Organizations are created to fulfill a purpose. Corporations, small businesses, churches, colleges, social clubs and even the family are organizations invented for a purpose. We become involved in organizations for many reasons. Some are work related, some educate us, and some are for socializing. The reasons are endless. Each is directed by expectations and roles within the objectives of the organization. We are all members of organizations and we cannot be without them.
Today we are faced with many challenges. These challenges have made us realize organizations can no longer support us the way they once did. .Banks and mortgage and loan institutions can no longer function in a way that benefits our society. Foreclosures, unemployment, loss of equity and saving have marked our recent economy. Citizens of all cultures have reacted with anger, fear, depression, and loneliness. All too often, the family suffered most. Dysfunction, divorce, pain, and family violence make the headlines and blogs on a daily basis.
The impact of organizational downturns can lead to varied attempts to solve the problem. Some people leave the group and reach out to other organizations hoping to fulfill their needs through other avenues. Some turn to counselors, self help books or groups. Others turn to their religious faith. Some reflect on their priorities regarding what is really important in life and how they can make their lives more meaningful. Too many of us have not found a solution to the changes going on in our country today.
A large number of us want, or demand, that those organizations that have let us down change the way they do things financially. The banks, the SEC, our mortgage companies, Wall Street and our government should be held accountable. We want justice for the deceptive and greedy behavior of those who are members of these organizations. The amazing thing is that there appears to be no real desire of the people who work there to change the blatantly unethical behavior from inside. Most reforms come from outside the organizational framework, if they change at all.
There are people that have a different understanding of organizational systems. These people look at solutions to problems not from the outside but from the inside. Mission statements change from profit-oriented objectives to humanly-oriented goals. They seek to bring spirit into the very fabric of the organization. People at all levels begin interacting in a mindful way that improves the organization as a whole.
The organizational spirit is one of nine universal spiritual archetypes that respond to their purpose in life. Her organizational calling is to transform the very nature of our interactions within the organization. She focuses on tearing down the boundaries and creating space for the human spirit to express itself. New purposes, human purposes, change the system.
The core cause of today’s financial crisis is not the banks or the mortgage brokers. Financial experts point to these two institutions too quickly. Indeed, the immoral actions of these institutions heightened and accelerated the economic downturn. Despite our investigations and criminal proceedings against their fraudulent practices, we must look within to find a true solution to the cause of the crisis.
The organizational spirit does not accept the habits and practices of the established structure. She seeks to get beneath and beyond the way things are to the purposes of being fully human, not to deny her spirit, but to listen to it. She poses questions like, “Why? Who said so? Where does that come from? What is that all about?”
Most of our modern organizations do not speak to our fully human possibility and the integration with our spirit. Organizational life is too embedded in our social biography. Our organizations, educational institutions, military apparatus, religious groups all encompass so much of society’s institutional life and so little of the possibilities to which our human spirit calls us to do and to be.
But keep in mind that organizations were invented to maintain a purpose. We are not an unmindful society. We can be mindful about our collective behavior. We can and do make choices. If our organizations do not support us, we can change them, dispose of them or invent new ones.
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