Finding Balance in Warp Speed Organizations - Uncertainty, Rituals to Equanimity

Organizations have become stressful places because scarcity and competition is the norm for most - do more faster with less for efficiency and profit.  This changes what many of us thought of as certain – a job for life, a safe, happy place to work and grow and the security of it. 

It is a difficult challenge for most in the modern world, which purports the illusion that everything is certain and permanent, when nothing is permanently satisfying nor dependable.  Modern consumer society, through education and the media, deludes our senses with a certainty of the material world, so we work and play hard – yet when we do stop and reflect something gnaws away at us – we are not quite satisfied with the result. 

Deep down, we know that nothing is for sure, but bombardment of the message of instant gratification with a mirage of certainty keeps us occupied and out of balance.  This delusion has us searching for happiness in the wrong places.         

We know birth and death is certain, as with suffering there is bound to be happiness too; times of fame will balance with periods of insignificance; praised at times and there will be blame too; good health could be followed by illness; we gain some and lose some - all a part of the ebb and flow of life.    

Our challenge is to live well and find peace with this see-saw of pleasure and pain. Impermanent nature of it all is stressful, made worse by our constant search for anchors of certainty.

What is counter intuitive in our search for certainty is that those anchors can be found within us through an inward gaze and mindfulness.  This is where a personal practice comes in. 

Importance of Rituals

In a 2001 Harvard Business Review article The Making of a Corporate Athlete written by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarts presented the “Performance Pyramid”, an elegant way of finding anchors in our fast paced chaotic world.

Loehr and Schwarts present this model in a corporate context, as what prevails in the world prevails for organizations.

The Performance Pyramid - Loehr and Schwartz

The pyramid shows that a combination of physical, emotional, mental capacity is required to reach a spiritual capacity.  This spiritual capacity - finding meaning in our lives is what helps us to be grounded and skillful with uncertainty and chaos. 

Attaining this requires a combination of an inward gaze and inquiry to the rituals - exercise, sports, quiet time, yoga, meditation to good eating habits, sound sleep, cultivating trustful, compassionate relationships and a happy demeanor.
   

Happy People at Google

Organizations like Google have realized this secret as their emotional intelligence expert and engineer, Chade-Meng Tan articulates in his talk at the UN in 2012.  Google’s goal of creating a happy and a compassionate workplace has paid dividends in innovation, productivity and profits.  

                                                   

Their signature program Search Inside Yourself has three steps; 

1.    Attention Training

2.    Self Knowledge and Self Mastery

3.    Creating Useful Mental Habits

Tan states; “attention is the basis of all higher cognitive and emotional abilities. Attention training creates a quality of mind that is calm and clear - the foundation for emotional intelligence.”

Emotional Intelligence, Self Knowledge and Mastery

Emotions are based on our needs and feelings. When our needs (or wants) are not met for certainty and order, we become anxious and may feel fear.  Meditation is the way to develop that attention and focus to keep our thoughts in check, as we are not our thoughts.  We can change the narrative of our thoughts when we find space to validate the needs that give rise to feelings. 

Training our minds to focus, we have clarity on our cognitive and emotive processes and able to question feelings that arise.  We gain power when we are able to observe our thought process objectively and discern whether the needs we perceive, poses a real threat or not.   

For instance, cut backs in some organizations mean sharing a workstation, thereby losing one’s own personal space.  This takes away a certain security – personalizing our own space with pictures of loved ones and decoration does give a sense of belonging and certainty.  So this change can throw us off balance.  This is uncertainty at work.

We may adjust our need (or want) when we discern the threat of losing our workspace, put it in perspective (gratitude for the job we have and it's advantages) and adapt to the new situation.   

Self knowledge is then our ability to discern real and perceived threats and that enables self-mastery.

With self mastery, we have more control over how we react to our changing environment, to realize what is real or not and take action. With self mastery we can question our habits and change them. 

Self mastery enables us to be creative and counter intuitive. In uncertain times, it is good to build trust in our work environment by being more open and generous rather than feed our selfish needs and wants. Good mental habits make it easier for us to look beyond ourselves.

Making Others Happy; Useful Mental Habits

Creating useful mental habits with good intentions is crucial for turning our own emotional intelligence to high relationship intelligence.    

Tan goes onto say, "Imagine whenever you meet anybody, your habitual, instinctive first thought is, I wish for this person to be happy. Having such habits changes everything at work, because this sincere goodwill is picked up unconsciously by others, and you create the type of trust that leads to highly productive collaborations.”    

My Sacred Time

Meditating in a mini-forest in Ottawa

My own daily sacred time for exercise and mediation includes an affirmation, where I say to myself; “How can I make someone happy today?”

This habit opens my heart and mind to be generous to help others in any way, from something simple as holding a door open to larger acts that require time, effort and even letting go of something that may be important to me.  I then appreciate the opportunities to help others as it helps me put life in a better perspective. 

Cultivating a mental habit of generosity, without expectations, enable me to live through my uncertain life with more grace and equanimity.  It creates abundance rather than scarcity. 

Committing to a Personal Practice

As our professional lives and workplaces become more complex and uncertain, a personal practice of meditation, exercise, yoga complemented by good eating, sound sleep and wonderful relationships is a good strategy to anchor our certainty in, so we can show up strong and confident to do our good work. When we feel good, we feed into a happy workplace.   

Google, founded by two people out of idealism to become a $ 21 billion company has the formula for success by creating a happy and compassionate workplace.  

"Touchy-feely stuff" takes many of us out of our comfort zones as happiness and compassion does not seem compatible with work.  Yet a lack of happiness in a place, where we spend more time than home can impact on our health and well-being.  If that is the case, getting out of our comfort zones may be a good thing to find happiness – even if it is at work. 

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