Can Spirituality be the New Viagra for the Workplace?

Kenny Moore for SuccessTelevision.com

“Without work, it is impossible to have fun,” said the medieval saint, Thomas Aquinas. 

Work is a sacred endeavor . Urging employees to contribute their God-given talents in the workplace is liberating for the worker and an enhancement to the business.  It also injects a needed flair of enjoyment into the workplace. A small but growing number of executives are learning to engage the spiritual side of business.   It entails recognizing the inherent sacral qualities that employees bring to work and making demonstrated efforts to use them to satisfy customers. 

Spirituality at work is not about hosting prayer groups or Bible study sessions.  I do not think the business world is ready for that, and I am not sure it should be.  The separation of church and state continues to be a viable model in such a diverse world.  Championing religious practices in the office sounds to me like the makings of another Holy War.  Alas, in a global economy, it is not even clear whose version of God we would need to direct our prayers to.  I believe that the Divine is more interested in having us acknowledge our talents and use them for the betterment of others as well as ourselves. There is something inherently holy about embarking upon that

effort.

I have spent numerous years working in large hierarchical institutions, twenty of them corporate and fifteen religious.  Whenever you are dealing with large numbers of people joined together around a singular effort, many of the operating principles seem to feel oddly similar.  The media once asked Pope John XXIII how many people worked at the Vatican. “About half of them,” was his reply.  It is amusing how the challenges confronting leaders, religious and secular alike, have some universal qualities. 

The journalist Eric Sevareid once said that he was a pessimist about tomorrow but an optimist about the day after tomorrow.  I have come to feel the same way about business.  I do not expect corporate malfeasance to end anytime in the near future.  The workplace is a mirror of life.  Like it or not, evil is part of the human condition and will always be with us.  Besides, if immorality were to suddenly come to an abrupt halt, much of the drama would be lost and organized religion would be out of a job.  And as Wall Street keeps reminding us: losing jobs is never good for the economy.  

The Divine invitation to us is to get in there and be a player as the ancient drama of good and evil unfolds.  Using our hands, heads and hearts in service of something beyond myopic self-interest is what’s required.  Business has tremendous potential to be a force for good in the world.  While it has not always lived up to this challenge, the opportunity remains ever present.  We who labor there have direct influence on the outcome, and our impact has the potential to be significant.

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