“Thank you all!” I announced at the close of a 3-hour corporate training course on Teaming across Cultures on Zoom. The diverse group had been engaged over the span of three long virtual hours and readily shared their experiences of living and working across cultures. We spanned many national cultures and time zones — some joining in the wee hours of morning in Europe, some in Asia at 9am, a few in Africa at midnight, and several of us in late afternoon and evening in the Americas.
“I’d also like to thank God,” shared a Nigerian participant after my word of thanks. “Without God we wouldn’t be here and this training wouldn’t have been possible!”
Holy moly. Dropping the God bomb stunned me into awkward silence. You’d think they’d dropped the F bomb. “Ok, yes. Thank you for that,” I stuttered, wondering what the other participants from this Fortune 100 US-headquartered organization were thinking. After all this course is about working effectively across differences — cultures, styles, generations — and faiths? So it’s natural to thank God above from time to time?
As a Nigerian, religion is a core value and many Nigerians are either Christian or Muslim. GlobeSmart™️, a tool I have worked with for years, also notes, “Many Nigerians do not distinguish between their spirituality and the rest of their lives.” God, naturally, is a part of our zoom classroom experience and deserves acknowledgement.
In my attempt to honor the participant’s divine appreciation, I did a take two and bid the group farewell with, “Thank you again, bless you all!”
Maybe my closing blessing was no big deal. But for me as a US American who has led cross-cultural training since the 1990’s it felt extremely unnatural. Just like the constitutional separation of church and state, I’ve drawn clear lines between my corporate training work and my spiritual life even though I feel connected to the spiritual in my corporate work. I believe helping people understand themselves and others breeds peace and that my training work is part of my soul’s mission. I believe the group of us were brought together for a reason and not just by chance. I believe that as a group we’re stronger and can co-create more than as individuals. But throwing out the blessing bomb at the end of the session? Lord have mercy!
In another recent corporate training focused on working effectively with India I assigned small groups a discussion and gave them a list of cultural values to work with from a wide range of values from around the globe. The cultural values below the surface typically have a big impact on behaviors in the business world. If a culture values equality there is generally an expectation that everyone contributes no matter their amount of tenure, their title, or the amount of gray hair on their head. A group came back and reported proudly, “India has a strong value of Spirituality/Religion and the USA also has a strong value of Spirituality/Religion.” Truth be told it’s very common to discuss the importance of spirituality and religious diversity in India with corporate clients, but it seldom comes up in the US work environment where the sacred-secular divide is strong. This discussion along with my Nigerian participant’s closing comment got me thinking. What if the lines between the sacred and the secular in the US are being redrawn?
According to 2023 Pew Research* about nine-in-ten U.S. adults believe in God or another higher power. Most Americans (83%) believe that people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body.
Harvard Business Review** notes that faith is left out of workplace DEI strategy for fear of legal repercussions. A very small percentage of Fortune 100 companies include religion or interfaith engagement in their approach to diversity. It certainly was not a part of my Teaming across Cultures content.
The Diversity Wheel by Gardenswartz and Rowe, often leveraged by yours truly in DEI sessions related to culture, places religion as a diversity factor in one of its four layers. I’ve personally experienced the benefits of acknowledging and appreciating religious diversity at work especially while living in the Middle East. Knowing, understanding, and appreciating Islamic values and practices helped create a sense of belonging in Jordan and while traveling throughout the Arab World. Although I was raised in a Christian family and was baptized and later married in the church, I do not consider myself religious. Muslims refer to Christians and Jews as People of the Book, a term that implies acknowledgement and recognition of religious diversity. Surprisingly to me, my Jordanian friends and colleagues were always the first to wish me a “Merry Christmas!” and “Happy Easter!” I played along with this game even if I didn’t attend church to celebrate those holidays.
This is where I struggle. There is a large population of humans, like me, who consider themselves to be spiritual but not religious (SBNR)*. 22% of Americans are categorized as SBNR because they say they think of themselves as spiritual or they consider spirituality very important in their lives, but they neither think of themselves as religious nor say religion is very important in their lives. The younger generations are even more SBNR than older generations. Religion feels legitimized as a diversity variable, but spirituality without religion not so much. Even the term “Bring your woo to work!” can make eyes roll.
I recognize that religion and spirituality intersect for many. Of the 9 in 10 US adults who believe in God or a higher power, 54% who say they believe in “God as described in the Bible” and 34% who say they don’t believe in the biblical depiction of God but do believe there is “some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe.” Even 22% of U.S. adults who describe themselves as atheists say they believe there is some “higher power or spiritual force” in the universe.
The Dalai Lama speaks of two kinds of spirituality: “One spiritual with faith such as Christianity, Muslim, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and so on. And other spiritualities without particular religious faith simply retain or preserve or increase these basic human good qualities such as human compassion.”
Perhaps I’m not alone in feeling like there’s an opportunity to include more and more of the Dalai Lama’s second kind of spirituality which isn’t connected to a particular religious faith at work. There’s an opportunity to bring spirituality into the (home) office door. I believe there’s an expanding group of people who yearn to integrate their spirituality and spiritual practices at work in an authentic and meaningful way. Well-known thought leaders in business like Simon Sinek and his golden circle as well as Brene Brown’s work on vulnerability, already bring spiritual concepts to work in a language that corporate America can digest. Even so I’m guessing there are doctors, lawyers, and workers of all types who feel spiritual practices can’t be practiced at work and in the era of inclusion spirituality doesn’t quite belong in the modern workplace.
Personally, I feel a chasm in my two work worlds. I have two websites: this blog site which fully displays my spiritual self, while the other houses my corporate training and coaching self. I’m still me, and spirituality lives within all I do at work, but I don’t feel comfortable including it in all that I do. My corporate work has a clear sacred-secular divide. But does it need to? I’m not saying I need to fly my woo flag or thank a higher power on every zoom call, but maybe there’s a way to express and integrate the belief that we’re all spiritual beings having a human experience in an authentic and meaningful way. Maybe there are authentic ways for me to express and bring more magic into the otherwise mundane tasks of emails, virtual training, project work, and even three-hour zoom calls.
In today’s era of Inclusion, spirituality deserves inclusion, too. Many organizations, teams, leaders, and individuals focus on inclusion of the whole self, psychological safety, care, work-life balance, mental health awareness, as well as physical wellness and safety at work. Organizations like Accenture, Intuit, and SalesForce, even have interfaith ERG’s to support religious diversity and wellness at work. But what about spiritual wellness? What are the challenges and opportunities of bringing more soulfulness into our work lives in a meaningful, authentic, and personal way no matter what kind of job we do? Especially if the job isn’t exactly spiritual in nature.
I don’t have all the answers here, but find myself wanting to ask and explore these questions. If you’d like to delve into this topic along with me, I’m offering a free 90 minute workshop on Bring Your Spirituality to Work on Friday, September 20. Register on EventBrite at:
Now that I’ve taken a beat post-awkward corporate training dismount, I’ll end with one that feels right this time around.
The spirit in me honors and appreciates the spirit in you. Thank you for reading. Be well and many blessings to you, my friend.
*https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/12/07/spiritual-beliefs/
** https://hbr.org/2023/06/where-religious-identity-fits-into-your-dei-strategy
