The Office Om

There’s a new spirituality in the workplace that has more to do with emotional wellbeing than corporate ambition. And it may be good for business, too, finds Fleur Britten

You may attend a weekly yoga class, have considered some kind of retreat or have dipped into a copy of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but hold on to your chakras, chaps, as it looks like deep spirituality is about to hit the workplace. According to Ian Mitroff, author of the bestselling A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, “Spirituality could be the ultimate competitive advantage.”

Profitability and spirituality, it emerges, are not mutually exclusive. Apple schedules a 30-minute daily meditation break for its employees, and the management consultancy McKinsey is now sending its executives on spiritual intelligence courses. The World Bank holds regular meetings for its Spiritual Unfoldment Society to discuss meditation, reincarnation and the like, Orange has had its UK headquarters feng-shuied, and Kwik-Fit, of all companies, provides its employees with a chill-out club, t’ai chi and yoga.

It’s all about promoting ethics and trust, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the UK’s human-resources body. The humble “servant-leader” who puts others first in the powwow is more likely to end up on top nowadays than the paintballing “top gun”. “The cult of ‘command and control’ by an aggressive leader with unrealistic expectations is outdated,” says Jessica Jarvis, of CIPD. “In the wake of Enron and other corporate scandals, spiritual leadership is a growing trend.”

Thankfully, spirituality can be taught. At Golcar Farm in Eldwick, West Yorkshire, suits are swapped for Barbours and colleagues for collies, as clients — which have included Barclays and the Bradford Chamber of Commerce — are encouraged to make like a shepherd. Tasks involve guiding the “corporate collies” Meg, Peg, Mossie and Hope and a handful of sheep around an obstacle course. “We are not eccentric or gimmicky,” says Barbara Sykes, the founder and dog psychologist. “We encourage emotional correspondence and a journey into one’s inner self. It’s not just about saying, ‘Come by’ and ‘Lie down’. Dogs demand trust and honesty, and if someone is too bolshy, the dog will think ‘I’m not doing this’ and sit down. It’s the same in the workforce.”

At The Big Stretch, a seven-day residential programme in the Spanish mountains, executives are not taught anything. “It’s a strange method of working,” says the founder, Rosie Walford. “We spend the first half of the week asking clients from Linklaters, Citigroup and the like what they want to be remembered for, then we help them identify a big ambition. We go walking in a great big landscape: you get into an alpha state when you do semi-automatic exercise and the subconscious pops into the conscious; things that are true bubble up and resonate. After that, we do some creative lateral thinking: we go river kayaking and use geological and natural stimuli to answer unrelated questions. It puts people in an amazing space and sets off a stream of ideas. You can always find solutions through nature.”

If that sounds like a bit of a, er, stretch, then listen to this. Pepita Diamand-Levy, 35, reckons her company doubled in size after a stint with The Big Stretch. “I had helped to set up a wedding-list service and soon found myself daunted and plagued by a lack of confidence,” she says. “I thought about getting a life coach, but then I heard about The Big Stretch. Once there, we climbed a real mountain. I am petrified of heights — it was definitely my Everest. Halfway down, I screamed, ‘I can do anything!’ I returned to work a completely different person, full of confidence. We have since expanded from one showroom to three, and from one franchise to five.”

“Serving to lead” is the essence of the corporate leadership programme at Shreyas, a luxury ashram near Bangalore, India. Here, high-flyers from Texas to Bombay are put through exercises such as feeding the poor. According to Pawan Malik, the founder and a former investment banker, this “reduces one’s own needs and arrogance and increases empathy. Clients tend to become more humble”. PD Mundhra, who brings employees of his data-analysis firm, eClerx, here twice a year, says: “We have learnt a more feminine approach to leadership by shifting from helping ourselves to helping others. There is no immediate reward for us, but a sense of joy from serving the community.”

And now, the UK has its first chief spiritual officer — Libby Hammond heads up Tailored Talks, a public-speaking agency based in Airth, Scotland. “I was aware that outside the workplace, people have life, friends and emotions, and are hungry for something more than a nine-to-five existence,” she says. “You have to protect the emotional welfare of an organisation. Even sacking can be done from the generosity of one’s heart.”

With 85% of UK organisations investing in leadership training, according to CIPD, and 72% of managers looking for more meaning at work, according to Management Today magazine, it is clearly time for a paradigm shift, a spiritual awakening.

However, Danah Zohar, a leading management guru, warns: “I don’t think you can go on a workshop to become a spiritual leader. It’s a long and deep process of inner change.” Instead, she advocates permanent on-site changes, such as dialogue groups and quiet rooms for reflection and meditation. “Business people aren’t used to going ‘inside’; meditation helps with that,” she says. “And I wouldn’t use anything overtly spiritual, like an altar in the forecourt. Real spirituality frightens business people and they get it mixed up with religion. You don’t have to think of God as your CEO.” Or your CEO as God.

Top of page.

Home About Resources Investors Businesses Members Admin