The little book I was reading today is dated 1884. I am pondering how its counsel would sound to the modern reader.

“Reason is the rudder wherewith you are to steer your course, and religion the compass by which you are to guide it; but resolution is the wind that will set you forward, without which your sails will often flag.”

The booklet was given to each person completing an apprenticeship in the City of London. Back in the day, these internships would last seven years, and the trainee would generally graduate before their 21st birthday. Actually, they were given their freedom from indenture, but it was not necessarily how we would define freedom. The handwritten note at the front of the book reads:

“…as a fellow worker for the common good of man.”

Today we have Fourth Sector corporations and B-Corporations. Lest we think serving the “common good of man” is a new concept, this greater goal of work dates back centuries to the very first companies in England. Nowadays many believe reason and resolution are enough. Back then, however, there was an admission that we cannot really serve others without all three R’s: Reason, Religion and Resolution. Business, like economics, was never meant to be a rudderless endeavor, and we know full well that “maximizing shareholder value” is not a compass that can withstand the twin attacks of greed and fear.

I think “reason” has its own dangers, as does resolution, of course. Perhaps it is the braiding of all three that makes any one of them palatable, if not essential, ingredients of good work.

It was a simple thing, really, that reminded me to be grateful for gravity. I sat on my deck this morning looking at the view. A plastic bottle I had used the day before tipped as a gentle breeze pressed it from one side; its weight allowed it to settle back on its base. I pondered the opposing forces of the wind from the side, and the pull of gravity. I thought about gravity, and how we seek to defy the very thing that we need on a day to day basis. We want to fly. We want to fall and not hurt ourselves. We want to soar like eagles… we want to defy gravity.

Then I imagined how much extra work would be involved if there was no gravity. The furniture on my deck would have to be tied down, if we still used furniture. If gravity was weak, the slightest breeze would have my umbrellas in a neighbor’s swimming pool. “Where did you park the car, honey?” — only to find that all the cars are up against the fence because a wind came up. Do we really want to defy gravity, or should we appreciate it more?

My mind went on the businesses and other corporations. Pretty much daily we encourage businesses to dream bigger, to get a broader vision, and to find a greater Purpose. This is fun stuff… but it is useless stuff unless the corporation also has gravity. Unless the organization is grounded it will be like one of the many helium balloons that escape a child’s hand and eventually disappear. I thought about our logo at The Institute and “the pillar of integration” that provides the base for the face, the grounding for the grandeur. Vision can me imparted in a meeting, dreams in a workshop or on a walk, but integration is the disciplined daily doing that establishes corporate gravity.

Do you have gravity in your business? Many today are dreaming of “doing well while doing good.” All of the innovation and all of the investment will come to nothing unless there is integration–alignment, if you like–between the head in the clouds, the hands on the wheel, and the rubber on the road.