WINNING ESSAY

THE GRAHAM TUCKER AWARD

Re-Visioning our Work: Bringing Soul More Fully into the Workplace
By Stepan A. Borau, M.A Program, Department of Adult Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
In the 1990s, particularly the last few years, there is a burgeoning interest in the area popularly referred to as "spirituality in the workplace."  There are hundreds of books and articles published, a growing number of web sites and resource directories, and in 1998 and 1999, there will have been over a dozen conferences in North America. Notions of spirituality and work have been written about in western society since the Ancient Greeks, and certainly wisdom traditions have always sought to connect the two. This current groundswell of interest, however, is generally coming from more secular sources. Perhaps surprisingly, a good deal of the literature et al is coming out of and is aimed at the business sector and the corporate world.
Spirituality in the workplace is a broadly-defined area that includes a myriad of sources and perspectives: from CEOs and senior management directing corporate change efforts, to individuals seeking to integrate work and their personal spiritual journeys; from consultants and managers struggling to help organizations change and adapt, to visionaries and futurists looking towards new kinds of economies; from individuals bringing religious values into the workplace, to leaders and theorists envisioning stewardship in companies, more humane workplaces, and corporations taking responsibility for creating a better world. This catch-all phrase encompasses not only spirituality, but also soul, spirit, values, meaning, and purpose, among other things.
Perhaps at the heart of this growing interest in spirituality in the workplace is a search for a better relationship between the sacred and the secular. For a long time now in our society in general, and certainly in our workplaces, there has been a definite distinction between "church and state." Our sense of the sacred is generally reserved for religion and certain awe-inspiring experiences of nature. What is apparent in the literature is that an attempt is being made to bridge these two realms--business and religion--long separated by a wide gulf. This larger issue may be about reintegrating what Jung calls our religious instinct and our work instinct, and is providing the impetus to move some corporate leaders (at various levels) to begin searching in this area. Is western society coming full circle? "The historian John P. Davis tells us that the great-great grandfathers of today's large, mainstream corporations were the monasteries of the early Christian church" (Kleiner, 1996, 1).
The reasons surrounding this willingness (reluctant as it is) for the business world to begin looking into this area is an essay in itself. David Whyte, a poet who now works with corporations to help them appreciate their soul qualities, provides some insight:

Continually calling on its managers and line workers for more creativity, dedication, and adaptability, the American corporate world is tiptoeing for the first time in its very short history into the very place whence that dedication, creativity, and adaptability must come: the turbulent place where the soul of an individual is formed and finds expression. (1994, 5-6)
Organizations are interested in their employees making greater contributions, and individuals are interested in bringing more of themselves to the workplace. Regardless of what the motivations might be, this is a phenomenon worthy of serious study, for its compelling ideas and for the breadth of individuals writing and working in this area.
What I believe to be one of the main themes in this literature, perhaps the main theme, is integrating work and the rest of people's lives more closely, including their values, family lives, and personal journeys. What I will attempt through this essay is to show a way to look at our workplaces from another viewpoint, perhaps a fundamentally different way altogether. The aim is to find new ways of seeing ourselves and our organizations; not to replace current organization theories, but to enhance and embolden them to more fully allow the complexity and paradoxical nature of our lives to be contained in the workplace. New ways of seeing lead to new ways of doing; as our ideas change, our vision changes, and so our actions will follow suit:   "By seeing differently, we do differently" (Hillman, 1989, 52).
I will focus on a topic that is relatively little written about in this area of spirituality in the workplace, at least not in any considerable depth: the notion of soul. We will need to appreciate soul--the gifts that it offers and the consequences of neglecting it--if we want to understand the essential link between the creativity of workers and the soul life. Paraphrasing Whyte, the adaptability and creativity of the work force only comes through the door with their passions, and their passions come only with their souls (1994, 7). Bringing soul more fully into the workplace means the organization allowing and encouraging us to bring more of ourselves into our work, and us being more authentic in who we are and the contribution we want to and do make.

A Soul Description
It seems to me that describing soul, even while trying to confine it to focusing on the workplace, could easily run into several chapters. The focus of this essay is on how to bring soul more fully into our workplaces. I will not broach the question of whether or not soul exists, nor will I try to synthesize the myriad conceptions and notions of soul. My description of soul for the purposes of this essay will be concise.
To gain a deeper appreciation of soul, it will be necessary to see ourselves and our organizations in new ways. In Artful Work, Richards reminds us that a new perspective often requires a new language (1995, 10). Beginning with describing soul at an individual level and at an organizational level, it is hoped the reader will move to a deeper understanding of what will be required--and what will be gained--in bringing soul more fully into the workplace.
Part of the difficulty of this work arises from language; mainly it comes from trying to make sense of soul (and spirit) in a world dominated by materialism (Owen, 1987, vii). When quantum physicists began exploring the atomic and subatomic world, ordinary language was not suitable and new language had to be developed (quarks, hadrons, neutrinos, etc.). We need not develop new language to have a dialogue about soul, though we will need to use our language in less literal and concrete ways. "The soul speaks in the language of metaphor, fantasy, and emotion" (Briskin, 1996, 10).

Soul of the Individual
When I speak of soul here, I am not referring to an object of religious belief, nor am I connecting this with immortality. Soul is intimately connected with what is most vital and true about who we are--the essence of our aliveness that is particularly me or her or him; it is about what makes us truly human. Although we may have a sense that soul refers to genuineness and depth, as when we say that a person or a music has soul, if we are asked what soul is, our minds may go blank, conjuring up neither image nor feeling. The more human we are, the more soulful we are, yet soul is also mysterious and profound and, it would seem, ultimately unknowable.
To begin with, it is best not to think of soul as a thing, but rather to see it as, "a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves" (Moore, 1992, 5); an activity rather than an entity. More than simply a quality of our experience, soul is what turns the events of our lives into experience itself. Many people can be a part of a common event, but each one will experience it in their own way. "We go to work. But it is our soul we put into it. Work is a series of events. The soul, as James Hillman says, turns those workaday events into experience" (Whyte, 1994, 22). The myriad of inner and outer events in our lives are grist for the activity of soul, which weaves these various circumstances into a rich tapestry that is the experience of living our particular life.
Before getting too far along in articulating what soul is, perhaps describing what it is not will be beneficial. Soul is not ego; ego exists within soul. Carl Jung sees the ego as "merely the centre of consciousness..." (1983, 19). Ego is the willful aspect of our consciousness, our volition, but it is itself part of soul.

Soul is nothing like ego. Soul is closely connected to fate, and the turns of fate almost always go counter to the expectations and often to the desires of the ego... We can cultivate, tend, enjoy, and participate in the things of the soul, but we can't outwit it or manage it or shape it into the designs of a willful ego. (Moore, 1992, xviii)
Jung, Hillman, Moore, Sardello, and others echo the sentiment that soul is other, its own entity. It is not simply the ego, or the ego and the unconscious, but rather has its own integrity, beyond our subjective experience; it is not simply a projection of our consciousness. More than this, soul is something we exist within. Jung, who read widely and wrote extensively about soul (using various terms: psyche, anima, soul, Self), says: "The soul is for the most part outside of the body" (Moore, 1992, 186). Soul isn't inside the individual; the individual is inside soul.

Soul is also not matter, nor is it spirit, yet it is intimately connected to both of these realities (Moore, 1992; Hillman, 1989). Distinguishing soul and spirit also provides a richness, colour, and texture as we seek a greater appreciation of these tangible intangibles. We have generally discounted soul in our society, focusing on dualities such as the material world and the spiritual world. This is the struggle in articulating soul, that the world is not merely black and white. Soul is not the black or the white, but intimately connected to both of them; and more than this, soul is the activity of connecting the black and the white. It is not so much a bridge between the two as a bridging of them both, not so much a thing as an activity. As Briskin writes, "soul is a place of union among opposites, the joining of spirit and matter, the light and dark aspects of the whole person" (1996, 11).

Jon Kabat-Zinn talks about the distinction between spirit and soul, having learned from Robert Bly and James Hillman:

They make a Jungian distinction between soul work, which involves a downward movement in the psyche--a willingness to connect with what is dark, moist, deep, and not necessarily pleasant or uplifting--and the movement of spirit, which has a quality of moving toward the light--upward, ascending. (1995, 108)
An important aspect of soul, and what makes it extremely relevant to the workplace, is that soul is the essence of our emotions, imagination, and creativity.

Soul is the very breath of our vitality and the unfathomable source of our identity. It is not a problem to be solved, but rather our very life that needs food and nurturing. (Moore, 1996, 13)
Soul is the dark, moist place where from our passions arise. It is the birthplace of our most authentic expression, and the source of what Jung (1983) calls our creative instinct. Matthew Fox reveres the connection between creativity and work. In The Reinvention of Work he writes: "Our creativity is not a cute thing for weekend dabblers in the arts; it lies at the essence of who we are" (1994, 15). We stand to lose a great deal if these creative gifts are not acknowledged. "Our creative energies turn quickly destructive if not given a framework to support them" (Whyte, 1997, 52).

Simply put, being more soulful is being more human. The notion of soul is mysterious and fathomless, but being more soulful means being more of who we most truly and genuinely are, including all of our contradictions, irrational behaviours, conflicting emotions, and our hopes, longings, and pleasures. Our greatest ambitions may be more about spirit moving us, while our deepest desires are about the stirrings of the soul. Our ambitions might inspire us to act, but our deeper passions and longings may turn out to be more powerful influences on whatever actions we may take.

Soul and Spirit of the Organization
 In Rediscovering the Soul of Business, Robert Leaver writes about soul and spirit at the organizational level. He uses the terms "circle" and "hierarchy" in explaining his ideas of a new kind of organization, and he writes that both "circle and hierarchy have spirit and soul attributes" (1995, 263). Soul at the organizational level can be symbolized by Circle: Circle is the community, the connectedness, the intimacy between and among the individuals in the organization. It is from where imagination, emotion, insight, creativity, and wisdom arise. The depth, value, heart, genuineness, and meaningfulness of the work comes from soul. "Circles are used to make connections, build relationships and experience a sense of the whole. In a circle, things go around and around; there is involvement, equality and a proper slowness" (Leaver, 1995, 263). Circle provides the soil for the seed, so that ideas can ferment and germinate and reach full maturity.

Spirit can be symbolized by Triangle: Triangle encompasses the vision, the striving, the attaining, the doing. Triangle is the hierarchy; it is the know-how, the ideas in expression, the leadership. Spirit comes through in seeking the ideal, the problem-solving, the striving to understand, in evolving and expanding. It is the trying to transcend the finite particulars of the here-and-now, to move beyond what exists at this time.

Both Circle and Triangle need to complement each other to attain a healthy workplace. Too much Triangle and an organization becomes over-controlling and rigidly top-down, the pace of the work becomes excessive, and the focus becomes narrower and narrower (e.g. focusing on short-term profitability). Too much Circle and decisions will not be made in a timely fashion, individual responsibility will not be possible (if everyone is responsible, then no one ends up being responsible), and everything moves to the lowest common denominator. "Hierarchy and circle make organizations function. This is healthy, creative tension at its best" (Leaver, 1995, 264).

Alan Briskin writes in The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace about paradox and the soul. With an ever-increasing complexity in our organizations comes a decreasing ability to make simple, clear-cut decisions. Things cease to be black-and-white, and so the correct answer is not readily evident. Carl Jung referred to paradox as a higher order of thinking. Soul creates the bridge that holds together opposites as we wrestle with conflicting demands in the workplace:

In grappling with contradictions, the soul is stirred into being. Soul resides in the tension between apparent opposites, born from our experience and reflection on experience. Soul is paradoxical in its essence. What kills soul in organizations is the wish to cleave the paradox in half, to ignore one side or to ignore the tension between the two sides. (Briskin, 1996, 239)
In The Fifth Discipline (1990), Senge discusses the concept of "creative tension," the idea that when we hold together conflicting ideas or two opposites, that is when we generate the greatest amount of creativity. Briskin writes further: "To think about the whole, we are obliged to hold paradox together. We can be neither solely visionary nor exclusively pragmatic" (p. 239). A greater understanding of soul is also part of dealing well with creativity and paradox.

I would say that generally in our organizations (and in our society), our workplaces are more spirited than they are soulful. The literature I have reviewed in this area also reflects this lack of emphasis on soul. Nonetheless, there are a few authours and practitioners who are contributing significantly to discussing and disseminating ideas about soul and the workplace.

WORKPLACES THAT BETTER REFLECT

The Whole Human Being
In approaching this area of soul in the workplace, we need to begin with the individual. The workplace is the threshold where the individual and the organization meet and shape and form each other, and where the work that is done is created and comes into being. The organization itself does not rewrite its policies, determine its future goals and plans, ignore or acknowledge its commitments, or act in the world except through people. The organization is more than just the individuals that work there, but its work and energy flows from the workers, and so we would gain the most leverage from beginning with the individual. In The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, Senge et al also provide support for this view that we need to begin with the individual.

At its essence, every organization is a product of how its members think and interact. Thus, the primary leverage for any organizational learning effort lies not in policies, budgets or organizational charts, but in ourselves. (1994, 48)
Although the organization can obstruct and confound and deny the presence of soul in many ways, it cannot directly institute it to any significant degree. We cannot give someone empowerment or give them learning; we can only create the optimal conditions that empower people or allow them to learn. Likewise with soul; the organization or leadership can only create an environment in which people's whole selves are appreciated and encouraged, and as individuals bring soul more fully into the workplace, the organization itself will become more soulful. "Soul gravitates to activities that promote individual depth, meaning, value, and vision" (Henry, 1995, 142).

As well, it is not for the organization or the senior management or the owners to create meaning for workers; the organization must allow them to cultivate their own sense of meaning and meaningfulness. "A spirituality of work has to be created by the worker, not for the worker" (Haughey, 1989, 124). Bringing soul more fully into the workplace needs to begin with the individuals there. It cannot be instituted into existence; soul must be invited into the workplace.

Bringing soul more fully into the workplace is not about only catering to soul. The point I would make is that at present we follow more spirited directions, so much so that we rarely even consider soul qualities. It is also not about catering only to the individual, although it is through individuals that soul will be internalized into the organization:

To explore the human soul is not to abandon the importance of organizations in favour of the subjective and the idiosyncratic tastes of individuals. We live in social organizations--families, communities, social clubs, workplaces--and it is in these groups that our souls are shaped and textured. (Briskin, 1996, xvi)
Organizations that are afraid to change significantly, where morale stays low and drains people of their drive, that are always reacting to events, those which suffer from lack of leadership--these organizations are too mired in soul without a strong connection to qualities of spirit (or perhaps they are too attached to spirit, so much so that soul must come through in unhealthy ways). Organizations that are constantly jumping on the latest management fad, not allowing employees the time to connect with each other as individuals, that are not able to admit failure, that seek a workplace unaccepting of diversity--there is too much emphasis on spirit in these organizations. Expectations, workloads, and the pace of work become more than human, and individuals are not able to bring their whole selves to the workplace. There is little or no room for their personal problems, family obligations, reflection, values, or the creative expression of their authentic selves in their work.

A more soulful organization is a more humane one, and as Tom Morris (1997) points out, the people aspects of organizations ought to receive the most attention:

These are the genuinely human issues. The humane issues. And as long as human beings do the work, make the deals, use the products, buy the services, and chart the future, these should be the most important issues, not the most ignored. (p. 110)

Bringing Soul More Fully into the Workplace: 

The Need to Re-Vision Our Work
My main line of enquiry is not simply how to bring soul into the workplace, for soul will find ways to thrust itself into life, in healthy and whole ways or in unhealthy and partial ways. Our passions and creativity will bubble up to the surface, and if we are repressing or denying or dishonouring those aspects of ourselves that have their source deep within, they will find a way to the surface of our lives, even if that means sabotage, maliciousness, or murder. Low morale, back-biting behaviours, producing poor quality products, or ones that are detrimental to the environment (Moore, 1995, 353)--these are all symptoms of organizations that do not allow soul to come through in healthy and whole ways. What is necessary is to bring soul more fully into our workplaces.

This essay has not delved into concrete ways to apply these ideas in the workplace; it is simply an introduction to begin seeing ourselves and our organizations in perhaps altogether new ways. Rediscovering the soul in our work will involve re-visioning (a phrase often used by James Hillman) our relationships to ourselves, our organizations, and our world. Bringing soul more fully into our workplaces is not only about changing the furniture around--or getting all new furniture (or all old furniture); it is not only about the surface aspects of our work. Most of us mistake the surface appearances of our jobs for the real thing. "All work has meaning beyond the surface realities of a job, a production schedule, a product, or a paycheck. All work concerns spirit and soul and involves our ability to connect them with surface realities" (Richards, 1994, 57). It is much more about gaining a deeper appreciation for the existing furniture, as it is.

What I believe is the monumental task at hand involves a much deeper effort, one requiring a willingness to struggle with paradox, with uncertainty, with chaos and failure, with grief and meaninglessness, and all the general messiness that a full life can bring. Looking at the world in fundamentally new ways is what will be required; this is the monumental task. In The Reinvention of Work (1994), Matthew Fox talks about the need for a new cosmology (our old cosmology being rooted in the metaphor of the machine) that sees the inter-relationships of all things. This will lead to a new paradigm of work, one in which our work is more fully integrated with the rest of our lives.

Spirit and soul are the words I use in this essay to help reconceptualize our approach to our workplaces. They are deeper and richer than other words we might use, and so allow for more complexity, more diversity, more subtlety of thought. As Harrison Owen says, the forms and structures of our organizations are changing with such increasing speed and complexity that we need to look at what lies beneath them (1987, 4). It may be necessary to connect the secular world of our workplaces with the sacred realm, simply because we need the gifts that the sacred realm has to offer us. Perhaps we have come as far as we can in our organizations, and to continue creating better workplaces will require us to more carefully consider both spirit, and especially soul.

WORKS CONSULTED

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Carlson, R., & Shield, B. (Eds.). (1995). Handbook for the Soul. Boston: Little, Brown.

DeFoore, B., & Renesch, J. (Eds.). (1995). Rediscovering the Soul of Business: A Renaissance of Values. San Francisco: Sterling & Stone.

Fox, M. (1994). The Reinvention of Work: A New Vision of Livelihood For Our Time. New York: HarperCollins.

Haughey, J. C. (1989). Converting Nine to Five: A Spirituality of Daily Work. New York: The Crossroad.

Henry, J. D. (1995, Apr). Re-creating soul in a re-engineered organization. HR Magazine, 40 (4), 144, 142.

Hillman, J. (1989). A Blue Fire: Selected Writings by James Hillman (edited by Thomas Moore). New York: HarperCollins.

Jung, C. G. (1983). The Essential Jung (selected and introduced by Anthony Storr). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

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Kleiner, A. (1996). The Age of Heretics: Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change. New York: Doubleday.

Leaver, R. (1995). The commonwealth organization: Healing the worldÕs ailing soul. In B. Defoore, & J. Renesch (Eds.), Rediscovering the Soul of Business: A Renaissance of Values (pp. 257-270). San Francisco: Sterling & Stone.

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Moore, T. (1995). Caring for the soul in business. In B. DeFoore, & J. Renesch (Eds.), Rediscovering the Soul of Business: A Renaissance of Values (pp. 341-356). San Francisco: Sterling & Stone.

Moore, T. (1992). Care of the Soul: A Guide For Cultivating Depth and Sacredness In Everyday Life. New York: HarperCollins.

Morris, T. (1997). If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business. New York: Henry Holt.

Owen, H. (1987). SPIRIT: Transformation and Development in Organizations. Potomac, MD: Abbott.

Richards, D. (1995). Artful Work: Awakening Joy, Meaning, and Commitment in the Workplace. New York: Berkley.

Sardello, R. (1995). Love and the Soul: Creating a Future for Earth. New York: HarperCollins.

Senge, P. M., et al. (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. London: Nicholas Brealey.

Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.

Whyte, D., & Toms, M. (1997). Discovering soul in the workplace. In M. Toms (Ed.), The Soul of Business (pp. 49-71). Carlsbad, CA: Hay House.

Whyte, D. (1994). The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America. New York: Doubleday.