Working with a purpose: change makers take conscious living movement into the workplace
- Conscious consumers think about what they do in life, and why. Extend that to work, and employers see the benefits of staff doing something with meaning
- People want to work for businesses that share their values, says start-up founder who was among the speakers at a gathering of change-makers in Singapore
Stephanie Dickson has seen first-hand the effects a more conscious approach to workplace practices can have on staff happiness and productivity.
Since founding the Green is the New Black website devoted to conscious living in 2017, Singapore-based Dickson has helped champion a change in attitudes. “You can see that, when people are allowed to do something with a purpose, something in the workplace that has meaning for them, they simply go above and beyond,” she says.
The rise of “conscious consumerism” – the act of considering the social, environmental, ecological, and political implications of consumption – has spurred a focus not only on what we do in our daily lives, but why. That includes what we do in the workplace, and this will be a focus of the Conscious Festival, organised by Dickson and friends at the Kerry Hotel Hong Kong on April 13 and 14.
The event features talks and seminars on conscious living as well as a marketplace featuring goods from conscious brands, artists and assorted change-makers.
Among the highlights is the “Intrapreneurship for Good” workshop on April 13, with a focus on “finding purpose at work by empowering employees to be the change, trends in impact investing, [and] how companies and individuals can work together to tackle and solve sustainability issues”.