The technological advancement of the beginning of this century brought countless possibilities for companies regarding their development, growth, and economic prosperity. Many changes occurred at an accelerated pace in the work process, in productivity and new needs and businesses emerged, machines were inserted in people's lives and gained prominence in everyday life.

The same speed that generated structural changes in people's routine and in business, and whose benefits have been constantly evaluated and questioned by specialists, was also accompanied by serious problems in socio-environmental issues, and more: it brought excessive rationalization of life, and consequently a process of dehumanization, an increasingly worrying issue that has not yet been properly addressed. It was this concern that gave rise to the book “Humanistic Responsibility – a proposal for the ESG agenda”, by Professor Dante Gallian and executive Alexandre Seraphim.

For the authors, companies have positioned themselves, assuming responsibilities that go beyond profit and which currently translate into commitments with the environmental, social and governance agenda represented by the acronym ESG (environment, social and governance) but for both, companies also they can introduce to this agenda one more responsibility, Humanistic, contributing to mitigate the problem, making this practice a solid foundation for a sustainable development in fact, with more sensitive leaderships and with more understanding about what it is to be Human.

It is the Humanistic Responsibility in companies that, according to the authors, completes and strengthens the ESG agenda, bringing the fundamentals of the humanities, such as philosophy, arts, and literature. The methodology of the Reading Laboratory, which was developed more than 15 years ago by Professor Gallian and is based on the aesthetic-reflective experience provided by classical literature, has already been successfully applied in many companies.