Voluntary Desire to Do and Be Good

I want to share a philosophic/theological idea that I find very exciting.  And yes, I know - the idea of theological within a secular humanist concept - seems odd - but it will make sense. I promise.

First  - a little bit of background.  I have been volunteering with the International Humanistic Management Association. I help facilitate a monthly discussion on humanistic management for professionals http://humanisticmanagement.international/humanistic-management-professionals/

One of my colleagues is Manuel Guillén Parra (https://rcc.harvard.edu/people/manuel-guill%C3%A9n-parra). He is organizing a multi-year learnership workshop - http://humanisticmanagement.international/humanistic-management-workshop/

He is also writing a book about human motivation. It expands on the work of Abraham Maslow. Maslow was a Humanist psychologist and is most famous for his "hierarchy of needs."

Manuel is adding 2 more dimensions to this - in addition to intrinsic and external motivations - he is adding 2 more including a high level of motivation that includes spiritual and religious motivation.

He and I have been chatting to discuss how to express these concepts in ways that are universally understood by everyone regardless of belief or non-belief.  We are doing this because he is Spanish Catholic and I am American Atheist/Humanist. So - if we can both agree on the language - it will most likely be universally understood to all humans regardless of belief or non-belief or cultural orientation.  

His basic idea is that in addition to the internal and external motivations - humans also want and desire moral good. This is the level most people think of as spiritual and religious. The concept of good has many dimensions.  Useful good, pleasant good, moral good and spiritual good.   His model incorporates the idea that we all want to give and get these various types of good. 

One of the terms he was using to explain spiritual/religious motivation to do useful good didn't make sense to me - because he was using sectarian religious language to describe it. So he was explaining what he means using - non-religious language so I could understand it and so he can write his book in language that is universally understood - and he said that this is about voluntary desire to do good - useful good. 

This phrase - voluntary desire to do good - set my brain on fire. I LOVE it.  It resonates strongly with me as a Humanist and expresses how I experience moral motivation as an atheist. I have a voluntary desire to do and be good. 

Here is what I wrote him after contemplating it for a while.

"I was so energized by the idea of voluntary desire – and the various goods. I realized – or thought.  Voluntary desire – that is a state of spiritual enlightenment.  When you have that state – the act of doing good – becomes an act of devotion. It is elevated.  People do good all the time, but when you are motivated by voluntary desire – spiritual enlightenment – your acts become devotion. Those 2 things, combine to create a state of being that is the state of connection. I would describe it as feeling connected to life, the universe and everything and everyone.  You probably describe it as feeling connected to God.

When I talk to people about Humanist morality – I tell people – it is not enough to want to do good. You have to do good acts in order to BE good.  

 Wanting to do good, leads to doing good acts, which leads to being good - which is a state of being. 

In other words, Spiritual Desire leads to Acts of Devotion which leads to a connected state of being.

It’s awesome!  It's why practicing Humanism helps me feel so connected to everything. "

Why Humanism matters:

The fact that a devout Spanish Catholic and an American Atheist/Humanist are experiencing the same thing - high levels of spiritual/religious motivation on matters of morality and are experiencing the same benefits from our practice of actively giving love and grace to others - is a testament to the universality of the experience. 

And that's where Humanism comes in.  Humanism isn't atheism.  It's a necessary part of my practice as a Humanist, but Humanism is a philosophy.  It helps me make sense of the things going on around me and helps provide me with a moral framework to think about who I am and more importantly - who I want to be.   Manolo and I are kindred spirits. Coming to the same place through totally different religious journeys. We both love love. And our fellow humans.

Let's not get so caught up in religious specifics that we lose sight of our common humanity. To me - that is the most important lesson of Humanism. 

Good Leaders Align Needs

Why the death of homo-economicus requires managers to change their management tactics and adopt a humanistic management model.

How a manager manages people is largely dictated by their concept of what it means to be human. In the world of business, the dominant model for a long time has been homo-economicus.

Homo-economicus, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, is basically the assumption that humans are rational animals and that given good information; we will make rationally optimal decisions. Most people who advocate for the value of unrestrained free markets do so because they believe in the homo-economicus model.

Now, in case you weren’t aware of it from the obviousness that we humans aren’t very rational, the Evolution Institute has put out a journal with studies that provide the evidence that we humans aren’t very rational. See the journal here: http://evolution-institute.org/node/144

The studies they cite show that humans actually make decisions more how the Humanistic Psychologist Abraham Maslow suggested we do based on our hierarchy of needs.

What does this mean for a manager? It means that if you want to successfully encourage people to make decisions that benefit your company, you need to take their real decision making process into account, which means you need to understand that we humans seem to make decisions by weighing our hierarchy of needs against one another.

When you understand this, you understand that your job as a manager is to help people align their various needs so that the “right” choice is the overwhelmingly obvious choice and the easy choice to make because SO MANY of their needs are met when they make that choice.

To do this you need to help align an employee’s individual needs with the needs of their working group and the working group’s needs must be aligned with the needs of the company. A Humanist manager takes that another couple of steps further by aligning the needs of the company with the needs of the society and with the needs of the ecological biosphere that is earth.

And this really is the Humanist approach in a nutshell. Using a realistic and scientifically based view of humans to better help humans achieve not only their needs, but the needs of the society in which we all live. Can I get an AMEN?

The Value of Being Humanistic in Business

Turning work into joy by making real human connections.

Malcom Levene wrote an article for the Huffington Post about the value of being Humanistic in Business – see link here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/malcolm-levene/being-human_b_752786.html  It’s a great essay. In it, he quotes Abraham Maslow:

"The fact is that people are good, give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior."

The point of the essay is that by being real and genuine when you deal with other people, you encourage them to do the same. When you are willing to do this you find that a weight has been lifted that you didn’t even know you were carrying. That you were acting in ways that weren’t natural because of expectation to fit in.

When we give ourselves the freedom to be, we find better connections with others who are so relieved to not have to pretend to be anyone other than who they are, they respond with joy. Transactions go from being about what I can get out of this to we are all in this together because we are both real humans just trying to do right by each other.

Granted, it’s not as easy as this because, in real life, there are some very bad people in the world that you have to protect yourself from. However, Levene is not advocating that we trust others without reserve; he does say you need to learn to say no sometimes so that your yeses have more impact. What he is saying is that don’t assume everyone you meet is out to get you. Most are just like you, insecure and scared. If you can break past the fear to find those good people, you can get to a place of trust that is worth the risk.

To me, as I think about my understanding of Humanism, I come back to the concept that each of us are individuals. It is wrong to make assumptions about people because often those assumptions are negative. When we actively remind ourselves to consider the positives, we can make those connections that we so desperately want and need to make as humans. And like everything else, that requires us to overcome our fears. Yes, sometimes we will get burned. But sometimes, the result is an amazing friendship.

Is this something you struggle with?  I think we all do to a certain extent. I know that even though I am natural quite shy, I have been able to conquer that to a certain extent by reminding myself to take a chance on someone. How do you overcome your insecurities about other people?