Sixth Century Wisdom For 21st Century Changemasters
Sixth Century Wisdom For 21st Century Changemasters
The cry echoed across business publications, employee surveys, human resource conferences, and on-line chat rooms is this: help us with chaos and balance! Within a 48-hour period, the headlines of the Los Angeles Times business section, a cover story in the latest issue of Fast Company, and the lead article from Fortune all proclaimed the same thing: workers want help with turbulent change and work/life balance.
This article is meant to offer some thoughts on how to deal with the challenging issue: how to deal with the chaos of unending change and the role of the team.
In the sixth-century, the Rule of Saint Benedict asked monks to take vows of stability, conversatio(Latin), and obedience. Stability emphasized the need to work for the good of the community. Hence, all actions taken were in the context of "will this be of assistance to all rather than just a few?" Certainly this wisdom must be at the center of Synovus Financial, a company rated by Fortune Magazine as one of the top places to work. Employees at Synovus Financial say it has " a culture of the heart."
Obedience meant that once the monastery had made a decision (after a practice of hearing from the many members of the community), the monks followed. Independent thinking is good, to a point, in business but then the team has to move in the same direction.
Of even more significance is the word conversatio, a term that is difficult to translate. Conversatio connotes a commitment to live faithfully in unsettled times and to keep one's life open. Such a paradox: remain settled; stay open to change! For the monks of the Middle Ages, living faithfully meant listening to an inner voice and responding to the call. For those of us in the 21st century business world, living faithfully also means listening and responding. Here's what we need to listen to: the stories we tell and those around us tell regarding an organization's consistent adherence to values shown by actions that match core beliefs. If there are no stories, there's trouble. It means listening with empathy and responsiveness to the needs of others within the organization. It means being open to the differences of others, being willing to change perspectives yet stay firm in one's core values. How well do you practice conversatio?
Surely, at a time when we hear terms like "spirit" and "soul" more frequently in the workplace, the wisdom of a sixth century monk might help us all deal with the realities of a demanding world.
© Eileen McDargh, McDargh Communications. All rights reserved. You may reprint this article so long as it remains intact with the byline and if all links are made live.
Sixth Century Wisdom For 21st Century Changemasters - To learn more about this author, visit Eileen McDargh's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
With a wobbly U.S. economy, unsettled change continues to bombard us. Mega-mergers boggle the mind with the endless zeros streaming behind a behemoth's financial size. We gasp at the number of employees who are cast off from a consolidated giant. We see plant closures and layoffs in everything from clothing manufacturing to banking. Overnight web companies turn almost under-age youth into millionaires and executives at age 40 are left scratching their heads. And then dot.coms fail, leaving bewildered employees in the rubble. Technology shifts overnight. Medical research makes DNA a poster child for both dreams and nightmares. There's so much, so fast. Despite statistics that put this as the lowest employment rate in decades, there's pain and inaccuracy behind these cold numbers. And in all of this, we are working more but feeling as if we're earning less. There's too much to do and too little time.
The cry echoed across business publications, employee surveys, human resource conferences, and on-line chat rooms is this: help us with chaos and balance! Within a 48-hour period, the headlines of the Los Angeles Times business section, a cover story in the latest issue of Fast Company, and the lead article from Fortune all proclaimed the same thing: workers want help with turbulent change and work/life balance.
This article is meant to offer some thoughts on how to deal with the challenging issue: how to deal with the chaos of unending change and the role of the team.
In the sixth-century, the Rule of Saint Benedict asked monks to take vows of stability, conversatio(Latin), and obedience. Stability emphasized the need to work for the good of the community. Hence, all actions taken were in the context of "will this be of assistance to all rather than just a few?" Certainly this wisdom must be at the center of Synovus Financial, a company rated by Fortune Magazine as one of the top places to work. Employees at Synovus Financial say it has " a culture of the heart."
Obedience meant that once the monastery had made a decision (after a practice of hearing from the many members of the community), the monks followed. Independent thinking is good, to a point, in business but then the team has to move in the same direction.
Of even more significance is the word conversatio, a term that is difficult to translate. Conversatio connotes a commitment to live faithfully in unsettled times and to keep one's life open. Such a paradox: remain settled; stay open to change! For the monks of the Middle Ages, living faithfully meant listening to an inner voice and responding to the call. For those of us in the 21st century business world, living faithfully also means listening and responding. Here's what we need to listen to: the stories we tell and those around us tell regarding an organization's consistent adherence to values shown by actions that match core beliefs. If there are no stories, there's trouble. It means listening with empathy and responsiveness to the needs of others within the organization. It means being open to the differences of others, being willing to change perspectives yet stay firm in one's core values. How well do you practice conversatio?
Surely, at a time when we hear terms like "spirit" and "soul" more frequently in the workplace, the wisdom of a sixth century monk might help us all deal with the realities of a demanding world.
© Eileen McDargh, McDargh Communications. All rights reserved. You may reprint this article so long as it remains intact with the byline and if all links are made live.
Sixth Century Wisdom For 21st Century Changemasters - To learn more about this author, visit Eileen McDargh's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Eileen's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 |
|
Eileen McDargh Video - Watch Eileen McDargh's speaking demo to see how she helps organizations develop great leaders who will propel vision and productivity, create organizational and personal life balance practices that enhance work-life engagement, and key in on change management strategies that will create resilience during challenging times.
|
|
|
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES LIABILITY PIPS Power Book 5 Step Action Plan Book of Leadership Coaching System |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Diversion Blogs
Top Diversion Blogs of 2009 | |
 |
Fortune Hunters
CBC Entrepreneur TV | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||