The Power of Spirituality

The Power of Spirituality -- From Personal to Organizational
(This article is reprinted by permission from Patricia Aburdene and may not be reprinted from this site. Please contact the author for reprint authorization.)

Excerpt from Chapter 1:

As Hewlett-Packard’s VP and general manager of inkjet cartridge operations, Greg Merten managed 10,000 people and a multi-billion-dollar business. Much of his success, he says, grew out of the transformation he experienced when his son Scott, 16, was killed in an automobile accident. He calls Scott’s loss “my greatest tragedy and greatest blessing.”

Scott was a “real people person,” who never had an unkind word for anyone, says Merten. Scott’s example inspired Merten to focus on and invest in his relationships including business. “I used the tragedy as a source of learning, an occasion to see,” he says.

Specifically, every four to six weeks Merten carved out a full day to meet with his eight senior managers and with coaches Amba Gale and Mickey Connelly. “We’d update Amba and Mickey on what had happened since we last met, then together ask, ‘So, okay, what are we going to do about it?’ We explored how to behave differently, find more productive choices, expand our influence and make a bigger difference.

“It was the most concentrated learning environment I’ve ever known,” says Merten, “because it focused on ‘the conversation,’ that is, how people operate with each other. In the face of differences, do we inquire? Do we try to understand each other and create value? Or do we need to be right and then defend, disagree, destroy—and waste the chance to generate positive results?”

Armed with these conscious techniques, Merten led his group through several business doublings in a year and expanded operations from one to six sites. As Merten’s spiritual insight blossomed, he learned to “Let go, forgive and suspend judgment,” then applied these powerful truths at HP. “I quit competing and starting to think of the other person first.” He “granted others ‘good intentions’ even in the face of contradictory evidence.”

How do spiritual principles like these impact corporate success? Put simply, Merten’s enlightened business precepts changed how things got done internally and externally. They inspired people to trust themselves and others. As Merten’s team grew in awareness and consciousness, they “gained access” to actions and options that were literally unavailable to them before.

Merten says these breakthroughs, in his words, “contributed hundreds of millions in incremental dollars to HP’s bottom line.” How so? Merten offers this answer.

“We put up our third site [after Singapore and Puerto Rico] near Dublin twice as fast as it had ever been done in HP history. The Irish contractors literally laughed at us when we told them our due date. How did we do it? Mickey Connelly helped us take the Irish contractors, the developers, the County Kildare officials and HP’s own operations folks through the same protocols on relationship and conversation that we ourselves practice.”

The Dublin success alone, says Merten, “netted HP hundreds of millions. We needed the capacity that much.”

“You can create results from fear,” Merten admits, “but I came to see that the greatest results come from a more positive place—community, relationship and conversation.” Greg Merten retired from HP in 2003 and now consults on something he understands well: the art of outstanding leadership.

Let’s start with a simple assertion: business is transforming because people like Greg Merten and other top executives—as well as millions of “ordinary” managers, some of whom you’ll meet in chapters three and four—work in corporations! As individuals grow in consciousness and Spirit, so do the organizations they inhabit.

The problem is organizations take longer to change than people do. Why is institutional change more difficult? Because it is so complex. Not only does it require time, vision and leadership, it involves greater numbers of people, their commitment and the development of a shared purpose. Institutional transformation relies on human evolution, grows slowly, then finally hits the mark.

In the years that it takes for all these positive ingredients and uplifting circumstances to catalyze, the people inside companies can grow so discouraged, they fall victim to the lie that “business as usual” would have us believe: the idea that there’s an impenetrable barrier between personal spirituality and corporate transformation, between Spirit and business.

The purpose of this first chapter is to dissolve that firewall.

Meeting the Enemy

Meanwhile, the quest for spirituality flourishes in society at large. I’ll soon cite plenty of figures to illustrate that point. Yet many people, even those who are spiritually aware, envision the business establishment as an armed fortress that will somehow repel the transformation everyone else is going through.

That is not going to happen. Because business does not possess the power to prevent people from transforming. Yet there’s little wonder why we think it does! The business world often portrayed on CNBC and in The Wall Street Journal boasts, not just a single-minded passion for turning a buck, but unmatched devotion to assassinating any high-minded ideal that might get in the way.

Well, guess what? Mainstream business is under siege, from activists and regulators, as expected, but even from investors. And all the barricades in the world cannot defend it. Because the most dangerous adversary of all—a transformed individual—lies within and we are IT. Whether spiritual CEO, activist middle manager or visionary entrepreneur, we’ve opened our minds and expanded our hearts and there is no shutting either of them down. So much so that as I edit this chapter in early 2005, both CNBC and The Wall Street Journal have just run stories on spirituality or faith in business.

Conscious individuals transform organizations. Period. Consider:

* The Fortune 500 CEO and devoted meditator who championed a corporate meditation room that thrives long after his retirement. * The glamorous female executive whose lifelong spiritual quest leads her to a hot workshop on HeartMath that she later shares with her customers. * The third generation CEO of a high-profile public company who disdains “selfish” capitalism and enthusiastically embraces corporate responsibility.

You’ll meet these inspiring leaders in this book’s first two chapters as we begin to explore seven new megatrends accelerating the transformation of free enterprise and the birth of Conscious Capitalism as mainstream business culture.

We start with some off-the-charts numbers on personal spirituality, then look at how Spirit is already starting to transform the bellwether sector of medicine. Later we’ll delve into case studies of CEOs and other top execs whose spiritual journeys are re-inventing their careers and their companies.

Spirituality: from personal to organizational. That’s this chapter’s theme. Put differently, personal “growth” is about to get a lot less “personal.” It is about to spill into—and transform—the collective.

The Passion for Personal Spirituality

The quest for spirituality is the greatest megatrend of our era.

Before diving into some illustrative facts and figures, I should like to raise the larger, more substantive question: What does it mean to be “spiritual”? Or to want more Spirit in your life? Admittedly, it isn’t easy to define: Spirit is intangible, after all. Few of us will agree on the exact definition of spirituality. But it begins, of course, with the desire to connect with God, the Divine, the Transcendent. That said, let me throw out the five hallmarks that I think cover most of the spiritual bases: (1) Meaning or Purpose, (2) Compassion, (3) Consciousness, (4) Service and (5) Well Being.

Many of the things we might call spiritual—inner peace, meditation, wellness, prayer, loving relationships, life purpose, mission, giving to others—fall under one of these headings. I may have missed one of your favorites, but I think you’ll agree that all these words have one thing in common: Each and every one of them is sourced in and emphasizes the immaterial. We may live out our spiritual inclinations here in the material world, experiencing compassion for a friend—or well being in our bodies—but the source of our inspiration is the invisible realm of Spirit.

The earthly treasures we all love and enjoy here in the mundane grid of reality—money, hot jobs, gorgeous clothes, a wonderful mate, an Ivy League diploma and a beautiful home—are missing from the “spiritual” list. Spirituality means you thirst for something else. For the peace, wholeness and fulfillment that, as Grandma would say, “money can’t buy.” Perhaps you seek also to know the Source from which all else, both material and intangible, flows. Well, you’ve got a lot of company.

Spirituality Is “Off the Charts”

Millions have invited Spirit into their lives, through personal growth, religion, meditation, prayer or yoga. The result is a values shift that is measurable and monumental. A 2004 Gallup survey found 90 percent of Americans believe in God; it jumps to 95 percent when people are asked, “or a universal Spirit.” Western Europeans, by contrast, have a belief rate of 50 percent. Sixty percent of Americans say they have absolute trust in God.

But wait a minute. Haven’t Americans always been a religious lot? Maybe so, but in the past decade, the number who call themselves “spiritual” is decisively higher. In 1994, the Gallup people asked Americans whether they felt the need to experience spiritual growth. Only 20 percent said “yes.” In 1999, they asked again—and a surprising 78 percent answered in the affirmative. An astounding 58 percentage point gain in five years.

But that was only in 1999. Remember how simple and secure our lives were then? Before terrorism, the market crash, war and corporate scandals. People tend to turn to Spirit in times of stress, trouble and sorrow. In 1999 technology was still riding high; unemployment was low and no one was overly troubled by Enron, Osama or Saddam. Since September 11, 2001, however, 57 percent say they think more about their spiritual lives, reports a Time/CNN/Harris Interactive poll.

It is hardly a stretch to conclude that war, recession, layoffs and financial losses since 2001 have strengthened the ranks of spiritual seekers.

Return to List of Megatrends.

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Hello, Teresa Proudlove here. We were thrilled to receive permission personally from Patrica Aburdene author of "Megatrends 2010, The Rise of Conscious Capitalism," to reprint her articles on our site and spread these important, timely messages. All of these articles concern our lifework as human beings. By using our inner guidance, hearts, intuition and intelligence we can all make a difference with this one precious, far-flung life.

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