The Business of Love

#love has 1.5 billion posts on Instagram.

‘What is love’ is consistently the most searched for phrase on Google.

Someone out there is telling us something. 

We spend a third of our lives at work, that’s a long time. At home we do our utmost to surround ourselves with loved ones to create a happy productive home, helping each other to grow and develop. To date, it has not been particularly fashionable to connect the word love with business as it smacks to many of sentimentality, weakness and emotion. But surely, we could do a better job if we got that loving feeling going at work too?  

Loved people are happier people. Happier people are more productive people. More productive people means happy shareholders. It’s a proper love triangle.

According to Anthropologist and TED speaker, Helen Fisher in her book ‘Why We Love”. The definition of love is simply “Love may be understood as part of the survival instinct, a function to keep human beings together”. So, if we need love to live life to its potential, why do we find it hard to express it during working hours and show colleagues that they actually matter.

The human brain has only evolved by 10% in the past 50,000 years. Most of your brain is still very much living in the past. 90% of you is hanging around the cave, protecting our share of the next sabre toothed tiger to come along. We are cavemen and when something we perceive as a ‘predator’ comes our way, our brains hit reactive mode as our survival instinct. However, with this mode comes a feeling of inner homelessness; we feel disconnected, unappreciated and unloved.

Our built-in negativity bias is largely redundant in the 24/7 modern landscape in which we reside. Sabre toothed tigers are scarce. Instead, our over stimulated brains assume minor setbacks such as a late train or slow wi-fi as those predators. This leads to constant reactiveness and not much room for the love machine. However, if our brains are in a relaxed yet ‘aware’ state ie. responsive, we can join in with others, be compassionate, kind, and loving and ultimately fuel a more creative and productive workplace.

How can we make that leap and beat our innate caveman brain?

1. Share the love. Expressing gratitude and thankfulness has a huge impact on our health, well-being and productivity. Every time you have an interaction spot one thing that you love about that person, soon this will become second nature and before you know it they’ll be appreciating you too.
2. From the Buddhist point of view, you have to care about yourself before you can really care about others. Slow down and note a few things every day that you have done that you think are fantastic. Seeing positive aspects of yourself written down will remind you to be kinder to yourself and consequently to others too.
3. Slow down, sit straight, breathe deep and smile. Stop running from one thing to the next. Leave time in your diary to hang out with people and find out what’s going on for them. Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia always has lunch with his staff in the (healthy) canteen. “Not only are we feeding our employees good food, but we are building a community, too. Socializing is important.”
4. Build some loving structures into your business to show you care. Very often, a structure can have unexpected results. At eBay, one day every month, the IT department bans all meetings; meetings are one of the biggest culprits for time wasting and disengagement at work. You would think this would prevent ideas without collaboration, but quite the opposite happens. Scott Seese, eBay’s CEO, says that on that day, “all people are allowed to do is think’. Ideas are noted and brainstormed the next day, voted on by all staff and the best are implemented. Staff feel heard, valued and appreciated. 
5. Get an office dog! Dogs are born with an endless capacity for unconditional love. They stand by you through thick and thin. Only 17% of US employers allow dogs at work but the number is growing every day. Etsy has had a dog-friendly office policy since 2005, even going so far as to create a “Canine Operations Team.” G5 CEO Dan Hobin quotes “Dogs in the office foster friendlier, more collaborative work environments. Everyone rallies around the dogs.” They are after all, the ultimate love machine and they wont work for nobody but you.

Read more by Chris Barez-Brown.