Report on Conference Call: Integrating Compassion and Sustainability in the Workplace, March 17, 2015

Orientation to the Speaker and the Call

Anil Sachdev, Founder of the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL) in Gurgaon, India, is focused on building leaders with character, competence and enthusiasm.  In this conference call, he discusses the importance of bringing compassion and sustainability to the workplace. He provides an update on the School of Inspired Leadership and shares connections he’s made and things he’s learned in the process.

The question Anil poses for group discussion:
How can organizations take responsibility for the way we live now? (This question recognizes that a lot of unskillful ways of living are responsible for conflict and violence in our world.)

Call Agenda

Welcome and Introduction:  Reed Price/Mary Ella Keblusek

Presentation:  Anil Sachdev

Questions & Answers:  Group and Breakout Groups- to discuss the question posed by Anil

Group Discussion/ Q &A:  Group

Final Remarks:  Anil Sachdev and Closing:  Reed Price

Welcome and Introduction

Reed Price:  Welcome on behalf of the Charter for Compassion International (CfC).  Today, Anil Sachdev is joining us from Gurgaon, India.  [Reed reviewed the agenda for the call.] In follow-up to this call, we will send out an email with notes/links, etc.  My contact email is: .  The topic for today’s call, “Integrating Compassion and Sustainability in the Workplace,” is one that Anil is exceptionally well-qualified to address.  He believes in the critical importance of this work.  His education model is both moral and useful.  He will update us on the School of Inspired Leadership (SOIL), a business school that provides holistic education.  SOIL enables people to know who they are so they can apply their unique talents in the workplace.  The SOIL website is: http://www.soilindia.net/.  Anil is member of Charter Global Council.  

Mary Ella Keblusek:  [Explained the technical aspects of the call.  If you have a question, click 1 on your phone.  If you have a technical problem, click 5 on your phone.]

Presentation

Anil Sachdev:   For many years we have been struggling with the question- how are we taking responsibility for the way we live?  In a country like India, the 15th century and the 21st century co-exist.   How do we put democratic systems to work to alleviate the discrepancies we face in society?  For those of us more fortunate to be born in the right families and to have education, we are able to become competent to earn a living.  However, we are surrounded by those who are impoverished.  We can see that the way economic development is occurring in the world is not in a balanced way.  Education prepares us for careers with an emphasis on share-holder evaluations.  People are not paying enough attention to what we are creating for our community and planet and how we are honoring Mother Nature. 

How are we creating our future?  Many of us spend most of our life in workplaces.  First there is our education and then we are in the workplace.  Much of our other time is spent traveling to work or thinking about work.  The culture of our workplaces and the values we are following have a profound impact on how we are behaving in our communities and neighborhoods.  We learn how to compete, get ahead, grow exponentially, get reward incentives, etc…  We were rewarding the wrong things.  How we maximize profit has been the main objective.  We have not been looking at the impacts of what we are creating on the system.  The financial crisis that started in North America and spread over the world has prompted the thought that education needs to be more holistic.  This is especially true for higher education and graduate schools.  Many times, in these environments, students meet people - professors and people from industry- who sometimes belittle the importance of values, implying that those values belong in the family and religious centers and not in the workplace.  Compassion is viewed as a weakness.  Students are exposed to cynical comments.   I and my colleagues began to talk with many companies, the more responsible companies.  We wanted to create an experiment in education.  Can we build character in people who are in their 20’s?  Can we reinforce values?  We began new conversation. 

The way to achieve “competence” is to think in a holistic way.  We must consider the impact of our decisions on the long-term, not just the short-term.  Competence involves thinking about the whole and not just a part. To run workplaces based on ideals requires enthusiasm.  What is the larger purpose of life?  What is the North Star we are seeking?  What is our calling?  How can we leverage our gifts to our true calling and larger purpose?  When we do this, we can do our best work and create leaders who are inspired.  We must learn to listen to the inner voice.  SOIL has developed a whole curriculum that teaches students how to think like this.  The curriculum is based on the 5 pillars of Mindfulness, Ethics, Compassion, Diversity and Sustainability.  Students practice yoga, breathing, and meditation and learn how to become fully aware.  This awareness allows people to live in the present without anxiety about the future.  The entire curriculum is about well-being.  Once people are aware, then people take responsibility and begin to care.  We build emotional intelligence and empathy.  Then, we are moved to help relieve the suffering of those around us. We ask ourselves:  What happens to the communities when we pollute?  What happens to people in the long-term?  We begin to care a lot more. 

We have a “social innovation” program.  The students in this program are people who have worked 1-2 years in the workforce.  They come back to SOIL and choose to work with a non-profit organization working on societal issues 1 day per week for 1 year.  They work in teams.  Students take responsibility for a social cause in the community.  They learn the true meaning of compassion.  We bring students from awareness to mindfulness, then to caring and daring (through action).  Students learn to honor diversity and leverage their unique gifts.   We learn to do more with less.  We take responsibility for the world’s resources, responsibility for today and the future.  We link students to sustainable business practices, e.g. green technology, etc.   Students begin to look at the quality of the decision-making in their own work.  The acronym “CEO” is re-framed to mean “Community, Ecological System, Ourselves.”  In this framework, we create the right ethics and decision making.  We take more balanced positions. 

At SOIL, we study through role-play, using theater.   We need to bring our own gifts to our work. This is about diversity. SOIL has a unique process for admission.  We look at multiple intelligences.  We teach inter-cultural diversity.  We teach students to recognize their own uniqueness and the unique talents of others and how to maximize that.  SOIL was co-created by 32 firms.  Now, 500 alumni have graduated.  We also have a program for emerging leaders- an executive course.  We run a global leadership program in the US, Europe, and China to expose people throughout the world.  We introduce a basic way of learning.  We link education to knowing (holistic thinking), doing (more with less), and being (character).

My colleague, Kanupriya, is also here on the call and will be involved in the discussion.

Questions & Answers

Randy:  So wonderful!  What reception have you had in the faith community in India?

Anil:  We start each school day with the morning circle ritual.  We join hands and recite a prayer from any faith.  Then, people begin to go deeper.  Often, we have spiritual masters of different disciplines to come and talk with the students.  Every year in November, we go to live in an Ashram. We also go to His Holiness’s temple.  His Holiness encourages interfaith dialogue.  Spirituality is about following the highest purpose in our life, whatever faith we have.

Breakout Groups

Question for discussion:  How can organizations take responsibility for the way we live now?

Lesa Walker’s Breakout Group Notes

Jason- Denver, Colorado:   Two things really resonated with me.  First: taking responsibility for the social organization.  Second:  I am a trained actor.  I am intrigued by SOIL’s use of theater as a big piece of the curriculum.  I was working in New Jersey at the time of “9/11” and found it interesting to see how the community shifted in the face of tragedy.  I also like the re-framing of “CEO” into “Community, Environment, Ourselves”.  I want to take this information into my workplace. 

Julie- Anchorage, Alaska:  I liked the idea of community responsibility.  In work, we can get very self-centered about our work.  Actually putting community responsibility into action is often left out.  Using theater is a good way to practice roles. 

Randy- Winona, Minnesota:  We have a “community quality council”.   We are trying to find a deeper, humanist way to work.  We have been talking about a curriculum.  I am intrigued by starting with looking at our inner self through yoga, meditation, etc.  If we are not grounded, we may not be able to create positive change in the workplace.  CEO leaders can come to a deeper level of consciousness.  It is hard to achieve this based on the way the current system works.

Lesa-  Austin, Texas:   I also liked the theater aspect.  Role-play allows people the freedom to leave their own professional personas and explore other perspectives.  I liked reframing “CEO” into “Community, Environment, Ourselves.”  This is “3D” compassion:  caring for others, self, and the Earth.  I would like to see the spread of this type of education vertically- to all ages- starting in elementary.

Julie:  I like the idea of the inner work so the outer work comes from a deeper place.

Randy:  I heard Anil talk about various companies that are supportive of his work.  One I recognized was “Johnson & Johnson”.  I wonder what other companies in US are recognizing his work.

Jason:  Anil’s culture is different from that in the US.  We are so motivated by the dollar.  The extreme poverty in India motivates people to do something.  His idea of doing more with less needs to gain momentum.  We live in places that don’t have the same values.

Randy:  Jason, do you know of Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute in Denver- spiral dynamics- reinventing organizations?  There is a whole series of ideas about how people can talk about value streams.  When we do the inner work, we can talk about our differences.  There is the whole mime about making money and that is central to our culture.  We have to begin to appreciate the vast value differences and turn to the inner work.  We need to come from a stance of loving kindness to be able to talk with each other. 

Lesa:  From what I heard Anil say, it looks like he has been able to address some of the values differences.   It would be good to see if SOIL is making any progress with other companies in India who were less receptive at the beginning.

Group Discussion

Reed:  Now we will have time for a group discussion.  Feel free to share highlights from the breakout sessions and/or ask questions, share comments, etc.

Lesa:  Anil, thank you for your inspiring presentation.  We all admire your work.  We are wondering about what impact SOIL is having on companies that perhaps were more skeptical at the outset?

Anil:  I have many examples.  One example is the Kohler Company in Wisconsin.  They are very performance driven.  The daughter of owner attended the SOIL leadership program.  She and her brother David Kohler are now generating a critical mass of leaders who are creating a new business culture at Kohler- creating more balance in the company- combining analytic skills with generative skills.  Other companies are hiring SOIL graduates in larger numbers.  SOIL students offer new thinking and questions.  Still, however, SOIL is a young school.  I enjoy the challenge and the chance to serve and start the new conversation. 

Sande:  I represent the Compassion Games International and the United Religions Initiative (URI).  Thank you Anil for the brilliant presentation.  It is difficult to answer the question you posed.  It is a loaded question.  Corporations are the largest contributors to the environment and to politics.  It is important to recognize that compassion is possible.  Compassion helps employees show up to work and reduce impact on the environment.  The Compassion Games provide the opportunity for team-building.  We are not competitors in this world- we need to strive together.  We need to fill the relationship with the other- strive together to serve the better whole.  That’s what the Compassion Games are about.  We may be the first generation to experience our impact on the environment and we may be the last to do something about it.  It starts with the corporations. 

Anil:  It is encouraging to look at this, especially the Compassion Games- the right kind of competition.  The Compassion Games provide the element of fun- generating more laughter, well-being, and a sense of connection.  I admire the work of Compassion Games.  Each of us can feel the direct impact from making compassion part of our daily lives.

Reed:  Anil, what do you do when you are in an organization that gives “lip-service” to compassion and caring about people and the Earth, but their actions don’t seem to work that way? How can you creatively disrupt an organization?

Anil:  Gandhi said that the change begins with me.  Each individual needs to act in their own lives.  Also, we need to create a critical mass of people who think the same way.  Peter Block talks about “teaching revolution to the ruling class”.  We need to help leadership change their way of thinking.  As change agents, it is important to arrange conversations among those in power and those who think differently.  Then, the decision makers might change their way of thinking.   We need to make the intangible as important as the tangible.  Such a business orientation is very good for customers.   We need to facilitate dialog with the ones in power.

Final Remarks

Reed:  Again, the SOIL website is http://www.soilindia.net/.

Anil:  I am very joyful to be part of this conversation today.  We have an emotional connection between us even though we are not face to face.  We are all here with an altruistic purpose.  That is what culture and society and nations are about.  Starting this conversation in the workplaces is our focus.  There are 3 ultimate questions:  1) how do I experience others,  with what assumptions?;  2) How do others experience me as I work with them?; and,  3) How do people experience themselves in my presence - do they discover purpose and inspiration?

We must strive to develop a sense of gratitude in our own life.  When we do, we act in ways that demonstrate more responsibility for the world today and in the future.  Thanks to the CfC

, Reed, and Mary Ella and all the people who volunteer in the compassionate community.  Thank you to all.  I look forward to connecting in the future.

Closing

Reed:  Thank you so much.  We appreciate your insights.  They are inspiring and motivating.  I will collect websites, etc. from Anil and pass them on to everyone.   The Charter for Compassion (CfC) has a series of these calls.  If you have suggestion for topics/speakers, contact me at . Also, please explore the CfC website:   www.charterforcompassion.org