Introduction
In
this chapter we will discuss four major topics.
The first is the idea that spiritual people are “coming down from the
mountain top” and learning how to apply spirituality to every day life and
work. Following that will be
information on a research study that I conducted that explores the stages of
spiritual evolution and the impact that has on work.
Next we look at five “Paths to Mastery” that are being taught to
executives that help them increase their effectiveness through holistic
approaches to management development. This
chapter concludes with a detailed discussion of ten spiritual principles
commonly practiced by people who are integrating their spirituality and their
work.
Something calls you to a deeper, more fully alive, spiritual life.
The call comes to people in different ways.
Many people ignore it, or think they must be crazy, and they wall off
these feelings, experiences, and urges towards spirituality.
But you can’t ignore it forever.
As one person described it, it begins as a quiet tap on your shoulder.
If you ignore it, it comes back later as a slap in your face to wake
you up to who you really are. If
you ignore that, it comes back later and knocks you off your feet with the
proverbial cosmic two by four.
But once the hunger for spirituality comes alive in you--that hunger
for a greater sense of meaning, purpose, and aliveness--you begin to search
for ways to feed that hunger and to nourish your soul.
You begin to see that all events, people, and situations offer you
opportunities for spiritual development.
This chapter is about the ways that your work can be one of those
opportunities for spiritual development.
If you choose to see it that way, your work can be a spiritual path. You don’t have to go to the mountain top, find a guru, live
in a convent, or change your name in order to live a spiritual life.
Traditionally, people who felt a spiritual calling left the material
world and entered the monastery, the ashram, or spiritual community because it
was believed that this was the only way.
Common wisdom held that the daily life of family, work, and other
commitments would distract the seeker from a closer connection to the Divine.
It was an either-or proposition. Either
you lived a non-spiritual life that was in the world, or you left the everyday
world to devote yourself to a spiritual life.
We are now moving out of either-or
thinking. People are integrating
their spiritual lives and their every day lives.
One of the primary places they are doing this is in the workplace.
I conducted a study on people who are highly focused on spirituality in
their lives and asked them about the effects of their spirituality on their
work. I found that the
relationship between spirituality and work evolved over time.
Based on several years of interviews with hundreds of people, I
developed a five stage model on the evolution of spirituality and work.
This model does not apply to everyone, but it generally seems to hold
true for people who are increasingly drawn to spirituality.
1.
Segmentation: In this stage, people tend to compartmentalize their
spirituality and to keep it separate from the rest of their lives. They may give it attention when going to church or temple, or
when they say their morning prayers or do their daily meditation, for example.
It has no relevance to work or to any other part of life.
It is a separate part of one’s identity that is walled off from the
way an individual sees himself or herself most of the time.
Spiritual practices are done mostly out of habit.
During this stage, individuals tend to be motivated by economics and
are preoccupied with accumulating material goods and with preparing for the
future (college education for the children, a second home, retirement).
This Hindus refer to this as the “Householder” stage of life.
2.
Spiritual
crisis: Some major life event occurs that deeply challenges a person’s
value system, their perception of the world, their perception of themselves,
and of their feelings about what’s important.
The life event may be the death of a loved one, a serious illness,
being laid off, or a divorce. Many
questions arise about the role of work
in this person’s life, and there is much confusion about what, if anything,
to do. Economics are no longer a
driving factor. There is a crisis
of meaning, and material goods cannot satisfy the inner hunger. The individual
often experiences paralyzing fear, uncertainty, and may even go into a
depression. Sometimes the
spiritual crisis comes about as a result of a transcendent or religious
experience that cannot be explained in normal everyday terms.
Even though the experience is positive at the time, the reaction is
still frequently one of fear, uncertainty, and confusion, as the individual
wonders if he or she is crazy.
3.
Dark
night of the soul: Among the research participants, this period tended to last
about a year, and often people were not employed during this time.
It is a time of searching for answers, restructuring values,
rediscovering the importance of spirituality, but also feeling very lost.
It usually leads to a kind of letting go and trusting that there is a
greater purpose, and asking to be shown what it is.
The individual may return to the religion of his or her childhood, or
may explore other spiritual traditions in the search for answers. Spiritual teachers, spiritual books, and support groups can
be of tremendous help during this stage, as can a therapist who understands
the psychology of the dark night of the soul.
4.
Right
Livelihood: A moment of grace occurs and things suddenly fall into place.
There is no way to predict how this will happen nor is there any way to will
it to happen. The stage of Right
Livelihood seems to come as a gift. The
individual has a strong sense of what work to do that will nourish her spirit
and will allow her to be of service. From this point on, synchronous events
seem to occur that make moving towards right livelihood appear almost
effortless. Sometimes Right
Livelihood comes about as a result of seeing one’s current work in a new
way, or redesigning one’s job to fit with what the individual is passionate
about in life. It is not uncommon for someone to take a lower-paying job that
is more meaningful work, or that provides a more balanced work and family
life. Right Livelihood is often the driving force behind the urge to be an
entrepreneur; the ability to create a workplace that is not in conflict with
deeply held values, and that can be nurturing and supportive of spiritual
principles such as service, compassion, and empathy.
5.
Beneficial
presence:
During right livelihood, the person lives passionately for his or her work. At some point there is a sense of imbalance as the “doing”
overwhelms the “being.” People
then begin to simplify their lives so as to spend more time in spiritual
practice, with the understanding that their “work” is to work on their
level of consciousness. They no
longer need to achieve in the outer world. This stage can be just a “time
out” or a sabbatical where the individual takes an extended break from the
outer world to nourish his inner world. Or
it can be the final stage of a life well-lived, a sort of “spiritual
retirement.” The key focus on
this stage is on inner development and working with the spiritual world for
the good of mankind.
Perhaps the major value of this model is that it helps people who are going through the “Dark Night of the Soul” to know that it is a natural process, and that there is something very worthwhile to look forward to. This model is not as linear as it sounds because people often cycle through two or more stages several times before finally moving to a more advanced stage. And difficult times can quickly send us back to an earlier stage.
In my research, there was a small handful of people, about 5% of my
interviewees, who did not fit this model.
I call them “Old Souls.” They
seem to have been born knowing who they are and what they want to do in life.
Things come easy to them. They
are not aware of any major crises or difficult times in their lives.
And there is a peacefulness and calmness about them. So if the model above does not fit you, perhaps you can
consider yourself an “Old Soul.”
For a more detailed description of this model, go to http://spiritatwork.com/newsletr/art006.htm.
Ed Quinn equinn@innerwork.com
is an organizational consultant who has helped people and corporations
integrate spirituality and work. He
says that in order to make work part of your spiritual path, you must gain
mastery in five domains: Mental Mastery, Emotional Mastery, Physical Mastery,
Relationship / Team Mastery, and Organization Mastery.
If you are using this book as part of a course or training program, you
may have been asked to commit to a daily spiritual practice.
If you are working with this material on your own, hopefully you have
also made a commitment to a daily spiritual practice.
The purpose of a regular spiritual practice is to help you develop
mastery in one or more of the five domains listed above.
Mastery in these domains leads to increased personal and professional
effectiveness, reduced stress, and increased enjoyment of life and work.
The
basic premise of the Path to Mastery model is that the only way true
organizational change takes place is through profound personal transformation
and gaining mastery in these five areas.
Here is Ed Quinn’s description of the five areas from his web page. http://www.innerwork.com
Emotional
Mastery
Physical
Mastery
Organization
Mastery
I
worked with Ed Quinn to help facilitate two different groups of leaders
through this process and was very inspired at the personal and professional
transformations that took place. The
program consists of a weekend retreat, three months of online learning and
discussion with weekly coaching, and is closed by another weekend retreat. At the end of the three months, people were reporting
significant health improvements, an increase in energy and creative thinking,
improved business relationships, and measurable improvements in business
results in their work units.
Mastery is very important in integrating spirituality and work, but guiding principles also play a major role. In my interviews with people who see work as a spiritual path, I found 10 major principles that people live by. Each of these will be discussed briefly:
1.
Integrity and
Authenticity
2.
Seeing the Divine in
Others
3.
Unity with the Whole
(Community)
4.
Selfless Service
5.
Trusting the Universe
6.
Reverence for Life
7.
Work is a Teacher
8.
Choose Love, not Fear
9.
Attitude of Gratitude
10.
Compassion
1.
Integrity
and Authenticity
I learned from my personal experience as a whistle-blower that if you don’t act with integrity and authenticity at all times in your work, you sell a piece of your soul. This awareness did not come easily.
At
first, after I had blown the whistle, I was feeling quite self-righteous. I was the good guy, and I was trying to stop the bad guys.
But then I read a chapter in Shakti Gawain’s book Living in the
Light (1993) titled “The World as our Mirror.”
She suggests that the external world is like a giant mirror that
reflects hidden aspects of ourselves that we can’t see clearly.
When I was going through the whistle-blowing experience, I decided to
ask myself if that was true about the what I was seeing.
What
I saw in my external world was a lack of integrity.
If the world is a mirror, then perhaps I needed to look at my own
integrity to see if there was some lack there.
I didn’t like what I saw. I
realized that I was often inauthentic at work because I was afraid to tell
people what I really thought. I
would tell them what I thought they wanted to hear in order to please them,
thereby negating my own truth and my own needs.
I was doing the same thing in my marriage.
It was like the light bulb went on.
I did not like who I had become, and I wanted to be different in the
world. With that awareness, I
made a commitment to try to operate from then on out of the highest integrity
and authenticity that I am capable of. Its
not an easy path to walk.
The
most difficult part of integrity and authenticity is finding out what your
core values are and then making an honest attempt to live by them in all parts
of your work and life. This can
be from something as small as not taking pencils home from work to being
willing to tell the President of the company that you have major concerns
about how a client is being handled or how a product is being manufactured.
The key thing is to identify for yourself what are the primary aspects
of your self-identity, and what are the core principles that you want to live
by.
2.
Seeing
the Divine in Others
In
order to consider yourself a spiritual person, you must have some belief that
there is something greater than ourselves.
People refer to this as “The Divine,” “God,” “The Goddess,”
“The Universe,” “Cosmic Consciousness,” “The Creator,” and many
other terms. I have spoken with
very spiritual people who claim they are atheists, yet they have a strong
sense that there is some kind of underlying order or intelligence in the
Universe. Each person has his or
her own unique concept of what “The Divine” is and how they relate to it.
It is extremely important to honor and respect those differences and to
not try to change someone’s relationship to God.
That is very personal.
Most
major religious and spiritual traditions teach us to look for The Divine in
others. It is a major perceptual
shift when we do this. Try
thinking of someone at work that you are having major problems with.
Someone who really frustrates or infuriates you.
Then think about the Divine Spark that gives this person life.
Imagine that they are on their own spiritual path and have different
lessons to learn than the ones you have chosen to learn for yourself.
Imagine that the two of you come from the same magnificent, mystical
source, and that each of you are doing the best you can.
The next time you interact with this person, try to feel your heart
connecting with his or her heart. (If
this person has intentionally tried to hurt you in some way, you may also want
to imagine that you are protected from any kind of negative thoughts or
energy, using whatever spiritual or religious tradition you have to support
you in this. I imagine myself
inside a clear protective bubble that harmlessly deflects any negative energy
sent my way). You may be amazed
at what happens when you make the perceptual shift to connect to The Divine in
others.
3.
Unity
With the Whole (Community)
This
is related to Principle #2, “Seeing the Divine in Others.”
It is the principle that says that everything was and is created by God
(or whatever term is comfortable for you), and therefore that everything is a
part of the Whole. Systems theory
is one scientific approach to this principle.
It states that because everything is interconnected, if you change one
subsystem of the organization, it will have an impact on other parts of the
organization. Conversely, this
principle can also be interpreted to mean that one individual can make a
difference. Jack Welch says that
if you want to be successful, change the way you think. If one person changes the way he or she thinks, it can have a
major impact on the whole organization.
Another
outgrowth of this principle is that business is a part of a greater whole, and
needs to understand both the potential good and the potential damage that can
be done to the community, to society, to nature, and to the whole planet.
Major business decisions have a significant impact on a number of
stakeholders, and these should be taken into account.
A great example of this Unity Principle is the Seven Generations
decision-making model of the Lakota Indians.
Whenever the Tribal Council sits down to make an important decision for
the tribe, they ask themselves “How will this impact the Lakota Tribe seven
generations from now?”
4.
Selfless
service
Krista Kurth, renewalkk@aol.com,
a Ph.D. graduate of George Washington University, conducted research for her
dissertation on the concept of selfless service in for-profit organizations (Kurth
1995: 3). She defines selfless
service as action that is informed by a conscious attitude comprised of three
factors:
1)
“An awareness of
and/or belief in a Transcendent Reality through which one is, and feels,
connected to others and the remainder of the natural world.”
(Kurth 1995).
In
simple terms, this means seeing God or the Divine in other human beings and in
all of nature. When a person
carries this conscious attitude, they cannot help but be more loving, more
compassionate and more giving to fellow workers, to customers, and even to
superiors. I once had to work
with a manufacturing supervisor named Chuck who was blocking all the programs
I was supposed to implement in his area.
After reading something from The Course in Miracles http://www.acim.org that suggested that we see everyone we
meet as a teacher of God, I had a meeting with Chuck to discuss a particular
program and tried to focus on the God that was within him.
I kept repeating to myself, “This man is a teacher for me.
He is a child of God. There
is something I’m supposed to be learning from him.”
It was not easy, because I felt angry and frustrated with him at the
same time, but I tried to feel my heart as being open, and to listen for what
he might have to teach me. Chuck’s
response to me completely changed and he suddenly decided that his team ought
to be the pilot for all the new programs I was implementing, and he asked me
to commit extra time for working with him.
He quickly became one of the most ardent supporters of my programs.
2)
“An interest in
enhancing the well being of others and in transcending one's own
self-interested desires.” (Kurth
1995)
As
human beings develop spiritually, our concept of self enlarges beyond our
singular identity. We begin to
see our interconnectedness to groups, to communities, to nations, and to the
planet. We learn to care for the
greater good because we see that we are a part of something larger.
This kind of behavior is easy to see in parents who subjugate their own
needs for the needs of their children. It
is found in managers who support the career growth of subordinates, even
though they might lose a talented person from their group.
And we see it in people who chose careers where they might make a
difference in the world rather than chose a career just for the sake of money.
3)
“A non-attachment
to outcomes and personal rewards while in the process of performing actions.”
(Kurth 1995).
This
is a willingness to do the right thing without worrying about whether or not
you will get a pay increase, a pat on the back, or some other form of
recognition or reward. I once had
a subordinate who wouldn’t do anything extra unless he was going to get
extra pay or other incentives. He was considered by many to be a very poor
performer and his career was on the skids.
I tried to talk to him about how his attitude was hurting him, but it
didn’t seem to get through. Then
suddenly, for reasons I do not understand, he made a major transformation and
began to initiate and carry through on major projects that were innovative and
successful. Doing meaningful work
became more important to him than obtaining rewards from the system.
The irony of the situation is that he then began to be rewarded much
more substantially.
The concept of selfless service is similar to concepts of stewardship
(Block, 1993) http://www.bkpub.com/products/productshow.adp?code=103,
servant-leadership (Greenleaf, 1997) http://www.greenleaf.org
, and the concept of “service and humility” that Marcic dorothy.a.marcic@vanderbilt.edu,
http://www.marcic.com
talks about her book Managing With the Wisdom of Love. It is
also the focus of chapter 10 in True Work.
The value that Kurth adds is that her work is based on empirical
research and does not focus only on leaders.
Kurth interviewed 20 people who work in for-profit organizations who
see their work as selfless service. One
of the paradoxes she discovered was that when it comes to selfless service,
"the way to do is to be."
5.
Trusting
the Universe
This
spiritual principle states that when you are living in alignment with your
deepest values and have an attitude of service towards something greater than
yourself, then the Universe supports you in your path.
You begin to see more and more synchronicities and small miracles.
In
Twelve Step programs www.alcoholicsanonymous.com
one of the slogans is “Let go and let God.”
This is another way of saying the same thing as “Trusting the
Universe.” If you truly believe
that there is a Higher Power that cares about your development and welfare,
then you can begin to stop trying to control everything in your life and
recognize that things happen for a reason.
One
of the primary influences in my life and thinking was a man named Jack Gibb,
who was the developer of “Trust Theory” or “TORI Theory” http://members.home.net/developtrust/index.html.
He taught that we create our own reality by the beliefs we hold about
the world and that we basically have two ways we can look at life and work.
We can either see the world as a safe place where we can be trusting,
or we can see it as a dangerous place where we need to be fearful.
If we see the world as a place where we can be trusting, we tend to act
in ways that fulfill our beliefs. People
who integrate spirituality and work are conscious about being as trusting as
they can be and to avoid getting into a fearful mindset.
6.
Reverence
for life
As
people become more committed to spiritual practices in their lives, such as
meditation, they tend to become more conscious of life-force energy.
The main spiritual practice of the people I interviewed was “spending
time in nature.” Being in
nature provides us life renewing energy, a peacefulness, and a nourishing
place in which to get a better perspective on what is important in our lives.
It seems that the more time that people spend in nature, and the more
time they spend in prayer, meditation, or other spiritual practices, the more
reverence they have for all living things.
This
has major repercussions for the workplace, because most businesses see their
primary goal as making money, regardless of the effects on the environment, on
living species, and on human beings. For
the spiritual person in such a workplace, there may come a time when the
values conflict becomes much too strong, and they can no longer be comfortable
working for such an organization. For
more on this topic, see the section on “Transforming Toxic Work” in True
Work (Toms and Toms, 1999: 102-107).
7.
Work
is a teacher
Everything
in life provides the opportunities for spiritual growth and development.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, people used to retreat from the world when
they wanted to enrich their spiritual lives.
But in this day and age, people are seeing that relationships,
families, school, and work are all situations that provide difficult and
challenging situations that can help us strengthen our spirit.
Conflict
with a co-worker can be an opportunity to practice understanding and
forgiveness. A subordinate who
loses a parent can be an opportunity to practice compassion.
A customer who is dissatisfied can be an opportunity to use deep
listening in order to find out what is really bothering him or her.
Closing a successful sale can be an opportunity for celebration and
gratitude for the blessings of Spirit.
8.
Choose
love, not fear
This
principle comes from “A Course in Miracles,” www.acim.org
a non-sectarian book on spirituality. Like
the “Trusting the Universe” principle, this is based on the two major
views of the world; a trusting or love-based view, or a fear-based view.
One of the pieces of wisdom from the Course in Miracles says that all
behavior is either an act of love, or a cry for love.
And in all our responses, we can either choose to respond with love, or
to respond with fear. The
spiritual response is the response of love.
Many
workplaces are fear-based organizations, and that kind of fear can be
contagious. It is truly an act of
courage to be as loving as your are capable of being if you are in one of
these kinds of workplaces. However,
it is amazing, perhaps even miraculous, to see how much one person with a
loving approach to difficult work situations can change the environment of an
organization.
9.
Attitude
of Gratitude
This
phrase is another slogan from Twelve Step Programs www.alcoholicsanonymous.com.
Many people in life see the glass as half empty, and complain about all
that they lack. This principle
suggests that our spirit and the spirits of others around us will be nourished
if we tend to be grateful for all the blessings that we have in our life.
Julia Cameron infoatawaw@aol.com,
author of The Artist’s Way, and The Artist’s Way at Work http://www.artistswaywork.com,
stresses the importance of making a “gratitude list” each day of five
things you are grateful for. This
is a practice that has been adopted and encouraged by such people as Oprah
Winfrey www.oprahshow.com.
As
an experiment, you might want to try making a “gratitude at work” list
each night, citing five things that you are grateful for that day in
relationship to your work. It is
perfectly okay to repeat things on your list from the day before.
Try this for two weeks and see if you see a shift in your attitude,
feelings and behavior at work.
10.
Compassion
People
who are on spiritual path care deeply about the people that they work with,
and have a strong sense of compassion for their fellow man.
They are able to put themselves in someone else’s shoes, and assume
that most people are operating on the best of intentions. The more life experiences a person has, and the more
soul-searching a person has done, the more likely they are to be
compassionate. It seems, in my
experience, that those who have suffered great losses and who have gone
through their own healing
process, are the people who most naturally respond to others with compassion.
Here
is an exercise that may help you to be more compassionate with someone at
work. It should be done
unobtrusively, from some distance. Try
to do all five steps on the same person.
Just-Like-Me Exercise
Step 1: With
attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
“Just like me, this person is seeking some happiness for his/her
life.”
Step 2: With
attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
“Just like me, this person is trying to avoid suffering in his/her
life.”
Step 3: With
attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
“Just like me, this person has known sadness, loneliness, and
despair.”
Step 4: With
attention on the person, repeat to yourself:
“Just like me, this person is seeking to fulfill his/her needs.”
Step 5: With attention on the person, repeat to yourself: “Just like me, this person is learning about life.”
In this chapter we have looked at the concept of work as a spiritual path. We reviewed research that shows the five stages of “spiritual evolution” that people go through with work as spirituality becomes more and more important in their lives. We looked at the concept of “mastery” and discussed the five types of mastery that Ed Quinn teaches to executives. We concluded with a review of 10 spiritual principles that were common among the research participants that I interviewed who see work as a spiritual path.
Assignment:
Decide on a spiritual practice that you will
undertake this while working through this book and create a Spiritual Journal
where you record your experiences at least once a week.
Discussion or Journal Questions
1.
In what ways do you
see your work as a spiritual path?
2.
Did you try the
exercise of seeing the divine in others? What happened?
3.
Did you try the “Just
Like Me” exercise? What
happened?
4. Are there any personal spiritual principles that are important to you that were not covered in this chapter?