Transforming Contemporary Businesses: The Impact of Quaker Principles and Insights on Business in a Volatile World

Abstract

It is well-known that the insights of early Quakers make a significant contribution to ethics and governance within business—issues that other denominations and faiths also address. Less well known is the spiritual impact of Quaker principles on organisational development and performance. The unique gift that flows from the discoveries of early Friends is the way in which Quaker practice and principles enable people to tap into the very best—the divine—within themselves and in the process transform themselves, their work and their lives. In this chapter we will look at how the Quaker practice of turning within can turn soul-destroying workplaces into places that nourish the human spirit in organisations that have become dull in the drabness of a functional, materialist world, and conflictual and troubled in an environment of constant, volatile change.

Look at the Quakers—they were excellent business people that never lied, never stole; they cared for their employees and the community which gave them the wealth. They never took more money out than they put back.

Anita Roddick

It is well-known that the insights of early Quakers make a significant contribution to ethics and governance within business—issues that other denominations and faiths also address. Less well known is the spiritual impact of Quaker principles on organisational development and performance. The unique gift that flows from the discoveries of early Friends is the way in which Quaker practice and principles enable people to tap into the very best—the divine—within themselves and in the process transform themselves, their work and their lives. In this chapter we will look at how the Quaker practice of turning within can turn soul-destroying workplaces into places that nourish the human spirit in organisations that have become dull in the drabness of a functional, materialist world, and conflictual and troubled in an environment of constant, volatile change.

The impact of Quaker insights, used mindfully, can have a life changing impact on a business and this has yet to be widely understood and accepted. Quaker spirituality—the emphasis on stillness, silence, inner discovery and service—awakens what makes people tick, brings out the very best in us in ways that are subtle, enables us to become more of who we truly are. As a result, business flourishes, as indeed the Quaker business leaders of the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries demonstrated, in very practical ways.

‘To turn all the treasures we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the business of our lives.’ John Woolman 1763.¹

John Woolman was using the word ‘business’ in terms of the substance of our lives but in this chapter, I should like to explore how the truths and insights experienced by Quakers have been used over the last 15 years to transform some modern businesses and organisations in ways that nourish the spirit, create highly successful, soul-friendly businesses and begin to make business into a channel for kindness and respect. Surely this is a practical expression of universal love in terms that everyone in our secular society can readily recognise, whether they regard themselves as spiritual or not?

I shall briefly look at 12 Quaker principles and insights and show how they bring value to business, and then consider how two of these have impacted on specific companies. These insights are, of course, not the monopoly of Quakers—many are shared by all mystical religious traditions, but few mystics actually put their spirituality into business, whereas that is exactly what many Quakers did. In doing so, they achieved extraordinary results in business up until recently. Now in the twenty-first century, with all its volatility and chaotic change, is it not time for businesses to wake up to the extraordinary power of working with practices inspired by early Friends?

Early Quakers—George Fox, John Woolman, William Penn, Margaret Fell, Isaac Penington and many others—felt an intensely passionate love for God and Christ that was expressed by them in a language that we simply cannot use in the secular Western world. Theirs was a love that led them to forsake family, wealth, health, status, to suffer imprisonment and forfeiture of property, even execution, and to do so joyfully and without reproach. It was an overwhelmingly powerful experience of God’s love and this is a very far cry from the humdrum, anodyne functionality of much of the business world. Yet some of the early Quakers themselves set up exceptionally successful businesses, infused with their values, which were indeed imbued by this love. These businesses lasted several centuries, as is well known, and many have left a legacy such as Rowntree, whose benevolence has had very far reaching effects in many spheres of life.

The early inspiration of Friends transcends language and goes beyond Christianity, carrying as it does the universal truth of the power that comes when we experience the light and love of God, and are able to see it mirrored within the human spirit of each and every person. This truth, which they experienced directly is, of course, still accessible to anyone who is open to it. After all, what early Friends were tapping into was universal, above all limitations, creeds and dogma, race and culture. The universal experience of light and love and power that they knew is certainly not confined to Quakers, nor to religious or ‘spiritual’ people. Indeed, it may be as likely to be experienced in warehouses, salesrooms and boardrooms as in religious gatherings. Tiny sparks from that great fire ignited by George Fox in the seventeenth century have enlightened individuals and teams through the twenty-first century as they have drawn, in a secular way, on some of the same truths that early Friends uncovered. It may be controversial that the Quaker truths stripped of the explicitly religious language are used in secular contexts, and it may be felt that they lose their very essence. However, my experience is that even with secular language, even with no explicit spirituality, Quaker insights and spirituality can have a far-reaching and spiritual impact on modern businesses and on individual lives in the corporate world.

Over the last 18 years I have researched businesses and taken tools and insights implicitly based on Quaker truths and tools into businesses and organisations and this chapter is based on that experience.

Below are a few of the insights inspired by early Friends that I have used with businesses to help them transform the organisational problems they were confronting. Whilst these same or similar insights will have been central to a number of religious traditions, especially in the East, such as Buddhism, now practised in Mindfulness, the Quaker experience and expression of them remains as far as I am aware, perhaps unique to the industrialised world.

• 1. Stillness—something very simple and yet immeasurably powerful. ‘Be still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts’ George Fox 1658²

  Over the last 18 years I and colleagues have taught people in business how to have the courage and the ability to step back from the busyness of whatever is happening around them, to turn within, to calm their inner mind, to detach from the immediate physical experience, to briefly let go of the worldliness and to slow down their thoughts… to become still. They have been able to tap into their inner peace and wisdom and in doing so, have been able to shift from narrow, ego-centred perception to a wider perspective that brings with it solutions and creativity until then unseen.

  In many different types of business environment the tool of stillness has invariably helped employees to find solutions where before they had only seen problems. The results of practising stillness have been tangible. Longstanding feuds have been resolved, chronic issues of resourcing have been sorted, a troubled relocation has been enabled, discontent has evaporated, disengagement has turned into high engagement. It is difficult to overestimate the power of stillness. Some religious people may question the validity of this spiritual tool being used for such worldly matters but, when used with integrity and with an intention of compassion, stillness is one of the most effective tools a business can use and brings with it the very peace that George Fox and early Quakers sensed in the divine. More on this later in the chapter when we look at a specific case study.

  ‘Stand still in that which is pure.’ George Fox³

• 2. Silence is a close cousin of stillness and, like stillness, provides the space in which people can become alive to the new. ‘Love silence, even in the mind… Much speaking, as much thinking, spends. True silence… is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.’ William Penn⁴

  We have taught people how to speak less, to be silent, to listen more. Again, the results have been surprising. As one senior manager put it ‘When someone comes to me full of problems and complaints, I listen to their complaints, and then listen some more and when they have finished, then I continue to listen, and in that space of silence, they suddenly realise what it is they need to do. They come up with the answer for themselves.’ In one team in a large pharmaceutical company, they started their meetings with a minute of silence to simply become more present for the meeting. In another company a talking stick was used at staff development days so that the talkative ones became aware of the need to weigh their words more carefully. To speak less, to listen more, to be comfortable with silence -these consistently take a company to a higher level of discerning. One quite tough manager was promoted and several of his team said to me ‘thank goodness he learnt listening from you before he was promoted.’ He went on to be very successful, learning to curb his impatience, be quiet and listen to what team members needed to say.

• 3. Turn within to solve the problem—‘Why gad your abroad? Return home to within.’ Francis Howgill.⁵

  The early Quakers realised that when I change, the world changes, that outer change grows out of inner change and that I first have to look within. This is the very opposite of the worldly approach which is to always look for external solutions that require no inner change. The great struggles that Quakers engaged in, including the ending of slavery, point to the inner dimension, the need for a change of heart—what could be called metanoia, the inner transformation. When we read the early journals, it is clear that Friends were going through tremendous inner change that carried with it the discomfort and pain that happens as the old ego dies and the new person emerges. This transformation is not reserved for saints and great reformers, nor simply for the great reforms. The same process can happen daily in ordinary businesses as people stop, turn within, stop blaming, stop looking for solutions outside of themselves and find the change that they are prepared to make within themselves.

  Very often there is division within a company between the two top leaders; they fall into the trap of believing that their differences are a problem. It takes some inner reflection for them to realise that it is their own inability to tolerate difference that may well be contributing to the problem. Too often solutions are sought in external changes such as an increase in budget but it may well be a change of attitudes that will resolve the issue. In one care home, where carers were convinced that more staff would make everything better, they came to realise that it was the degree of regard and respect they had for one another and the warm-hearted cooperation between teams that would really make the difference and ease the workload. The solution lay in developing inner qualities, essentially spiritual values of seeing the good in others, and being open to actively tolerate difference, to trust and to co-operate.

• 4. Forgiveness ‘Our life is love and peace and tenderness; and bearing one with another and forgiving one another, not laying accusations one against another; … helping one another up with a tender hand.’ Isaac Penington, 1667.⁶

  Many a time have I seen people in the workplace realise that they needed to forgive and let go. First, we have taken care to create safe environments where people had the courage to ask for forgiveness. The change released by this has been astonishing in terms of the speed with which logjams, that may have been going on for months if not years, have been cleared. In one company, a senior director, was meeting with staff who were angry at a decision that had been made on high to relocate. He said to them ‘We need to ask for your forgiveness.’ The response to this was immediate. It opened the door for listening and mutual understanding in way that could not have happened without those seven powerful words.

  Forgiveness comes with a no-blame culture. I know of no company that better exemplifies this than Happy Computers, a training company, that simply does not deal in blame. When something goes wrong, Henry Stewart, the MD and his staff quite literally celebrate it as an opportunity to learn and understand what changes needs to occur. To read more about this see my ‘The Spirited Business’. To accept mistakes, to help one another up is the basis for forming high trust, high learning, co-operative organisations. People take responsibility for their actions and are accountable but are not blamed when they get it wrong. This approach opens the way for the courage to experiment, take risks, make mistakes, find the new. It is essential for a healthy, innovative company. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”—Albert Einstein

• 5. Respect and active care for each staff member regardless of status. I remember Edward Milligan describing how equality came naturally to the early Quaker business leaders. He evoked the millowner walking with his mill hand to go to a monthly meeting and talking about the issues at the mill together. Worldly status was not something that mattered to early Quakers, their eyes were set on a much higher goal of bringing in God’s transforming love, before which we are all equal. The Society of Friends was one of the first organisations to actively build into their organisational structure equality between men and women. In the twentieth century Ernest Bader and after him, his son, Godric, have built the company of Scott Bader around equality and shared ownership. This is a very different form of caring from paternalism which can disempower. It is showing care by respecting, valuing, listening, involving, empowering, encouraging people to learn and grow. ‘And so in the light, every one should have something to offer.’ George Fox Epistle 275 1680.⁷

• 6. Happiness ‘Walk cheerfully over the world’. George Fox 1656. How does this translate in a busy office environment? Why would people want to come to work if they cannot be happy there? They might come from a sense of compulsion, to earn money, to pay the mortgage, but compulsion is not a good basis for creating an ethos of growth, enthusiasm and creativity—the vital ingredients of a dynamic workplace. The Quaker experience and insight is that happiness and cheerfulness are not dependent on external factors. It is not necessarily a promotion, a change of manager, a pay rise that will make the difference but our ability to tap into our eternal capacity for happiness that lies within each one of us.

• 7. Journalling—The early Quakers understood the importance of journalling for self-reflection. The journals of George Fox and John Woolman show their vulnerability, their confusions, their inner doubt, their grappling with weaknesses within themselves, their stories. It is this willingness to go within to explore our thoughts and feelings, our hesitations and actions in a safe space that frees us from automatic pilot where we are pulled along by our own preconceptions and reactions.

  In my work in organisations we gave each person we worked with an empty book, a journal in which they could each day reflect on the day before and reflect on the day to come. For some this was a struggle. Those who were dyslexic dreaded writing and were loath to try. Others took to it readily. It provided a space to be quiet and to shift one’s thoughts into directions that nourish us. So, for example, people would start the day, either at home or at work, jotting down five celebrates from the day before. They might write down what had inspired them, what had they learnt or what would they like to let go of. They would also free write about things that were bugging and troubling them, in this way bringing into the cool light of day discontents that might have spilt out at work in careless grumpiness, instead expressing it in the safe space of their journal. Some would jot down their vision for the day or for the week. One leader in a senior position in a public service used his journal every day on his commute to work and it transformed his journey into an enriching experience.

  Of course, the main purpose is to raise self-awareness, to help people become alert to what is really happening within their hearts and minds. It is a place to explore, become aware, be very honest about what really was happening for them. The seeds of strife, whether at home or work start in the mind and it is the careful attention to our mind and to our thoughts that enables us to create peace where there is conflict.

  I am personally a better person as a result of being introduced to these tools and at least do now understand my drivers and my impact on the staff around me. My challenge will always be to reflect and communicate effectively both of which are difficult for me but when I achieve both the team is like a well-oiled machine. (C.F. Senior Manager)

  The unexamined life is not worth living. (Socrates)

  Once a day, especially in the early years of life and study, call yourselves to an account of what new ideas, what new proposition or truth you have gained, what further confirmation of known truths, and what advances you have made in any part of knowledge. (Isaac Watts, The Improvement of the Mind to Which Are Added a Discourse on the Education of Children)

• 8. Head above the parapet—early Quakers embodied courage in their willingness to challenge the status quo and to do things differently, however much they might be ridiculed or punished for doing so. Whether it was social or religious mores, Friends were prepared to refuse to conform to what was, and instead to do what their inner guidance led them to do. Even very small things take courage. So, for example, when a company of scientists were in conflict, one of the leaders told them to get together and ‘listen with ears, eyes and an open heart’ as he himself had been taught a month or so before. He added, ‘I don’t care if they think I have gone soft, it is what they need to do if we are to resolve the situation.’

  At a large pharmaceutical company, a junior staff member reminded her team, including her boss, that it would be good to start their team meeting with some stillness, as had been suggested at an earlier staff training day. One care home owner showed courage when he shared his vulnerability over his pain at feeling alone and that his vision for the care home was not understood or shared.

  These are relatively small acts of courage, but cumulatively, the willingness to speak up and speak out, to make oneself vulnerable, to stop pretending that the old ways are working, to take risks and do what is uncomfortable add up to the possibility of growing out of the old and into the new. The Emperor’s New Clothes comes to mind for me here. We know British business is not working—it has the lowest productivity in Europe along with very low engagement, and yet how many will dare challenge the status quo and offer a different way of doing things—a way that draws on the human spirit, on one’s inner strength and on one’s core values.

• 9. The little humdrum things matter—‘I am done with the great things and big plans, great institutions and big success. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capil.’ William James⁸

  Peach Personnel⁹ is an employment agency. Each person who comes in passes the receptionist, June. The goal she has set herself is that everyone who walks in will walk out an inch or so taller than when they walk out. She recognises that those who come in are out of a job and are about to be interviewed to see their suitability for work. ‘These people need building up, and they need to feel totally comfortable and at ease in the first place so that they will be able to open up and talk to you and the consultant. I try to lay the foundations, help get people totally relaxed…. Because, as I say, most of us have been in that situation before and it’s a horrible time, isn’t it I mean, I’d hate not to have a job.’

  It is the little things such as how we greet one another and give a sense of welcome when someone arrives, that can make the difference between unhappiness and happiness. The mindfulness movement is increasingly making itself felt and the practice is being used in large companies such as Google¹⁰ where people are invited to pay attention to the little things such as our breath, a smile, a kind wish, a cup of tea.

  ‘Take the common things of life and walk truly amongst them.’

• 10. Peace—Within the Society there has always been the commitment to peace and the recognition that inner peace leads to outer peace. A vast number of Quaker-inspired resources support the resolving of conflict honestly and creatively. Such work frees businesses of the multitude of aggravations and antagonisms, reproaches and resentments that fuel a culture of grievance and tribunals. Several managers who have undertaken soul-friendly approaches have said to me that whereas in the past they had to spend 25% of their time just dealing with personality clashes now that time is freed up and they can get on with work. This is a much more efficient way of working together that requires no technology, no great outlay, simply the tools of peace-making.

• 11. Simplicity—There is the testimony to the power of simplicity as a means to free ourselves from attachment to the superficial. The technological revolution of the last 40 years has brought unlimited data, gossip, distractions before us as our phone pings every few minutes as yet another tweet arrives or our computer flashes up the latest email. Designed to be addictive, social media can eat up hours of our day to no effect. A multi-billion-pound advertising industry feeds on complicating our lives, enticing us to need more and selling us goods with built in obsolescence. The complexity of life gets greater with every day. To find our way through this jungle of distraction we need to find ways to simplify, to keep in front of us those things that are truly important and let go of the rest. We need to keep our inner freedom and remain detached from the unlimited distractions. In my work in organisations this has involved cutting through the stories and history of what has gone wrong in the past and bringing people into this present moment in all its simplicity. It requires discerning the core values and actively drawing on those values to help us stay focussed and concentrated amidst the distractions. And simplicity calls for discernment which comes with the other tools such as stillness.

  Friends are watchful to keep themselves free from self-indulgent habits, luxurious ways of living and the bondage of fashion. This freedom is the first condition of vigour in all kinds of effort, whether spiritual, intellectual or physical. (Faith and practice of Philadelphia Y. M. (1955)¹¹)

• 12. Vision—‘I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness.’ George Fox ¹²

  In Values and Visions¹³ visioning is described in terms of picturing the future and allowing it to shape and create the present. It may involve using the imagination to freely explore the past, present and future. It can be a process of inspiring ourselves and others. It is our capacity to stand firmly in the present whilst projecting ourselves into the future through visioning that provides the energy and the pull to create a better world and to withstand the trials that may well beset us in the present. Viktor Frankl¹⁴ demonstrated this very clearly when he showed how the longevity and wellbeing of a prisoner depended very much on how they imagined the future—their having the courage to hold a clear and positive vision of what was to come.

  When we vision we see what our physical senses cannot see.

  I have worked with countless organisations to help them vision the future. The process of visioning frees them from being stuck in the prison of present problems whilst uncovering what is needed to resolve them. It also creates unexpected unity because people discover that for the most part they all want the same future, one of happiness, energy, peace. They may not express it as the ocean of light but their visions usually contain those elements that all souls long for. It is too easy to forget that we have much more in common than separates us.

There are many more principles and insights of Friends, most of them way ahead of their time. For example, a global perspective was expressed fulsomely by John Woolman throughout his journal: ‘I found no narrowness respecting sects and opinions’.¹⁵ The vision of Quakers has always transcended national, cultural and faith boundaries and is inclusive of those of all faiths and none. Unbound by creed or dogma, the Quaker practice is to see the spirit, the best in each human being—often described as ‘that of God’. Because of this, equality between women and men, disabled and able-bodied, rich and poor, black and white, has been integral to Quaker life long before other organisations even now, laboriously struggle to catch up. Policies and procedures lack power and fail to deliver when not fuelled by some of the above 12 principles.

One of the areas where Friends were far-sighted was in anticipating centuries ago the importance of spirituality to every human being in all aspects of life including corporate life. Only at the end of the twentieth century was there an awakening in the world to the significance of spirituality in the workplace.¹⁶ However, Friends have taught this from the beginning, that the human spirit—the soul—is essentially who we are and unless the spirit is nourished we are imprisoned in a shallow reality that steals from us our peace, our happiness and our power. Quakers have from the outset shown how to nourish the spirit and to do this in very practical ways as touched on in the 12 insights above.

Let us now look in a little more detail at how they play out in practice in business.

FormalPara The First Principle that Is Particularly Powerful Is that of Stillness

‘Stand still in the light…’ George Fox wrote in 1652.¹⁷ This ability to do something very simple but profoundly radical—to become still—lies right at the heart of the Quaker tradition. Whilst Buddhists and mystics will have been practising stillness for millennia before Fox, this was not a practice that ordinary people in the Western world, that was soon to be industrialised, knew about in the seventeenth and eighteenth century let alone the twenty-first century. Although the Mindfulness movement since the late 1970s has taught stillness very effectively, it is Quaker practice over centuries that has witnessed to its power.

In becoming still, we step away from the humdrum day-to-day reality and allow ourselves to move back from it and become open to a deeper reality, much more subtle reality, one of truth that is not coloured by our ego or our limited perceptions. In a twenty-first century culture where being busy and active is seen as a demonstration of effectiveness, it is quite counter-intuitive to take stillness into business. And yet of the 12 principles, it is this ‘tool’ of stillness that has consistently made the greatest difference to the staff I have worked with, and to their ability to do their work. Of course, initially there may be resistance to experimenting with it; after all, it feels odd to be sitting in a room with your MD and managers, closing your eyes, letting go of your thoughts and just being still and fully present. It takes some courage. It also requires care in how the environment is prepared.

One group of world class scientists were involved in a very contentious relocation programme where people were extremely angry and felt let down by the leadership. We organised a two-day retreat for the 24 team leaders involved, all of whom were scientists, all of whom were angry. Our job was to see if we could shift the log jam of negativity and total resistance to the proposed changes. On the first day we introduced the scientists to the rationale for stillness and taught them how to use it. They could understand the logic behind it—how we can move from automatic pilot to choice once we become still. They experienced for themselves how effectively it worked in terms of getting a calmer and broader, deeper perspective from that with which they had been struggling.

The next day the bosses came and there was to be a full meeting with all the team leaders. It promised to be a heated and uncomfortable confrontation but we invited everyone to go into stillness. The scientists, who had already learnt how to do it, became still very readily and a calm filled the room. The bosses looked decidedly uncertain and indeed for a second there was an incredulous laugh but then, as they saw the team dip down into the peace of stillness, they too closed their eyes, tuned into their breath, became still. A tense, fraught business situation that could have cost the company literally millions and caused irreparable harm in terms of losing irreplaceable world class employees, was transformed into a search for common solutions, common understanding. The anger and ill feeling was largely ‘cooled’ and a spirit of co-operation and respect took over. In the following months the change programme was implemented with minimal loss of staff and the result was highly successful in terms of high retention and staff satisfaction and high performance.

Through the use of the few simple but very powerful tools and techniques we have succeeded in capturing the hearts and minds of our staff to enable them to make the difficult personal and professional decisions arising from the relocation of our business to another part of the country. Prior to engagement of these tools there was a lot of distrust and miscommunication which threatened the viability of the business after the move. (N.M. Technical Director)

As scientists, they could readily see the rationale. We are, as human beings, generally on automatic pilot—we receive a stimulus and react to it. But if we receive a stimulus and become still we get to choose a response. Instead of knee-jerk reactions based on prejudice or habit, we are able to use the stillness to tap into our creativity and generate a response. This moves us from being on automatic pilot. The mind has a negative bias and anger, resentment and the urge to hit back thrive on automatic pilot. It is those emotional parts of the mind, such as the amygdala, that are most readily activated by any perceived threat, however tiny and change such as relocation is often experienced as a major threat at an emotional level. The area of the brain, the frontal cortex where we can self-regulate our responses and where rational thought occurs gets bypassed. When we learn to press the pause button, become still, we are able to choose our response. We can choose to stand back from the negative emotional reaction and access our frontal cortex where we make reasoned decisions. This lifts the level of thinking and discernment; it opens up the possibility of choosing the best solution. Stillness does not need to take a long time, even a moment or so is sufficient for us to take a breath or two and actively shift our thinking from the limbic brain and the amygdala (which holds the emotional charge) into the frontal cortex where we can make rational choices. Moreover, it gives us space to tap into our intuition and to hear the still, small voice within. It gives us the opportunity to choose compassion for ourself and others—to stop struggling and stressing, reacting and resisting and instead to draw on our inner capacity for peace.

The most extreme example of this ability to respond rather than react is to be found in the experience of Viktor Frankl:

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s own attitude in any given set of circumstances—to choose one’s own way. (Viktor Frankl)

Indeed, with many of the companies we worked with the problems that initially they faced with concern, fear, blame and resentment, once looked at from a place of stillness, became obstacles to be overcome, opportunities to be ingenious, times of growth and learning.

“By watching in the stillness to be renewed in strength.” John Woolman.¹⁸

FormalPara The Second Principle Is About Happiness

Friends have always been very well aware that our ability to be happy is not dependent on outward circumstance as indeed the Viktor Frankl quote above demonstrates. It is an inner capacity that we can awaken to and is closely linked to the health of our inner world, the strength of our spirit, and our ability to use spiritual tools and practices to help us navigate the turbulent waters that inevitably test each of us in life.

It is interesting to note that the response of the early Quakers to imprisonment and persecution carried the quality of cheerfulness, choicefulness and compassion. Even impending execution for their faith could not rob them of their happiness. The old Quaker song, ‘How can I keep from singing’, is a powerful expression of this enduring capacity we carry within us.

Countless workplaces are unhappy, plagued with discontent, disillusionment, disappointment, dullness, depression, personality clashes, resentments, reproaches, a sense of not being valued and of passing one’s life where one doesn’t want to be. The following story is an illustration of this and explains how the application of tools that essentially carry the Quaker insights were able to transform an unhappy workplace into a happy workplace. Using tools of stillness, listening, silence, gratitude, grieving, visioning and journalling this Care Home turned around a miserable home, wretched for both staff and residents, in to a vibrant and happy home. The story is best told by the manager of the home.

I had just taken over as manager at a residential care home for older people with Alzheimer’s and Dementia. I had been recruited because the home was in crisis. It had been without a full-time manager for eighteen months and there had been a series of interim managers who had come in and made changes in line with their personal philosophy rather than organisational policies.

The result was a very fractured and demoralised staff team who were delivering a poor quality of care to the residents of the home; the focus had shifted away from the residents and onto the staff. There were several long term outstanding grievances that had not been dealt with and there seemed that a day did not go by without some new staff issue that needed to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. As a manager I was unable to effectively make any changes to the quality of the service, as my time was spent dealing with staffing issues. When I did attempt to make changes, the staff were sceptical and hostile, their response was “this has been done before”, “You will be gone in a few months and someone else will come and change it again”, “Why should we bother”.

In April of 2005 I was selected by my organisation to take part in a new idea. This was to be a transformational workshop. I have to admit that at first I was sceptical but on the other hand I was desperate for something to help me break the deadlock I felt the home was in.

Georgeanne and her team met with me and explained what the workshop would entail, they also spent a great deal of time before the workshop speaking with the staff team and getting them to express their frustrations and anxieties about what was wrong with the home and how they felt things could move forward.

Because of the existing problems, we decided to use the “two day event” as it became known to us, as a way to treat the staff team and say “thank you, we know the past few months have been difficult but it is now time to change” We booked a nice hotel in the centre of London and laid on lunches and a staff dinner at the end of the first day.

From the very beginning, when Georgeanne and her team came in to explain the process and started to speak to the staff, they created a sense of excitement, a can do attitude began to appear in the team. Something was happening but we did not know what.

The two day transformational workshop was just fantastic, the whole team turned up for the first day with so much energy and excitement. The event helped us identify what we all wanted for the home. Funnily enough we all wanted the same thing, we all wanted a great place to work where the residents of the home had the best levels of service we could give them, we wanted the best home.

If you’d have asked me what the staff wanted at the beginning of the day, I never in a million years would have said that. Georgeanne helped us see that we all wanted the same thing, we were just all going about getting it in different ways and the result was conflict and distress.

Over the two days Georgeanne and her team helped us heal the team so that we could then move forward to making the home a great place to live. We worked together to identify what the problems were and what we could all do to move beyond them and move forward. They gave us the tools to apply when we returned to the home that would help us to continue to move forward.

What was the result? We had spent a lot of money on this.

On entering the home on the first day after the event, it was like walking into a different home, people were smiling and laughing, being nice to each other and helping each other out. This translated directly onto the service the residents of the home received. Several residents asked if we had secretly replaced the staff with look-alikes. There was a new energy in the home, one of excitement and optimism. We were on top of the world and we could change the home and make it a great place to live and work.

It truly was a transformation. I am so proud of what we have achieved since our time on this programme. We use the tools for change regularly and these have helped us move through the inevitable difficulties that arise when you are running a home.

If it had not been for our connection with this programme I feel it would have taken us a considerable length of time for us to get where we are today. In fact I do not think we would be where we are today if it had not been for it. As a manager I gained new insight into my team, I was given skills and tools for helping me move through road blocks. My team and the home shifted to a place I was proud to be in. We were a transformed team and as a result the residents now live in a great home with people who really care about the service they receive. (Andrew M-B. Care Home Manager)

A tyre company, consisting of salesroom and warehouse, was an unlikely place in which to introduce Quaker principles but this is the impact they had:

We have been able to help people reassess their self-imposed limits—both on themselves and their colleagues. The training (using some of the above tools) has helped us to have confidence in ourselves and a belief in the abilities of the group collectively. Our staff now treats each other with more respect and more patience. The general tone of the dialogue is now geared towards achieving results by encouragement and understanding. Lines of communication are now conducted openly and productively. Long-standing habits are being questioned and changed. I am finding our staff happier and more fulfilled. They enjoy themselves more and give every impression they can achieve tasks that they would have run away from before the training. Put simply, this programme enhances the good things that we had at Broadway, coupled with the introduction of vibrancy, belief and enthusiasm, which we need to take us into the future with confidence. (Guy B, C.O.O.)

FormalPara Conclusion

Early Quakers experienced the power of God’s love and life and developed the practices necessary to carry that experience into every aspect of their living and dying. The world that is today going through a period of extreme volatility, uncertainty, doubt and fear, generally fuelled by greed and ignorance, spends billions trying to patch up the consequences of this. Stress, anxiety, depression, addictive responses, mental health issues, staff turnover and sickness, low morale and poor engagement all take a very heavy and costly toll on people, business and our public organisations. Quakers do indeed have treasures, simple though they be, that can transform troubled and dispiriting, failing organisations into innovative, creative places where the human spirit thrives. After a two-day course learning these Quaker inspired tools, the European FD of a large multinational wrote:

It taught me some very simple, but very powerful, tools: simple actions like listening and reflecting can feel very out of place in a busy, task oriented, workplace—but this course showed me that such simple actions are at the very core of highly efficient businesses. The tools resonate immediately, and are easy to take back into any workplace. Not only are the tools easy to use—but they work immediately. These are powerful tools which give anyone committed to using them the power to transform their business. It showed me the creative potential available to any business if it chooses to tap into the whole resources of each unique individual, instead of treating its employees like a commodity. (Teresa M. Finance Director Hertz)

The work undertaken in education with Values and Visions¹⁹ in the 1990s provided the framework and tools that were then taken into the businesses that I have described in this chapter. And the insights from business are now, in their turn, informing how we can work to transform education to prepare young people with the spiritual tools, the creativity and resilience they need for the volatile world in which we live. When spiritual tools of reflection infuse both our education and our corporate world then the vision of the early Quakers will have become our present reality at last.