Middle Way Management and Freedom

In my last post, I discussed three prevailing views accessible to us in the Western world today: premodern (ancient), modern (scientific), and postmodern. Recognizing your dominant worldview at any point in time is crucial to mindfulness and critical to creating and maintaining a successful Middle Way Management™ practice. In this post, I consider freedom in the context of Middle Way Management.

What does it mean to be truly free?
In the Buddhist traditions, freedom from desire is the ultimate goal of all believers; yet, what does it mean to be truly free in a world that values above nearly all else aggressive behaviors and the accumulation of  more wealth than one could possibly spend in a lifetime? Buddhists think about freedom in two basic ways. First, they consider freedom from desire to be one of the main pursuits of practitioners. This sort of freedom is a psychological benefit that includes the ability to say "no" to desires as they arise in the mind. In this way, they break the intellectual and psychological bonds holding them to a course that is potentially disastrous. Often, this takes the form of restraint - restraint of thought, speech, and action - that pushes them into a new reality.

Second, freedom can be represented by choosing to say "yes" to something as it arises. For instance, a behavioral restraint is almost always accompanied by an alternate choice that substitutes an incongruous behavior with a congruous one, resulting in a triumph over prejudicial thought. A choice is made that leads to right speech and right action, both fundamental behavioral characteristics of the practicing Buddhist. Because these efforts take place in the mind, is it not possible for someone to let go of desire, a psycho-intellectual longing, in favor of release from wanting? In this way, even someone who is unfairly incarcerated can achieve a freedom and internal peace that might not be possible if s/he were living in the outside world.

Freedom in the Workplace
Because the practice of compassion in the workplace is the primary goal of the Middle Way Manager™, freedom is a building block on the road to achieving that goal. The Middle Way Manager has a special responsibility to help people earn freedom from oppression, subjugation, exploitation, and needless worry in the workplace. Of course, how this is accomplished can take any one of an endless number of forms. Can a Middle Way Manager help someone achieve complete freedom from desire? Most probably not. Can a Middle Way Manager help someone shift perspective or change a habitual behavior in favor of one that produces a more desirable outcome (for both the individual and the organization)? Most certainly.

As with mindfulness and compassion in general, the Middle Way Manager's practice must begin with the self. Self-compassion, compassion, and mindfulness cannot be taught by someone who does not already practice them. Not only would this be hypocritical, it would be fruitless because it would be tantamount to allowing, say, me to teach someone how to run the particle accelerator at CERN. Not a good idea - at all. My lack of knowledge and experience would surely result in catastrophe. Likewise, a Middle Way Manager who practices and manages hypocritically is inviting disaster into his or her own life, the lives of those they manage, and the organization at large.

The Ultimate Goal
Regardless of how the Middle Way Manager chooses to promote freedom among those s/he manages, and there are many ways, the end result must be an increase in the level of compassion at the individual and organizational levels. An organizational member whose mind is free of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (the FUD Factor) is one who can offer creative and innovative solutions, rather than create more chaos around an issue in the workplace. The truly free organizational member operates at top capacity with love, energy, and excitement. This is the person who gets up in the morning excited about what the day holds at work. Just remember that you can create this energetic environment simply by helping the people you manage achieve some level of intellectual and psychological freedom in the place where they spend a majority of their waking time - your workplace.

In my next post, I will consider boundaries and how a healthy respect for your own boundaries, as well as those of others, can help make your Middle Way Management practice more vibrant and productive.

Until then...go, and manage with compassion!

Onward! Darin

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