Innovating "Heaven on Earth"

When I helped to co-found Values Centered Innovation over 10 years ago, we had a mission: to help transform the way the world innovates. 

We saw that this transformation centers on 3 modes of human values – the positive qualities of good character found across time and cultures: values of Intention (why we innovate), Connection (how we innovate), and Action (what we innovate).

In the 1990s, while attending a business conference in Mexico, I met Martin Rutte, renowned co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work. He was just launching his Project Heaven on Earth, about how each of us can participate in creating a new story and taking action that ushers in a new era for humanity and all life.

Back then, I listened and was impressed with the possibility, but it didn’t stick as a conscious focal point for my life and work. But recently, Martin became a fellow colleague in the Conscious Leadership Guild. We reconnected, had some great conversations, and I’ve learned about the inspiring depth of Project Heaven on Earth.

Here are Martin’s own words (from projectheavenonearth.com): 

“Up to now, humanity's collective story has been 'It's impossible for us to have Heaven on Earth. Heaven can't be here on Earth because it's somewhere else - in the clouds, the sky, after death.' But this story limits us. It says we have to settle for less than our heart's desire. Why should we?”

“Isn't it time for a new story for all of us, for humanity? Let's make it a grand and noble story. Let’s make it a story that engages people, that enrolls them from deep within their hearts and Souls, that makes them want to pitch in and contribute to make this new story work because it has touched something in the very essence of who we are.”

“We want this new global story to usher in a new era of promise, creativity, responsibility, dedication, and devotion — our Souls’ deepest desire. We can do it. You can do it. This is Project Heaven on Earth - the new story of what it means to be a human and what it means to be Humanity.”

As thousands of people have experienced, I have felt a resonance between Martin’s initiative and our own mission at VCI. Being innovative, thinking innovatively, and acting innovatively are all about proactively co-creating the future. It’s about bringing forth, as Martin said, “… a new era of promise, creativity, responsibility, dedication, and devotion” to cultivate, nurture, and manifest whatever “heaven on earth” means to each of us in our minds, hearts, and souls.

To me, that means being inspired and guided by human values that embody our deepest, heartfelt sense of:

There’s something else that Martin recently said that has really stayed with me… Over the years when he’s asked people to “Recall when you’ve experienced a moment of heaven on earth. What was going on?” everyone has had an answer. At some level, they were already aware in their hearts what that phrase meant to them. To me, that means all of us are primed to innovate a future we inherently know can be real. That’s our call. That’s the real meaning of having a vocation (from the Latin vocare – “to call”).

And so interestingly, I find that when I’m working towards my sense of heaven on earth, it’s already real for me in the present moment – not just as some far-off utopian dream. That is, my present-time sense of heaven on earth is being a forward force for a future-time heaven on earth.