The Human Dimension in the Organization
The human dimension in organizations represents the integration of emotional and spiritual intelligence to foster authentic workplace connections. Cultivating this dimension is essential today because it drives meaningful cultural transformation and aligns personal purpose with business goals. Consequently, measuring and nurturing this human aspect allows companies to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Previously, we explored Human Organizations, and today we dive deeper into this essential topic.
What is the human dimension of life?
I begin this post with «The Invitation,» inviting you to read an extract from this beautiful poem by Oriah:
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living or how you got here,
It doesn’t interest me who you know,
It doesn’t matter to me how old you are,
It doesn’t matter to me where you live or how much money you have, ….
… I want to know if you can live with joy,
I want to know your longings and if you dare to dream of realizing them,
I want to know what sustains you from within when everything else collapses,
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company that fills your empty moments.
This extensive poem invites us to learn the true meaning of being human. Furthermore, it encourages us to fully surrender to life. Although this movement started strong in the early 21st century, we now see our progress threatened in 2020.
How do we measure the human dimension in organizations?
Scientific evidence shows that the highest human dimension manifests as the energy of love. This force is both intangible and real. However, we mean authentic love, not the conditional love from childhood stories. This authenticity directly opposes the fear, limits, and rules dominating our current environments. Let us take this step by step.
Throughout the 20th century, the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) dominated the scene. We use this intelligence to solve rational, logical, and strategic problems. Indeed, it represents our primary brain process, widely adopted since Newton and Darwin.
In the 1990s, Daniel Goleman popularized Emotional Intelligence (EQ). This concept was likely influenced by Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences. EQ makes us aware of our emotions. Moreover, science proves that damaging emotional brain areas reduces our thinking efficiency. Therefore, emotion and thought remain indissolubly linked.
How do the theories of Goleman and Gardner relate? Goleman’s EQ encompasses Gardner’s interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. Additionally, Gardner defined intelligence as a latent, developable capacity requiring eight specific criteria. Regardless, Western psychology in the 20th century was dominated by two processes: the rational (IQ) and the emotional (EQ).
However, neither IQ nor EQ can fully explain the richness of human intelligence. Humans are essentially spiritual beings who need to ask fundamental questions. Consequently, at the start of the 21st century, scientific data emerged showing a third intelligence: Spiritual Intelligence (SQ).
This intelligence unfolds when we ask essential questions. For example: Why was I born? What is the meaning of my life? Why should I continue when I feel tired or frustrated? What makes all of this worthwhile?
How is the human dimension integrated into organizations today?
Goleman and Gardner discussed intrapersonal and interpersonal emotions. Intrapersonal emotions shape our self-relationship, while interpersonal emotions connect us with others. Although EQ builds empathy and helps us respond to pain or pleasure, EQ alone cannot bridge the gap between these two emotional spheres.
Indeed, we need SQ to understand who we are and what things mean to us. It also helps us give others a meaningful place in our lives. Interestingly, Gardner himself admitted the existence of spiritual intelligence years after publishing his book.
SQ facilitates growth by acting as an active center that creates values. Today, finding meaning is people’s greatest concern. And this is the greatest concern of people today. In fact, many believe this search for meaning lies at the heart of our current human crisis. As Viktor Frankl wrote:
The search for meaning is the primary motivation in a man’s life and not a ‘secondary rationalization’ of instinctual drives. This meaning is unique and specific because it can be found by each man alone. Only then does it achieve a significance that will satisfy his own will to meaning.
Research by Ramachandran and his colleagues at the University of California provides scientific proof of a spiritual center in the brain. This center has grown throughout our evolution. Furthermore, this neural network is located between the temporal lobes of the brain.
On the other hand, research by Professor Singer at the Max Planck Institute proves that a neural oscillatory process exists. This process unifies information, thereby giving deep meaning to our experiences.
Although we live in a materialistic society, we can overcome this human crisis by developing SQ. Since it is innate, we can cultivate it like any other intelligence. Consequently, what we once knew by experience is now backed by scientific evidence. Cultivating SQ will help us develop the human dimension in organizations.
What defines high spiritual intelligence?
First, let me clarify that SQ does not necessarily connect to religion. Similarly, being religious does not guarantee a high SQ score.
SQ is an innate capacity of the human brain. When developed, it helps us forge new paths by finding what inspires us. Finding meaning begins with a simple question: what is your love story with the world? These questions invite us to look inward and connect from a place beyond ego-centered limits.
Specifically, a high SQ is defined by the following characteristics:
- The capacity to be flexible
- A high level of self-awareness
- The ability to face and transcend pain
- The capacity to recognize and transform suffering
- Being deeply inspired by a vision and values
- A strong reluctance to cause unnecessary harm
- A tendency to see connections between things (holistic view)
- A marked tendency to ask «why?» and «what if?»
- An ease with challenging the status quo
When should we use spiritual intelligence?
SQ differs from EQ primarily in its transformative power. While EQ helps us adapt to expectations within existing limits, SQ allows us to question those limits. Consequently, we can modify rigid rules with understanding and love.
We use SQ when we need to be creative, flexible, visionary, and spontaneous. It allows us to transform situations because we want to experience something new. Thus, we open ourselves to an infinite game, developing the human dimension in organizations.
Why is SQ vital for personal and organizational transformation?
Our brains are designed so that IQ, EQ, and SQ function together. However, each operates in its own area. Therefore, we might not be optimal in all three simultaneously. For instance, one can have high IQ and EQ but low SQ.
For example, computers have high IQ because they follow rules efficiently. Similarly, animals often possess strong EQ, responding well to their environment. Yet, neither computers nor animals ask why these rules exist. They operate within limits, playing a finite game.
As humans, we have searched for meaning since descending from the trees two million years ago. SQ, our third neural system, emerged about 70,000 years ago. It directly answers this deep yearning for purpose.
SQ is here to stay. It unifies and integrates information from IQ and EQ. Most importantly, it possesses the potential to transform both. Consequently, transformation happens effortlessly when we integrate meaning, allowing us to renew any situation instantly.
Why do you need to develop SQ in your company?
If you aspire to cultural transformation, you need the creative power of the inner dimension. Here are several key reasons:
1. You need transformed people to successfully change organizations
SQ makes us aware of existential problems and helps us find peace. We use SQ to move toward the developed person we have the potential to become. Consequently, this helps us overcome old behaviors that keep us stuck.
2. Employees want to be part of the solution, not the problem
However, a sense of unease currently affects both individuals and organizations. Without sounding alarmist, we are facing a critical gap in how we relate to ourselves and the world.
Many cultural change plans still rely on linear models, even though the world moves exponentially. Simply developing EQ will not make us sustainable. Furthermore, it will not save outdated business models from disappearing.
3. You need to steer your organization in a new direction
You need a direction that provides purpose alongside financial results. This is the fundamental meaning of developing a purpose for organizations. However, you cannot implement this new direction quickly without a model that boosts employee SQ.
4. Employees demand to find meaning in their work
Employees want action. Indeed, you cannot transform culture without personal commitment. To achieve this, they must find meaning in what the organization does. Therefore, you must connect deeply with them, ensuring everyone contributes to the shared vision.
Why? Because our nature drives us to aspire to things that enrich us and take us beyond ourselves.
What can you do to start changing today?
SQ lies latent within us, just like any intelligence in a newborn. Therefore, we can cultivate and train it, just as we do with other skills in school.
Our greatest challenge is living in a spiritually poor culture focused on short-term materialism. However, our hope lies in the fact that we have barely begun to train this capacity.
Our exponentially transformative inspiration is found in the LifeCourse Journey. It was created for this exact purpose. Just as athletes train their skills, we can develop this latent capacity into conscious human intelligence. Shall we talk?