The intangible cost of living

Some months ago I attended a Women’s Entrepreneur Forum conference sponsored by the Latin American studies program at Georgetown. It was rich with native speakers of beautiful languages I didn’t understand.

During the first break, after wondering what to say to people I didn’t know, I found my language command was insufficient to articulate those thoughts. Still, people reached out to pull me into conversations.

This group of women and supportive men seemed among the warmest and kindest I’ve encountered in a conference setting. There was greater ease with authenticity. It paved the way to let vulnerability pass through and to move quickly on to action. While I didn’t easily find words, I had more intimate discussions than I typically would with people I had never before met.

Discussions of data and analytics were infused with compassion for the human beings at the ends of those numbers. In my field we refer to “impact on Human Capital”. It includes the economics associated with how people feel, what they can provide for their families, whether they are treated as you would hope you were, and more.

During one session, Gally Mayer – a woman who is working to reshape the coffee industry – explained that in the current market structure, people can’t farm beans without being impoverished. I looked with sheep eyes at the coffee cup in my hand. Most people don’t want to pay more for their coffee. And yet there are intangible costs to taking a price-only perspective. Even if we are able to ignore the human impact in exchange for a cheaper cup, from a Human Capital perspective, it may not be sustainable.

I learned much at the conference, personally and professionally. One of the things that I couldn’t get out of my mind was Gally’s urging that – if we did nothing else – we should watch Kiss the Ground with Woody Harrelson, a fast-paced plain language documentary that explains why how we treat and use soil has exponential possibilities.

I took her advice, and it stuck with me. It comes back to me frequently in my daily life, a measure of how worth my time it truly was. So I’m urging you do to the same. Kiss the Ground streams on many platforms, and doesn’t cost anything to view. Take some time today to watch!