Doing Good Model is made up of 13 fundamental values. Most of these values were developed throughout Arison’s career when she was on the board of Bank Hapoalim and Arison Investments. To transform her visions and values into a practical business model, Arison had to face some serious challenges, including bringing in new employees and overcoming existing employees’ resistance. Consequently, the development of these 13 values was collaborative and painstaking – the process took an entire year. Once the values had been clearly defined, the next great challenge was the implementation of the values across all of the companies and organizations within the Arison Group.
After several failed attempts, the leaders of the Arison Group were finally able to identify the first step of a successful implementation plan: hosting a series of discussion forums that focused on giving, volunteering, sustainability, and financial freedom. At the first two in-person forums, all employees were encouraged to volunteer and participate. They discussed what the Doing Good values meant to them personally and shared their ideas as to what projects should be employed to spread the essence of each of the values. It was agreed that all Arison Group employees would go through sustainability and financial freedom training and participate in a “Good Deeds Day.”
To assist with the implementation process, Arison hired a team of doctors and professors from leading universities.This academic team put a curriculum together to turn The Doing Good Model into an integrated workshop. The workshop is designed to demonstrate how values can impact both people and business. It includes case studies, interactive activities, short videos, and team breakout sessions. The purpose of the forums and the workshop is to ensure that The Doing Good Model takes a comprehensive approach to corporate values and is applicable to all fields of business.
The first Doing Good Model value is financial freedom, or the ability to make the best financial choices thanks to an in-depth understanding of the economic possibilities at hand. Arison developed this value in response to her desire for financial institutions to financially empower both its employees and its clients. More specifically, she wanted to help people better understand their finances and expenses so that they had the tools to create their own growth and prosperity. Leaders must understand that financial freedom is the responsibility of financial institutions, their employees, and clients to create positive solutions for complex monetary problems. Once financial institutions provide their clients with appropriate information, education, and tools, the clients can go on to make the right decisions to live prosperous lives.
With the value of financial freedom as a lodestar, Bank Hapoalim worked hard to ensure that both customers and employees were able to get their finances on track by providing the following tools:
* An online education network with advanced personal and family budget management tools.
* Training sessions on financial solutions for different stages in life.
* A personal financial planning service.
* Apps to help people achieve financial independence.
* The Small Business Initiative program, complete with events and training.
* Financial freedom workshops for employees to learn financial management skills for their own personal goals.
The value of purity is defined as clarity among one’s thoughts, intentions, and actions. When it comes to business, leaders can adhere to the value of purity by aiming to find a balance between taking care of people, the
planet, and their organizations’ profitability. The first step to integrating this value into business requires leaders to begin thinking and talking about purity. It is only by developing the right mind-set that leaders can truly align their actions with their intentions. Beyond thinking about purity, leaders must work to monitor their decisions and actions and ensure that they align with their intentions to do good for both the organization and the world.
Purity is not just beneficial to leaders looking to build trustworthiness. In today’s marketplace, it is also the organizations that strive for purity that are able to build positive public reputations and subsequently increase profits. Modern customers want to give their business to companies that demonstrate that they have authentic intentions through their actions. TOMS shoes, for example, has found success by exemplifying purity. Customers see the clarity of the company’s thoughts, intentions, and actions through its one-for-one policy, where one pair of shoes is donated to someone in need for every pair that is purchased by a customer.
The value of being refers to the harmonious existence between disparate pieces of the whole. For both people and organizations, achieving harmonious wholeness requires the ability to be present in the moment. By operating in the here and now, organizations remain flexible and capable of handling constant change and the challenges it brings.
The key to being in the present moment is mindfulness, or the intentional practice of focusing on one’s own emotions, thoughts, and sensations. Mindfulness, which can be achieved by daily meditation or introspection, has an important place in business. When the members of an organization practice mindfulness, they are able to pause and make better decisions.
Being requires leaders to unite the different parts of their organizations. The Arison Group accomplished this by building trust and respect between shareholders, management teams, and union representatives. To foster these productive, collaborative relationships, Arison leaders involved union representatives in all decisions that affected the workforce and exercised an open-door policy for all employees.
The value of inner peace is defined as a personal journey that leads people to a quiet, balanced state of mind. To find inner peace, people must recognize and accept the fact that everyone is made up of different parts. These parts, which include unique thought processes, emotions, and senses, are what make up people’s belief systems. By embracing the different parts that make up their selves without making any sort of judgment, people can wake up synchronized and happy.The happier people are, the more productive they become.
In an organizational context, inner peace should manifest as a quiet, balanced, and tranquil place to work. Just as people have many different parts of self, organizations are made up of many different people. When employees know and respect themselves, they become more capable of accepting the people around them. By modeling inner peace, leaders can get those around them to engage in a collective journey of doing good to achieve world peace. Arison’s philanthropic organization, Essence of Life, works to do just this by teaching inner peace through its interactive visitors’center, workshops, and radio station.
Fulfillment is all about people realizing their full potential. While fulfillment can take many forms, most people see fulfillment as the achievement of feeling valuable, healthy, and content as human beings.
Leaders can create workplaces conducive to fulfillment by ensuring that employees feel supported and valued. Additionally, they must also allow employees to contribute their myriad talents and connect to what they are most passionate about. The end result is a workforce that is creative, productive, and engaged. There should also be a higher purpose in place that drives employees on an individual and collective level to strive for something more. This higher purpose should be a set of values aimed at helping people and their communities. When implemented on all levels of business, a higher purpose facilitates fulfillment among everyone.
Vitality is the internal spark that enables people to keep a dynamicpace.lt is the feeling of being alive. For some people, feeling vital requires meditation and a special diet. For others, feeling vital requires listening to music. Ultimately, in order to exercise the value of vitality, people must learn what it takes for them to feel vibrant and happy as individuals.
By fostering vitality, organizations develop a “pulse” that drives engagement, productivity, and innovation. To achieve this pulse, leaders must look beyond day-to-day operational concerns to promote mental and physical well-being throughout their organizations. The Arison Group introduced the value of vitality by asking employees to identify when they felt most alive and what projects would help others learn to make positive, life-affirming decisions. One solution the employees came up with involved promoting vitality by holding nutrition and exercise workshops. Another included publishing a recipe book of their favorite healthy foods.
The value of giving is about offering something from a sincere, empowered place. Giving is a powerful act that does not require wealth or power to conduct. It can start with the humblest acts, like listening to others. When conducted with authenticity, giving benefits both the giver and the recipient equally. In the context of the Doing Good Model, giving can take many forms, including volunteering time, monetary donations, and offering advice and friendship.
Organizations must create clear strategies for giving so they can achieve their intended impact.These corporate giving strategies must be accompanied by boundaries so that what is given is not abused. The power of corporate giving strategies is that they tap into the fact that people naturally want to make a difference, but sometimes they must be shown the way. One way organizations can lead the charge on giving is employing corporate giving strategies that aim to match their employees’ donations.
Volunteering means taking action in the community based on inner strength and love for others. The key to successful, sustainable volunteering is passion for the cause and a personal connection to the group in need. In the context of the workplace, leaders can implement the value of volunteering by supporting their employees’ efforts to do community work. Additionally, leaders can also encourage employees to volunteer by encouraging them to give their advice to others on a subject they are knowledgeable about. Volunteerism should not be mandatory, and employees should always be able to choose the cause they want to support.
Arison wove volunteering into the Arison Group corporate fabric by developing Good Deeds Day. Today, organizations within and outside of the Arison Group participate in Goods Deeds Day by encouraging employees to devote several hours of their day once a year volunteering to the charitable causes of their choice. It has spread to over 50 countries worldwide with over half a million participants. By encouraging the value of volunteering, organizations establish authentic and caring reputations.This, in turn, increases customer loyalty and referrals.
The value of language and communication is about sending and receiving information in a respectful, genuine way that leads to mutual understanding. When people align what they think, feel, and say, their messages are less likely to be misinterpreted.
Leaders that employ mindful communication are not only authentic and considerate when speaking to others, but are also active listeners. By hiring people who can speak truthfully and in a straightforward manner, leaders can prevent time being lost to unnecessary office conflicts. At Salt of the Earth, a salt company within the Arison Group, the language and communication value was used to successfully bring its workforce of diverse nationalities and creeds together by ensuring all employees were provided with lessons on how to communicate effectively and establish respect and tolerance.
These days, not only is the world seeking sustainable solutions to big problems, but business is proving to be a powerful channel for making positive change. While it may have different meanings to different organizations, the value of sustainability is defined as the protection and enhancement of existence through economic, social, and environmental balance.
It is important to give in an authentic way, a way that is balanced, that you yourself feel good about; then you gain just as much as the person or the cause you are giving to.
There are many different kinds of sustainable practices. For example, Shikun & Binui Real Estate employs environmentally friendly building techniques, and Bank Hapoalim employs socially sustainable practices. Instead of harassing customers who owe the bank money, Bank Hapoalim calls customers, learns what the problem is, and helps them come up with creative solutions for repayment. This generally produces more win-win results, higher customer satisfaction, and more customer referrals.
Added value for humanity is the courage and capacity to lead a better world by connecting intentions and actions with the fulfillment of the universal potential. This fulfillment correlates to achieving win-win outcomes for everyone and everything – from clients to suppliers to the environment.
Not only does Arison Investments work to create global, social, economic, and environmental balance, but it also views universal challenges as innovation opportunities. It exercises the added value for humanity value through its long-term investment strategy, which involves seeking out ventures with high financial returns that conduct business in a socially and environmentally sustainable way.
Similarly, Shikun & Binui Real Estate adds value for humanity when approaching large-scale, international projects.The company meets with locals to get a handle on the culture and the basic needs of the community. It also employs and trains locals rather than bringing in foreign workers.
The value of we are all one revolves around the idea that each person is unique while still being a part of the whole. When people come together, they bring their uniqueness in the form of different perspectives and expertise. Collaboration can be leveraged to solve the world’s most complex problems.To tap into the power of collaboration, Arison Group created Goodnet.org, a website and central meeting place to connect people and share ideas on how to do good around the world.
Another way the Arison Group implements the we are all one value is through the All One forum. Intended to forge a connection between the dozens of different Arison Group companies and organizations, All One is an online forum where each organization can share what it is doing with the others and everyone can get on the same page. Bank Hapoalim’s practices also exemplify how the we are all one value can be exercised. The bank respects and includes its diverse clients by having products and services available for all nationalities and religions.
Abundance is a conscious mind-set that revolves around the belief that everything people need, including resources, education, information, relationships, and love, already exists. Once people accept this belief, they must ensure that all of their decisions impact these existing resources in a responsible way.
Arison argues that there is an abundance of fresh water in the world, but much of it never gets to people because of operational issues like leaking underground pipes. The Arison Group water company, Miya, recognized this fact and then took responsible action by fixing the leaking urban water distribution systems. By taking responsibility, Miya ensured that water abundance could continue. Miya’s story illustrates the further point that abundance is a form of consciousness – a way to see the world. The more leaders focus on scarcity, the more they will only be able to see a lack of solutions. Leaders can tap into the abundance consciousness by setting abundance as their goal and then identifying and taking the steps necessary to achieve it.