The quality of life in organizations is deteriorating. People don't have a sense that their work has meaning. Cynicism reigns. People don't want to live and work in this way and organizations don't function optimally when they do. As we transition from the Age of Information to the Age of Ideation, leadership will need to attend to our source of enthusiasm and inspiration—our soul. The Age of Information focuses on knowledge and technology. The Age of Ideation will focus on people, culture, and generating new sources of gain. Leadership style that suited the information age will not work for the Ideation Age. A new style of leadership is required, one that makes collaboration, empowerment, and innovation possible. A new way of working with spirit is emerging. Below we offer resources to help you with this emerging workplace challenge. You will find training videos, books, onsite training, assessments, and more. Join the enthusiastic group of professionals who enjoy valuable free ideas from 'Thank God It's Monday' newsletter. Get the Thank God It's Monday Newsletter Email: Send Page To a Friend

The Spirit at Work Training Video - Free Preview Have you ever been connected with a group of people who were faced with an almost impossible task? Perhaps together you put in the extra effort to get the new product out. You pulled together and set aside ego and title, just rolled up your sleeves and got the job done. It felt great. Wouldn't it be wonderful to connect like this everyday This is easier said than done. In this new video, The Spirit at Work, best selling author James Autry offers a perspective that can help. His ideas are down to earth and useful. He contends that it all depends on five ways of being. These five principles will allow us to nurture our own Spirit at Work. "There is no business; there are only people. Business exists only among people and for people. Seems simple enough, but not enough people seem to get it." James A. Autry Key Concepts Be Authentic: be your real self. Be Vulnerable: let go of the myth of control. Be Accepting: forget about winning and losing. Be Present: pay attention. Be Useful: serve others. Bundling Discount: Buy all three James Autry videos (The Spirit at Work, Love and Profit, Life and Work) for $1,350.00. That's a 46% savings! Rent it for $200.00 Purchase it for $695.00 For a Free Preview Call: 1-973-427-3004

Focus Your Vision Training Video with Dewitt Jones- Free Preview How can we find our direction, our purpose? When we combine our energy and passion with our focused visions, we give ourselves direction and power. Dewitt Jones, author of the best selling training videos Everyday Creativity and Celebrate What's Right With The World, encourages us to develop our visions and turn them into reality. When we connect with our visions, and in doing so, release our passion; we have a better understanding of who we are, what we stand for, and where we're going. Key Learning Points: Keep Your Vision Focused. Stop, Look, and Listen. Hold On To The Best, Let The Rest Fall Away. Trust Your Intuition. It's Not Trespassing To Go Beyond Your Own Boundaries. Make Your Vision Big Enough. Do You Have Juice In Your Camera? Dream the dream, find that extraordinary vision, and keep it in focus. A Star Thrower Release Includes 1 Leader's Guide, 1 Participant Workbook, 1 CD-ROM with two PowerPoint Presentations and Transcript, and 25 Pocket Reminder Cards / Length: 20 minutes. Purchase Price: $695.00 One Week Rental: $200.00

Celebrate What's Right With The World Training Video with Dewitt Jones Celebrate What's Right With The World teaches what a powerful force having a vision of possibilities can be for you. Do you have a vision for your organization? More importantly, do you have one for yourself? One that gets you excited every morning and keeps you open to possibilities. In this new video Dewitt Jones asks do we choose to see possibilities? Do we really believe they're there? He assures us that we will see it only when we believe it. And when we believe it, we connect with a vision that opens us to possibilities and gives us the courage to soar. Celebrate What's Right With The World provides practical guidelines for applying the seven key concepts, even in the face of critics and challenges. Stunning photography and powerful dialogue also help us see how we can approach our lives with celebration, confidence and grace. Dewitt Jones is one of America's top professional photographers. In his twenty-year career with National Geographic, Dewitt lived the vision of "celebrating what's right with the world." He found that the creative tools he employed as a photographer had an even deeper application when applied directly to his personal and professional life. Each program comes complete with a comprehensive leader's guide, participant workbook, PowerPoint presentation CD-ROM, and pocket reminder cards. Seven Key Concepts: Believe it and you'll see it. Recognize abundance. Look for possibilities. Unleash your energy to fix what's wrong. Ride the changes. Take yourself to your edge. Be your best for the world. Rent it for $200.00 Purchase it for $695.00 For a Free Preview Call 973-427-3004

The Manager's Pocket Guide to Spiritual Leadership This guide provides methods for engaging in the transformational process to light up the spirit at work. It contains practical ways to measure healthy communities, healthy people, and quality of work life, and is also grounded in reality. The authors have spent more than 25 years, in hundreds of organizations, seeking out and developing spiritual leaders. In The Ultimate Search for Meaning Victor Frankl observed that, "Meaning is seeing possibilities against the backdrop of reality." This guide will stimulate the reader to find new possibilities against the backdrop of their own reality. By: Richard Bellingham, Ed.D. , Julie Meek, DNS / $10.95

How Strong Is the Spirit in Your Work Culture? The Cultural Compass Can Help Building a strong, value-based organizational culture, or strengthening a good one you already have, starts with understanding the various dimensions and dynamics of your existing culture. The ‘Understanding’ process involves answering the questions of: What does the data mean? What are our strengths? What are our areas that need improvement? Who do values and ethics stack up against the pressures for achievements and results? Do we have a productive balance between theses forces? The customizable and reproducible Cultural Compass enables you to find the answers to the critical questions about your culture and its hidden values, and provides you with ways for moving toward a stronger, more positive and productive culture at work. The Compass is a self-scoring paper and pencil tool that takes users through an exciting process of cultural discovery by answering, plotting, and analyzing 48 key questions about their organizational culture. The 48 questions cover four primary cultural orientations; People, Task, Values/Ethics, and Synergy. The self-scoring results are then plotted on two dimensions; the People - Task dimension, and the Values/Ethics- Synergy dimension. The resulting diagram reveals, both in figures and in a visual form, the current state of the organizational culture as viewed by the user. What People Said About The Compass: A consultant who used our Cultural Compass with a client, wrote to us saying that the top executives loved the way the Compass revealed their corporate culture to them. They wanted her to use it with the rest of the staff. They wanted to better understand the values and perceptions that define the work environment and find ways to significantly improve it. The Compass is sent to you in an electronic file in a MS Word format, so you can customize it by adding your organization’s logo, mission statement, message from the president or the Training Department, or any other information easily and quickly. And the Compass is also reproducible, so you can make unlimited copies to profile the entire organization for only $98.00 Detailed Facilitator’s Guide and the Culture Compass in Word format $98.00 For One-Site License: $98.00 Consultants and Organizations who will use the Compass for more than one site or one organization, must purchase the Multi-Site License for $139.00

Faith at Work: With the rise of office ministries and job-site prayer groups, will religion be the next workplace issue? “With God at Our Desks: The Rise of Religion and Evangelism in the American Workplace,” was the headline on the cover of the October 31, 2004 issue of The New York Times Magazine. Two days later, President Bush won re-election, and his Republican Party won big in every way, due to what many said was the “Faith-based-vote.” In the November 9 issue of “Beliefnet” e-zine, an article written by Deborah Caldwell asked in the headline: Did God Intervene? And its sub-title said: “Evangelical Christians are saying God pushed the election to Bush so the country could halt its slide toward evil.” These developments will no doubt be welcomed by some and feared by others. Since our focus here is not political, we will limit our discussion to the issue of “faith in the workplace” and try to see what good, and what bad, it can bring to employees and organizations. What exactly are we talking about when we say “Faith in the workplace”? We are talking primarily about office ministries and workplace prayer groups. My last corporate job was as head of the training and employee communication departments of a large $1.2 billion health care organization that had two large hospitals, a myriad of clinics and medical offices, and an Office of Religious Affairs (ORA) staffed by a priest, a minister, and a Rabi. In a hospital setting where some patients inevitably die, this made sense and caused no particular problems. The mission of the ORA was to offer prayers and spiritual guidance to patients who ask for it. But some employees also availed themselves of the services of the ORA, and attended the religious services it provided. So the first lesson here is that the mission and corporate culture of the organization will have a great influence on whether it makes sense to have office ministries. Another influential factor is the changing societal forces that impact people and organizations. For example, the workplace-ministry phenomenon has gained momentum since 9/11, as Americans continued to feel more need for spiritual guidance and show more interest in the purpose of work and life in general. The Times article mentions that “in 1990, there were 50 coalitions of workplace ministries. Today, there are thousands of businesses that have “Jesus Christ as chairman of the board,” in the words of the American Chamber of Christians in Business.” The other phenomenon is workplace-religious-groups. These groups have benefited from the rise of the interest in diversity at work where many organizations have provided budgets and physical places for employees of different groups, known as “Affinity Groups” to meet and participate in activities. At Intel, a space and small budgets are given to groups, including Christian, Muslim, and Jewish groups, to meet. “Muslim and Jewish groups don't evangelize, but the Christian group does. It's the sort of thing that gives diversity-training professionals headaches,” says Russell Shorto who wrote the Times article. Most of these groups engage in group prayers and religious studies. But it seems that, generally, a very small percentage of employees actually attend these meetings. What are the pros and cons of the faith at work phenomenon? The pros include a more humane workplace; a kinder, gentler corporate culture; the assertion of values and ethics in business; and more spiritually satisfied employees. The cons? A feeling of isolation among religious minorities; a rise in lawsuits claiming religious discrimination and harassment based on a hostile work environment doctrine; and the friction that can come from the problems of evangelizing; and perhaps other problems that have not been experienced yet since the phenomenon is relatively new. For these reasons, it's important that organizations approach this issue carefully and make sure that they do not impose anything on any employee, and provide guidelines for supervisors regarding the issue and the best way to handle it. It's important to ensure that the work culture remains free from any hint of religious harassment to any group. It's also important to watch for some persons who might seek to grab power at work for themselves by claiming that they speak in the name of a “higher power.” It's important in facing this issue that we listen to many view points, and keep an open mind before taking a position. That's why I'm asking for your opinion. Please write to me about why you support or oppose this trend: info@communicationideas.com (You may reprint this article in any publication on the condition that you print the following credit in full: Reprinted with permission from Thank God It's Monday e-newsletter. You may get a free subscription at www.communicationideas.com )

Bringing Faith to the Workplace: Two Views on Both Sides of the Issue Faith Is Critical To My Success For me personally, being able to bring my personal faith through the office door with me has been critical to my success in my position. We are, by nature, spiritual beings, and to leave our spiritual side at home and then expect ourselves to be fully-functional at work doesn't make sense. To me, that feels like leaving the air out of a balloon and expecting the balloon to perform the function it was designed for. It is from our Spiritual core that creative ideas are birthed, solutions to problems sprout, and helpful insight about our teammates is given. It is when we face those issues, concerns, tasks, and people that take us beyond the realm of ourselves, beyond the scope of what we have experienced or know, that we begin to tap into the power of the Spirit at work within us. Daily, most of us encounter issues that take us beyond our comfort zone. Without an acknowledgement of the powerful influence of our spiritual side in dealing with these issues, we would fail. I agree with you that the problem comes when faith is seen to be 'imposed' on another person. Does anyone have this right? Isn't faith all about a relationship between you and your Creator? So what role does another human have in trying to affect that relationship? I am Christian, and the bible says 'share your faith' but do it 'with gentleness and respect' (1 Pet 3:15). I have seen many Christians (myself included), forget the 2nd part of that verse and do more damage than good. We are fallible human beings. My own personal answer to faith at work has been to try and look for and follow God where He is already working. To look for opportunities to offer encouragement and love when needed, a word of guidance when asked, and a listening ear or a hand to a struggling co-worker. To build up, rather than tear down through harsh and condemning words. Am I perfect? Far from it. But I have found, that when I seek to stay tuned into my spiritual side at work, opportunities to serve come along far more often than if I leave that side of me at home. (By Jenny Scott.) I'm Opposed To This Movement I am opposed to this movement. I have had the unfortunate experience of working with several evangelizing Christian coworkers. They did not bring peace and enlightenment into the workplace; in fact, they did a pretty good job of dividing the workforce. As a mid-level supervisor, how do you deal with a coworker who tells you they are praying for your soul every time you reprimand them? The inference is that they have done nothing wrong, I'm just an evil person. As an American citizen, I have the right to go about my business on a daily basis without constantly being harassed for not being a born-again Christian, and I will firmly stand on those rights if anyone tries to introduce this type of hidden agenda into my workplace. (name withheld)

You Don't Have to Be 'Religious' to Bring Your Spirit to Work By Patrick Williams* Many people hate coming to work: It's a curse to endure, and they can't wait to leave-permanently: retire. Their work suffers; they suffer. They sleep or drink on the train home. That's why the "workplace spirituality" movement has emerged: to make work a joy, not a curse. It's the fastest-growing movement in the American workplace. The subject of books by CEO's (Tom Chappell, The Soul of a Business; Max DePree, Leadership Is an Art); the cover story of Fortune Magazine (July 9, 2001); and the feature segment on NBC's Today show. That story noted some 1,000 companies that sponsor "faith-friendly workgroups" in what was called "The Faith and Work Movement." So you can address it as a significant business issue, or ignore it. But there are some barriers. As one person wrote when I first published an article on this topic, there is no place for religion in the workplace. Also, prayer groups and Bible study groups at work run the risk of excluding others and prohibiting the community that all genuine spirituality aims to engender. In addition, companies have ethics and values statements; these, they say, are enough. And finally, The CEO is paid to hit the bottom line and won’t sponsor it. A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America (Mitroff and Denton, Jossey-Bass, 1999) makes the case that employees who are encouraged to express their spirituality in their work are more productive, have higher rates of satisfaction and retention, and feel more fulfilled. All of these lead to better customer service, the key to profitable growth. But what is spirituality? The authors' definition: "the ultimate source and provider of meaning in our lives." The argument for workplace spirituality goes like this: 1. People don’t want to lead divided lives. 2. People want to be themselves at work. 3. People bring their bodies to work, their emotions, and their intellects to work. 4. They also bring their spirits: their defining human identity that unites their bodies, passions and minds in an integrated pursuit of a goal, as an expression of their unique human identity. 5. We don’t import spirituality from the outside and impose it on work; our work itself expresses an inherent spirituality. 6. Because everyone has a spirit, "workplace spirituality" is as vital to an atheist or an agnostic as it is to a member of a traditional faith. So, what can you do? Leaders and professionals in human resources, training, and organizational communication who have the sense to approach this issue—and many already have—will go about their normal useful daily professional work: research, strategic planning, messaging, project management, training, measurement. In doing so, they will, themselves, express their spirit at work. And by aligning workplace spirituality with employee engagement linked to productivity and customer service, they may be able to make their case to management. *Partick Williams is one of Communication Ideas’ affiliated consultants. See his workshop on Workplace Spirituality below.

Onsite Workshop That Changes the Way People View Their Job, Colleagues, and the Organization RelationShifts is a transformational training experience that changes the way employees view their job and relate to their colleagues and the organization. The training builds a sense of ownership of one's work and shows managers and staff alike a more effective and liberating way of working together to achieve extraordinary results: It is a highly inspiring, deep discovery, passion-filled half-day or full-day session that goes beyond traditional motivational / team buliding training. It is an opportunity to understand, accept, and create significant change in employee relations, the team and the organization. It is an invitation to experience and adopt a different Mental Model for doing business in a Not-As-Usual way to create extraordinary business results. It is an introduction of a new way of communicating and working in a positive, emotionally intelligent manner that creates collaboration and commitment. Click here for more information on this unique training experience

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