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I have a theory.
I think sometimes organizations mirror individuals, to wit...
Depression has been defined as anger turned inward. If not always anger, it is without a doubt a life turned inward.
Mostly depression breeds a relentless introspection. Sometimes a pressing guilt. Certainly an unbroken questioning.
It's as if the mind feeds upon itself, churning and agitating with no relief. Its inward focus leading to a darkness, a weariness, a listless despair. It's an energy sapping, mind seizing, emotion numbing, suffocating weight that refuses to lift. It's an individual's spirit in solitary confinement.
There are some treatments that help people conquer depression. Sometimes it's a chemical imbalance and drugs are required. Perfectly legit.
There's also therapy; an expert to talk to and to work through the depression with. The purpose of therapy is to supply individuals with tools to cope with depression and then, hopefully, overcome it.
Common in almost all treatments is an attempt to help the individual pry their eyes off of themselves. Some way to peel the mind from the mind so it can begin seeing outside itself, kick its seclusion and relieve the introspection.
One important strategy to that end is to try to focus the patient's eyes on someone else's needs. In other words, if I'm doing something for someone else, my eyes are off myself and I am distracted from my brutal self-examination.
The patient also gets an added benefit; that little emotional kick, the positive vibe that comes from being charitable to another human being.
Call me crazy, but I think organizations can be depressed.
Well, if not medically depressed, there are those organizations that grow stale, stagnant and frustrated by a consuming inward focus. And they miss out on this energy giving, life affirming, loyalty building vibe that comes from looking outside itself.
Where am I going with this? Well, right here:
I think there is a certain energy that infuses a work place when it does its share philanthropically. When it gives away from itself and doesn't focus all of its energy inward, bringing the employees together, management and labor alike, for the common good.
Some companies, for example, raise money for the United Way. A little cliché, but it's all good. Others have crews that help keep roads clean in their communities. Others sponsor youth sports. Some run en masse in marathons.
Some go further.
Some hold events themselves to raise money for good causes. Some have collections and distributions to the needy that they organize with their employees.
Others, and I really like this, set up committees that solicit causes from their employees and decide which ones to throw their efforts behind each year.
One company had two family members of two separate employees injured fighting overseas and so made their point of charitable focus a wounded warrior program. The more personal the project, the more people tend to take it to heart.
There is a vibe in companies like this. Almost literally vibrations. Employees tend to be proud of the company they work for if that company is charitable. With that pride comes a deeper loyalty.
And loyalty breeds an energy that carries over to the work itself.
It also enhances the company's reputation with the community and the potential employee base that resides in it. After all, the better you treat the community, the better the community assumes you treat your people.
People will want to work for you; in that happy, helpful, hopeful place you've created.
In individuals and organizations unrelenting focus inward causes a static morose. While a helping hand outward tends to create a bright and hopeful energy.
Yeah, I'll take the latter please.
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