In the forthcoming course What About Monday Morning? we look at how it’s possible to work with fulfilment and meaning, exploring the true nature of work and the organisations we work for. Participants think deeply about their patterns of work and how they create them, and they think about learning, change and leadership in terms of themselves and the world around them.
To do this I bring in all sorts of different models. But one of the things I find most useful is Tibetan Buddhist practice in which it’s suggested that all challenge, stress and complexity of our lives is a perfect opportunity to discover the nature of our minds. Rather than seeing work as an obstacle or distraction, it is the perfect opportunity to learn.
Very often there’s a split in life between the qualities we want most in our lives and what happens at work. Whilst we may be engaged privately in spiritual awareness or some kind of practice, we don’t feel we can bring it to work. We go off on retreat or we chose to downsize or opt out. So the key idea of this course is that we can bring this awareness into the context of work and the challenges and difficulties we face there.
We start the weekend with a mix of different things – meditating, walking, discussing, questions and answers, exercises. It’s quite experiential to start off. People slow down and relax and from there we look at what work looks like – there’s plenty of free time. Most of the time we’re so full of concepts, notions and judgements about ourselves and about how other people and things should be. When we let go we begin to notice how limited and stuck our own minds are with fixed views and judgements.
With slowing down and with Schumacher College magic, people connect with hearts rather than their heads. They start talking about compassion. Everyone wakes up wanting to be happy and fulfilled – no-one wakes up wanting to have an argument with their boss. Working from the heart is courageous leadership – we all want to be doing it. Having the conviction to act and lead from a place of heart and compassion actually takes courage. It is perhaps the essence of real leadership.
I can’t really explain the real quality of Schumacher College. It’s a subtle atmosphere that helps people understand interconnection. Something we learn on the course is how to be open to every experience – how to be open to the whole? There’s something about the College that helps to support that, something to do with deep interconnection and a deep ecological worldview. It’s very subtle but very important.
I don’t have any expectations of people. I hold a space, create a story, process and opportunity to allow them to slow down and reflect on the possibilities in life. After two days I hope they’ll take away something they can use. A two day event won’t change everything, but building on this will make things change.
Tim returns to the College to run his highly successful short course ‘What About Monday Morning’ from 21st – 23rd September. Click here for more details >>
