Spirituality and Consciousness @ Work

Cavorting around a conference on big business, financial success or entrepreneurship is a breeze. You stay on your toes, scan for potential contacts, and meet fascinating people – to a degree. Business is business. And at the risk of sounding cynical, we show up with a polished image in tow. An image that is finely tuned to meet the needs of potential clients. We try to keep centered while weaving through connections that might yield fruit. Detached, reserved with razor sharp awareness, like a jaguar, some wait in anticipation of the next kill.

It’s a little different at a conference like the one I attended this weekend in Atlanta exploring trends of spirituality in the workplace and in business. Honestly, it really was. Attendees were heavy duty business professionals, but the agenda emphasized collective purpose, new ideas and innovative business models and practices – over individual pursuits.

There was humor, and acceptance of all ways, all belief systems, all cultures – as individuals from Germany, the UK, Canada, South Africa, the U-S and Ireland gathered to discuss what many described as an emerging trend of social consciousness fueled by spirituality within the workplace. The conference, entitled Beyond Wealth: Creating and Measuring Authentic Success, honored companies and individuals who have demonstrated certain criteria that fosters human values like courage, compassion, faith, and hope – instead of squashing them in the workplace.

It’s our nature as human beings to guard our image, especially in business. But I noticed a different tone at this conference. I observed participants taking the time to go deep in conversation, beyond the outer protective shell to the raw underbelly of who they are, what they are passionate about and how they help set the stage for a more spiritual approach to human interaction in the workplace; especially between management and employees. But not at the expense of the bottom-line as you’ll read and hear in my blogs and podcasts over the next week.

While composed in their business garb, there was a lot of heart among the participants.They weren’t afraid to be vulnerable, share their personal views, or even get their hands dirty in discussion about the fear of addressing spirituality in the workplace. Authentic exchanges between people, revealed volumes and resulted in deep heartfelt discussions. I found myself in such exchanges which warmed my heart, brought up some things I need to look at within myself, and generated a lot of joy and actually humility to a degree. When we show our inner core to others, we become vulnerable and that can be intimidating to the ego or image-self, which is why I think most business leaders are often reluctant to be more transparent as human beings at work.

Also, in the face of globalization, there is a growing need to educate employees and corporate leaders about issues of diversity. We can no longer ignore the reality that culturally and consciously something is changing in our workplace. As co-founder of the International Center for Spirituality at Work, Judi Neal, put it: This was a gathering  – a Communi-versity or sorts – to share ideas and explore the future of human beings in the workplace.

Evidently such education is needed, according to Patrica Aburdene, the author of Megatrends 2010, who gave a keynote at the conference. She described some of the dynamic trends that comprise what she calls the megatrend of Conscious Capitalism, of which spirituality is a component. She says we are in a new era of alchemical transformation: removing the deadwood from our workplace, to reveal a new depth from which we will do business in the future.

I’ll be posting more on this topic and the conference in the next week. I need some worklife balance. In my case, sleep.