Enlightened Management: from No to Yes in 7 Words

by: James Burgess

Enlightened Management is the future of corporate strategy in the new era that is dawning.

Many of us are employed in management positions or have influence over the thinking of managers, because they are our colleagues, bosses, clients, students, or we are in some other relationship with them. Probably most of us actually. It may be that we have adopted a position of compliance to fulfil what is expected of us in our roles, yet the time has now come to put that attitude aside and assert a more responsible position: one where we do all we can to change what must be changed, and do it as a matter of urgency.

Who will act if we do not? If we have Free Will then God actually has no authority to protect us from ourselves, we need to do it from our own volition. Day by day, it is becoming clearer that the powers that be either can’t or won’t make the changes needed to avoid imminent environmental collapse, which could actually despoil the beauty on Earth for ever—extinct species don’t regrow. Therefore these managers are part of the problem. We need to persuade them to become part of the solution, or unseat them.

No: Refuse corruption. Act always from principle and never out of an expediency that violates personal integrity. Be honest, if even it costs money. Be ecological (refuse to be wasteful, turn the lights off, encourage car-sharing etc.) Be clear in your corporate identity. Let decisions be made that honour the dignity of the firm. Survive—but not at all costs. A business has no heart or soul and is driven by forces that can corrupt individuals, yet as people, we do have hearts and souls that need to be honoured, sometimes despite corporate imperatives. If a company will only survive through ignoble actions—then let it fail.

Hello: Be open to new consciousness. Times are changing fast and markets reflect this. The urgency for remedial work on the Earth’s environment is more and more evident and such work must be affected through corporate endeavour, so there will be special opportunities for highly aware managers to develop their companies in line with the needs of the planet and its inhabitants.

English: Corporate Headshot for a.bridge collective, a company that delivers cross media process management and usage and adoption of technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thank You: Show people that they are valued: staff, customers, suppliers, shareholders and the public. Give them all a forum so that their valuable feedback can be acknowledged. Care about them for real. Appreciate the limited resources of the Earth.

Goodbye: Confront injustice. Finish what you start. Complete all deals according to contract. Realize when it’s time to let go of past methods. Be decisive. Address problems effectively. Compete through efficiency.

Please: Be specific about the corporate plan. Align your interests with all others—customers, suppliers, staff etc, to win their cooperation. Make instructions to employees clear and cordial.

Sorry: Be sensitive to the effect you have upon all others. Replace faulty goods, dispose of your waste ecologically, recycle, restore forests etc and compensate fairly those who have genuine grievances.

Yes: Be aware that it is more sustainable to adopt a model of cooperation than competition, so try to be always in harmony with all people and the environment. Be softer than you need to be. Help the shareholders to agree that there’s more to the long-term success of a business than is measured by the Profit and Loss Account.

It is a feature of Western business thought that the customer is given a higher value than the supplier (the customer is always right). And yet—since all comes from Mother Earth—it is actually the supplier who is our source of nurture and sustenance. The Earth herself is the only real supplier. In business terms suppliers are often seen as middlemen, and yet they actually depend upon a supply of labour and materials (materials mined from the Earth with labour). It all comes down to labour in the end and mostly this is cheap labour, very little different from slavery. This enslavement comes as a result of raising the customer above the supplier in value. Much would change if we honoured the supplier above the customer. Consumerism itself (with all its wastefulness and abuses) would be challenged.

Is it nalve and idealistic to hope that the cut-and-thrust mentality that governs corporate endeavour will give way to an attitude based upon long-term intelligence rather than short term gains? Perhaps not too much. Major employers are often governments, which (theoretically at least) are subject to public opinion. Even the private sector is controlled significantly by the shareholders, who are very often pension and investment managers with a view to the bigger, longer picture. Ethical investment is already with us—and is here to stay: consciousness in the realm of shareholders! There has always been a conflict of interests between owners and servants; there may always be so. Yet a hundred years ago, trade unions were powerless and women had no votes. Things are changeable and individuals can influence corporate policy, given persistence and time. People are important.

Source

Related articles

• 
  


• Calculating the ROI of corporate social responsibility


• 
  


• 7 drivers that help Define the Future We Want – Run-up to DSDS 2013


• 
  


• Preserving Balance in Corporate Governance


• 
  


• Unit 3 Business Economics Glossary


• 
  


• Rare Earths Market: Top 10 Companies Analysis in New Research Report at ReportsnReports.com


• 
  


• TrendSource Launches Corporate Blog to Provide Customer Experience and Behavioral Insights to Consumer Goods and Services Suppliers


• 
  


• 2013: Management From The Customer


• 
  


• The New Management Paradigm & John Mackey’s Whole Foods


• 
  


• Virtual Universe Corporation announces going-private transaction


• 
  


• The Innovation Bottom Line | Section IV: Customer and Stakeholder Effects


• 
  

Robert Recommends...

• 
  


• Expectations in the Workplace


• 
  


• Managing The Change Project


• 
  


• Handle Life with Grace, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff


• 
  


• The Language of the Soul


• 
  


• Business: The 9 Principles of War


• 
  


• Ethics In Professional Trades


• 
  

Enlightened Management: from No to Yes in 7 Words

by: James Burgess

Enlightened Management is the future of corporate strategy in the new era that is dawning.

Many of us are employed in management positions or have influence over the thinking of managers, because they are our colleagues, bosses, clients, students, or we are in some other relationship with them. Probably most of us actually. It may be that we have adopted a position of compliance to fulfil what is expected of us in our roles, yet the time has now come to put that attitude aside and assert a more responsible position: one where we do all we can to change what must be changed, and do it as a matter of urgency.

Who will act if we do not? If we have Free Will then God actually has no authority to protect us from ourselves, we need to do it from our own volition. Day by day, it is becoming clearer that the powers that be either can’t or won’t make the changes needed to avoid imminent environmental collapse, which could actually despoil the beauty on Earth for ever—extinct species don’t regrow. Therefore these managers are part of the problem. We need to persuade them to become part of the solution, or unseat them.

No: Refuse corruption. Act always from principle and never out of an expediency that violates personal integrity. Be honest, if even it costs money. Be ecological (refuse to be wasteful, turn the lights off, encourage car-sharing etc.) Be clear in your corporate identity. Let decisions be made that honour the dignity of the firm. Survive—but not at all costs. A business has no heart or soul and is driven by forces that can corrupt individuals, yet as people, we do have hearts and souls that need to be honoured, sometimes despite corporate imperatives. If a company will only survive through ignoble actions—then let it fail.

Hello: Be open to new consciousness. Times are changing fast and markets reflect this. The urgency for remedial work on the Earth’s environment is more and more evident and such work must be affected through corporate endeavour, so there will be special opportunities for highly aware managers to develop their companies in line with the needs of the planet and its inhabitants.

English: Corporate Headshot for a.bridge collective, a company that delivers cross media process management and usage and adoption of technology (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thank You: Show people that they are valued: staff, customers, suppliers, shareholders and the public. Give them all a forum so that their valuable feedback can be acknowledged. Care about them for real. Appreciate the limited resources of the Earth.

Goodbye: Confront injustice. Finish what you start. Complete all deals according to contract. Realize when it’s time to let go of past methods. Be decisive. Address problems effectively. Compete through efficiency.

Please: Be specific about the corporate plan. Align your interests with all others—customers, suppliers, staff etc, to win their cooperation. Make instructions to employees clear and cordial.

Sorry: Be sensitive to the effect you have upon all others. Replace faulty goods, dispose of your waste ecologically, recycle, restore forests etc and compensate fairly those who have genuine grievances.

Yes: Be aware that it is more sustainable to adopt a model of cooperation than competition, so try to be always in harmony with all people and the environment. Be softer than you need to be. Help the shareholders to agree that there’s more to the long-term success of a business than is measured by the Profit and Loss Account.

It is a feature of Western business thought that the customer is given a higher value than the supplier (the customer is always right). And yet—since all comes from Mother Earth—it is actually the supplier who is our source of nurture and sustenance. The Earth herself is the only real supplier. In business terms suppliers are often seen as middlemen, and yet they actually depend upon a supply of labour and materials (materials mined from the Earth with labour). It all comes down to labour in the end and mostly this is cheap labour, very little different from slavery. This enslavement comes as a result of raising the customer above the supplier in value. Much would change if we honoured the supplier above the customer. Consumerism itself (with all its wastefulness and abuses) would be challenged.

Is it nalve and idealistic to hope that the cut-and-thrust mentality that governs corporate endeavour will give way to an attitude based upon long-term intelligence rather than short term gains? Perhaps not too much. Major employers are often governments, which (theoretically at least) are subject to public opinion. Even the private sector is controlled significantly by the shareholders, who are very often pension and investment managers with a view to the bigger, longer picture. Ethical investment is already with us—and is here to stay: consciousness in the realm of shareholders! There has always been a conflict of interests between owners and servants; there may always be so. Yet a hundred years ago, trade unions were powerless and women had no votes. Things are changeable and individuals can influence corporate policy, given persistence and time. People are important.

Source

Related articles

• Calculating the ROI of corporate social responsibility


• 7 drivers that help Define the Future We Want – Run-up to DSDS 2013


• Preserving Balance in Corporate Governance


• Unit 3 Business Economics Glossary


• Rare Earths Market: Top 10 Companies Analysis in New Research Report at ReportsnReports.com


• TrendSource Launches Corporate Blog to Provide Customer Experience and Behavioral Insights to Consumer Goods and Services Suppliers


• 2013: Management From The Customer


• The New Management Paradigm & John Mackey’s Whole Foods


• Virtual Universe Corporation announces going-private transaction


• The Innovation Bottom Line | Section IV: Customer and Stakeholder Effects

Robert Recommends...

• Expectations in the Workplace


• Managing The Change Project


• Handle Life with Grace, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff


• The Language of the Soul


• Business: The 9 Principles of War


• Ethics In Professional Trades

A Humourous Approach To Science And Religion

Science and Religion: a Humourous Approach

by: James Burgess

Science and Religion according to the mythical mullah, Hoja Nasrudin.

Nasrudin is surprised to wake up one morning quite convinced he is from another planet and finds what he sees of this one a little odd. He decides to investigate and identifies that there are two basic explanations about the operating system that governs this reality. He is told that they are absolutely opposed and that he’ll have to make up his mind which one he wants to believe in. Undaunted by this challenge, he decides to set out on a mission of enquiry—and in advance he chooses 3 questions to put to the two spokespersons that he has decided to interview.

How do you pursue knowledge?

What is the deepest mystery left unanswered in your method?

If I get ill will you heal me?

The religious person responds: ‘We have observed that the mystery of life is beyond our general understanding and so we accept what we are taught by our high priests and mystics. They have developed the basic ideas by which we live, and most of these ideas seem to work rather well so we accept them until something new is unfolded to us. When something happens that I don’t understand, I am willing to contemplate upon it until it becomes clear where it fits in the pattern of things.’

Then the scientist retorts: ‘Our methods are much more clearly defined: We observe; We hypothesize; We test; We accept the best hypothesis that satisfies our tests. These specific processes are carried out by the great men of science who uncover truths so that we technicians are able to know things and apply them in practical terms.’

Nasrudin scratches his head and frowns as he tries to understand what the differences are between the 2 answers—which seem rather similar to him.

Now the religious person addresses the second question. ‘I am told that mystics are constantly working with light. They can’t explain it very well—they say that what we can see is only a tiny fraction of what there is. It takes on many completely different forms, which even include particles of matter! Even darkness is a form of light. To me it’s a complete mystery.’

The scientist replies: ‘Much is known through quantum mechanisms of the behaviour of particles of light as waves, which have frequencies below the visible range from radio waves, television waves and heat waves—which are infrared, and above—ultra-violet, X rays, gamma rays and so on. There are one or two questions as yet unanswered about certain properties of light, which are satisfactorily dealt with only when we introduce scientifically proposed ideas of probability. In a sense therefore since areas are left without deterministic explanation, we could call this mystery.’

Having used up two of his questions, Nasrudin is starting to feel sick because he hasn’t been able to identify any significant difference between the explanations of the shy religionist and the confident scientist. He decides to deal with the third question in a more realistic way and will visit first a doctor, then a religious healer. He is told the local Sufi sheikh has occasional good luck when it comes to healing people—anyway, first the doctor.

Unfortunately he is unable to deal with any more of these confusing words that haven’t done much to help him, so he switches off his universal translator and goes to the doctor, happy to trust in non-verbal communication methods.

He sees a doctor’s sign and enters into an office whereupon he is called upon to wait a while so that the importance of the doctor’s atmosphere can be inhaled in preparation for the interview. He looks around at all the certificates with indecipherable names and is duly impressed. A uniformed underling with awesome authority instructs him to come with her. Into the temple chamber he goes. The doctor is wearing a white gown and a strange rubber necklace with two earpieces and a dangly bit with a metallic disc at the end. He has a firm, gentle gaze, a silky voice and gives exquisite profound attention, then he makes strange hieroglyphs upon a piece of paper. Taking a bottle from a shelf he says some words that clearly obey some ritual quality and offers Nasrudin the bottle of liquid to drink and sends him on his way.

The sheikh was also introduced by an assistant after a period of waiting in a room bedecked with symbols of his calling. He also wore a gown and a strange necklace (called a tasbih instead of a stethoscope); he also had good eyes, soft voice and the power to give excellent attention. He also wrote out a charm in hieroglyphs and delivered a formulaic message with a glass of holy water for Nasrudin to drink!

Absolutely baffled and unable to perceive any significant differences between the 2 systems, Nasrudin returned home and went to bed.

Source

Robert Recommends...

• Miracle, Mysticism, and Authority


• The Language of the Soul


• Sufism – Basic Views


• Rumours of Destruction


• Background On Secret Societies


• Enlightened Management: from No to Yes in 7 Words

The post A Humourous Approach To Science And Religion appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

Miracle, Mysticism, and Authority

Miracle, Mystery and Authority

by: James Burgess

The only three factors that motivate people, according to Dostoyveyski are miracle, mystery and authority.

One of the greatest writers in world literature was the Russian novelist Dostoyevsky whose profound insight into human nature is most succinctly captured in his statement about the only three things by which the typical person is truly moved: mysticism, miracle and authority. The writer hopes to be able to relate these three primary motivations to his spiritual path and explain something of the perceived connection between these principles and the material in this work.

Can we first consider the inter-connectedness between the three? Could they be seen as three faces of one primary urge: the urge freely to create creation in God ‘s name? Is it self evident that we are with this study, concerning ourselves with religion (whose auspices most certainly include miracle and mysticism and, as a social phenomenon, authority too)? Then we ask: what is religion, its purpose and practices, and the extent to which it achieves its purposes with its practices?

One would hope to be able to affirm that its primary purpose is to bind back its adherents to Universal Truth, and that its practices are designed to lead in that direction and only in that direction. We can easily accept that there are many paths which lead from separation to Unity and so there are many religions which teach different practices – yet we would hope that these practices would have some similarities, especially the closer we get to Unity. Happily we find this to be the case, that even when very different forms of religion are examined with the consciousness of a mystic it can be seen that the essential message is repeated again and again.

The mystic has an equivalent mystical insight whatever his or her religious background. Affirming this, Hazrat Inayat Khan has given us the message emphasising the unity of religious ideals. A mystic seeks direct experience of Unity and is given to practices which have the effect of lightening his vibration, reducing his involvement in the worldly and softening his sense of self in order to surrender to God.

Miracles are reported to have occurred on numerous occasions throughout history and are generally associated with saints, prophets and masters. There clearly is the expectation that a miracle in some way is related to the mystical leanings of the miracle-worker, that this person is already a mystic and is demonstrating a certain level of attainment by intending to create a change in material world phenomena which goes against our perception of natural law. These types of events are recorded in Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Sufism, Islam, Christianity, Shamanism and so on. In some cases the more prosaic word magic is used to describe the event – a magician being one whose capability to focus “supernatural” powers results in unusual physical manifestations against the expectations of ordinary reality. Such a magician would most certainly have to have been engaged in practices that enable him to control mind, body and breath, very similar to those of the mystic. In fact it is argued that mystic and magician are actually engaged in the same activity, one focuses more away from the earth, the other towards the earth and each can expect to reach a stage of competence in both states of awareness when each can annihilate his ego in meditation and each can bend the accepted laws of the physical world.

Authority is an expression of identity. It is the “I am” of an organisation, that which identifies it as what it is, in other words the reach of its influence, the extent and limit of its power. Whether this organisation is an institution or an individual, these ideas seem to apply, a person having a well developed sense of identity exudes an aura of authority and is more able to influence and less ready to be influenced by the overpowering authority of another. It is interesting to note that the phrase “…in the name of…” is a declaration of authority as well as an invocation – and a mystic would consider it a practice of attunement (Bismillah, Beshemi, Shema). It is also noteworthy that certain words which appear to be statements of authority can also been seen as mystical affirmations (“Inana” of Jesus”, “I am …. that which shapes” of Amairgin, and “I and I” of Rastafarian linguistic structure).

Therefore a link can be drawn between principles of authority, mystical awareness and magical capability and one can use the model of an hourglass to good effect. Looking away from the earth, the mystic is empowered by the authority of God, looking towards the earth the magician is empowered by the authority of self. Authority here is the strait gate of self – God – knowledge. Know yourself and you shall know God.

Source

Related articles

• Mysticism


• Mysticism Unlocked


• On Music and Mysticism… Acquiring “Effortless Mastery”


• Praising nature’s power, beauty


• On Ritualized Mysticism


• Benevolent Extraterrestrial Guides


• Mystical Islam Deters Fundamentalism


• the mystic heart of Christmas


• Divine Affirmation


• Are you looking for a mystical and extraordinary state

Robert Recommends...

• The Language of the Soul


• Sufism – Basic Views


• Motivational Sufism


• Expand Your Religious Beliefs


• A Humourous Approach To Science And Religion


• Sail into the mystic

The post Miracle, Mysticism, and Authority appeared first on Robert JR Graham.