The Meaning is in the Action. The Truth is in the Result.
The great philosophies of ancient history didn’t give a red cent about business. Trading wasn’t a matter deemed worthy of concern for the likes of Plato or Aristotle or even Marcus Aurelius. Although they provided us with many timeless insights they did not foresee that business would be the primary impetus that spurs the day-to-day, wake-up-in-the-morning-and-get-after-it working lives of nearly every one of us. By now we can be fairly certain that one is likely to dig up a scroll with a CEO Handbook etched onto it.
But I suppose all is fair in love and commerce, because the world of business doesn’t seem to give a hoot about philosophy either. Although the leaders of an organization must concern themselves with tried and true philosophical questions such as: how one should act, what we can know for certain, and how to govern, there’s not much time for, or interest in, contemplative things. Well, earnings reports might be the lone exception.
But a connecting bridge of sorts was extended to us commercial types in the late 19th century when a few practical men doing practical things in the world took up an interest in philosophy. Contrasted with the ‘mere gibberish’ they took away from the ages-old arguments, they applied themselves to resolving the truth that would play out on the street where you live, and coined it with a new-world name: Pragmatism.
A good example of an objective is a company vision – a 2-to-3 year horizon The likes of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James and John Dewey – each applying a different spin – gave us the notion that truth is to be found in the consequences of our actions. And nowhere else. That was not to say that anything goes, and also not what might be mislabeled as pragmatic, meaning that the end justifies any means. No, we’re talking about putting bright ideas to the test, like in the tug and pull of competitive markets, in order to judge an idea’s worthiness for us, its truthfulness to us.
There is one exception to the hard distinction I’ve drawn here. Among types of Missions, explorations are a unique animal. They are blend of Mission and vision: a purpose that works on a tight schedule. Missions to be ofLeaders of all types need some philosophy to guide them. Leaders in business need a philosophy that will help them prove out whether their teams’ ideas have ‘cash value’, in the famous words of William James. Pragmatism, with even a business-sounding name, is a useful school of thought that cuts through a lot of ancient arguments to say that meaning was to be found in the actions we resolve to take. And truth was to be found in the results of those actions.
