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"Can you send us a list of your talks?", the speaker's bureau lady asked. I've always found that an odd request because it sounds like I should have a pre-packaged "top ten" list. However, in describing my current interests I mentioned "spirituality in the workplace". "Intriguing", she says, "what exactly is that about?" Suddenly I realized that while I could talk for hours about spirituality, I couldn't give her two sentences describing what "it" was. What are we talking about? Were we spiritual in the psychedelic sixties? Were Johnson & Johnson being spiritual in 1982 when they dumped thirty-one million Tylenol capsules sending the entire corporate world into a values kick? Is being an equal opportunity employer spiritual? Is Jack Welch demonstrating spiritual leadership in revolutionizing General Electric? Will Lee Iacocca be remembered as a truly spiritual leader? How about tele-evangelist Jimmy Swaggart? How about you and me? To understand what this spiritual stuff is all about, let's look at four levels of commitment:
Everything we do is anchored to one of these four levels. Take environmental protection. Green is politically correct. If you do not at least look like you are recycling - get with it. Put the recycle bins where people can see them and use recycled paper, at least for the annual report. You don't have to like it, just do it! That's pretty superficial so it is not hard to go a little deeper. Recycling is politically correct and it may also be an intelligent thing to do. Get some numbers together for a business case. That's how most businesses make their decisions. Find out how much you can save. Whether or not it is good for the planet is not nearly so important as whether it's a good deal for you. There is deeper water still. Beyond the political and intellectual lies the emotional. You go out of your way to recycle. You rinse out your tin cans and carry your Styrofoam cup past the handy garbage can to the recycle bin. On a rainy Saturday you took your kids to Tree Day in the park where they lovingly planted tiny saplings. Most were mowed over the next morning, but that's not the issue. Your heart is in this recycling thing and you inconvenience yourself to protect our planet. Quick recap before we go even deeper to the spiritual level. Politically-just do it. Intellectually- have a business case. Emotionally-go out of your way to recycle. Spiritually- you chain yourself to a majestic cedar tree, defying the lumber barons to cut through your naked body with their chain saws. The tree and you will live or die together! The key point in understanding this spiritual level is the recognition that there is no separation between you and the object. This object can be a person, a belief, a philosophy, a dream, etc. Unity is central to spirituality. When you behave politically, there is a huge gap between what you believe and what you say or do. The intellectual level narrows that gap considerably as does the emotional level. When you hit spiritual there is no gap. You and the object of your commitment have become one. Another example is the typical annual management conference or workshop. Here is how it often goes as the group tries to work its way through the four levels. Start with the President's address written by somebody in Public Relations. This is usually a political experience. We laugh heartily at the opening joke though we've heard it a hundred times. We take notes of key phrases to use strategically during the reception that evening. The obligation to applaud enthusiastically goes without saying. If the group is particularly enthusiastic they could try the politically motivated standing ovation. There are documented cases where a standing ovation for the President has turned the reception from a cash bar into an open one. Some groups are even more politically overt and invite a high ranking government official to kick-off the conference. We know that nothing of any substance will be said, but then we aren't intellectually motivated at this point anyway. The intellectual stuff comes with the industry specialist telling us with considerable authority about the challenges facing the industry in the global market place. You are given a binder bulging with the data backing her up. This scares us half to death but it sure gets us thinking. Coffee break. Regional reports follow. Not much to be said here. The guys from Central always take more time than they are supposed to. Lunch. We're still in intellectual mode and so are invited to sign up for various break-out groups focused on key issues such as customer service, cost reduction, etc. If your corporation is highly controlling you are preassigned to your group because they know you won't mix on your own. Once there you fill pages of newsprint with brainstormed ideas and spend the remaining time trying to talk someone into giving the report. Whoever gets the job is obliged to begin with the reminder that they are only the messenger, absolving themselves of any responsibility for what they are about to say. See how we're slipping back into political here? The President acknowledges the plethora of great ideas and reassures us that each one will be given the attention it deserves. We all know what that means in terms of real change. The closing motivational speaker is now introduced. This at least should be fun and upbeat. This is the emotional part. The anatomy of a good closing motivational speech is Laugh, Laugh, Cry, Laugh, Poem. All of which is wrapped up by the sweatshirt ceremony in large or X-large. The conference will get much better evaluations if the sweatshirts are any color but white. This may sound cynical but doesn't it also sound familiar? Where in all of this well intentioned effort do we get real? Where do we, without fear, make the kind of connections with each other that enable us to truly transform our work and our world? We easily accommodate the political and intellectual levels and nibble on the emotional. The true foundation of our personal and corporate lives is spiritual and we don't even come close to touching it. That is where the real power and permanence is. The real force for change lies in our spirit not in our strategies or our systems. Team meetings, strategic planning, re-engineering
or parenting could easily have been used as examples. What I want
to make clear is that
everything has a spiritual core, a spiritual center. A fulcrum is "a
point on which a lever is placed for support". Change "lever" to "life" and
you've got it. This is how we find our balance. Once we learn to
connect to that core the world changes color and life and work will
never be the same again. How I wish this happened more often. The following quotation must
be printed at the conclusion of each reprinted article: Ian Percy is an international speaker and consultant and can be reached at www.ianpercy.com |
Confession: the Latest in Corporate Strategies 3 Most Important Performance Questions 7 Signs That Your Company is Selling Its Soul It's Not the Place, It's the Purpose 360° Evaluations Will Take You In Circles It's All About the Customer, Stupid I Once Was Blind But Now I See Organizing A Conference, 3 Principles Might Help Balancing Your Spiritual Center Three Guidelines For A life-Changing Conference Looking for the "Best Practice" May Not Be The Best Practice Get
a Life! Principles For Making The Most Out of Long Drawn-Out and Difficult Experiences If You Don't Quit Re-Engineering, You'll Go Blind What's All This Stuff About Spirituality in the Workplace? Does Your Company Have a Soul? Does Your Corporate Vision Make You Tremble? Get Irritated and Change the World On the Issue of Change
- Get a Grip!
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