22 February 2006

What does socio-economic development mean?

What does this really mean? And what purpose does social media serve in this development?

Technology and social media enable us to connect with other like-minded individuals, share our ideas, and build communities that act on them. This also gives us the opportunity to lead how we shape the “new” organization. We are beginning to realize that our contribution to an organization is more than a job and a paycheck. It has to create meaning for us – and we have to create meaning for others. How we connect and engage with others with a meaningful purpose, how we grow value through those connections, and how we apply our learning, contributes to a new virtuous value spiral.

Guided by our ideals and social cause, we can synchronize these with these new technologies and social media, recognizing the effect of our human values on how we engage with our work. We can build integrity into our economic structures. This is socio-economic development. And…it may be the future of work.

Each step of the way, we have to again ask ourselves “What is the impact of making our decisions from our roles as consumers versus our roles as citizens?” Perhaps, as we begin to understand the impact of those choices, we change how we engage with our brand organizations. We begin to act on our conscience, knowing that we can also create value with that. We can vote with our conscience and not just our wallets.

That loop of virtuous value starts with learning about what contributes to our personal development. Empowered on a personal level, we engage in new ways with others, building more value-driven relationships that contribute to developing things together, like projects and new ways of doing things. This leads to some kind of transaction or financial reward. We take the learning from this effort and strengthen our personal development and social relationships. And…on it goes…the spiral of a virtuous value stream.

Tags: learning, meaning, virtuous value stream, socio-economic development, purpose, social cause, values

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