Bottom Line Metaphysics

In preparation for my first set of interviews with a cross-section of people who live somewhere in the overlap between spirituality (defined in the broadest sense of the word) and business, I searched a little haphazardly for frameworks and models that could help set my line if questioning.

I see more clearly, with the benefit of hindsight and of having actually conducted some of the interviews, what I was actually searching for. I was already ‘groping’, in the semi-darkness, for codified connective tissue. I wanted to see the actual building blocks of logic between a defined set of spiritual business practices, and a metricable fiscal outcome. I was looking – as one interviewee put it - for the metaphysics the bottom line.

As well as being a Buddhist I am also a businessman. I was looking for the spiritually aligned principles that would lead to greater success (in the largest and also fiscal sense of the word) for my own enterprise.

What I found was firstly a preponderance of what I will call ‘systems of loose association’. The logic of such thinking systems goes something like this: “If you do such and such kind of good things, then somehow these kinds of good things will result”. Giving money to charities is good for the bottom line in some larger scheme of cosmic refraction.

In short, I can’t help feeling that there seems to be a lot explaining “the what” but not much about “the how”.

And secondly, there is a lot talked about the ‘spiritual qualities’ one might want to bring to the world of work, business and leadership. Qualities like mindfulness, compassion, open-heartedness and so on. This is without doubt an essential element of how a more enlightened paradigm will emerge in the world of business. However, if one applies the stress test of sitting across from a Chief Financial Officer and making a compelling argument, then I can’t help but feel that there need to be more ‘hard’ dimensions to the case for.

That said, I do want to share two of the more intriguing models that I came across. (Just let me say before I begin, any misrepresentation of these models is my fault alone, and results from my lack of a full understanding of their logic….they are pretty complex in their totality.)

These two models stood out to me primarily because of their ‘depth’. By ‘depth’ I mean that they seemed to tie the secular pragmatics of real business right down to the sacred machinery of the great mysteries!

The first model is Theory U (http://www.theoryu.com/) , developed by Otto Scharmer from MIT (http://www.ottoscharmer.com/). As I understand it Theory U is a defined methodology for leading groups systematically into a kind of quantum problem-solving ‘zone’. Think of this as the problem-solving version of what happens when a whole sports team is in perfect synch and appears to be channeling something almost superhuman or beyond themselves.

Scharmer and others are using this methodology and applying it to what might be called ‘wicked’ business problems. ‘Wicked’ problems are defined as highly complex, even chaotic, business probelmes....and are by their nature essentially unsolvable. Said differently they are problems that appear to be ‘tamable’ versus solvable. More and more, it would seem, ‘wickedness’ is the texture and nature of the business challenges faced by large corporations.

Theory U takes the collective mind of, say, a leadership group into a ‘space’ where they are tapping into some greater force field of intelligence that can help them give birth to new ways of tackling the seemingly intractable business challenge.

Here, then, we have a system that starts by defining an almighty business blockage - one that is presumable interfering with productivity and profitability. And that goes on to systematically lead a group into a ‘mysterious’ collective mind zone where new and effective solutions and strategies present themselves as if by magic.

I like this model because I can sit across the table from a business leader and first define his hard-to-crack business challenge, then show him the breakthrough solution generated by Theory U, and then show him the results of that solution in action.

The second model that impacted me viscerally as I did my research was one presented in a weekend seminar by a man who is both a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist lineage and a long-time Wall Streeter (http://www.shambhala.org/teachers/acharya/espiegel.php).

The teachings were a Tibetan Buddhist take on the subject of wealth and power within a contemporary Western capitalistic context. I found these teachings particularly penetrating because they were ‘shocking’ in their core premise…”here's how to leverage Buddhism to generate wealth…and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that!”

I drew a mental picture of the system presented as a kind of pyramid, with the foundational principles as the base and the more advanced or rareified principles as the pinnacle.

The base of the pyramid might be termed clarity. Without a balanced check book, without a crystal clear and solvent sense of what we make, what we spend, what we save, & what we need, we do not have a strong foundation from which to generate increased wealth. The next level of the pyramid might be termed generosity or service. A genuine sense of how your enterprise will serve others is the second foundational principle. What’s this business ‘for’, how will it serve others? This is not, at least to my understanding, a question about philanthropic strategies, but something more about the unique and authentic purpose of the enterprise.

The final two levels are founded on the so called wisdom energy ‘families’…five energetic styles of working with the happenings of everyday life. Of the five wisdom energies, the two leveraged most fully and deliberately for business are the energies of ‘enriching’ and ‘magnetizing’.

The seminar gave very practical, almost manual instructions on how to set-up ‘work with’ the energy of everyday business situations in a way that would attract success, abundance, wealth and power.

I like this model because it helps me design the enterprise, as a whole, along spiritual and ‘energetic’ lines:
- Clarity: what is the business plan & model? Does it actually work? Are we being honest with ourselves here?
- Generosity: what un-filled need are we serving here? What’s our unique and authentic reason right to exist as a business?
- Enriching: getting to know & love our consumers; how do we invite them in, sit with them, feed them, talk with them, become absolutely fascinated with them…
- Magnetizing: 'just right' marketing…how do we resonate at the ideal broadcast frequency to attract our audience to us?