The Shakti organisation: creating mentally healthy workplaces for human beings

This is the personal view of the author and does not represent Capgemini.

In?Hinduism,?Shakti embodies feminine energy: all of us have elements of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ energies which we bring to our lives (this is not about gender though). The feminine energy encompasses creativity, flow, passion, care, nurture, kindness, love, listening, being connected together as part of a collective: intuition, emotion, feelings, being in the moment: the sacred. We can tune in to our inner selves and listen to what they are saying to us.

Now I am not religious in any way; and this is not a plea for more religious organisations. What struck me forcefully on a recent yoga retreat was how divorced these principles are from my normal practices and daily working life.

Many of us bring and embody more ‘masculine’ energies and ways of working to our professional lives: ones which prioritise and reward personal drive and ambition, individualism, taking action; doing rather than being. We are busy – too busy – getting stuff done, looking to the future, moving to the next thing. These mindsets are important, of course: we all need to be able to get things done and to take action effectively in our lives. But this can be so relentless, so normalised, that we lose touch with the other parts of ourselves that need to thrive too.

I suspect that an exhaustion with the constant ‘masculine’ drive to compete to succeed (and views of what success looks like) drives people away from the workforce and leads to them failing to fully realize their true potential. We don’t give enough space for the introverted, the sensitive, the creative and the caring types, and often fail to recognise and reward these qualities. We frown on emotion in the workplace because it makes us uncomfortable; and call it unprofessional. We don’t spend enough time checking in with one another to see how we are, as people. “How are you?” “I’m fine” seems to cover it.

And yet, I would argue, it is precisely these ‘feminine’ qualities that will make organisations succeed in the future. More than ever, companies need people to act collectively, to leverage their collective intelligence and ideas, and to team effectively. We also need to address horrendous burnout rates and associated physical and mental ill-health, and give people the chance to contribute at every stage of their lives – when they feel down, when they are stressed with kids, when they are menopausal, or bereaved, or lonely, when their family obligations weigh heavily. Life pressures, and careers, ebb and flow; and so companies need to adapt to their staff and not the other way around.

Becoming a ‘Shakti’ organisation – one which tries to strike a better balance between the masculine and feminine energies – will be a better experience for the people who work in and with the company, as well as benefitting the prosperity of the business. People who have the time and energy to create, to think, to innovate, to collaborate, will create new and better solutions. People who listen to one another will reduce risks and more effectively implement change. People who care for one another as fellow humans will put in the time to make the team a success. And a happier organisation is one which people want to work for, and stay with.

I know many organisations do a lot to support the mental wellbeing of their staff and try to create connections and meaning between people. But it’s still a fight for work/life balance, in which one works hard, and then rests in order to work harder. We haven’t thought enough about how to build this balance into the very fabric of how companies operate, incentivize and reward people, teach and role model how to deliberately and mindfully slow down and hold space for one another, reward those who act with compassion when their colleagues struggle. And we haven’t thought about how to do this with hybrid, remote and scattered working practices, in which time and energy is fragmented across platforms, communications, projects and teams. Exhortations to self-care prioritise the individual making the decision to do so, in spite of the pressures of work; but instead we need to create working environments that people don't need time out to recover from.

After all, careers are a journey; and organisations often a staging post: what matters is the moment, and the wisdom that we find along the way.