Middle Way Management and Compassion

In my last post, I discussed the MWM-AI™ Study that produced the (free) survey instrument intended to measure the "level" of Middle Way Management™ in an organization. I like to administer the MWM-AI at the outset of a consulting relationship and then again once organizational members have had time to work the methodology. Today, I will be discussing what is perhaps the fundamental aspect of Middle Way Management: Compassion.

It's the Compassion, Stupid!
As I've worked these past few months on producing the seminal book on Middle Way Management, Middle Way Management: Where Compassion Meets the Bottom Line, I came to the realization that the approach is about one thing: Compassion. I had visions (delusions?) of grandeur that Middle Way Management was the answer to every leadership and management scenario. Well, in some ways, it is, yet I am comfortable with the fact that in many ways, it is not.

The English language is composed of complex words intended to convey subtle and layered meaning using a single set of phonemes. While our language is a wonderful tool for communication, it is often inadequate to express the full meaning of our intent. In the case of compassion, the subtlety and layers are manifold and encompassing. While waxing poetic about words such as empathy, kindness, acceptance, and love, I understood in a flash one night that compassion truly is all things to everyone, especially Middle Way Managers™.

What does it take to practice compassion? It takes a healthy respect for our fellow humans. It also requires patience, empathy, openness, and a heart-filling dose of good, old-fashioned love. Compassion requires us to reveal and revel in our better natures; it is patient and kind and somehow elevates us to a higher level of being. It is the be-all and end-all of Middle Way Management.

To End the Suffering
As I have developed Middle Way Management, I have adapted the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism to my own ends. This is meant as a sign of respect and it is not my intent to impugn in any way the long tradition of  study and practice represented by that religion. As a reminder, the Four Noble Truths are

1. Suffering exists,
2. The cause of suffering is desire,
3. There is a way out of suffering,
4. The way out of suffering is walking the Middle Way (i.e., Buddhism).

I have resisted relying upon a dictionary definition of compassion, yet a fundamental part of any definition of the word is centered on the relief of suffering. As I have developed Middle Way Management, I have never lost site of the basic truth that suffering exists at the individual and organizational levels. I have seen it with my own eyes and felt it with my own heart. This experience is the sole driver behind my motivation to develop and offer Middle Way Management to the world.

Thus, I re-phrase the Four Noble Truths in an organizational context as

1. Suffering exists at the individual and collective levels within organizations (I would even argue that organizations suffer),
2. The cause of organizational suffering is a lack of managerial compassion,
3. There is a way to relieve suffering at the individual and organizational levels,
4. The way to relieve suffering at the individual and organizational levels is through the practice of Middle Way Management.

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
The answer to the question above is well-known: Practice, practice, practice. Though I developed Middle Way Management as a leadership and management approach based upon sound theory, I recognized early on that any approach without a solid practice foundation is doomed to either grow slowly or to die on the vine. I am highly motivated to release Middle Way Management to the wild (so to speak) and see what happens, and the best way to accomplish this is to provide a proven practice methodology. My fondest desire is that others smarter and more erudite than myself will take up the mantle and create a leadership and management approach at home in the 21st century and beyond.

The practice approach of Middle Way Management is simple: Be compassionate. So, this begs the question, how does one be so? One person's compassion is another's so-what.  This is where the MWM-AI and the neuroscientific methodology come into play. The results from administering the MWM-AI can be used to focus on the various subtleties of Middle Way Management upon which organizational members can improve. For instance, if a lack of acceptance (the opposite of which is judgmentalism) is evident, the methodology may be used to develop and encode acceptance into the implicit memory of organizational members. In this way, the flexibility of Middle Way Management becomes an asset in the development of compassion in the organization.

Go Now, and Manage with Compassion!
As you grow your own Middle Way Management practice, you must keep in mind the central role of compassion as the only way to end suffering at the individual and organizational levels. People in our American-style organizations are suffering. We see this manifest as illness, tardiness, low productivity, and in  a million other ways. Suffering is miserable. Now is the time to end the misery, to put a stop to the suffering. I offer the tools to help you accomplish this - please use them with care and diligence, remaining mindful of the special responsibility you have as a Middle Way Manager: To end the suffering at the individual and collective levels in your organization.

So, go now, and manage with compassion!

Onward! Darin

Copyright © 2009/2010, Darin R. Molnar, PhD. All rights reserved.