By Mark Kaplan / February 18, 2020
Spirituality and the workplace might be two different concepts that can come together to serve each other. Spirituality might seem like voo doo to people who follow traditional religions, but God is not outside spirituality. With spirituality there are no hierarchies. The spiritual person most likely believes all is one.
The Work Place
Individuals are organized in a workplace to perform tasks and complete a Mission. Organizations have hierarchies. There is leader and several mini leaders to organize and execute the necessary tasks.
The software of an organization might be the culture and how humans are viewed and their importance to the Mission. In toxic cultures, humans are might not be the top priority and often considered a commodity. There are expectations of how they will work and their compensation is considered just for the tasks.
In more wholesome cultures, humans are prized and often seen as the purpose for the organization. A successful culture sees all the stakeholders as valuable and service to the people, the community, and the planet are each a vital part of the Mission.
Is Spirituality Organic?
A spiritual person sees the connection between themselves, Nature, and the Universe. They might understand that in physics, everything in the Universe is made of the same infinitely small particles that all work together to make everything happen.
Spiritualty in the workplace might be the perspective that everyone is working together to achieve an important Mission that in serving others will benefit themselves. Spiritual people will understand everyone works together to achieve a goal and accept each person might have their own personal mission of what they want to experience in their life.
An organization can be organic in the sense that the workers see themselves as prized entities and consider everyone they serve as important. Worker’s welfare is important and they are given opportunities to grow, feel some autonomy, enjoy their families, and share in the organization’s purpose.
When workers are happy, fulfilled, and engaged, they tend to be loyal, stay longer, and are easier to recruit. The difficult personnel objectives for a firm that are necessary for competitiveness become seamless with the work.
Is Happiness Spirituality?
Happiness and spirituality can be like the chicken and the egg. Can you have one without the other? Does one come first? Do they happen together? Why is this relevant to the workplace? Happiness in the workplace is important for sustainable success. Is the workplace responsible for worker happiness or should organizations only hire happy people? Should the workplace work together with its stakeholders to discover which practices support workers in their endeavors to have fulfilling productive lives and be engaged in their work?
Happiness is scientific. There are certain neurotransmitters and hormones that when stimulated are how we define happiness. These brain chemicals are dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphin.
We stimulate them with certain behaviors. When we are learning challenging material, engaged in creativity, doing something that will help others, and exercising, we can get the whole basket of happiness.
The workplace can create the opportunities for workers to advance in their career and personal lives by helping workers find their own happiness and giving them the support, education, training and flexibility to pursue these behaviors.
Not to leave you in a lurch, but my book Creating Your Own Happiness-Lifestyle Self-Coaching Course can give further guidance.
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