The Voisen Cooperative

1) Our oftentimes complex, stressful and noisy modern world is a symptom, not a cause, of our own internal dis-ease.

That’s right, the problem isn’t out there as we oftentimes prefer to believe. Stress and unfulfillment are a direct result of our choices, both as individuals and as a modern culture, in the ways we choose to work and live.

Time management and productivity experts will have us believe that more time management and more organization are the answer to the problems of our noisy world. Unfortunately, while they might help, by themselves they are not enough. Analogous to much of modern medicine, this typical approach to stress is only a band-aid, a treatment of a symptom instead of rooting out and preventing the cause. If stress is a result of the constant compulsion to do, and do more, then doing more, even in less time, will only aggravate the problem.

We need a different approach. Instead, we have to look at the state of mind and habitual or cultural predispositions that have put us where we are — the constant pursuit of more, the incessant need to validate ourselves through more accomplishments and the accumulation of stuff. This unceasing desire for more — the drive of the ego that transforms us from “human beings” into “human doings” — that is what lies at the root of the problem. Work on that and you’ll start to see real solutions.

2) Positive change in your life and the human organizations that you are a part of begins with a better, deeper understanding of yourself. Self-knowledge is the most important asset of any leader.

The 13th-century Chinese Zen master Dogen Zenji once wrote, “To study the Way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self. To forget the self is to be enlightened by all things, and to remove the barriers between oneself and others.” Everything we do at The Voisen Cooperative starts with deep personal inquiry and introspection. If we don’t recognize and understand our own personal assumptions and paradigms about who we are and how we relate to the world, we can’t possibly begin an effective course of change.

By first looking within and studying ourselves we can initiate the most powerful form of change — change from the inside-out.

3) Silence is fundamental to understanding.

For the most part, we live in a culture that abhors silence. The modern world, especially the modern Western/American world is characterized by incessant motion, bustle, activity, and unending communication in the form of T.V., radio, advertising, and more. External activity without a balancing aspect of internal silence and contemplation leads to chaos. It leads to life and work based on habitual reaction instead of proaction founded on deep understanding.

If you think about it, when someone is talking to you, you can’t understand that person’s words unless there are gaps between each word — periods of the briefest silence that differentiate one word from the next. In the same way, to better understand your life, you need periods of silence interspersed with periods of noise and activity. Silence is fundamental, and these days it’s underrated.

4) We can do no great things; only small things with great love.

These are the wise, wise words of the late Mother Teresa. She spoke of a truth that is often difficult for many of us to grasp. She spoke of the fact that great change comes one step at a time — it comes by pursuing with mindfulness and compassion those small, attainable goals that can make a difference.

We understand that, first and foremost, changing the world means changing yourself. It means living a life of purpose and service and enjoying every minute of it — the laughter and the tears. Because when you enjoy your life, your joy and enthusiasm affects those around you, and those around you in turn affect others, and so forth and so on until a little bit of your attitude has affected everybody else … all 6.5 billion of us.

That is why Mother Teresa’s famous statement is probably best supported by the words of Reinhold Niebuhr in his “Serenity Prayer”:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.

5) Organizations don’t change; people do.

Creating an organizational culture that fosters fulfillment, productivity and success does not happen by working on the systems of the organization itself; it happens by shifting the attitudes and minds of the people who make up the organization. Many clients come to us wanting us to “fix” their company’s problems as if the company were some type of mechanical machine that can be tweaked and manipulated. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, human organizations don’t work this way.

Change comes from creating a climate and environment where the people in an organization want to work on and improve themselves. It comes from creating a culture where the problem is never “out there,” but always “in here.” Come together as a group and ask yourselves: How can we shift our perspective? How can we let go of our attachments to routine ways of doing things? How can we create a workplace where everyone has pride and ownership in everything they do? Answer these questions and you’re on the right track.