Holistic Approach to Business

“You will have to take this medication for the rest of your life.” The doctor told me. “No, I’m not going to do that. Let’s address the cause.” The doctor looked at me with a smug look on her face. “There is nothing you can do.” That was the last time I saw that doctor.

When we look at business, are we taking this viewpoint? Do we just use a band-aid solution or look for the cause and use a holistic approach?

I have a Naturopathic background, so I often speak about business in terms of Naturopathic principles. With this, I often come back to the first thing you need to do is look at the problem’s core. If we look at the human body, it doesn’t heal if we don’t get to the cause.

We get to the point that where things are critical, and something devastating has occurred. In the body, it may be a terrible disease, and we go into emergence mode. We cut dice, irradiate to kill off the disease. With many treatments, that’s what they are about. Just get rid of it, and it will be done. You’ll be right. Well, it doesn’t quite work that way.

You go back to your old ways, and the illness reoccurs. You will find this in some businesses where they go through a lot of staff. They think, right, that person has gone, that problem is going to be solved. What happens is that the problem wasn’t that person; it was something inherent in the business.

So maybe now we’ll try some lifestyle changes. We go in with some exercise, dietary changes, basic shifting the furniture. That helps for a little while, it stems the flow, but it slowly starts to bleed again. We’ve done a few things, and we gradually get back to where we were before.

Now we need to look a little deeper and start to work on attitude, looking around at how people are feeling, motivating them, and creating a greater sense of positivity in the workplace. Just do some motivational talks, and they’ll be right! That should do it.
Well, it works for a little while. But still, we haven’t addressed the underlying problem.
At this point, we throw our arms up and give in, or do we dive deeper.

When we go even deeper, we are looking for the cause of the disease in the first place. Now we are getting there. This is where we look at reality. There can be several causes that stem from different locations. Still, we can be sure that when we get to the root of the cause and treat that, we can start to heal all those other layers and stop the disease altogether. Then we can begin to look at the source health of the business, and here we have the choice of a healthy business or a sick business.

Here we now connect with that deeper purpose and that true sense of what we can be. We start to return to making that positive impact. We can look at building health and where the health comes from and creating a healthy environment

Remember that when we get back to the cause, we can clear the path to develop health and harmony.

To have a healthy workplace, we need to look at the three elements of Mind, Heart and Spirit.
Mind
• Does everyone feel safe enough to share their thoughts?
• Are they encouraged to develop and grow?
Heart
• Is there healthy relationships amongst teams and employees?
• Are they doing what they love? And given the opportunity to explore what it that will bring them more satisfaction in the workplace?
Spirit
• What are the values of the business, and how do they align with employees and customers?
• What is the greater purpose of the business?
• Are employees able to express who they are on a spiritual level?
• Does your business have a higher purpose or a social mission?

I have presented many questions here. Without looking at these, a healthy and harmonised workplace where people want to be, are fully engaged and want to give their all, won’t be found. To reach the highest future potential that the business is crying out to achieve, we first need to have a workplace conducive to this.

How do you move into achieving the highest future potential so you can unleash our ultimate impact? By listening to what your business is called to be in the world?

You could sit and do some planning, but how about you let the business and the future speak. Well, you’ve tried digging in around the past for ideas, you’ve tried to come up with new ideas, but were have they led? Only so far. It keeps you go around in circles and getting results that nobody wants. It’s time to stop looking in your heads for the answers and be willing to go beyond the why.

By this, I mean letting go of your own personal agendas, the logical and personal whys, and allowing yourself to be guided by where the future is calling you to be.

So, how do you do this?

Start with looking at all you have, gather the information, work with your people, talk with them, and ask them to be involved in the creative process. Take all your ideas or your knowledge and resources and let it go. Yep, let it go. Then breathe. Slow down.

Take time together to allow reflection, and in the silence, new thoughts and ideas will start to emerge. Ideas will start to bounce off each other. When they begin to merge into one, then you have the magic. Here you will be guided by where the future is leading, and you will envision the highest future potential of the business and the people involved.

Once new ideas are born like this, the whole team is invigorated and feels part of this new direction. It is not “your idea”. It is “our idea”, and they want to see it grow and develop into success as much as you do. They will be ready to get on board. Here you create collaborative prosperity.

I love the creative energy that comes when people come together and allow the spirit to breathe through them. Here amazing things happen. Think about it, if someone comes in with an idea, they have to work at selling it. No matter how good an idea it is, it will always be their idea, and the progress will fall back to them. But if the whole team is involved in its development, there is no selling the concept, it is everyone’s, and they’re all on board.

What you can achieve with this is limitless. When you are willing to go beyond the why and listen to the soul of the business, new ideas, programs and innovations emerge and you can create the legacy you have always dreamed of.

When you start to take this fresh look at your business with a holistic approach, you find that the passionate spark starts to raise its head. You want to be there, and so do your employees, and they begin to take more interest in what is happening and the results. When this happens, customers soon notice the difference, and you’re becoming an Authentic Influence in the world.

Andrea Putting is a Speaker, Author and Trusted Advisor to Authentic Influencers. She guides leaders to achieve a powerful, strong, loyal team and community by building a Social Mission to have authentic influence and unleash their ultimate impact on the world. Connect with her now or visit www.AndreaPutting.com