Sophia in the Workplace
by Cindy McGinnis, MBA, Practitioner at LCCC
For decades, even generations, it has not been acceptable to bring religion into the workplace. Although this country has not always been successful in separating church and state, the workplace has been definitive about disallowing religion to enter their doors and interfere with day-to-day activities. It has been an unspoken rule, and in most companies a documented policy, to state there will be no discussion or outward expression of religion in the workplace. This was created to maintain a perceived environment of harmony. Since one's religion is legally not a factor for which an employee can be discriminated against, it became necessary to keep that part of one's life private and not overtly expressed at work.
As humanity evolves and more people seek their purpose in life, the workplace must also shift to remain successful. The workplace is known for many to be where they seek and receive personal support, values and education on life issues. With changing family dynamics, the need for women to honor their authentic selves, and the increasingly materialistic values of individuals, women have taken on a more prominent role in the workplace. Also as society becomes more global, the workplace has been challenged to meet more of the overall needs of individuals and families including educational, social, emotional, health and spiritual.
The general rule seems to be, “Don’t preach to me about your religion,” we’ll just do our jobs and ignore that our religious beliefs and practices make us very different from one another. We need our paychecks and that’s all that really matters. We’ve been well programmed as employees to set our religious practices aside in order to perform our workplace duties. As always, there are exceptions with some companies finding ways for employees to integrate their religious values, however, they are not the norm.
I have come to understand this as the “Check Your Values and Beliefs at the Door Each Day.” This allows for employees to take on the prominent and underlying values and beliefs of the organization as defined by management. Many times the values and beliefs of the company, what is known as the corporate culture, are not compatible with the employee’s personal values and beliefs (not just religious in nature). So the workforce adapted. They went to work, performed their duties, and adjusted their behavior to meet the requirements of the corporate culture. Then they went home and aligned their values and beliefs with their personal lives including familial, social, educational, health and religious.
What has been the result for businesses, families and society in general? A working populace expressing, both personally and professionally, schizophrenic-like behavior. We became fragmented in our daily lives. The impact has been far-reaching in our families, educational systems, houses of worship, and yes, in the workplace. This is a vicious circle that has created another platform for increased materiality, leaving not much fertile space for cultivating individual spirituality.
Thus far the reference to religion and religious practices has not been synonymous with spirituality and spiritual practices. Religion, by my definition, is the practice of dogma and doctrine as defined by an organized belief system. We shall believe these “truths” and practice these “rules.” This is not meant as a criticism or judgment on any religious practice. There are many paths to the Source, and all have a purpose in serving humanity. Spirituality, as I understand it, is a personal relationship one has with a Higher Source, with the understanding that this Higher Power is greater than one’s self.
The spiritual realm is truly where the workplace and the worker can meet, to open the floodgates of creativity and abundance. Call it interfaith, call it goodwill towards the whole, or call it mutual respect and accountability. It’s a space where all people have the opportunity to be themselves. It can be a place of harmony and increased productivity, a success story for both the corporation and the contributors (workers).
Allowing each worker their personal growth and development within their belief system, whether it’s a higher source or not, without judgment and forced influence, can open the door for peaceful existence in the workplace. The natural result of this brings success for the individuals and provides a fountain of productivity for the business. This concept supports the long known, (however, rarely spoken) truth in the mainstream workplace that the people, the personalities/souls, doing the work are the most valuable asset any corporation or organization holds.
So, what does Sophia in the Workplace have to do with any of this, you might ask. Sophia, Mother of Wisdom, offers many opportunities to enrich and transform the workplace so that humanity (employees, employers and consumers) can all benefit. Some of the attributes of Sophia are wisdom, intuition, play, creativity and joy.
As Reverend Carol E. Parrish states in Sophia Sutras, “Play can be the tones of gentle laughter or the sharing through twinkling eyes.” These might not be activities you would expect to cultivate in the workplace, yet they occur every day. Sophia in the workplace is not really an agenda that needs to be implemented; however, the benefits offered by Sophia activities can be recognized and encouraged because they already exist.
Love, play and mysticism are not benefits expected to be discussed, trained or even openly allowed in many work environments. However, when viewed as the traits of Sophia, Mother of Wisdom, they offer the development of knowledge into wisdom and intuition into creativity and joy. What business leader would not want these valuable resources occurring daily in their place of business? The key is to recognize and acknowledge that not all creative solutions come from lower mind ideas and science.
Creativity, motivation and accountability will evolve in the workplace when leadership acknowledges the greatest resource in any business is the people doing the work. Empowering them to be more than the tasks they perform, and actually allowing them to participate in the planning, design and decision making is a proven formula for success. This is not to suggest a “free for all,” all people into the Boardroom. There are many ways to create opportunities for participation in an organization, where groups of employees can be tasked to find creative solutions for existing challenges.
Once a team-oriented or group process has been introduced and accepted, it becomes even more effective when “Sophia Training” is implemented. Imagine a group process that includes Intuitive Development skill building— encouraging employees who are open to the concept to use their higher mind skills to solve everyday problems. Perhaps it would be more acceptable to have groups learn creative skill building by exploring with color, music, singing, movement and artistic endeavors to get the creative (intuitive) ideas flowing. In other words, let them play together in order to build a group mind for generating creative solutions. It might not even be apparent that there becomes a group mind, and that the Sophia play resulted in intuitive (higher mind) solutions and improvements. It’s the practice that matters, not what the practice is called!
The jewel in the heart here is that the group mind, creative process already exists in every workplace today. In some workplaces it’s already organized for the benefit and profitability of the business. These companies have had the benefit of progressive management with a holistic approach. They have garnered the power of Sophia, the Divine Feminine, along the way, have recognized the value of the employees, and are practicing some very innovative group focused business.
Unfortunately this is not the norm in every business. This model became more popular with the growth of the high-tech industry, the leaders in the Information Age. Very young and technically trained employees, in charge of themselves, needed some form of play in their long work days in order to sustain their fine-tuned creative skills. For other companies, Sophia play and creative skill building are happening amongst the employees, outside the realm of the formal business structure. Employees are hanging out together during breaks, at lunch, after work and on their own time. They are using their love, play, intuition, creativity and joy to enrich their personal and social lives and are creating productive and fulfilling relationships.
It’s a natural process for them whether they are playing basketball at lunch or planning picnics on the weekends. They’re using their group (team) building skills and having a great time. Then after lunch and on Mondays they return to work, performing their roles, responsibilities, following the rules and company politics and doing their jobs based on what they are told to do. Where did that love, joy and creativity go? Certainly it was not organized for the benefit of the company and its employees. There are always exceptions and some (a few) employees will show up with all their creativity and joy and offer whatever is allowed. However, most will do their jobs as assigned, earning their paychecks day in and day out.
Seems like such a waste of LOVE (Lots of Vital Energy)! Businesses can gather up this power of Sophia simply by first acknowledging that it exists—and then encouraging the development of the skills. The Information Age truly can evolve into the Wisdom Age. For decades now corporate America has been gathering, analyzing and reporting information with the use of people for the tasks, machines for the technical analysis, and management for reporting and decision making. Imagine if people could be trained and acknowledged for synthesizing the information into Wisdom, creating futuristic (long lasting impact) solutions to complex problems like the ones facing society today. Don’t throw the machines out; they have been loyal and dedicated servers to humanity. Find even more complex processes for them to perform in support of the evolving human abilities.
There really isn’t anything simple about it. It takes intent to make positive change and engage everyone at some level of participation. However, it must start somewhere. Just like when spiritual change happens, one person at a time, so too does workplace change occur, one company at a time.
So, be encouraged to take your Sophia skills to the workplace. If you own the company, implement play days that cultivate intuitive development and group mind building. If you by chance have one of the up and coming career opportunities as a Spiritual Director in corporate America (yes…it is a new job description), assist company leaders to understand how important it is to allow the wisdom and creativity of all the employees to shine, and garner the wealth of resources they offer. If you’re the minister counseling a business owner when times are tough, be sure to encourage them to look inside their business for the jewels of wisdom within their own loyal and vested employees. Set the intent to be a contributor to progressing industry from the Information Age to the Wisdom Age. Invite Sophia into the workplace and watch the twinkling of the success and joy that brings abundance in yet unimagined ways.
May Your Relationship With Sophia Always Guide Your Life to Light, Love and Abundance.
©2008 Cynthia L. McGinnis
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