The Spirit of Work: The Power of Beliefs and Relationships

The Power of Beliefs and Relationships

Potential expands by seeing others as competent and good.

Quotes:
"If we change the beliefs of limited potential into unlimited potentiality for good, it has a completely different effect on how we show up at work."

"People often think, only poisonous things grow in the workplace, but kind things grow as well."

Episode Highlights:
Last year, I published a book called The Spirit of Work: Timeless Wisdom, Current Realities. Here is a quote from the opening page by the late Indigenous author Richard Wagamese. He wrote, "All my relations mean all." With that quote, Richard focused on principles of harmony, unity, and equality for all of creation.

In this episode, we'll look at what we have been missing in our workplaces, how to and the power of having positive relations.

What Has Been Missing in Our Workplaces?
Relationality, harmony, unity, and equality have been missing from the workplace since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Richard's text describes a mindset, an attitude about who we are and how we should be in the world. We all carry these attitudes, mostly unconscious expressions of what we see social reality as. One of our powers as humans is to reflect on who we are and our actions.

The problem is a misdiagnosis of a malady that cannot be solved with logical proof alone. Research, statistics, and logical arguments do not have the power to affect hearts, minds, or behaviors. Reasoning does not affect people's deep-seated beliefs and allegiances to the communities they identify with. Attitudes and beliefs that see human nature as predominantly aggressive, self-serving, and incorrigibly motivated by self-interest dominate our workplace systems.

They are supported by books, movies, and games that project a bleak dystopian view of a human race with no future other than destruction. These attitudes have in common a limited view of what it means to be a human being and what it means to be a human being at work.

How Our Beliefs About Others Discourage or Encourage Growth:
What if we saw that people are motivated by being inspired and seen as competent and good? Changing these limiting beliefs about others into seeing their unlimited potentiality for good has a completely different effect on how we show up at work.

I used to believe I was surrounded by incompetence. When I examined it, I had a sense of superiority and rightness over everybody else that did not allow me to be open to learning or see things as they actually were.

Now if I feel frustrated with someone at work, I ask how I could have contributed to the issue and how we could turn this around together. This allows me to suspend judgement, investigate reality and make better decisions.

The Power of Positive Relationships:
As human beings, we need to appreciate the importance of positive relationships to growth. An 83-year-old Harvard study started in 1938 about the determinants of health, concluded that positive relationships keep us happier, healthier, and living longer. Although other actions matter, positive relationships have the most influence on well-being.

Reflective Questions:

1. How does your belief about who you are and how you should be in the world affect your relationship to work?
2. How do your beliefs about how the world works, why people act the way they do, and what constitutes reality affect your approach to the workplace? 
3. How do you show up at work because of these belief

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