The Healing Organisation Principle #5 | Embrace The Quiet
“Solitude for me is the fount of healing which makes my life worth living” — C.G. Jung
I spent a couple of years in my thirties living in Chelsea, West London. On one side of the street stood the lifeless mansions of absentee Russians and Arabs. On the other was Brompton Cemetery, one of the grandest and oldest of London’s graveyards. At the time I doing a lot of deep processing.
I spent many productive hours traipsing around this cemetery’s perimeter, growing friendly with its headstones. For me, each loop was a healing act.
The simple deed of allowing ourselves to be alone with our thoughts and feelings has enormous power. Leader-managers of Healing Organisations recognise and embrace this as an effective use of time by staff.
This idle time can be valuable for individuals both alone and in groups. Author and Organisational Consultant, Ken O’Donnell, is a mentor for the leaders of large organisations. At a retreat I recently attended, he recalls a time working with the board of a large South American corporate. Their organisation was on the brink of collapse. Ken shared how he facilitated them through a period of reflective silence. The leaders reported how the insights from his intervention helped them to save their organisation. How often do each of us give ourselves solitude? For most with us today, we might snatch a moment of quiet in the shower, on our commute, during a vacation or maybe on a sick day. Imagine an organisation that normalised quiet time.
The cultural resistance to reflection manifests early in our lives. The teacher who scorns Little Billy for staring out of the window; the rigid timetables that have us marching from one class to the next. And of course, for our current generation, smart devices are ubiquitous in stealing yet more opportunities for quiet reflection.
The vision of a Healing Organisation is one that sees reflection as a core practice. Leader-managers of Healing Organisations would enable colleagues who needed it to engage in quiet time as a part of a regime for healing, for creativity and for self improvement.
For the entire series on the Healing Organisation, start here.
