Wisdom in the Workplace

Author
William Guillory
395 words, 30K views, 6 comments

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Actually, wisdom is not anything new in the workplace, it simply has not been acknowledged and legitimized as essential to organizational success -- at least in the Western world. Wisdom has always been valued and integral to the way non-western organizations have functioned. The business traditions of Japan are firmly rooted in the principles of Buddha (Buddhism), and Sun–Tzu (The Art of War), and those of China in Lao Tzu (Taosim) and Confucius.

There is wisdom in the saying that ‘we must learn equally from the wisdom of others, since we individually don’t make enough mistakes of our own to learn how much we need to know’. When we learn something new, it is commonly because something we previously believed is no longer valid. Being open to continually changing our reality is the key to acquiring wisdom. 

What is important to understand is that, that which is released does not have to be replaced with anything new. What replaces it is a natural way of being. Wisdom is a way of being. Being natural occurs when we let go of our assumptions of how it should be, how it could be, and how it ought to be, and just allow it to be like it is, as a prelude to interacting with others. 

Statements like this prompt us to rethink the wisdom of our in depth explorations. Wisdom is a way of being that is the natural result of personal and spiritual transformation. It is an in depth understanding, empathy, and compassion for the human experience. As the work place becomes increasingly diverse from human, cultural and systems perspectives, it is clear that resolutions beyond ordinary problem solving or compromise will be necessary for successful business functioning. Therefore everyone in the workforce will be forced to master this skill of being in proportion to his or her level of responsibility. This conclusion is perhaps best captured by the following Albert Einstein quote: The world that we have made as a result of the level of thinking we have done thus far, creates problems that we cannot solve at the level that we have created them.

--William Guillory, from "The Living Organization"


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