World 2.0 has a silent mantra running through it’s veins: “Build people up, don’t break them down.”  Beneath the blogs that you follow, the business management books that you read, and the message of the grass roots movements you will find that they all collectively share this mantra.

Building people up starts in our own minds (building ourselves up), then extends to our family and workplace.  From there it extends to how we as collectives interact outside of our human scale relationships – in big corporations, with investors, and international relations.

Breaking people down is the informal and unspoken rule of old style business.  Financial growth at all costs was the mantra even if it means usurping and depleting energy from external sources.   Verbal abuse to those below you?  Sure.  Physical abuse of overwork and poor conditions?  Yes.  People in this case are merely sources of energy to use and abuse to reach some financial goal.  I know this still exists but the goal is to end it.

In World 2.0, with our focus on building human-centric businesses we no longer see humans this way.  People are no longer pieces of meat to be abused.  A person is untapped potential waiting to be built up.  When empowered and invited into the conversation, people come alive with potential.  When you build people up you encourage them to do the same with others (and be warned: the opposite is true as well).  Building people up doesn’t only feel good, it makes economic and social sense.

Look around  - your family, your office, your community, your country.  Are you interacting with people who are in the business of building people up versus breaking them down?  Building people up starts with you.  And likewise, the cycle of breaking people down stops with you.

Get on the wagon… share your stories… be part of the conversation and make some change.

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Me?  I co-own a small music management company.  We build people up by engaging in non-violent communication, asking our employees questions about how we can run our company better, and asking them how they want to grow personally.  It’s a small, small dimple on the world’s problems.  But it’s a start.