Ivy Sea Online: Spirit at Work - What is it, and why does it matter to you?

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SPIRIT AT WORK: WHAT IS IT, AND WHY MIGHT IT MATTER TO YOU?

Spirit in the Workplace, The Stirring of the Soul in the Workplace, the Soul of a Corporation — you can barely step through the doors of your local bookstore without being bombarded with titles such as these. Newspaper and magazine columns are devoted to it, organizational-development gurus tout it, management schools teach it, a plethora of web sites promote it.

Yet, despite all the buzz, you might still be pondering the core questions: What is this movement, or trend, really about? And why might it matter to you as an employee, organizational leader, or entrepreneur?

The answer depends on your perspective. The Spirit in the Workplace concept seems to center on individuals seeking sacredness in their daily tasks and interactions, guided by their faith or ethics practices. They champion a workplace reality where people don't have to feel divided between 'who I really am' and 'how I have to be at work'.

The ultimate goal envisioned by many Spirit at Work enthusiasts? A full-blown questioning of company values that leads to a transformation of purpose beyond profit; a paradigm where positive effects on society and the environment as a responsible global citizen creates wealth as a by-product of right behaviors.

Many corporate leaders, challenged to find new ways of boosting creativity and getting an edge in a hyper-competitive marketplace, have taken notice as well.

As a result, official 'spirit at work' programs range from allowing time off for holy days, providing space for religious study groups or meditation, sponsoring workshops on spiritual concepts to increase productivity, or as part of mind-body-spirit programs that keep people healthier and happier (and thus reduce usually-steep business expenses in healthcare insurance and worker's compensation).

Other organizations and entrepreneurs may avoid any connection between faith and work at all, for a variety of reasons.

What started all this?

Explanations for the current popularity of Spirituality at Work include:

• the negative after-effects of two decades of massive downsizings and corporate restructurings, and the resulting demands on (and often apathy of) many employees;

• the dot-com frenzy and crash, Enron et. al. debacles, Church and governmental indictments, and the overall increase in worrisome ethics scandals;

• several years of war and fear-mongering, leaving many people looking for healthier alternatives;

• concerns about quality of the environment, global warming, children, and other issues have many people looking at healthier alternatives for how we do business;

• scientific discoveries of the effect of mindset on blood pressure, immune function, memory, consciousness, again, and a host of other processes help to clear the path for theories that the health of mind-body-spirit governs health and quality of life;

• the mid-life review that baby-boomers are undergoing as they move into retirement (the elder boomers) or enter middle-age (the younger boomer);

• the rise into adulthood of the 'boomer's children', many of whom have an altered set of values as a result of growing up with unparalleled affluence, technology, parents who were rarely home, and the other afore-mentioned cultural events; and,

• time pressures that affect involvement in churches, mosques, temples or community groups just as interest in spirituality is rising.

Increased technology usage and globalization are two other trends driving the Spirit at Work movement, with increasing discussion about the impact that profit-driven companies have on the world’s environment and cultures.

And as concerns increase about sustainability of resources, destruction of indigenous cultures, and the reality that constant warring goes hand-in-hand with a greedy, affluent-consumer culture, many Spirit in the Workplace proponents hope that cultivating more ethically motivated executives, employees, and citizens will influence corporations to rethink their mission not just within the workplace, but in localities half a world away.

What do the skeptics say?

Most of the trepidation felt by skeptics of "Spirit at Work" stems from fear that they will be forced to embrace a particular religion, and history would support that concern.

Many consultants and proponents of the movement separate spirituality, with its recognition of universal values, from religions, each with its own rites, practices and clear lines between right and wrong.

Yet one thing that troubles opponents or the undecided onlookers is that the current Spirit at Work movement results in activities specific to certain religions rather than an emphasis on universal values: Torah classes, Bible studies, and Buddhist practices abound, as do interdenominational discussion groups.

Some executives and business owners freely tie their religious beliefs to their business decisions, including company policy and rhetoric, while others unabashedly open meetings with evangelical-Christian prayer.

Is it really such a problem to cite tradition-specific scriptures or talk more openly about your personal faith practice if the result is truly ethical business activity? Workers are, after all, protected from religious discrimination and unwelcome proselytizing by law.

The basis for comfort around religious diversity is — you guessed it — communication. Open, sensitive discussion and articulation of needs, coupled with deep, compassionate listening and respect can create a communing of faith and ethical systems that allows colleagues to envision a better workplace or question alignment of values and occupation. Courtesy and consideration can lead to discovery of unifying principles that create an authentic team.

The problem of course, at least in the eyes of many, is that quite a few religious institutions have been historically associated with anything but tolerant, open, compassionate, loving or ethical behavior. Many traditions, as evidenced by those who receive the most publicity, seem quite the opposite: dogmatic, intolerant, judgmental, not prone to listening or true dialogue unless others accept their specific beliefs. A fervent attachment to very specific, dogmatic beliefs is rarely a foundation for good communication.

The concern, then, is whether the practices associated with specific religious traditions will similarly result in conflicts over dogma, and an encouragement of oppressive, intolerant attitudes and behaviors in the workplace.

Another reason for healthy skepticism is the reality that profit-based organizations in their current formation rarely adopt practices for altruistic purposes. Too often, good intentions and meaningful concepts get appropriated and mangled beyond recognition in an attempt to drive employees to work more, and more efficiently, in the hopes of lowering costs and increasing shareholder return.

When the bottom-line is the single focus, and related 'efficiencies' guide policy and decision-making, nothing is sacred, and ethics are usually challenged to the breaking point -- as evidenced by Enron and the likes.

An example? A large corporation sent its managers off on "Native American-style vision quests" for the purposes of making better office equipment. Given examples such as these, it's hardly surprising that whole groups of people are insulted when deeply held and sacred faith practices are marketed, sold, bought and mined to what many see as very worldly (and too often harmful) ends.

You can see why the issue is not a boring or controversy free one, and why it must be approached with mindfulness by those who would create positive outcomes.

So why would the corporation bother?

That's a good question, and hope springs eternal when there's a profit to be made. This is particularly true, and to some degree understandable, after a period of historic economic difficulty and challenge like the one we've experienced since the year 2000. Organizational and entrepreneurial decision-makers have been challenged to balance integrity and the need to return to healthy and sustained profitability.

So one place to look when profitability needs to be fired-up is productivity, which requires creativity, motivation, and relatively positive morale. In this instance, the data look good when it comes to the positive effect of mind-body-spirit practices.

There are indications that the typical compensatory practices of the workplace, especially the "dangling a carrot" approach of performance-based bonuses or incentives, don't necessarily produce quality results.

In Alfie Kohn's work, for example, illustrated in his article "Challenging Behaviorist Dogma: Myths About Money and Motivation", he notes studies which found that subjects offered an incentive for doing a task actually did lower quality work than subjects offered no reward at all. Workers' internal motivation is actually diminished by the introduction of such external rewards.

Also, when the workforce is more focused on what has to be done to get a reward than the importance of the work itself, there is no ethical connection to the quality of the work produced, and no spiritual satisfaction to be derived from it, further reducing intrinsic motivation. (You'll find a link to Mr. Kohn's article, and other work, below.)

Interestingly, in his book, No Contest, The Case Against Competition, Kohn cites one external motivator that has a positive effect in the workplace: A sense of accountability to others. Although it is described as motivation from the outside, "accountability to others" requires a feeling of interconnectedness with co-workers and the wish to deliver one’s portion of the work at a high standard of quality for the good of the team.

When a company encourages employees to apply their spiritual and ethical ideals to their work, it empowers feelings of internal control over the work to be done, fosters creativity in approaching task execution and promotes a collaborative atmosphere, which leads to high-quality output and job satisfaction.

High quality work, lower turnover due to employee fulfillment, and potential cost-reductions that result from healthier employees can be powerful contributors to a healthy bottom line. And what better to stimulate a connection to that intrinsic motivation than the ultimate intrinsic practice: spirituality.

Yet this, too, may backfire on the corporations if they co-opt and commodify sacred practices for profitable purposes. By doing so, they run the risk of rendering the sacred practices meaningless, and having their efforts seen by employees, competitors, customers, and opponents as one more attempt to manipulate the many for that which benefits the few.

As a result, what was once a source of intrinsic motivation becomes an external, corporatized mandate, and the populace searches for new terminology and practices to reclaim the sacred and, along with it, their overall reason for being.

Vital community and the need for better questions

The concept of "Spirit at Work" offers opportunities for growth and meaning, as well as a vision of true change in the definition of what the role of business plays in the universe, but when should we become concerned?

One of the reasons touted for our need to bring our faith practices and belief systems to work is that we have become disconnected from our churches and communities by the pace of modern life. Shouldn't we be examining whether our souls are meant to have those other connections as well, and whether our work habits themselves may be toxic to our well-being when we cut everything but work from our lives?

Most people are motivated by feelings of relatedness, belonging and feeling "cared for" by their company, especially in light of the demands it makes of them.

If your workplace, however well-meaning, has created a culture that seems to meet every need — social, spiritual, community, family — perhaps it’s really creating dependencies that encourage you to "eat, sleep and dream" the company to the exclusion of all else. If you spend so many hours at work that having your dry-cleaning delivered to your desk can move you to tears of gratitude, perhaps you need to reassess just how much of your "whole self" is being exacted and just how great you're going to feel about that when you're 75 years old.

When your community is strictly at work and your job gets eliminated, to what or whom do you turn? If you are completely dependent on your workplace for satisfaction, you may find yourself emotionally demolished when your company makes a business decision to "reduce redundancy" in its "human capital" that results in the elimination of your job. And we haven't even mentioned the anxiety produced from the knowledge of one's increasing isolation and of organizational fickleness when it comes to the so-called New Social Contract with "free-agent" employees.

These are good reasons to cultivate community outside of the workplace, even if that means something as seemingly mundane as finding the time to drop your laundry at your neighborhood dry cleaner, picking up your take-out on the way home instead of at the company cafeteria, attending a seminar of your own choosing on a non-work topic, or joining a community reading group instead of the one organized by your company's newly appointed "Czar of Fun."

In return for divesting themselves of the need to provide for the more personal of their employees' responsibilities, corporate leaders — and the corporation itself — benefit from the renewed creativity and energy of employees who have been nourished and rejuvenated by their non-corporate activities and communities outside of work.

It may be time for visionary leaders to ask better questions and explore outside of the limiting parameters of too-long-held (and too little challenged) assumptions and beliefs about how business has to operate in order to be profitable and worthwhile.

The enduring spirit behind the fad

What gives "Spirit in the Workplace" a chance for survival in a world where one organizational development fad is quickly discarded for the next? The very fact that the movement remains somewhat disorganized and connected to individual purpose. If it was about applying a simple set of ideas and waiting impatiently for "results," it could and probably will be easily jettisoned in favor of the next trend.

The movement is, after all, about (and is inspired by) internal motivation — individuals up and down the chain of command committing to quality work that honors what is in their hearts, to deep personal inquiry, to assessing and reassessing alignment of values and corporate vision, to listening to the ideas of others, to seeing the sacred in diverse belief systems and the opportunities for collaborative relationships that deliver a sum that is more than its parts.

With soulful commitment to constant examination as a permanent behavior, positive influence on the workplace can’t help but happen, even if by the smallest of increments.

Ready to transcend old limits and step into new realms of vision and creativity? Ivy Sea Founder Jamie Walters and Ivy Sea collaborators work with clients to help them to understand, clarify, and articulate their own "transcendent" vision and values; and then integrate those values and insights into their entrepreneurial or livelihood endeavors, leadership styles, and organizational transformation efforts.

For a consultation, to learn more about Jamie and Ivy Sea, or to discuss other resources that can meet your needs, give us a call or send us an email with your inquiries.