Healing from Within

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Rehumanizing The Workplace

• January 23, 2023
• Rosie Ward
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Welcome to “Healing From Within” with your host Sheryl Glick, Reiki Master Teacher and author of the newest book in a trilogy A New Life Awaits: Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening, which shares stories and messages from Spirit that show us our challenges are not merely economic political or societal but a disconnect from our true being or soul wisdom. Sheryl is delighted to welcome Dr. Rosie Ward author of Rehumanizing the Workplace which will reinforce the need for leaders to remember that everyone thrives in environments where they feel cared for safe to create and innovate and part of an organization’s shared purpose.

As listeners of “Healing From Within” have come to expect over the years, Sheryl and her guests share intimate observations and realizations of the true nature of a physical and energetic life experience and ways to know ourselves merging the needs of the heart and mind, so we may become our best version of ourselves, helping us to find peace, love and happiness, in a world of many challenges.

In today’s episode of “Healing From Within,” we will through the information shared by Dr. Rosie Ward begin to realize how our rapidly changing world is becoming increasingly complex and disruptive. While it also is bringing many opportunities for innovation and the improvement of the human condition, it also triggers people to operate from a place of scarcity and self-protection. This can lead to disconnection and eroding well-being on both the organizational and individual level. We will discuss the Five Rehumanizing Principles we can put into practice to foster a more sustainable future.

Rosie responds to Sheryl when she asked her to think back to her childhood and remember a person, place, event that may have signaled to her or others the values, interests, work and lifestyle she might pursue as an adult and says, “I love that question.” She explains to Sheryl that since she was very young, friends always came to her for advice and support, as many used to lean on her mom, who was a psychologist, so it seems, she was following her mother’s path in wishing to help people by listening to their challenges, and by hoping to now as an adult, call attention to the changing needs of our workplaces and to support a more loving environment at those facilities so we may all grow and evolve into heathier human beings. Healing is needed at all levels and places we work as there is not a moment where we don’t need to be accountable and responsible for growing into the lo0ving souls we already are.

Rosie tells us about her becoming aware of the problems in organized businesses which have not supplied their employees with all the resources to be most productive and happy. Dr. Rosie Ward tells us of the 5 Rehumanizing Practices that can help foster a sustainable future. They are as follows:

Build a Lighthouse: Much like a lighthouse can help cut through the fog and provide clarity for where to go, having a clear purpose and having strong core values can help to do the same. Businesses that are emerging stronger in the face of Covid-19 now have a clear purpose most people feel connected to, which would be a stronger family unit, more cooperative work situations, more appreciation for health, use of free-time, enjoyment of nature, travel, and protecting our planet. Businesses and families have operationalized their core values into clear behavioral anchors that they live by, and leverage that clarity to be flexible about how they serve that purpose. We have to shift from surviving to how we effectively serve our company purpose in a different world.

Create Fearless Environments: The VUCA world inherently brings some discomfort as it demands we do things differently. However, we can only adapt and grow when people feel safe taking the risks required to do transformational work. Research from Harvard professor Amy Edmondson has found that organizations that are intentional about creating psychologically safe environments are more responsive and resilient. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that responsiveness and resilience are critical for organizations to thrive in the midst of disruption.

Wade In The Messy Middle: Change involving humans is complex and evokes discomfort. When we are facing incredible adaptive challenges ( those with no known solutions that demand a complete shift in our mindset) we have to be able to operate differently. This means we need to do the inner developmental work to move from self-protection to self-reflection and then shift our thinking and the stories we tell ourselves: we can’t hit fast forward. The leaders that are rising to the occasion during this pandemic lean into the discomfort and invest in their own development to show up as conscious leaders. We can’t make the adaptive leaps our VUCA world demands of us without intentionally developing ourselves.

Show Up As A Leader: Leadership is a “behavior,” not a title or role. In fact, work from Keyhubs on mapping human networks within organizations has shown that the greates talent and influencers within your organization are usually not sitting high up in the organizational chart. We need EVERYONE to show up as a leader and make a positive difference. Successful businesses create the conditions for everyone to feel connected to the company purpose, speak up and rally from their own resourcefulness , they call everyone to greatness to behave like a leader.

Find Your Tribe: As a species, we’re hardwired for connection. Social distancing shined a light on just how resourceful people can be to leverage Zoom and other platforms to stay connected. Conscious businesses include the people in decisions that impact them and don’t operate in silos: after all people only tend to support what they’ve helped to create. These businesses are also intentional about creating a structure for people to check in with each other and be in community: they build and nurture relationships.

Rosie and Sheryl might consider how the world is different in light of Covid-19 and possible benefits as a result of a tragic plague to the world.

Sheryl says that she is aware this time and the challenges the world is going through at all levels of life experience, the home, the workplaces, the schools, and businesses, are part of a spiritual revolution that effect businesses and employees, as lockdowns and working from home while having the children at home all the time has provided a way to renew universal values and spiritual awareness of how precious are the people we love and the time we have together. Our technological advancements, social media and the internet have put our humanity and peace of mind, health and quality of life, in jeopardy and many are aware that while there are possible aspects to these technological advancements, there are also dangers. Maintaining open channels of communication personally will always be more valuable than emails and texts, and in these hard times we may come to appreciate FaceTime which allows us to use technology in the best way by seeing our loved ones in a lockdown. Now in these changing times due to economic and health concerns, we must find the balance and return to the core values of what really empowers a person or a business to be effective beyond fear and dysfunction.

So what are those core values?? Rosie tells us that knowing that work plays a vital role in our health and well being, makes us evaluate how to use that knowledge at this time in history. It becomes vital to rethink the workplace and what people need to live happy and healthy lives, in relation to the many tragedies of recent days. We know that the vast majority of people are unfulfilled and removed from achieving their full potential at work due to many flaws in antiquated systems. We are in need of new disruptive models that challenge our conventional thinking and instill a sense of humanity at work. Rehumanizing the Workplace is just that—a powerful blend of research, inspiration, and actionable steps for the changes our workforce needs.

“The bad news for employee health is that the workplace was recently declared the fifth leading cause of death in America.” There is no question that the health of most working people across the globe has been declining at a steady pace for years, and there is no end in sight to this unfortunate trend. Traditional worksite wellness programs have not proven to be the solution. So what’s next? Rosie lays a foundation for creating workplaces that help people thrive, not just survive. Rehumanizing the Workplace takes the reader on a guided journey that, if followed correctly, will create an employee experience that can improve the well-being of people and organizations.

Humanizing the workplace is the greatest imperative of our times. The fact is that our work is literally killing us, when work should be one of the greatest joys and pleasures of a life experience. We must realize that work is the foundation for self-esteem, confidence, and personal growth. When seen correctly and positively, it may be as helpful as our family life, our leisure time, our charitable pursuits, and our spiritual evolution demands we recognize this fact. Recently, our government has paid our people to stay home, incentivizing a lack of love and respect for work. This needs to change, all work needs to be valued. If you have to sweep the floor, sweep the floor to the best of your ability and enjoy it. Do it well, it might be a stepping stone to building your character, your soul development, and to loving life.

Heart attacks are significantly higher on Mondays as people may have anxiety about leaving the sanctuary their homes provide on the weekends. In his book Dying for a Paycheck, Jeffrey Pfeffer estimates that one hundred and twenty thousand Americans die every year due to stress connected to work. It is not the work itself but the ways in which we lead, manage, and organize companies that results in all the suffering. An estimated seventeen thousand Chinese die every day from overwork. It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to hurt people or kill them in order to make money. As we show in our book The Healing Organization, quite the contrary: workplaces where people physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and socially thrive are far more successful workplaces by every measure.

How did the workplace become so dehumanized in the first place? It has to do with how we think about business. Many people think of business as a jungle in which “survival of the fittest” is the cardinal rule. “Kill or be killed.” Some treat business as a dehumanized machine with inputs like physical capital, human capital, and financial capital and outputs like profits and products. Some have reduced business to a math problem, seeking to maximize one thing—shareholder value—while treating everything else as a means to that end. Still others treat business as a game in which you make multiple bets, hoping that some would pay off.

Sheryl says that having had eight careers, she feels herself to be most fortunate to have enjoyed all the experiences, people she met, and people she helped, to realize that work often helps build self-esteem, self-confidence, and a greater appreciation and gratitude for every minute of life. Bringing smiles and joy along with treating everyone at work as a family member, helps to make us one people, and one humanity, supporting our spiritual as well as providing the sustenance to fulfill the physical needs of life.

The fact is that business is one of the most human things that we do, and it impacts our lives as human beings in so many different ways. Rosie attributes these harmful ways of thinking to an excess of masculine energy in the world of business. Adam Smith wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which laid out the foundational principles for how free markets operate and how individuals pursuing their self-interest will result in many, if not most, of our needs being met through businesses. But Smith also wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments seventeen years prior to The Wealth of Nations. In that book, he elaborated our need to care for each other, without regard to self-interest. In a sense, capitalism had a mother and a father, and both were Adam Smith. Unfortunately, we ignored the mother energy—his message about caring—and focused only on the father energy—his message about pursuing self-interest. Today, they are two things hidden away in the corporate closet. The first is unexpressed love. Human beings have a deep need to express their caring for each other, and most workplaces do not allow for that. People are expected to put on their mask and armor and go to battle in the marketplace. The second thing that is hidden in the corporate closet is silent suffering. Life is difficult; people are carrying around enormous burdens as they go through their workday. We need to allow both of these things to come out of the corporate closet. Our innate need to care can help alleviate much of the suffering that people are experiencing in life and in the workplace. By allowing this to happen, we can greatly enhance the amount of joy that people experience at work, which to me is the ultimate expression of what it means to have a fully humanized workplace.

Sheryl says the above ideas offer solutions to the untenable problems that have been exasperated by personal and corporate greed, and the mantra “I’m fighting for my life,” attitude that has supplanted the attitude that “I am a healthy, loving individual that goes out into the world each day to share the blessings of living cooperatively, with my fellow citizens, making them like friends and family, a divine part of my life experience.” Beginning to understand that competition is mostly a personal need to improve yourself rather than to use your ideal of who and you’re becoming in referencing to other people. Other people have their needs and life path, but if businesses allow each person to be the best and improve themselves and finding joy in all they do, understanding that there is no perfection and that failure is always part of the journey to success, we will all come to realize that cooperation at all levels of business and life are the keys of success and not raw competition creating dissatisfaction, unhappiness, envy, and greed.

It is important that we come to know who we are and how to use that wisdom to improve our health and levels of happiness.

Rosie writes, “What does it mean to be human? We are divine beings, worthy of being treated as such by each other. We are the only creatures with imagination, a moral compass, and free will. Each one of us has such extraordinary potential that it is hard to conceive of any limits on what we can achieve. Businesses refer to human beings as a resource, but we are not a resource. Human beings are the source, capable of unlimited amounts of caring, creativity, and innovation. But if people are treated as resources, they become that. They get depleted and they burn out, just like lumps of coal. The human seed has never been more potent; people today are more intelligent, more educated, better informed, better connected, and more caring than ever before. But the soil around the human seed remains toxic. Most workplaces do not enable human beings to operate at their peak potential and deliver the gifts they were born to bring to the rest of us. To take the analogy further, we can use seeds in different ways. A seed can simply be used as birdfeed, or it can be used to start a whole new forest. Too many of us are being used as birdfeed.”

Rosie uses the abbreviation VUCA to explain how businesses have functioned in the past and compare it to how ships function at sea. Businesses have long operated like ships at sea. A single captain is responsible (in name) for everything that happens on the ship; and a small handful of officers oversees key functional areas like navigation, cargo, or propulsion. Meanwhile, a large number of sailors labor away at the day-to-day tasks required to make the ship actually work. However, the seas are “Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (also known as VUCA).” Some days, sailing is smooth; but many days, crew and cargo are tossed about the ship as humans work against the awesome power of nature. Sometimes, the VUCA sea even triumphs over the ship, and the sailors are thrown to the mercy of the elements—their only hope is to find a path toward calmer waters or an island that might offer shelter and sustenance.

If there were to be a shipwreck, all the sailors would have to adapt to new experiences and surviving in a new way, and working together. But one member of the new-paradigm group stepped forward and called out to the other sailors, suggesting they all work together. After all, everyone shared the same vision of surviving and thriving. This would allow the sailors to create a new fearless environment where they could take a risk and where candor was embraced—and expected, and they would survive and thrive. This is what we must do in the business world: allow our workers to see new possibilities and discard past restrictions that limit individual, personal growth.

This wasn’t about being right; it was about working toward a collective vision to ensure that everyone could thrive in their new surroundings.

Many are observing what seems to be a society in decline. According to Margaret Wheatley, we shouldn’t be surprised. In her book Who Do We Choose to Be?, she describes the pattern of collapse of complex civilizations and suggests that our current dehumanized state is completely predictable. She cites the work of Sir John Glubb who studied thirteen empires all experiencing their decline and fall in the same stages over a two[1]hundred-and-fifty-year period (ten generations). With each stage, there is an increase of materialism; as this happens, morality erodes and the civilization declines into decadence, exhibiting the following characteristics:

• Money replaces service as the core motivator.
• Hierarchical leaders focus on maintaining power at all costs.
• The future disappears from decision-making.
• The status quo is preserved by the few elites who prosper
• Relationships disintegrate into distrust, self-protection, and opposition.

Wheatley suggests that our current civilization is in a state of decline. Just look at what is happening in our society with our politics and me-focused celebrity climate. Consequently, we see these characteristics reflected in our workplaces as well; it’s no wonder that we are seeing the ill effects of these dehumanized workplaces.

Sheryl says to Rosie “we are witnessing exactly the above progression of decline in America and perhaps throughout the world.”

We will be seeing the nature of jobs change greatly as technology replaces many people in the workforce so what must we do to combat this trend?

In his 2017 TED Talk, David Lee, VP of Innovation and UPS Ventures at UPS, discusses the role of technology and how it is replacing jobs at a rapid pace. He makes a bold assertion for how we can avoid a jobless future. He suggests we need to take steps now to change the nature of work—to create environments where people love coming to work, and to foster the innovation needed to replace the millions of jobs that will inherently be lost to technology. David believes that the key to doing that is to “rediscover what makes us human and to create a new generation of human-centered jobs that allow us to unlock our hidden talents and passions that we carry with us every day.” He argues that we need to move away from machine-like, task-focused jobs to focus on the skills that people bring to work. However, this new reality can also bring great opportunities. For example, by leveraging technological advances for more machine-like tasks, we can free people to grow, create, and innovate. We need to create the conditions to leverage the creativity and capability that only humans can provide to solve challenges that a VUCA world brings. Besides, “the tolerance” for dehumanized workplaces is shrinking. People are craving better work–life harmony, meaningful and purposeful work, and the ability to show up authentically human. As Erica Keswin writes in her book Bring Your Human to Work, “People are no longer willing to accept work as a soul-crushing, Dilbertesque, cubicled nightmare.” We don’t want to be treated like machines; we want to feel valued as human beings.

Rosie wants readers to take away with them after reading Rehumanizing the Workplace that the good news is that there is a revolution already underway where organizations are operating more like the new-paradigm sailors and breaking the mold of “business as usual.” They are creating psychologically safe work environments and finding success by honoring what it means to be human and putting people first. We are at a tipping point where the old, dehumanized model is rapidly collapsing. A large contributor to this revolution is Conscious Capitalism.

Conscious Capitalism is “part of a growing movement that recognizes the tremendous value and potential of capitalism” and seeks to “elevate this powerful force for potential good to a new level.”9 Conscious Capitalism’s purpose is to elevate humanity through business, recognizing that businesses and their leaders have the potential to do more than just simply make money. In fact, when conducted with a higher level of consciousness, business has an extraordinary potential to create value that does not come at the expense of our own health or the health of our planet. Conscious Capitalism is a rethinking of what business can and should be.

It is changing the narrative of business by anchoring on four key tenets that all work together and reinforce each other:

• Higher Purpose: Every business should have a higher purpose that transcends making money. In his book Start with WHY, Simon Sinek asserts the importance of clarifying and anchoring our work on a higher purpose. It not only creates clarity, but it fuels energy and passion.10 Yes, businesses need to be profitable in order to exist, but profit is not the purpose.
• Stakeholder Orientation: Shareholders are only one stakeholder for an organization. Businesses need to consciously create value with and for all its stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders/investors, communities, the environment, etc.). Instead of a binary approach where one stakeholder wins at the expense of another (e.g., conducting mass layoffs to balance the books so the quarterly returns are favorable for shareholders), organizations look for synergies to create win-win relationships among stakeholders.
• Conscious Leadership: Conscious leaders operate from a place of purpose and service to others rather than power and self-interest. They are self-aware and intentional so they can effectively mentor, develop, and inspire people; consequently, they are able to call others to greatness and foster high levels of engagement, creativity, alignment with the higher purpose, and performance.
• Conscious Culture: Rather than operating on fear and unhealthy levels of stress, conscious organizations intentionally foster cultures with high levels of trust, authenticity, transparency, and genuine caring. They create environments where people feel valued as human beings and are nurtured to continue to grow. And it doesn’t just start with the C-suite. We need more courageous leaders—at all levels within organizations—to join this revolution! Businesses large and small are leveraging these tenets to become more conscious about the impact they have on people’s lives and the planet.

Sheryl would like to thank Dr. Rosie Ward and co-author Jon Robison of Rehumanizing the Workplace for sharing a clear view of how important the places we spend time in affects our physical spiritual and emotional development and health. Earning a living simply for money leaves the creative and need to be caring and attentive to all people we interact with out of the equation of the core values or real needs of all human beings. To learn more about creating a working living loving environment wherever we spend time is the key to living a life of purpose prosperity and happiness.

In summarizing today’s episode of Healing From Within we have concentrated our attention on learning more about the human dynamics of interaction with others and creating safe healthy work environments not merely for profits but to advance humanity and the evolution of kinder more creatives beings.

We realized that what we’re ultimately called to do is to not just build thriving workplace cultures; that’s an important start. We are called to advocate for humanity. Our purpose is to rehumanize the workplace so that people can bring their best selves to work—and home—each day. Our 7 Points of Transformation blueprint is still an important ingredient for rehumanizing workplaces; and there are so many other facets necessary to have, and advocate for, workplaces that nurture humanity.

Being able to activate and live our purpose also required us to get clear about our core values—how our behavior helps our purpose be realized. Here is what we created:

• Embrace your humanity. Honor the complexity and messiness of being human. Strive for excellence, not perfection; give yourself and others grace.
• We are stronger together. This is not a solo journey. There is power and energy in building community. Operate with an abundance mind[1]set to build and grow relationships and support others’ success.
• Choose courage over comfort. Be deliberate and intentional in your actions. Embrace the discomfort of challenging the status quo; growth never happens in our comfort zone.
• Sound science is your friend. Every solution and recommendation must be rooted in sound science appropriate for human beings.
• Pave a path for others to thrive. Help others see what’s possible. If you’re going to suggest stopping something or moving away from an approach, always provide a more effective, more human alternative.

Dr. Rosie Ward and Sheryl would have you begin to remember that the changes we are living through at the resent moment are an opportunity to return to the wiser more loving simpler values of appreciating life people and the natural resources of our beautiful planet Embracing work home and nature are the way to create a world free of just materialism or greed and begin again to appreciate our human quality of Being safe and happy in all our pursuits of learning and sharing.

Sheryl Glick, host of “Healing From Within,” author of a trilogy and the newest book is A New Life Awaits Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening and invite you to visit my website to read about and listen to leaders visionaries in the fields of metaphysics science spirituality business psychology medicine and the arts and music to share ways to improve life on all levels individually and collectively. Shows may also be heard on www.webtalkradio.net and www.dreamvisions7radio.com