We read about—and most of us have experienced—a decline of trust in our institutions, whether that be government, religion, the media or business.
We shake our heads, perceiving people to be too often governed by self interest and failing to act in accord with principles we hold dear.
This can lead us to feel we are on our own.
Yet, we will never lose the the desire to feel joined with groups or and organization which we believe share the principles we believe in. We will never lose the human instinct to "belong" to something outside ourselves.
This will of course start with our family. It is never to be taken for granted. Supporting one another. Loving one another.
But most of us will want more than that. We will want to be part of a group or organization which reinforces values in which we believe: values of excellence; of integrity, of mutual respect. This is what makes participation on a winning sports team or top notch glee club a source of personal pride and validation years after the experience.
And this is what makes a company like P&G so important. For to the extent to which its ambitions, accomplishments and actions, and the values that underpin them, mirror our own values we will have that sense of "belonging" for which we as human beings yearn. And that feeling of "belonging" becomes more important than ever in the fluid, skeptical world in which we live.
This is what importantly explains why 300 people traveled from around the world to attend a P&G Alumni reunion in Madrid, Spain earlier this month. No matter how short their tenure with P&G had been or how long it had been since their retirement, there were still those values and and experiences which they shared and which they took joy and satisfaction in being nurtured and reminded of by being together again.
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