What if our workplaces could be more like Quaker meeting houses and less like Catholic High Mass?
Earlier this week, pharmaceutical giant Bayer reported that it is delayering management and asking nearly 100,000 workers to ‘self-organize’ in the hope of saving the firm more than $2 billion.
This prompted us to look for management lessons from the Quakers, a religious movement started by a Church of England dissenter in the 17th century.
Quakers rejected strict hierarchies and regalia, preached inclusion and equality, embraced the power of silence, encouraged anyone, including visitors, to "minister" at their gatherings, and focused on the "Divine Spark" within all of us.
We consider Quaker teachings for the modern workplace on three levels:
- the personal (how an organization sees a person);
- the structural (how individuals interact to get work done in a community); and,
- the cultural (how the individual and the organization come together in mutually reinforcing ways).
For each, we include reflection questions such as:
Personal:
- Do you acknowledge your inner light? Where do you feel most comfortable letting it shine? Is one of those places where you work? If not, what would you need to change about your workplace to make that true?
- Or are you shining too brightly at work? Have you forgotten the other places where your light is also needed?
Organizational:
- Next time you are in a meeting where PowerPoint is the hymn book, consider what is happening. Do you enjoy being able to disconnect and pretend to be listening?
- How might adopting a flatter hierarchy or more open meetings, similar to the Quaker organizational model, influence communication, decision-making, and employee empowerment—and what would that mean for you as a leader and employee? It might mean more work and risk because more engagement requires more emotional and mental connection. Are you willing to take it?
Cultural:
- What is the payoff of radicalism? When we become more pragmatic, does it feel like we are settling? How can “practical accommodations with the mundane world” feel liberating and not disheartening?
- And how do we adapt these teachings while avoiding what Quakers have been criticized for, such as letting others fight “their” wars, being too passive, and not being explicit about their beliefs?
Thank you, Matthew Vernon Hanson, for the collaboration, and Arthur (Arturo) Natella, for the heads-up on Bayer and for keeping your finger on the pulse of management transformations. (https://lnkd.in/giMzyg6f)
#engagement #inclusiveleadership
