
 
Food is as universal as it is diverse.
The commonality of food allows us to connect across the divide, even while the uniqueness of food allows us to retain our differentiated identity.
Like language, food can create shared understandings, but this should never be at the expense of the rich heritage of local dialects.
 
Food enables us to express who we are and where we are, to tell the tale of how we got there and what lies ahead.
Food links us to the chain of life.
It connects us to the land and binds us to our cultures.
It emphasises our interdependence with nature and stresses the unity of humanity.
 
Food is an analogy for creativity – we can be starved of inspiration, or feast on ideas; sometimes, we have all the ingredients to make magic happen; other times, we overcook our efforts at ingenuity.
 
But food is also an art in itself – every time we prepare food, we engage in an act of creation, a demonstration of creativity; we are artists mixing a palette of colour and flavour, painting a dish of texture and aroma.
There is no limit to the masterpieces we can craft.
Food, unlike any other art form, engages all of the senses.
It is the quintessential holistic art – best appreciated when fully consumed, and a change agent as soon as it is taken in.
 
Food has transformative power.
We all partake in the sacrament of the Eucharist in our own way – every time we quench the thirst of our minds and feed the hunger of our souls.
 
So take care what you eat today.
Let it be food which sustains and delights you, food which boosts your energy and buoys your spirit.
 
In short, have a yum-yum day.
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Flowers

Flowers

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Flowers are Nature’s way of smiling and laughing ~

How close are the nearest flowers to you right now?
Are there flowers in your home, your office, your garden?
It is hard to imagine a world without flowers.
 
From the moment we are born to the day we die, flowers adorn our lives.
As we take our first breath, flowers greet us, and when we are laid to rest, flowers bid us farewell.
When we graduate or are promoted, flowers cheer on our achievements, and when we get married or have children, flowers rejoice in the promise of our love.
 
Isn’t it amazing that flowers are suited to every occasion?
A romantic dinner is incomplete without a red rose for company, and a carnation corsage is the perfect partner for an evening of dance.
Flowers help us to celebrate our joys and mourn our losses, to let someone know we care, and to brighten an otherwise cheerless day.
 
Flowers are a reminder of spring’s eternal hope and life’s unconditional beauty.
Even in the most unlikely places – in parched deserts and frozen tundra, on skyscraper roofs and ghetto streets, in muddy swamps and refuse dumps, clinging to cliff ledges and squeezing through pavement cracks – flowers bloom.
It’s as if they are saying that there is no condition too harsh or too difficult, no circumstance too dire or too oppressive, that a glimmer of light cannot reach and a splash of colour cannot redeem.
 
When our world is dark and grey, flowers bring the sun and the rainbow.
And when our world is bright and iridescent, flowers echo with smiles and laughter.
 
Flowers are the blooming of our emotions.
They express how we feel when words fail us or are not enough.
They reflect our inner landscape in every season, whatever the weather.
 
Do you have a favourite flower?
When you close your eyes and imagine being in paradise, what flowers grace the scene?
Are there fields of purple heather, or patchwork carpets of tulips?
Perhaps intoxicating cascades of jasmine, or sweet smelling frangipanis?
Do you picture a perfectly formed rose, or an exuberant sunflower?
Maybe there are flaming lilies or pure-white snowdrops?
Whichever flowers we adore, we know that our lives would be poorer without them.
 
Flowers are symbols of emerging promise, of unfolding beauty, of budding progress.
They remind us that becoming is a natural process.
 
Buddhists use the lotus as a sacred representation of the flowering of consciousness, the dawning of enlightenment.
For like the lotus blossom, we too open as we reach for the light, and close when darkness engulfs us.
We too need to be coaxed to develop our potential, encouraged to discover our abilities, nurtured to expose our hearts.
 
Flowers connect us together.
The Japanese cherry blossom, the Welsh daffodil, the South African protea and the Chinese orchid – all remind us that civilization flowers as many diverse cultures, but we remain one humanity.
 
And like flowers, it is cross-pollination – of ideas and values, art and science, visions and solutions – which ensures our survival.
We should not hesitate to freely share the very best of what we have to offer the world, for prosperity thrives on exchange.
Communication technologies are the birds and bees, the ladybirds and butterflies of our new global consciousness.
And as we spread our knowledge and learning, we have the unique opportunity to blossom as the human race.
 
Flowers inspire us to celebrate our relationships – to honour those we love, to admire the exquisite qualities in our friends, to cherish the aesthetic connections with our families.
 
We should never be without flowers in our lives, whether it is to brighten our spirits, or console our sorrows, to cheer our mood, or to calm our nerves.
Flowers are life’s natural tonic, a pep-me-up for all ailments and a gift for all occasions.
 
What flowers will you choose today?
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Flight

Flight

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Flight is the journey beyond our limitations ~

What does flight mean to you?
Are you afraid of flying, or are you exhilarated by idea of escaping gravity?
Are you captivated by flights of fantasy, or terrorised by flights into danger?
 
For centuries, we dreamed of flying, marvelling at the freedom of birds and longing to touch the clouds.
Since ancient times, we were lured by the magic of flight, yet wary of its strange secrets.
Always it was the gods and goddesses who possessed the power of flight, while we humans remained earthbound.
The legend of Icarus echoed down the passages of time to warn us of the fate of those who dared to fly.
 
And yet, today, we live in an age of flight.
We have taken to the skies and ridden with the wind.
We have conquered our fears and opened the aperture of space.
 
Flight is an act of faith.
When we lift off from the ground, we put our trust in forces we scarcely comprehend.
Somehow, we know that we are entering the realm of the gods, defying the limitations of our humanness and embracing the possibilities of our divinity.
 
When we see the earth from above, it is different from the world we know.
It is larger, yet strangely smaller; more dislocated, yet somehow more connected.
 
Flight gives us the gift of perspective, of seeing a bigger whole, when we thought the parts were all there was.
Flight gives us the experience of transformation, of existing in a different state of being, soaring like a bird when our feet should be firmly on the ground.
 
Every time we overcome barriers and transcend thresholds, we are flying.
Every time we dare to dream and believe in the impossible, we are flying.
Every time we let our imagination float and our creativity glide, we are flying.
 
We fear flying because it takes us out of our comfort zone, beyond the certainty of what we know.
Flight challenges the gravity of our rationality, questions the integrity of our senses, muddles the neat structure of our moribund beliefs.
 
It takes courage to learn to fly – courage enough to see the world differently, even when we are ridiculed; courage enough to pick ourselves up and try again, even after we crash and burn; courage enough to hold steadfast to our vision, even when we are passing through clouds of uncertainty; courage enough to keep believing, even when we are buffeted by storms of doubt.
 
In our wakefulness, which is a kind of slumber, we are terrestrial creatures, destined to walk the earth.
Yet in our sleep, which is a kind of awakening, we are aerial beings, free to traverse the skies.
Therefore, flying in our waking lives seems difficult, while flying in our dreams is easy; flying during the day seems miraculous, while flying at night is natural.
 
Flying is a skill we can learn to master, but first we need sky – we need to create the space in our lives, the boundless horizons of our crazy wishes and audacious dreams, the vaulted heavens of our bold faith and tenacious belief.
Then we need wings – the elegant mechanisms which give us lift, like nature and science, and the aesthetic designs which give us levity, like art and poetry.
And finally, it helps to have the wind beneath our wings – the people who help us to rise up above the clouds of everyday trials and tribulations, those who see our amazing potential and never lose faith in our incredible abilities.
 
Flight is a dance of collaboration, between nature and engineering; a song of harmony, between will and intuition; a stanza of rhythm, between ourselves and those who believe that we can fly.
 
Like Disney’s Dumbo, flight defies the odds, scorns the probabilities.
And the magic feather we cling to is the optimism that lifts us above the morass of life’s pessimism, the hope that dispels the shadow of life’s despair, the faith that affirms the vitality of life’s soul.
 
Flight is fuelled by desire, powered by vision, and navigated by the heavens.
 
If you want to fly, you need to look up from the ground and see the sky.
If you want to jet off to other worlds, you need to set a course for the stars.
 
Where will your destination be?
 
Welcome on board the wings of your dreams.
We trust you will have a pleasant flight.
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Epiphanies

Epiphanies

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ An epiphany is seeing the same world again, but differently this time ~

What was your last epiphany?
It could have been a life changing Damascus experience, or simply a refreshing “a-ha” moment.
Either way, your world was suddenly different, you saw things in a changed light, your perspective was profoundly shifted.
Looking back, you realise that you were not seeing new lands, but seeing with new eyes. Epiphanies are like that.
 
Our paradigm – the basic pattern which structures our thinking – changes.
We spot the underlying assumptions that shape our world view and we begin to question our most cherished beliefs.
We start to entertain the possibility, perhaps for the first time, that our way is not the only way, that what seemed self-evident and factual is really value-laden and subjective.
 
All the greatest discoveries in history have been made this way.
The scientific breakthroughs and technological inventions that changed the world can call be traced back to an epiphany.
The earth was unquestionably flat until Copernicus had the courage to imagine it round.
Time and space were undoubtedly fixed until Einstein had the insight that they are relative.
 
In retrospect, some epiphanies seem blindingly obvious.
And not just with the benefit of hindsight – something more powerful is at work.
So why did they take so long to occur?
Because as humans, we are prone to a kind of mass hypnosis.
We are creatures of habit, vulnerable to suggestion.
We believe because others believe, accept the truth because there is general consensus about its validity.
 
Epiphanies are the ultimate habit-breakers.
They are often dramatic because they have to be, to break the mould we are trapped in, to shatter the house of mirrors we think is reality.
They feel like earthquakes because they shake up our neat picture of the world, forcing us to put it back together again in a different arrangement.
Because, like Humpty Dumpty falling off the wall, once an epiphany has occurred, there is no going back to the way it was before.
 
This may all sound rather intimidating, and indeed, epiphanies are not for the faint hearted.
But they should be welcomed, not be feared, anticipated, not avoided.
 
Epiphanies are the true force behind evolution.
Progress is never straight forward and the learning curve is never smooth.
Evolution occurs in great leaps, step changes.
These discontinuities are the way we break with the past, free ourselves from the limitations of our old modes of thinking, take the game to a higher level.
 
The question then becomes: are epiphanies beyond our control?
Do we have to simply wait and hope that one day inspiration will strike?
The answer is no.
Although epiphanies are never predictable, we can make their visitation more likely.
 
How?
By learning to be open to change, by constantly questioning our assumptions, by not clinging so tightly to our beliefs, by deliberately exposing ourselves to diversity, by engaging with those we disagree with.
 
We also need to cultivate our imagination.
Grand epiphanies are the cumulative effect of numerous humble insights.
Before the Big Bang, there were lots of little sparks.
 
Admittedly this kind of shapeshifting can be frightening.
Every caterpillar makes its first flight as a butterfly with trepidation.
But look at the result – the newfound freedom, seeing the world from a totally different vantage point.
 
Can you recall how liberating your last epiphany made you feel?
How that unexpected realisation reinvigorated your lust for life?
 
The Christian tradition reminds us that epiphanies are a manifestation of something numinous – a higher power, a greater wisdom.
 
Are you ready to touch the sky?
Today may just be your day for an epiphany to strike.
Eureka!
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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