Conscious Workplace

by Kathleen Hawkins

"A person can't practice spirituality in business," a CEO once told me. He explained that spirituality is an exclusive, personal relationship between an individual and that individual's concept of God Energy or a Higher Power. He said that spirituality is a subjective experience that cannot be quantified, qualified, manifested on the material plane, or easily discussed.

I agree that an individual's spirituality is highly personal, but as with all the great, universal concepts such as freedom, beauty, and love, we can demonstrate our understanding of the greater concept by expressing its qualities through our everyday actions.

Freedom, for example, means "liberty from slavery, oppression, or incarceration," or "the condition of being free from constraints." Two ways that we can manifest our understanding of this universal concept is to vote and to take an active stand against oppression when we see it happening.

Another concept -- beauty -- means "a pleasing quality associated with harmony of form or color." We each relate to beauty, however, in our own personal ways. Some of us, for example, show an understanding of beauty by landscaping our lawns or decorating our homes. Others of us dress in style, appreciate a sunset, paint a picture, hike in the mountains, or stop to smell the flowers.

Love, also considered a universal concept, is "an intense affection for another person." When people are in love, however, they do certain things to express that love such as spending time together, giving each other tokens of that love, looking forward to spending more time together, and exploring ways to deepen their relationship.

Likewise when people have a working relationship with a Greater Power, they find themselves naturally expressing this relationship in their lives.

At the office, for example, we can demonstrate our personal relationship with, to quote Ernest Holmes, the "Unity behind all things," by having integrity, ethics, compassion for others, and respect for the planet. By doing so, we re-enact our divine nature in the workplace.

Life-Affirming Alternatives

Look in any bookstore and you'll find evidence that people are demonstrating a greater concern for global issues and seeing themselves and their companies in relation to the Whole. They are opting for more life-affirming alternatives to the popular 'warfare' model of business, with all its bravado and frantic scrambling to seize the largest market share. Growing numbers of executives across the country are:

* showing greater respect for their employees by inviting and rewarding creative, individual contributions to the company

* fostering teamwork and morale

* encouraging and acknowledging individual accomplishments and providing for career enhancement

* choosing to cooperate instead of compete, both within the company and between companies

* embracing diversity

* exploring ways to incorporate values, ethics, and integrity into the workplace to make work a more enjoyable, rewarding experience for all involved

There's no limit to corporate creativity when an organization decides to express spiritual principles in business. Here are some of the things that people are doing:

* A publishing company in New York provides a meditation room on the premises and allows time for employees to use it if they wish.

* The president of a successful advertising agency in California regularly practices yoga, meditates, and reads inspirational material, which increases his sense of well-being and his ability to make wise decisions.

* A talent agency in southern California sends models and actors only to those assignments whose products reflect life-enhancing values.

* Companies are realizing the importance of humor, and some have appointed 'negativity patrols,' 'ambassadors of fun,' 'morale czars' or 'lieutenants of laughs' to help to keep people's spirits high.

* More companies are donating a percentage of their profits to worthy causes.

* Corporations are becoming more conscious of their effects on the global economy and on the environment.

And growing numbers of employees are responding in kind by:

* working with renewed interest and dedication

* buying stock in the company

* looking for creative solutions to challenges that face the organization

* taking advantage of training and development opportunities offered by the company so they can be more productive as employees on the job

* recycling office products

* joining with management to meet the company's goals

* looking for ways to cooperate with others as part of a team

* exploring ways they can enjoy greater job satisfaction and consequently be more valuable to the company

People report that this positive approach is paying off in a big way. They're enjoying increased personal fulfillment, greater job satisfaction, and more profit. They're finding that when they put people and quality products before profit, the business naturally thrives.

Developing a Socially Conscious Workplace

To develop a more socially responsible way of doing business that fosters a higher regard for people and a greater respect for the planet, consider the following ideas:

Conserve Energy

1. Conduct energy audits of the office building and, where energy is being wasted, find ways to conserve it.

2. Carpool and telecommute.

3. Schedule conference calls rather than ask people to travel to attend meetings.

4. Use outside air in the winter for cooling, if possible, and the sun for heat in the summers.

Protect the Environment

5. Assess the company's impact on the environment and find ways to solve problems.

6. Support environmental programs in the community.

7. Use popcorn packing material instead of Styrofoam 'peanuts.'

8. Keep the costs of products low by keeping overhead low.

9. Use alternatives to animal testing and animal by-products.

10. Treat waste products effectively.

11. Recycle paper products and chemicals.

12. Use soybean inks.

13. Shred paper and use as packing material.

14. Make double-sided copies when possible.

15. Use refillable pens and reusable dishes.

16. Recycle phone books and printer cartridges.

17. Compost biodegradable products.

Education and Community Outreach Programs

18. Invest in the training of staff, customers, and the community.

19. Educate while you advertise.

20. Provide grants, scholarships, and apprenticeship programs.

21. Give people time off to participate in yearly Earth Day celebrations.

22. Sponsor community programs, mulching events, and seminars.

23. Participate in food collections.

24. Support ethnic business.

25. Donate a percentage of your profits to nonprofit causes.

Social

26. Offer-or attend-workshops on diversity.

27. Promote literacy.

28. Support programs for the arts.

29. Provide day care for employees' children.

30. Involve employees in formulating policy and standard practices.

31. Reward innovative thinking.

32. Do business with companies that donate a percentage of profits to worthy social causes.

When you have a working relationship with a greater Power, you'll find yourself naturally expressing this relationship in your life. And the workplace will become an extension of your values, with all the attendant characteristics: integrity, ethics, and compassion.

The CEO mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, incidentally, had a change of mind/heart and became the founder of a company that publishes books that encourage and support the evolution of consciousness in the business community.

This article was excerpted from:

SPIRIT Incorporated: How to Follow Your Spiritual Path from 9 to 5
by Kathleen Hawkins.

Reprinted with permission of the publisher, DeVorss Publications. ©1998. www.devorss.com

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About The Author

Kathleen Hawkins is vice president of the National Management Institute, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and the author of four books, Time Management Made Easy; Test Your Entrepreneurial IQ; Reverse Speech: Hidden Messages in Human Communication; and SPIRIT Incorporated. Her articles and ideas on how to increase personal and professional effectiveness have appeared in more than 200 publications. She's also a reading specialist -- with master's degrees in reading education and creative writing -- and a professional speaker and a business consultant. She's been using a spiritual perspective in business as long as she has been in business. Visit her website at www.winningspirit.com.