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specialists in enhancement and management of human performance |
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I'm sitting on the lanai of a beach house on Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii. Three fan palms list in a light breeze, small waves curl into the shore with a gentle crash and scarlet-headed birds chirp and prance on a handrail not ten feet from me. I look up from the screen of my laptop and see the red dirt eye and long snout of magic dragon Puff (Remember Peter, Paul & Mary?) push out to form Bali Hai point. Paradise is a word that rests easy on this land. Spirit is a sense that rests easy on this perfumed, humid air. Not so easy to find spirit in the workplace today. And vocation is a word I've not heard white collared professionals apply to their daily toil in a long, long time. Perhaps three generations ago, vocation lent itself more to the work people did. Many worked with their hands. And often the fruit of their labor was indeed fruit or vegetables or wheat or a barn raised by muscle and decade honed craftsmanship. The product of the labor was linked more directly to providing food, clothing, shelter, health or community. The labor itself, although more physically exhausting, was in time to the end results. One other thing--when people worked together, the need for joint effort was obvious in the demand of the task itself. In the new marketplace, we are often removed from the impact of our labors. Even as we increasingly crowd into smaller cubicles, packed elevators and tighter traffic jams, we are more removed from each other. We jam gigabytes of data at each other instantly but rarely communicate. We collaborate on pieces of items that fit into more virtual than real space. Not often seeking to actually make something, but rather to alter something already made. Make it faster, or more 'value-added' or just different enough from the last model to justify the marketing campaign's "new" phraseology. We have substituted "providing goods and services to people" with "creating new market niches" and "dominating a space" by simply being first into it. And for all the posturing of more humane workspaces, freedom from bureaucracy, and flexible hours, the sad truth is modern business will not likely provide much spirit and vocation for its workforce now or in the near future. But that's okay. Spirit and vocation are personal matters best sought out by personal beings. I would not want to have my sense of soul and vocation the subject of a search routine on a SPARC workstation. Nor do I wish my calling in life to be delineated by even the best-intentioned human resource survey. Rather than abandoning all hope of spirit and vocation in what you do most of your waking hours, try a little self-exploration. Here are a couple of guided wanderings. Step one. Discover someplace bigger and more powerful than your identity. It helps if this place contains something that has lived longer than a human span of years. It helps if there is something in this space which undeniable reaches back in time generations before your were born and reaches forward in time at least a generation past your children. Any beach with truck-sized waves and a view to the open sea does it for me. Also, trekking through stands of giant redwoods or simply standing atop a mountain crag overlooking a range of the Rockies or a hillock in Oklahoma with acres of rippling wheat. I believe everyone has a place like this. If not they have the capacity to find such a place that is deeper than who they consider themselves to be. A place both safe and slightly intimidating at the same time. Step two. Get yourself to that place. Allow yourself to be alone. And allow yourself time to ask and consider the following questions. The first thing that pops into your head is probably the most useful. Warning -- the questions are repetitive. Allow yourself the benefit of discovering differing depths of answer to the repetitive questions. Step three. Briefly describe to yourself what you do at work. Tell what your activities are in simple but concrete terms. Then ask the following. "What does doing that provide for me?" Answer the question. Then ask this of your answer. "What does having that do for me?" Answer the question. Then ask the same of your new answer. "What does having that do for me?" Keep up with the repetition until you reach an answer that puts you in spirit. When you've reached that point you've discovered the value of your work for yourself. Now ask one final question. "How can I bring this, the true value of my work to me, more into the daily tasks of work and to those people I work with?" ('People' include coworkers, clients, customers, bosses, direct reports, janitors -- you get the idea.) From your answer make a simple promise to do one thing, and no more than one thing, each day to bring that value of spirit to your work. Here's another exercise. It helps if you're in one of those special places. Allow yourself the following fantasy. Suppose God came down (or up or sideways -- whichever you prefer) and sat right next to you. And suppose she (or he or it) whispered in your ear the following. "I'm sorry but you do have to work for a living this lifetime. But tell me what you want in your work. Tell me what you really want to be doing. Tell me what your perfect workday would look like. I'm going to give it to you day in and day out. Tell me exactly what you want your work to be, who you want to be doing it with, how you want to be doing it. I'll grant you that. You deserve it." Now tell God what you want to do to earn a living. Be specific. Say what you want to be doing, with whom and in what manner. Remember this is God you're talking to, so you can get anything. When you are finished, answer one more question. What do you want other people to say about what you do for your work and how you do it? The answers in this exercise are your vocation. Now strive to bring that vocation to your current job. If you cannot, then see how you can creatively and positively transition. It may just be your executive edge. It may be your human one as well. As I look out over the water, I am intrigued by a number of surfers clustered just beyond the smaller breakers that roll into shore with eternal repetition. Some of these bathers with boards are competent, some island experts, others tourists trying the ride for the first time. They all have one thing in common -- they await their "perfect wave". Some have been waiting since my fingers touched this keyboard hours ago. Perhaps they believe the perfect wave will make the perfect ride to impress their friends or define their mastery or simply satisfy their need for accomplishment. To me this sea, this deep, living mystery from all the gods, ancient and new, is filled with gifted waves. All the swells, crashing over, closing out, or flowing full are perfect. Perhaps the perfect wave is the one you choose to ride, the one upon which you stand up and balance your way to some far distant shore. (NOTE: Allies Consulting offers a menu of programs that can help you become masterful at your performance skills, or your staff to do so. They will meet or exceed your expectations: they are designed to deliver real results. They also leverage our other programs, magnifying your ROI!)
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