Spirituality at Work

I was at a dialogue yesterday in Pasadena hosted by the Business Renaissance Institute. Like BRI, my interest in “spirituality at work” is based on a conviction that quantitative and qualitative outcomes in organizations today call for fundamental transformations in corporate culture. However, I see culture as the emergent consequence of individual decisions and actions, which depend on deeply held values and beliefs that are normally off limits to organizational management (so deeply held that I believe they can only come from that “spiritual” place in each of us).

So I’m curious what you think about the framework I’m sketching out.

-Quality and Aesthetics
-Ethics and Civility
-Hope and Faith
-Loyalty and Trust
-Service (to customers, communities and colleagues)
-Humility and Confidence
-Awareness and Insight (self and environment)
-Empathy and Compassion
-Honesty, Integrity and Transparency
-Diligence, Engagement and Mindfulness
-Creativity and Innovation

In fact, these things aren’ty just considered inappropriate for workplace and management conversations (emotions, beliefs, ego). In some cases, it’s actually illegal to engage on this level.

I’ve started to work on a framework for how I see these deeply held beliefs and behaviors working their way out from that spiritual place into our personal lives, professional lives and social interactions.

So from the inside out, these successive layers look something like this:

Identity—Who are you? Where do you come from?

Faith—What do you believe about how the world works?

Values—What rules and priorities do you derive from your beliefs?

Integrity—How much do you comport to these values?

Civics—How do you balance integrity to personal beliefs/values with the beliefs/values of others in the community in order to collaborate on common or collective goals?