Comments on: All You Need Is Love In The Workplace

By: The Golden TRAVEL JOURNAL » The Alchemy Of Soulful Work

The Golden TRAVEL JOURNAL » The Alchemy Of Soulful Work — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 09:54:05 +0000

[...] All You Need Is Love In The Workplace [...]

By: Come Gather Round » Blog Archive » Industry Without Artistry Is Brutality

Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:59:33 +0000

[...] Notes and Links:—The header of this post is a quote from Ananda Coomaraswamy.—The impetus for this post came from a dialogue with Chris Bailey at BaileyWorkPlay.—I explored artistry at work in detail in the book Artful Work. [...]

By: Dick Richards

Dick Richards — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:40:12 +0000

Chris – by “artistry” I mean engagement of the whole person. Artists know that mind, body, feeling, and spirit must come together — centered — in order for them to do their work. So, no love, no artistry; no fear, no artistry; no connection with whatever you call God; no artistry. One of my favorite quotes about this comes from Ananda Coomaraswamy, who was a curator at a museum in Boston in the 1930s: “Industry without artistry is brutality.”

By: Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 11:38:41 +0000

Dick, I’d absolutely agree in the importance of loving the work process as hard as it is at times. Without this love, not only can there be no artistry, but you can get folks who only care about the ends (with little or no concern about the means of achieving those ends).

By: Dick Richards

Dick Richards — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:54:38 +0000

ooops! Almost forgot one of the most significant “loves” with regard to work — love for your work process, for the actual doing of the work. There can be no artistry without it.

By: Dick Richards

Dick Richards — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 20:50:18 +0000

@ — mired in an industrial-age concept of work, particularly where processes are â€˜engineeredâ€™ and employees are replaceable cogs.

That’s it exactly Chris. The issue is really one of consciousness — about how we think of ourselves in relation to our work. I explored this in some detail in my first book, Artful Work. I studied how artists think about their work and what the rest of us might learn from them if we approached any and all work “artfully.” It is a complex subject, and your focus on love is right at the center of it — love of self, others, customers, products, etc.

By: Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:19:26 +0000

Dick…wow, great article…it really puts these ideas into a broader framework. It seems that our organizations are still so mired in an industrial-age concept of work, particularly where processes are ‘engineered’ and employees are replaceable cogs.

I like how you put it in terms of immaturity…the great challenge that folks like you and I face is how to help our businesses and nonprofits grow from adolescence (or even infancy in some places) to adulthood.

Thanks for sharing the article and keeping this dialogue going. I think it’s a particularly rich one.

By: Dick Richards

Dick Richards — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 05:01:08 +0000

I do believe that emotional immaturity is a serious workplace problem: not only love, but also other emotions such as fear, loneliness, and sorrow are all held at arms length. And then we wonder why workplaces are thought of as dehumanizing. And emotional immaturity is matched as well by spiritual immaturity. We will have these problems as long as we continue to worship intellect at the expense of other forms of human energy, thereby valuing people only for their thoughts.

You might have a look at this: http://www.ongenius.com/c2m_article_intro.htm

By: Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 23:05:04 +0000

Fifteen years ago, I admit that that must have seemed shocking. Heck, right now I figure it still seems shocking to most folks. We continue to believe that professionalism and intimate emotions such as love have no place together. Yet, we don’t seem to have nearly the same queasiness when it comes to openly allowing hate to seep into our working world. We’re going to need to discover how to live the energy that love provides in our work…else, I do wonder if business will survive? Or at least survive in a form where anyone wants to actually do business. What’s your thought, Dick?

By: Dick Richards

Dick Richards — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 16:35:59 +0000

About fifteen years ago. I am observing a meeting of about 100 people who work for the Mediterranean division of a US company. The Divisional CEO is Italian. The audience are people from Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal. The CEO tells them, “Of course we must love our products and our customers. But our best hope for success will come from loving one another.” My first thought? “Beam me up Scotty. I’m on another planet.” I thought he was right of course, but I wasn’t, and still am not, accustomed to hearing it stated so boldly and simply.