Community Soul:
Coming Alive and Inspiring Others Commitment at Work and in the Community - in Uncertain Times
compiled from various sources
"The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice." - Lao Tzu
Organizations and participants today are in the midst of a commitment crisis. Security is a thing of the past --- all of the traditional methods used to engender commitment have been kicked aside.
What's more, a crisis of spirit exists among the members and leaders who desperately want their work to
‘be about something’ and want to ‘rediscover joy’ at work and in their day to day life. Mainstream organizations are attempting to align values and inspire commitment, something we as Sikhs hold in every aspect of our teachings. This article offers a prescription for inspiring commitment in uncertain times something we will call ‘community soul.’
If the words ‘community soul’ conjure up images of members praying in the corridors or chants being sung in the langar hall, think again. Community soul is not a theological concept. It is a term that we use to describe something incredibly important: the experience of coming fully alive at work and within the community. Community soul is the experience of touching a deeper level of vitality, inspiration, meaning, and creativity than just ‘doing my job or duty’ implies. It is the best label for the experience and expression of purposeful vitality at both work and at home. Community soul is expressed by individuals who are truly alive at work and at home and who pour their full energy and commitment into ensuring success.
The Four Paths
During the past several years, we have investigated community soul. We have asked hundreds of people what we call the 150 percent question: think of a job or project to which you gave 150 percent of everything you had, and did so freely because you wanted to. What was the source of your inspiration and energy? What was the experience like? What did you learn from it?
What we have discovered in our interviews, and found validation for in recent surveys, is that people reach this 150 percent level and activate community soul via four paths:
1. Path of self: when taking action is a direct expression of one's values and essential identity.
2. Path of work: when service to a worthy goal gives deeper meaning to ‘doing my job.’
3. Path of craft: when mindful appreciation of a task lifts one's performance to the level of mastery.
4. Path of community: when collaboration creates a sense of deep human connection to others.
The Path of Self
Breakthroughs in any endeavor come about when people are aware of their deepest values and align their work behavior with those values. As Peter Senge points out in The Fifth Discipline, when people are in touch with their personal values and vision at work or in the community (when they are walking the path of self), they are naturally committed because "They are doing what they want to do. They are full of energy and enthusiasm. They persevere, even in the face of frustration, because they are doing what they must do. It is their work."
St. Joseph's Medical Center, in Burbank, California, created a program that helped people identify and link their own values to the community vision while examining ways in which they were, or were not, living out their values at work. At off-site workshops, individuals engaged in a process of personal values clarification and visioning.
By beginning with themselves, and not the organization's future, people were confronted with taking ownership of what really mattered to them. They then explored the alignment between what they wanted in their lives personally and the organization's vision and values. By uncovering these points of individual and community congruence, by following the path of self, St. Joseph employees were able to bring renewed energy to their daily work and the community and enhance service throughout the system.
Because every organization is, in the end, made up of many individuals, the development of community soul naturally requires avenues for self reflection and strategies for focusing individual values and visions on changing needs.
Following the path of self is an antidote to the ‘victim mentality’ afflicting many change-tossed organizations. Connecting with one’s deeper purpose is incompatible with victimhood. Leaders who create structures that align individual values with organizational goals are creating a tangible basis for real empowerment. As one leader said, "We have to find ways of maximizing people's personal investment. When they know that ‘this is my organization,’ their work sets them apart."
The Path of Work
Even the most inspired work can be viewed as nothing more than a series of boring tasks — from this perspective, painting the Sistine Chapel is equivalent to repainting a bathroom. Such a view is myopic, at best. One of the primary ways that people tap the energy of community soul is when their daily work serves meaningful goals; when they see their contribution and deeper purpose of their work.
Community soul is a reality for the line worker in the computer assembly plant, who tells us that he is making it possible "for kids to learn what they need to know faster. I'm building their learning machine."
Many people in our organizations forget the purpose of their work, or worse, never even see it to begin with. One of the best ways to help people find soul at work is to get them closer to the so-called customers, the student, or the new community member. Frank discussions by constituency members about what service and work means to them, with specific good and bad examples, has a powerful impact on both pride and motivation. All manipulative efforts to enhance service pale in comparison to the simple act of being reminded that what we do matters. There is something about hearing from other constituents and seeing how important our work is to others that awakens the community soul.
All constituents at work, or in the community, can find the soul in their work if we help them develop the eyes necessary to see opportunities.
This phenomenon can he seen in how we recruit members into our organization, as well. It may be a mistake to depend so heavily on ‘membership benefits,’ and may even lead to a "what have you done for me lately" attitude. Or the after-the-fact-attitude of, "We needed to give them a compelling reason to get involved, beyond the benefits which can often be attained in other ways," or "We have to help people see the deeper reasons for belonging - beyond survival. We must appeal to and even awaken their personal vision."
Many leaders may ask, "Why don't people work harder for us? Don't they know our existence is on the line?" What these leaders fail to see is that few people give 150% because their organization is on the line. We ask workers, for example, to help us control costs because our institution must survive; yet survival does not stir the creative capacities of the human soul.
We have to create an atmosphere that allows people to have a passion for what they do. This atmosphere is not just abstract. It must he built into our actual organizational structure with whole compensation systems or promotional systems revised to support the vision of teamwork and contribution. People at every level are rewarded for contribution and innovation. These tangible ways of reinforcing our vision give us the extra edge, whether in work or in the community.
The Path of Craft
A third path to community soul is the path of craft. The path of craft focuses on the innate urge to achieve mastery. All parents notice early on that children hunger for mastery and are motivated by learning. There is a natural program in our brain that urges us to move on to something else, to stretch and extend our capacities.
In mainstream organizations, like a large power generation company, coal miners now sit on a task force that decides where to invest the company’s retirement fund. From one perspective, some issues fall well outside the boundaries of the miner’s ‘job.’ Yet from the perspective of community soul, this expansion of their responsibilities is only wise. In developing their capacities to analyze markets and assess investment choices, the coal miners tap dormant resources within themselves, and bring a renewed commitment to the workplace. In pursuing the path of craft, we must constantly find ways to help stretch people's thinking and skills, urging them toward mastery by providing opportunities to learn and develop. This may take the form of organization redesign teams, quality projects, task forces to determine how to spend or generate the organization’s money, expanded jobs that require new skills, and so forth.
The nature of the path followed will vary from community to community. Common theme runs through all the choices: providing opportunities for people to expand their skills and engage their full capacities.
This mind-set also can and should be applied to our new members, extended family, and students. Often, our organization can become like an ‘old boys club’ with the same people doing the work over and over. One community member told us, "Whenever someone's name would come up to be on an important committee, people would say 'but I don't know her." We must look for ways to involve new people and take more chances on letting people stretch, like the miners, to meet the needs.
There is an essential inversion of thinking that must take place to follow this path. Leaders must rethink what human beings are all about; what people are for. To put a direct emphasis on learning, skill development, and personal mastery, requires an understanding that as people develop their capacities, they bring more intelligence, creativity, energy, and commitment to the organization.
For example in San Diego, new immigrants wash every water mark off cars at the self proclaimed ‘World-Famous Hand Car Wash.’ They turn each wash into a perfectly choreographed demonstration of how the most basic actions can become consummate craft. No supervisors are in evidence --- rather, one sees an intense focus on perfection in the details.
People receive intrinsic rewards from completing high-quality work. Studies of motivation have underlined the self-reinforcing aspect of seeing one's skill reflected in a ‘job well done.’ Where excellence is expected, where attention to detail is fostered, where the little things matter --- from the clean and welcoming reception area, to the clarity of accurate answers on the phone, to the time lines of yoga center mailings --- the community soul is fostered and competitiveness is enhanced, as well.
The Path of Community
All work is, in the final analysis, team work. There is a fundamental interdependence to every service we perform. Most spiritual traditions recognize that community is essential for developing the soul. Many ways exist in which to foster the path of community in our organizations. The first is to break down the barriers that create the ‘we - they’ feeling between leaders and constituents, which is exacerbated in times of economic crisis. Seva breaks down these barriers. A long-term care facility instituted ‘A Day in Your Shoes’ program. Every other month, members of the senior team spend half a day working side by side doing the work of staff --- for instance, that of nurses aides lifting residents and cleaning bed pans. One worker, in the house keeping department, reported that his experience was "powerful. I knew that we were in this together and that they were one of us."
Community and communication are closely related. The more the sense of isolation and separation exists in the organization, the less timely, clear, and open is the flow of information. Building community purifies the communication pipeline. In community, there is a sense of safety that fosters an honest discussion of the real issues. In organizations in which departments and hierarchies create walls, information becomes a protected commodity that reinforces separation.
Sikh community extends beyond the Khalsa population to include students and the expanded network as well. "Leaders are often not connected to the members in any significant way." Indeed, many of our leaders may have little or no direct sense of connection with our members. Opportunities for direct contact and for a deeper understanding of their concerns could enrich work and the community significantly.
This approach is necessary as a philanthropic organization seeking methods to energize the community soul, and can also work well in all our community programs, where direct contact with members and their unique, real needs may presently be minimal. Encouraging members to do seva, socialize, to network with members, perhaps even to spend a day in their shoes are direct ways of building community.
When that sense of community blossoms, there is ‘a family feeling,’ a feeling of, ‘our members care about us and we care about them. We see ourselves as such. Our connection to each person’s vision makes it fun to work with them.’
An important part of building community is the ability to speak the truth without fear. At a recent meeting of a reorganized community that was taking on a big project, a constituent complained that management did not want to hear their laments about what was being lost through this process. One wise woman put it profoundly: "They seem to miss the point that until what is being lost is honored and we can somehow talk about how to preserve our values, even as the organization changes, we cannot help them do what they want to do."
The path of community calls us to engage the power of listening so that we might begin to tell the truth.
Finally, community can and should stretch beyond the walls of the ashram itself. Whether it is the job that allows us to leave work for needed seva, the small company that helps support a toddler program, or the large company that provides work for young people, when our workplace is consciously positioned as part of a larger community, we breathe life into the community soul.
A Deeper Calling
We began this article with a quote, ‘The soft overcomes the hard....’ Organizations and their members today have been thrust into an age of relentless and often brutal change. This has led to massive restructuring, cost cutting, and a rethinking of service delivery. It is perhaps an irony, therefore, that the best way to overcome this hardest of situations may be with the softest of resources.
Rethinking one priorities does not have to drive the soul out of the organization. The ability to find community soul is the very thing that might grow our organization. Community soul will drive our leadership to achieve excellence and creatively use resources, our departments and members to collaborate, our constituents to accept change, and our students and new members to choose us again and again.
All of this will require a level of wisdom that must be nurtured and for which we must give ourselves permission. The inclination to remind ourselves that the good old days are gone, and that ‘one must face this fact with stiff upper lips,’ will not likely produce the results we desire. Rather, a deeper calling will bring out in others, and in ourselves, what is truly required.
Clearly, community soul is not other worldly at all. Community soul brings us more deeply, more directly into contact with ourselves, our community, and our destiny. It is an experience that brings together our competency and our compassion, our skills and our values, our need for outer accomplishment and inner fulfillment. The soul of an organization is evident the moment you walk in the doors or when your phone call is answered. In fact, every organization has soul. Some have nurtured a strong community soul that compels excellence, commitment, and compassion.