Putting the Soul back into work

Bringing out the Best in People

“My job is to find out what these people here have been put on this planet to do and clear out the space for them to give of their best”. This was not a theologian speaking.  Steve is a tough Finance Director who has built up one of the most successful subsidiaries of one of the most successful companies worldwide. He was talking about his people.

 Before meeting Steve, I had a considerable degree of scepticism. The website of his company showed him to be not only FD but also Head of HR. How could any one person carry all that load?

“98% of our resources are our people”. Scanning the prestigious riverside Reading site, he continued, “If our people walked out of here tomorrow we’d have nothing, so my job as FD is to look after them”.  

These were not just fine words – they were backed by deeds; I checked. Steve looked to see what made people tick, to understand their passion, and then to set them free to live it and to do what they do best every day. He is an excellent illustration of Buckingham and Coffman’s research which shows that the effectiveness of an organisation depends largely on the ability of managers to listen to, value and truly develop their people. It is this ability to bring out the finest in people that lies at the heart of putting the soul back into work.

Preconceptions and resources

Too often people’s preconceptions are that soul and the human spirit are something airy-fairy, soft and fluffy, esoteric and new-agey. But the reality is very different. It is about what makes us fully alive; without it we can exist but it is a half-life. Working with the human spirit is about tapping into the largely hidden seam of gold that lies buried there within people. Steve knew how to respectfully reach down into that buried wealth and release it into the organisation. Many of us are desperate for more resources but are often cutting ourselves off from the resources that are lying there right under our noses. Steve’s company, Microsoft UK, features in ‘The Spirited Business’[1] as an example of a successful company that was soul-friendly and full of the buzz and creativity that occurs when the human spirit is given room to breathe.

Why is it so important now?

People are being asked to deliver higher performance or higher profit with less resources and often with fewer people. The City demands constant growth and the government demands constant improvements in performance, often cutting resources at the same time. People are caught between a rock and a hard place.  Should they work faster, work ‘smarter’, steal time from their children, neglect spouse, cut back on sleep, get up earlier, skip lunch, drop all life outside of work, curtail all unnecessary conversation, adopt tunnel vision and not help colleagues? These are common strategies people take for dealing with the current demand. They often lead to stress, burnout, illness, sometimes even to death or divorce. They usually lead to lower teamwork, decreased coherence and collaboration, generally less engagement and energy. And they always produce much unhappiness. These pushing harder strategies may work in the short term but have no long term future.

A Soul-Friendly approach

Over the last two decades various pioneers have developed rigorous programmes based on theory and practice that offer a different approach, one that recognises the enormous contribution potentially to be made by the bringing the whole person to work, mind, body and soul. There are some very specific ways whereby we can draw on and harness the vast untapped potential of the human being. When we do this there is, in my 17years’ experience, usually phenomenal growth both at a personal, corporate and financial level.

Here are a few steps that characterise an organisation travelling this path:

1. The organisation acknowledges what is at stake.  The organisation realises that things cannot go on as they are, that doing more of the same or tinkering around the edges, buying a pool table is not going to work; that a subtly and radically different approach is required; they are willing to do things they have never done before at work, to experiment. A photocopying company had staff engagement at 27%; knew this could not deliver customer delight and were prepared to do something outrageously different and focus on their engineers’ inner potential. Performance went up significantly on 15 out of 15 indicators

2. The organisation recognises the vast and complex potential of people. Each person has almost unlimited potential for creativity, innovation, kindness, courage, generosity, compassion. But also – and this gets overlooked too often – people have infinite potential for messing up – for misunderstanding, miscommunicating, resenting, mistrusting, fearing, hurting, being irritated, aggravated, bad-tempered, angry, mean, envious. The list goes on. Of course, blaming is a top favourite. These daily dips into total mediocrity that every human being makes are rarely addressed and yet organisations think they can achieve high performance. Not possible. If you want extraordinary results, extraordinary performance, it requires the courage to work with the whole potential of yourself and your people – the negative as well as the positive. A Modernisation team was attempting to bring greater service to the patients; by concentrating on the inner resources of the staff, by addressing some of the petty territorialism and breaking down barriers, by building greater trust they delivered higher care for the patient and won a national award for performance.

3. Individuals become aware of their choice and freedom. Aware that everyday we have many opportunities to choose between our higher or lower potential and choose mediocrity or excellence. For example an Old People Homes was infested with gossip and back biting. The staff became aware of the damage it was doing and made a conscious choice to create a Gossip Free Zone throughout the whole home. Six months later they sailed through the National Minimum Standards Inspection with 100% result.

4. People value their values. The big conflicts and destruction generally happen when values collide. ‘Most of the problems in our company happen when people forget the values of the company.’ said an MD of a fast growing business. When people explore their values, find the shared values, the alignment and dissonance with organisational values, and the bedrock that creates stability can be established. Everyday issues, such as performance management, are passed through the prism of the values. This delivers much more creative outcomes that when passed only through the abacus of the accountant. For example, a manager is underperforming; starting from the value of respect and a deep belief in this man, and a desire to help him grow, develop and fulfil himself got a far better outcome than the usual critical stance. The values of teamwork meant there were others there to support him as he stretched his wings and took on greater responsibilities knowing he had back up and good will around him if he fell.

5. Teams share the vision. People can get bogged down in some apparent quagmire such as a tussle over budget; their vision is not expressed but in reality it is implicitly often one of resignation and defeat or victory at the expense of the other. When there is a clearly articulated, shared long-term vision the pettiness is burnt off and people are drawn forward. Initially people may assume that their vision is pie in the sky. How often I have seen them surprised by reaching their 12 month vision in three months. Vision is a very powerful, creative force.

6. People work as a community. No one individual is meant to do it all; we need to appreciate our interdependence, asking for help when we get stuck, reaching out to each other. Team work is not enough to deal with the demands facing the 21st century workplace; we need to be part of a strong community, be that the team down in the warehouse, the sales group or the board of directors. 

7. Leaders lead with humility. Leaders have the humility to listen to the people on the ground. They serve and support, respect and value them.

8. Trust.  Perhaps the biggest source of waste that clogs up the works of an organisation is mistrust. Mistrust has reached epidemic proportions in the UK. If we take bureaucracy, checking and rechecking, over- reporting, covering ones back, and replace these activities with trust not only does the organisation free itself up to work more efficiently and with greater agility but people’s efforts are directed not in doing  third rate tasks of mediocrity but are directed to adding value, improving systems, doing the real work they want to do. In the process people are able to do what they were put on this planet to do, to use their talents and their extraordinary creativity to make a difference to the lives of others and to build successful, ever evolving organisations.

9. Organisations take change and turn it into transformation. Change often carries with it disruption and discomfort and is quite naturally resisted.  When we approach change from a position of values and vision we are able to convert change into positive transformation. For example, a merger that brought resentment, suspicion and fear becomes a source of growth and possibility when the negative is addressed and the value of community is focussed upon.

10. People practice tools of reflection. The tremendous speed of change and sheer quantity on incoming data is leading to corporate cultures where there is intense activity and very little reflection.  Reflection is integral to a soul-friendly and effective environment. The tools of reflection below are derived from ancient traditions. When practiced they can transform an organisation.

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