Do You Feel The Spirit?

All work is spiritual, often deeply so.

All things that people do involve and affect their spirit, and all things that people do for others involve and affect their spirit as well. We're not talking religion here, we're talking spirituality. Spirituality deals with the parts of life, the parts or work, that are related to the human spirit or soul, not just to tangible or material things.

Many companies and many jobs feel like bleak, soul-sucking cesspools of drudgery and despair. Well, maybe not that bad, but most people you ask (and I've asked quite a few) certainly don't get a deep sense of positive satisfaction from their work. Does work drain your spirit? Is spirituality something you get on Sunday, or from volunteering, or from communing with nature, but not something you ever get from your work?

There's a classic story, with a hundred variations, of asking three tradesmen what they're doing - the first says "I'm carrying sand", the second says "I'm building a foundation", and the third says "I'm building a cathedral". Cute, and inspiring, but it doesn't quite go far enough.

When you really embrace the spiritual nature of work, a fourth tradesman might say something like "I'm bringing comfort to people in their times of joy and sorrow." That's the spirit, the true purpose, of what their work is all about.

It's easy for most people to get the idea of spirituality when talking about a church organization, or anything to do with religion, but this applies to all organizations.

A mid-size engineering company was working on the design of a large plant to produce a zero-calorie sweetener for foods. The piping and structural designers and engineers had embraced the idea that they were helping people lose weight while still enjoying their food. They talked about this in their daily work.

Note that these people weren't selling the sugar. They weren't putting the sugar into food products. They weren't producing the sugar. They weren't even building the plant that was producing the sugar. They were five steps removed, designing the plant that would produce the sugar. But, they really understood how their work would ultimately help others. They had a noble purpose.

When you understand the spiritual purpose of your company, and it's almost always some form of helping others, it makes a difference throughout the organization. It helps you choose which people to hire. It helps you make decisions. It gives people something to get excited about, a noble purpose in which to get engaged, a reason to get up in the morning, a reason to work together.

For a kitchen cabinet company, are you just shipping boxes or are you creating a new heart for a family's home? In a machine shop, are you building roll-over protection or helping mine workers get home to their families every night? Are you making an in-vehicle video player or are you helping young families enjoy the long drive to the mountains?

What's the spritual purpose of your organization? What are you doing to truly help people? Do you know? Do your people know? Is it noble and inspiring?

If the answers are no, either you're not looking deep enough, or you're in the wrong business.