The New World of Work According to the Integral Approach
Where do adults get educated? At work, where we spend many of our waking hours. So the workplace plays a very important role in shaping the individual, in building how that person thinks and behaves. Whether virtual or physical, it is still our most significant environment because we invest so much of our time, thoughts and energy there.
The focus is on nurturing the collective, enabling far-reaching ideas/visions/plans for the future to emerge, which would not have otherwise been revealed. This happens because people are receiving additional warmth and affection, additional motivation, and the additional fuel that comes from this new connection between the people in the organization. Everyone now has an integral perspective. They begin to really feel their environment, and the people they interact with on a daily basis.
How the workplace shapes us begins with external things such as what we wear, through to more internal things such as developing different ways of thinking, a different kind of awareness, different behavior; and it also impacts our mood and emotions.
Up until now our development has been as individuals — both in the workplace and our general environment. Organizational experts are becoming more aware of how altering the environment impacts all the parts inside it. So what we are talking about here is a highly sophisticated and systematic process that will give us the ability to have a much wider impact at many different levels.
This new approach offers a great opportunity. And of course along with any opportunity comes the difficulty and challenge. What is the challenge? The initial challenge is to understand the reality we are dealing with as an organization — both internally and outside the organization.
A clear result of this process will be the harmonious advancement together as a group, which translates into greater success in business, and in each individual’s personal life.
Today we have two completely new elements to add to the puzzle, since they have great impact and therefore must be taken into account. The first is the social aspect, meaning the interaction between people, and between organizations. The second element is the environment.
What is the Integral Approach?
It’s actually a very old approach, a natural approach we learn from the various levels of nature that have mutually interdependent relations between them — the earth, animal kingdom, and plant world. All except for man’s ego, whose narrow perspective conceals our view and sensation of the integral system. That is why we must acquire new habits of how to get along in an integral environment. This is the key to the development of the individual, development of the society, its success in all directions; even regarding things that we didn’t identify or think about in advance.
Our current organizations were created artificially through our ego, not naturally. This is why they bring about a distortion of power, control, and understanding; and the result is anti-systemic participation.
Innovative Elements of the Integral Approach
The integral approach creates a very unique environment. On the one hand the organization must be round, and on the other it must be a pyramid, with its internal hierarchy. There are no clashes/resistance or competition, but rather the competition is in friendship, in increasing profits and furthering the progress of the organization.
The focus is on nurturing the collective, enabling far-reaching ideas/visions/plans for the future to emerge, which would not have otherwise been revealed. This happens because people are receiving additional warmth and affection, additional motivation, and the additional fuel that comes from this new connection between the people in the organization. Everyone now has an integral perspective. They begin to really feel their environment, and the people they interact with on a daily basis.
Then we begin to see how each and every individual has new ideas, which takes the whole company to a higher level where they are better prepared for future development. All the people in the organization begin to actively participate in its development, and its reorganization. The environment provides an addition of fuel and creativity. Due to the development, every individual begins to see a few steps forward and knows how to implement each correctly.
The inner structure of the company also begins to change accordingly, and we must be very sensitive to this process. We must see how the new relationships are clashing with the old structure, and we must be open to changing the structure. The procedures and interactions between managers and employees all become friendlier. The connection, attitude, and norms between the managers and employees become more agile, rounder, more integral, rather than activating people through commands and actions.
The hierarchy will be that on the one hand there is up and down, and on the other hand there is a circle that brings everyone to feeling like a family. This is the only way to genuinely benefit from our work.
In recent years employees may have felt that companies were using the term ‘family’ to take advantage of them in some way, so they would invest more time and energy in the company. But now we are coming to a time where everyone will discover the true meaning of that term and the fulfilling sensations that come with it.
How To Measure Success?
A clear result of this process will be the harmonious advancement together as a group, which translates into greater success in business, and in each individual’s personal life.
The real emotional intelligence ‘certification’ will come from connecting with a diverse group of people, and undergoing a deep integration experience together over the long term, where everything is determined in the middle of the circle.
