This is Dane:
I wanted to quickly introduce myself and then respond to issue of
"spiritual safety within organizations" LO12465.
By way of a brief background: in process of a career change; spent six
years as a corporate banker; was very unfulfilled; changed jobs and
returned to graduate school; will begin doctorate work at The Fielding
Institute next month - really excited!; hope to play a positive role in
helping individuals "be and grow" together, have much to learn and
experience.
Sherri, your comments on "safe learning environments" really rang true for
me. Specifically, your comments about teaching being more about the way
you live than what you say and also you comment on attempting to structure
a safe spiritual environment.
This whole issue of "safe spiritual environments" got me thinking about
what spirituality means to me. Spirituality, in my own experience, has
meant a great deal about being connected . . . being connected to others
at a deeper level and through this being connected to something bigger
than myself. Therefore, the process of creating a safe spiritual
environment means in part creating a corporate environment where employees
feel connected in a meaningful way. . . a tough assignment!
As Sherri mentioned, it is very difficult to structure this or make it
happen. I have yet to find a set of guidelines that makes this process
simple. Perhaps its not meant to be simple. It seems to me that this
culture of spiritual safety is more of a "field" as explained by noted
scholars Margaret Wheatleyy and Rupert Sheldrake. A field in terms of a
set of underlying habits that promote conversations at the workplace that
are meaningful and authentic. I sense that in creating this field, ego's,
titles, power and authority need to fall away. I know this all sounds
very abstract. I wonder how I could make my ideas more concrete?
By the way Sherri, we must have the same father-in-law.
Enough for know.
Dane
dch8@edu.psu.
>I have been thinking over the weekend about how different we all are. How
>we all need different things to feel safe. My father-in-law is visiting
>for a week and we are very different. In my mind he thinks very narrowly
>and makes generalizations about other cultures and people which I know are
>untrue. But then this issue of safety pops into my mind and I think it is
>how he makes the world safe for himself.
[Quote of prev msg trimmed by your host...]
--dch8@psu.edu (Dane Hewlett)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>