BARCELONA 2015

The fourth IAMSR conference was held in Barcelona during its Sant Jordi annual festival – the most Catalan of holidays, celebrating scholarship and romance (it is Catalonia’s Valentine’s Day), whereby men traditionally receive books and women a rose – well reflected in the conference theme: spirituality & creativity. The packed program featured for the first time a doctoral track too.

Chris Lowney

The red tie, the ochre robe, and the million dollar inheritance: Why inner freedom is essential to creative choices and sound decisions

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Chris Lowney’s talk will explore the spiritual underpinnings of creativity in our workplaces and organizations. Drawing on examples that range from 16th century to 21st, from corporate executives to Pope Francis, he will challenge us to think about spirituality and creativity in new ways. He will teach us a simple “spiritual technology” that can bring greater inner freedom as we face critical choices in work and life.

Naomi Tutu

The Gift of Ubuntu: A Contribution of African Spirituality to the Future of Management and Workplace Relations

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The Gift of Ubuntu: A Contribution of African Spirituality to the Future of Management and Workplace Relations

The concept of Ubuntu is one that is found in the majority of African languages. At its most basic it speaks of humanness, and it is this very basic meaning that underlies the depth of the concept. From it comes that most famous of African proverbs, “A person is a person, through other people.” Ubuntu calls out to the characteristic that we all share, our basic humanity and calls us to recognize the humanity of all those with whom we come into contact. Ubuntu teaches that you cannot compartmentalize your life into “business” versus relationships, or emotional attachments. How you deal in business speaks to who you are in the whole of your life. How you interact with supervisors and subordinates reflects who you truly are in the world. How would our workplaces change if we approached them as places that called for our full humanity to be shown, and the humanity of those with whom we work to be recognized and respected?

Richard Barrett

The Spiritual/Psychological Dimensions of Creativity and Flow

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The Spiritual/Psychological Dimensions of Creativity and Flow

Creativity, like every other attribute of human vitality is closely linked to the alignment of the ego’s motivations with the soul’s motivations. When you are in alignment with your soul, you not only experience high levels of creativity, you also experience flow. Richard will explain, by referencing his model of the Seven Stages of Psychological Development, how to attain and maintain high levels of creativity and flow. He will also explain the factors that block creativity and flow.

Jaume Gurt

The impact of spiritual and altruistic management on employee’s happiness, creativity and productivity: The Infojobs story

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Academic research has demonstrated the benefits of happiness at work. Happy employees are more productive, creative and innovative. (1) Happiness at work also increases the likelihood of business sales and profits, protects employees from stress and decreases absenteeism.

The importance of spirituality and altruism in management plays a key role in business success. Managers who succeed in integrating spirituality into their work, focusing on values such as compassion, altruism, respect, integrity, self-understanding and honesty achieve larger success in the work setting compared to those who don’t make spiritual practice an essential aspect of management.

InfoJobs firmly believes in the impact of spiritual practice in management by promoting a work culture based on happiness and spirituality, and providing employees with resources and mechanisms to assist them in their spiritual growth.

(1) Happiness and productivity. A J. Oswald, E Proto, D Sgroi. University of Warwick (2014); World Happiness Report. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, United Nations (2013).

Richard Boyatzis & Anthony Jack

Why Do You believe in God? Opposing Relationship of Empathy and Analytic Thinking.

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Why Do You believe in God? Opposing Relationship of Empathy and Analytic Thinking

A number of recent studies have established a link between analytic reasoning and religious disbelief. These studies are concluding that people who have more religious or spiritual beliefs are not as smart as others, in that they do not score as well on measures of analytic reasoning or IQ tests. These findings have been taken to support a dual-process account of religious belief, according to which intuitive automatic processes encourage belief whereas reflective reasoning discourages belief. We propose an alternative interpretation based on neuroimaging findings which reveal two large-scale brain networks that suppress each other. According to opposing domains theory, religious belief reflects a tension between two types of reflective reason – analytic vs. empathetic thinking. Opposing domains theory predicts both the negative association between religious spiritual belief and measures of analytic thinking and a positive association with measures of empathetic concern. Seven studies are reported which bear out these predictions using different measures of analytic thinking and empathetic concern. We show the association cannot be accounted for by socially desirable responding or by social activities associated with religion. First, we find that belief relates specifically to empathetic concern for others, not the motivation to seek comfort generated by loneliness and/or depression. Second, we observe a stronger association with measures of empathetic concern than measures of mentalizing or magical thinking which are predicted by the hypothesis of hyperactive agency detection. Third, we find that belief is not just related to increased identification with in-group members but also to increased identification with out-group members. Finally, we show that once analytic thinking and empathetic concern are accounted for, intuitive thinking negatively predicts belief.

Karen Kimsey-House & Henry Kimsey-House

The Co-Active Way: Context and Wholeness in Work and Life

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The Co-Active Way: Context and Wholeness in Work and Life

In order to generate wholeness and creativity in our workplace, we must have new models of leadership that foster connection and encourage diversity and inclusion. Traditional, hierarchical leadership models have a handful of people at the top managing and controlling a much larger number of people at the bottom. In this model, leaders are the ones at the top. At their best, these leaders guide and direct. At their worst, they dominate and control. This one-dimensional view of leadership divides us, creating a world of “us” and “them”, of winners and losers, of those who have power and those who do not.

In reality, leadership is multi-dimensional. In any project or community there are many different leaders, each leading in different ways with people changing roles fluidly. In any given day, each of us moves through a range of different leadership dimensions. We are all leaders in one way or another and when we choose to be responsible for what is happening in and around us, we are able to work together in ways that includes and utilize the unique talents of everyone. In this more accurate multi-dimensional view of leadership, everyone has the capacity to be a leader. New models of leadership are needed that more inclusive and provide for multiple expressions of leadership. Everyone has within them the capacity to lead and any organization or community is most dynamic, most alive and most productive when there is a commitment to leadership at every level.

In our presentation, attendees will experience a new model of multi-dimensional leadership called The Co-Active Leadership Model and learn how to us this model to generate collaboration, creativity and shared ownership with others in work and in life.