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The
Corporate Shaman By Misha Goussev, November 2004 Previously published in The Wharton Journal (www.whartonjournal.com) with a title “A Bridge Between the Business and Spiritual Worlds” |
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The
reputation and the clout of the Wharton School of Business spread far beyond
its home-city Before embarking on the topic of shamanism, which might be a new word for many readers, let’s first take a deeper look at Jason’s life. In many ways Jason is a success story. A talented businessman, Jason has fulfilled the dream of many but the reality of a few – co-founded a company on a shoestring, out of a garage, and grew it into a multi-million dollar international corporation. The dramatic success does not come free, however. A heart attack in mid-forties and divorce make him face a rather common mid-life crisis question “What’s next?” In addition, Jason feels a deep disappointment with the way the business culture has gradually evolved from the family-like bonding and support to a “dog eat dog” environment, where behind the formal smiles one can often find chilling indifference and concern for only personal well-being. Human passion for the future of the company and personal pride in the success of the business are being effectively replaced by computer-like logic of the corporate machine, which seems to have a mind of its own. Jason begins to feel that something is fundamentally lacking in his world or perhaps it has been simply lost. The search for answers on this dilemma turns into a life journey on the path of personal development and self-realization with Shamanism being at its core. “Shaman – a Siberian word for “one who sees in the dark” – refers to healers who, for over 40,000 years, have entered altered states of mind at will and journeyed to other worlds, using the power, wisdom, and energies of those worlds to create positive change in people and the environments in which they live.”[1] Traditionally, one of the main goals of a shaman has always been to provide healing to either an individual or the entire community or tribe in two possible ways: by either retrieving an essential part of the client that had been figuratively lost (soul retrieval) or by extracting a foreign entity or energy, which caused disease and lack of balance. The role and responsibilities of a shaman, however, has always been very complex and multifaceted and often gone far beyond traditional healing. So, how can this pre-historic and, in a way, fantastic form of “problem-solving” help modern corporations equipped with the most innovative technologies and groundbreaking business techniques? What kind of value can shamanism bring to modern communities for that matter? Before delving into this topic, let’s pose for a moment an esoteric question, which might give us a hint and some direction: does a company have a soul? We frequently use the intangible concepts of a soul and spirit metaphorically almost on a daily basis when we say that something touched our souls or refer to the team spirit or even spirit of a nation and its people. We also often talk about corporate culture and acknowledge that each organization can be unique in that regard. It can be argued, therefore, that both the organizational culture and its spirit play a critical role in shaping the organization’s identity and possibly its financial future and prosperity. Perhaps lack of employees’ loyalty, inner harmony and balance are the first signs of decay of an organization, which has lost its spirit or, maybe, the soul? In this context, the ancient shamanic practices might provide valuable insights and even tools to help dealing with this problem. Jason’s client, an established mid-size corporation, is caught in a crisis, which perhaps can be recognized by management of many other companies. Originally functioning as a well-balanced organization with healthy profits and growing sales, the company gradually begins to loose its edge, as well as the competitive position despite the strong economy and booming industry. The CEO of the firm, without realizing that he himself could potentially be the cause of the downturn, begins pointing fingers at his executives, which only further exacerbated the situation. Some of the best talents begin to leave the firm and the company’s future, recently promising and bright, starts to look grim. Given the healthy external conditions, it is reasonable to assume that perhaps the problems the company faces are internal in nature – speaking in the language of shamanism - the company has lost its spirit. To make a long story short, Jason, a Wharton educated business consultant and shaman in disguise, has been very skillful in helping the company retrieve its original spirit via the use of shamanic healing ceremonies. Sounds a bit unbelievable and spooky, does not it? Is there even a fraction of reality behind this seemingly fantastic fable? Perhaps we can learn a little about the author of this work and take a look behind the scenes of his creation. Mr. Whiteley’s professional career was stellar – he co-founded one of the largest consulting firms in the field of leadership development and organizational behavior – The Forum Corporation[2] – on an initial investment of a few thousand dollars to only sell it thirty years later for ninety million. I found that the monetary value of the financial success was important to mention here not from the perspective of the material gain, but rather to acknowledge Mr. Whiteley’s credentials and true mastery in the business world. After all, the bottom line has always been one of the most important criteria for success in this field. Richard Whiteley’s life, as successful as it was, presented its own challenges and questions. Having acquired wealth and social status, he realized that his ultimate mission in life was to do much more. He felt that his calling was to leverage his skills and talents to help bring spirit back to business and corporate community. This realization and its practical applications did not come overnight, but rather resulted from many years of personal development practice and inner growth. So, what is it about shamanism that makes it a tool of choice to tackle contemporary business problems from a point of view of an accomplished Western businessman? Here are some of the thoughts and insights Richard Whiteley has shared with me during our conversation. First of all, just as in business, shamanism is very customer and results oriented. The main function of a shaman has always been to undertake spirit journeys on behalf of other individuals and communities. The clients are generally the ones who decide whether the shaman will stay “in business” and is worthy of his title. Only if he is able to produce tangible results and help solve real problems will the shaman be nominated for this privileged role. Second of all, shamanism is not a religion. In fact even the term spiritual tradition should be used with care in relations to shamanism. Shamanism is pre-historic and, unlike most religions, is based on direct personal experience of communication with alternative realms of consciousness and existence. While many shamanic methodologies and rituals can be taught and transmitted from generation to generation, the interpretation of each event, experience and result is the matter of personal belief and understanding. How does
it work and does one have to believe in spirits in order to benefit from
shamanic methods? The answer is “it depends”. As Richard Whitely points out,
in his experience the 100% of success is comprised of 70% of the work and
effort done by the client himself, 10% from the shaman’s effort and 20% from
the help of the spirit. So, the client does have to believe in something or
at least to be open to the possibility of supernatural and miraculous
entering his life. It can be argued, however, that our interest in the
supernatural and the mysterious is not a rare quality but rather is a
universal need, just as the need for water or shelter. The interest in ancient wisdom traditions such as shamanism and other and their potential applications in a workplace and corporate world appear to be a part of a more widespread phenomenon than one might think initially. As Professor Ian Mitroff of USC Marshall School of Business says, “Spirituality could be the ultimate competitive advantage (As long as there is no bully-pulpit promotion of traditional religion)”.[3] A study conducted by McKinsey of Australia reported that when companies use programs that utilize spiritual techniques for their employees, productivity improves and turnover is greatly reduced. Essentially, spiritually-centered practices are manifestations of a wider trend many organizations attempt to follow in their own ways – go beyond the bottom line and create a culture, which promotes company loyalty, employee bonding, team spirit and the ultimate workspace satisfaction. The following research shows that companies, which use high involvement techniques, outperform traditional hierarchical command and control organizations on key business indicators: a) 160% more growth in sales, b) 400% more growth in profits, c) $15,000 to $60,000 greater market value per employee, d) 200% more patents, e) 500% revenue, 800% earnings, 1200% stock growth, f) 700% more income growth.[4] It is not surprising and interesting then that “the oldest and most consistent use of this powerful tool [shamanism] in modern time has been in the higher levels of the business world. This is probably because the upper level business person, like the shaman, is vitally concerned with what works.”[5] Perhaps I will not be too far off if I compared Richard
Whiteley’s main character Jason in his book The Corporate Shaman with his own life story. An MBA graduate of
the
References
1. “The Corporate Shaman”, Richard Whiteley (http://www.corpshaman.com/) 2. “Shamanism”, compiled by Shirley Nicholson 3. “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy”, Mircea Eliade 4. “The Natural Mind: A New Way of Looking at Drugs and the Higher Consciousness”, Andrew T. Weil 5.
“A Spiritual Audit of Corporate 6. Books by Carlos Castaneda 7. Various researchers including: Kravetz, Heskett, Kotter |
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Copyright SpiritEye 2003 |
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