A Future Vision for Work
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
― Rumi
The speed and uncertainty of today’s world will require organizations to build a workforce of inter-dependent, self-aware, creative thinkers who are aligned toward building a shared future. To do this, organizations will create spaces for humans to thrive. These spaces will allow for our expression to be heard and valued. These organizations will be in service of aligning individuals to their highest calling, and in turn, these humans will direct the path of the company. Work will become a place for self-inquiry, experimentation, play, and personal development. At the end of the day, what a company produces will be a direct reflection of the quality of the internal collective energy. The higher quality of the interactions internally the better the creativity, outputs, services, and products produced by these businesses.
Currently, people are turning to work for meaning. And not only work but to hobbies, yoga/meditation, mindfulness, technology, sports, consumption, politics, children, and relationships to “find themselves.” We’re attaching to anything that provides us with a sense of validation, connection, and to reinforce our identity. We're looking for security everywhere and anywhere to help us make sense of it all. Let’s face it…as a whole, we’re collectively lost. And during times of great uncertainty, we desperately seek a sense of belonging, stability, security, and a deep understanding of how we fit. The new places of work will create space for this self-inquiry. This process of individual self-awareness and alignment will, in turn, help the organization to find clarity in the chaos.
Why at work? Does this have a place at work? Haven’t the demands of work already interfered too deeply with personal life? Shouldn't this be left to religious institutions or families or communities? I agree to an extent. And perhaps I will explore our collective lack of existential inquiry and who’s responsible in another article.
However, for the purposes of this article, I want to explore it from a business perspective.
The toxicity created by working in a hyper-individualized, self-center, political, self-serving, extractive culture is ruled by lower orders of fear and scarcity. You could argue these organizations attract adults who are acting from undeveloped areas of deep seeded insecurity and fear. This unprocessed trauma coupled with a lack of self-awareness makes them a pain in the ass to work with. And to ensure their superiority they hire humans even more insecure than they. Look we all regress from time to time, but those with a greater sense of self-awareness and reflection bounce back faster. But if insecurity and fear are the operating default of the organization, good luck. Plus who’ going to sign up to work there? These organizations are the walking dead, hanging on to their last breaths, desperately trying to attract and retain anyone to help. In the end, these organizations will simply be too slow and lack the talent to keep up, full stop.
Now let’s imagine for a second the velocity and impact you could have working with people operating from their highest capacity. A place where self-reflection and a collective sense of responsibility drove culture. A place where our insecurities weren’t punished but served as the fuel for our evolution and growth. A place where people felt supported to express their challenges and personal issues. A place where they’re nurtured and held accountable for the impact of their emotions on others. Imagine working at a place where you deeply care for the humans working next to you and the leaders of the organization want nothing more than you to be deeply happy and content. Imagine a place where a collective sense of calm and clarity drove the daily agenda. Imagine what kind of productivity and flow you could achieve within this type of organization? Organizations are clamoring for talent, ideas, innovation, creativity, and purpose. These organizations will have no shortage of talent lining up at their doorstep. This will significantly lower internal transaction costs. Meaning high retention rates and faster acquisitions, higher levels of productivity. These organizations will be in a continual state of transformation seizing new opportunities, after new opportunities. The speed of alignment and execution will make it difficult for ‘antiquated’ institutions to keep up.
These new organizations will create programs and platforms that focus on the quality of energy between people. They will bolster the inter-relational and interpersonal skills that are so desperately lacking in today's version of business. These programs will deal with our entire being and our interdependence on one another. These new organization will nourish the hearts and souls of each human being it touches.
These new organizations will adopt KEIs (Key Emotional Indicators) and evaluate projects based on their ROE (Return on Emotions), instead of solely on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and ROI (Return on Investment). And as the speed of technology increases, we must support humans to do what computers can not–be deeply and emotionally connected to one another.
Our focus as leaders will be to create spaces of safety and nourishment for people to repair old wounds and flourish. The returns on productivity for such service will open new opportunities never imagined. Only through this kind of intentionality and thoughtfulness, can we transform how business is done and in turn transform our planet.
These new organizations are coming and when they do the world will have no idea what hit it!
I’ll leave you with a quote from His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
“The educational systems of the future should place greater emphasis on strengthening human abilities, such as warm-heartedness, a sense of oneness, humanity, and love.”
Comments, questions, ideas, concerns, please email me at: me@shawnardaiz.com
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