Nothing truly great or noble happens in the world without love motivating it and beauty inspiring it

 

In my inaugural post, I want to offer some preliminary definitions of the words and phrases that, I believe, are key to the business of business, to life in our communities, and to a flourishing life in general:

Care – to cultivate, nurture, and develop the full measure of talent, ability, and strength that lies potentially in ourselves, in our relationships to others, in our communities and business organizations, and in our world.

Love – the strongest power in the universe to motivate faith and action even in the face of doubt, fear, and insurmountable odds. Love is what keeps us moving forward even when we feel like stopping.

Beauty–what awakens us from sleepwalking through life; beauty arouses us from the idleness of apathy, cynicism, and passive acquiescence to the status quo. 

The Practice of Management–the artful midwifery of authentic human relationships that brings into existence a shared world of beautiful and meaningful work.  

The Art of Working Together–skillfully performing our work tasks and assignments in such a way that we cultivate confidence in ourselves, kindness in our relationships to one another, joy in our organizations, and sustainability in our world.  

These terms and phrases still need much unpacking, and their key to success in our communities and business organizations needs to be made clearer. That is my goal in this blog, to share insights and conversations with others who, along with myself, believe that care, love, and beauty are of the essence in the life of our communities and central to how we conduct business in a way that enhances life. And, dear reader, please share with me your thoughts on care, love, and beauty as well!

Nothing truly great or noble happens in the world without love motivating it and beauty inspiring it. It is no different in work and our work organizations. We each need the experience of love and beauty in our lives, and since we spend so much time at work, it is very important to discover love and beauty there. Without love our work will be unsatisfying and deadening to our character. Without beauty our work will lead us to apathy and cynicism. I know this from my own experience in jobs where I was neither motivated by love nor inspired by beauty, and in observing people in companies I have known, where love and beauty were not valued.

I don’t mean to say a job must be glamorous or high profile for something great and noble to be accomplished. No, I believe that any job can be a great and noble work when done with love and where the person creates beauty, either by what they produce, or in the manner they produce it. I recall an older man who for many years was the custodian at my children’s elementary school. Whenever I visited the school, I would always see him, broom at his side and wearing his trademark denim overalls, supervising the kids in the halls or in the lunchroom with a friendly smile on his face. It was obvious he found joy and meaning in his work, as well he should. After all the importance of having a clean and sanitary environment for our children is incredibly important for their overall wellbeing, not to mention their learning while at school.

I could tell, watching the way the children interacted with him, that the affection and love he had for the children were returned manifold by the children themselves. And there was beauty in the skill and ease with which he performed his labor. It may seem odd to say, but there is something beautiful in the movements of a person performing any task with great care and love. Perhaps there are no menial tasks, only menial ways of doing them, perhaps. But, I often noticed this beauty, and it reminded me of the great, realist paintings by the nineteenth century French painter Gustave Courbet, whose artistic depictions of the work of farmers in the fields or day-labors and the non-elites revealed the beauty of ordinary labor, when performed with love. Certainly the work of my children’s school janitor was great and noble and, in its way, as significant as the work done by the school principal. Observing this man at work, one might say, not that he was the school custodian, but rather, he was the steward of care, love, and beauty at my children’s school.    

So, like Ariadne’s thread led Theseus safely through the minotaur’s labyrinth; care, love, and beauty will lead us securely through the complexities of management and the difficulties of working together. Yet in the practice of management, we cannot give people a love for their work or make them find beauty in doing their work well, but we can act as a midwife. Just as a midwife doesn’t have the baby, but only assists the mother in the delivery, so in authentic management we cannot force care, love, and beauty upon our people, but we can set the conditions for them to develop confidence in themselves, kindness in the their relationships, and joy in the workplace by how we create and manage the space where we work together. That is to say, the authentic practice of management makes possible the experience of love and beauty in our communities and in work places.

That idea – how to create and manage the space where we work and live, so care, love, and beauty can emerge – we will begin to explore in my next post.