Longing and Belonging at Work

Longing and Belonging

Last time, we talked about whether there is a spiritual side to psychological safety and ended with a passage from the French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the [workers] to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

Susan Cain, in her book about the value of sadness, Bittersweet, reminds us that “the word ‘yearning’ is linguistically associated with hunger and thirst, but also with desire. In Hebrew, it comes from the same root as the word for passion.” Yearning is similar in meaning to longing, which has its roots in the German word langen, to reach or extend.

We already discussed in this newsletter how longing relates to BE-longing, one of the foundations of psychological safety, but what can we learn about psychologically safe leadership from Saint-Exupéry’s words above about “yearning for the vast and endless sea”?

Accountability and Autonomy

Another one of the five psychosocial domains that form the foundation of psychological safety is Autonomy, the feeling of independence which, in the workplace, comes from our having as much control as possible over how, where and when we fulfill our role in the team.

As Saint-Exupéry suggests, when leaders “drum up the [workers] to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders” they are following a “command and control” model of leadership, with minimal autonomy for those actually doing the work, and he notes that this is not the best way to get a ship built!

Instead, he advises leaders to “teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” A leader who is doing this is not telling anyone what to do, or how, when and where to do their work. They are not setting performance standards, not communicating timelines, not defining goals, not setting accountabilities. All they are doing is to help create a yearning, a deep desire to reach an objective: the sea.

And once these workers feel that yearning, they will not need to have anyone hold them accountable for building that boat that will enable them to travel on the sea.

It is their own, freely chosen accountability, that will drive them to “gather wood, divide the work” and perform the tasks that enable them to succeed in that objective.

Even the division of work, Saint-Exupéry implies, will be taken care of collectively by the team, thus leading to the greatest possible autonomy. And thereby contributing to the psychological safety of the group - and most likely a very successful ship building enterprise!

Is this even possible?

All this sounds great, but Saint-Exupéry was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator, who died in 1944. Do these ideas have any relevance for the modern workplace?

Poetic as these ideas seem, they have great relevance today, in a workplace that is buffeted by the winds of the Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) business, social and even public health environment.

In order to provide the maximum empowerment to those who are working closest to the action, objectives for teams should be set as broadly as possible, in line with the business as a whole, and serving its performance imperatives, but with the greatest possible autonomy for the way the work is done.

The ‘yearning’ that Saint-Exupéry mentions seems like a strange term to use when referring to a team member’s motivation to perform well in their job.

However, if our work is connected to purpose and meaning in our lives, then we can experience a deep satisfaction in our work, and our desire to do it well can come from a place of authenticity and integrity.

Leaders would do well to ensure that team members understand how their role contributes to the team and to the organisation, and also how their work brings value to customers, and others outside the organisation.

Even the most seemingly insignificant role, when connected to a larger purpose, can bring meaning to the one working in that role. And respect for the work and person doing it needs to pervade the organisation.

Unleashing Longing

Micromanagement, command and control — these are terms and methods that have no place in today’s workplace. But by maximising autonomy, connecting to purpose and meaning, and showing respect at all levels of the organisation, we can unleash a yearning, a longing, and a supported and safe way to bring our whole, authentic and unique selves to the work we do every day.

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