{"id":3062,"date":"2023-04-19T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grantalexander.com\/en\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2025-08-28T16:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T14:01:38","slug":"we-are-beings-of-both-reason-and-emotion-olivier-bas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grantalexander.com\/en\/our-news\/we-are-beings-of-both-reason-and-emotion-olivier-bas\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Beings of Both Reason and Emotion \u2013 Olivier Bas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.fr\/Envier-avoir-envie-constructives-destructrices\/dp\/2416009672\/ref=sr_1_6?qid=1675432059&amp;refinements=p_27%3ARapha%C3%ABlle+Laubie&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-6&amp;text=Rapha%C3%ABlle+Laubie\">Excerpt from the new collective book from the Cercle du Leadership: \u201cEnvier ou avoir envie\u201d<\/a><\/em><br><strong>By Olivier Bas<\/strong>, Vice-President at Havas Paris, author, and lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle<br>\u201cNothing great is built without desire, nothing lasting either.\u201d \u2013 Olivier Bas<br><br>A Community of Desires<br><strong>Rapha\u00eblle Laubie:<\/strong> You\u2019ve guided nearly 200 companies and their leaders over 25 years. Why focus on <em>envie<\/em> (desire)?<br><strong>Olivier Bas:<\/strong> Seven years ago, I began exploring the concept of <em>envie<\/em>. Companies invested heavily in human resources, training, and psychosocial risk management, yet engagement barometers showed a persistent deficit. Motivation had been studied extensively, but <em>envie<\/em> had been largely overlooked.<br>I realized the company is not a community of destiny like in the old career-focused model, nor is it truly a community of values. It may be a community of interests, but these are often conflicted between shareholders, clients, and employees. So I concluded that companies are <strong>communities of desires<\/strong>\u2014people coming together to pursue a shared purpose, and this idea shaped my exploration of <em>envie<\/em>.<br><br>Envie vs Motivation<br>Unlike classical motivation, which is largely rational and individual\u2014based on effort and reward\u2014<em>envie<\/em> is <strong>generated by emotional states<\/strong>. Emotions are the oxygen of life, and because they are contagious, <em>envie<\/em> operates collectively. Many companies, in the pursuit of performance, inadvertently destroy the very <em>envie<\/em> that fuels it.<br>Freud\u2019s concept of envy highlights the \u201cmnemonic image of the mother\u2019s breast\u201d as a source of lack, but I focus on the positive energy of <em>envie<\/em>. When we feel <em>envie<\/em>, we are engaged, alive, and driven.<br><br>The Power of Emotional States<br>We are as much beings of reason as of emotion. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman\u2019s work shows that our brain has two systems:<br><strong>System 1:<\/strong> intuitive, emotional, automatic<br><strong>System 2:<\/strong> reflective, analytical, effortful<br>We perceive the world first emotionally and only then rationally. This explains why some mornings we wake without energy or desire, while other days, a positive emotional state propels engagement.<br><br>Leaders Who Awaken Envie<br>Everyone in a company contributes to regenerating <em>envie<\/em>: leaders, HR, managers, communicators, and employees. Leaders\u2019 mindset is critical: companies exist not merely to make profit, but to achieve progress\u2014social, economic, environmental, technological. Profit is a byproduct of meaningful progress.<br>The <strong>language leaders use<\/strong> also shapes desire. Olivier Bas illustrates this with examples:<br><strong>Carlos Ghosn:<\/strong> fear-based, \u201csucceed or die\u201d \u2013 effective short-term but destructive long-term<br><strong>Xavier Niel:<\/strong> anger\/revenge-based \u2013 mobilizing energy but limited in durability<br><strong>St\u00e9phane Richard:<\/strong> joy-based, confidence in success \u2013 inspiring, sustainable<br>Fear and anger can ignite short-term performance but cannot sustain a project or collective cohesion. True collective motivation comes from a <strong>purposeful project<\/strong> that engages employees over time.<br><br><em>Reference:<\/em> Interview with Olivier Bas, 10 February 2022 \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7mIAWNmeJNI&amp;t&amp;utm_source=chatgpt.com\">YouTube link<\/a><br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.fr\/Envier-avoir-envie-constructives-destructrices\/dp\/2416009672\/ref=sr_1_6?qid=1675432059&amp;refinements=p_27%3ARapha%C3%ABlle+Laubie&amp;s=books&amp;sr=1-6&amp;text=Rapha%C3%ABlle+Laubie\">Order the book here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excerpt from the new collective book from the Cercle du Leadership: \u201cEnvier ou avoir envie\u201dBy Olivier Bas, Vice-President at Havas Paris, author, and lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle\u201cNothing great is built without desire, nothing lasting either.\u201d \u2013 Olivier Bas A Community of DesiresRapha\u00eblle Laubie: You\u2019ve guided nearly 200 companies and their leaders over 25 years. Why [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"activity":[7],"topical-themes":[],"news-type":[40],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>We Are Beings of Both Reason and Emotion \u2013 Olivier Bas - Grant Alexander<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grantalexander.com\/en\/our-news\/we-are-beings-of-both-reason-and-emotion-olivier-bas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Are Beings of Both Reason and Emotion \u2013 Olivier Bas - Grant Alexander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Excerpt from the new collective book from the Cercle du Leadership: \u201cEnvier ou avoir envie\u201dBy Olivier Bas, Vice-President at Havas Paris, author, and lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle\u201cNothing great is built without desire, nothing lasting either.\u201d \u2013 Olivier Bas A Community of DesiresRapha\u00eblle Laubie: You\u2019ve guided nearly 200 companies and their leaders over 25 years. 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