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We Need Philosophy in the Workplace

philosophy-workplaceBy Dr. Steven Gans
Faculty Member, Philosophy at American Public University

At first glance, the statement, “We need philosophers in the workplace” sounds like a non sequitur or an absurdity. Surely, the last thing we need in the workplace are more navel gazers. In fact, the value of teaching philosophy has been put into question, as exemplified by a recent remark by Sen. Don White, Republican- Indiana County who puts it bluntly, “I think we need to do a better job in defining our education as meeting business needs. There are too many graduates, masters and doctoral candidates running around delivering pizzas; that’s because they are majoring in philosophy.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. There is an indispensable place for philosophy and philosophers in the workplace.

First, let’s define work. It is the same word as energy. En-ergia means to be at work. The very heart of work is energy. Without it, nothing gets done. We also need intelligence to guide work. What is intelligence? Intelligence has multiple meanings, but I will settle for just one, giving credit for it to Luke Muehlhauser who defined it in his recent book, Facing the Intelligence Explosion. Intelligence means the efficient and optimized domination of multiple environments. Intelligence is what gives humans their advantage over competing species.

We can argue that another name for thinking or philosophy is ultimately about the systemized use of intelligence or, in other words, about winning. In order to win you must deploy knowledge or systemic rationality. This is the craft of obtaining true beliefs. We continually are able to update our beliefs using logic, probability theory and decision making theory. Finally, we act for the sake of our goals. As Aristotle teaches, our ultimate goal is happiness, which is achieved by living the good life. Does all this begin to sound like the stuff that drives business leaders?

Now I come to a more contemporary argument for why we need philosophy in business more than ever before. I’m sure you’ve all heard of disruptive technologies, the sort of thing that put Kodak and Blockbuster out of business. The key to successful business today is innovation and the ability to ride the wave of accelerating technological evolution. Only lean startup companies seem able to move with the necessary speed to bring innovation and disruptive technologies to the table to satisfy an ever hungrier customer base clamoring for the latest innovations.

How will traditional companies survive in such an environment? I argue that only through philosophy will this be possible. Only philosophy offers the opportunity to make the necessary culture changes that will foster innovation within an organization. As Peter Drucker, the well-known management philosopher and guru has said “culture eats strategy for lunch.”

So how does a large corporation go about changing its corporate culture to foster innovation? The way forward for such companies requires a transformative process of surfacing and committing to core values. This is an exercise in applied ethics.

When we look at the old hierarchical corporate institution, we can see it in terms of what’s called a stage III culture.  A stage III culture, as defined in the book Tribal Leadership by John King and Dave Logan, is characterized by a boss, who implicitly or explicitly says “I am great and you are not so great” Working for such a boss demeans workers. In such a culture, there is no energy, enthusiasm, or initiative and, as a result, no possibility of innovation. So how does an organization change its culture to succeed?

An organization must commit to core values and a noble cause through ethical dialogue.  A healthy, stage IV culture defines itself as “We are great.” This is a “one for all and all for one” culture. Everyone in it is proud to be a member.

A great example of such an organization was Apple under Steve Jobs. Jobs came back to the company to rescue it from bankruptcy. He energized and galvanized the energy of everyone in the company. He got them to focus on world-class innovation and on producing groundbreaking products such as the iPhone and iPad. Jobs listened to everybody so everyone felt called on to contribute and then distilled and designed from the best of what he had heard. I argue that Steve Jobs was the quintessential workplace philosopher.

The most appropriate role for the workplace philosopher is as the CVO–Chief Visionary Officer.  In ancient Greece, no ship would set sail without a seer or visionary aboard who would be able to see and avoid the dangerous shoals the ship might encounter. In the same way, a visionary advisor, consultant, or officer in the organization will scan the horizon of the future for the disruptive technologies that could threaten the organization and advise the organization on a course of risk assessment, alternative scenarios, and innovative developments that will avert corporate disaster. Clearly, there is a place for philosophy and philosophers in the workplace.

About the Author

Dr. Steven Gans received his PhD from Penn State. He developed an interest in applied philosophy, namely, existential psychotherapy, and went to London to study with a master in the field, R. D. Laing. Dr. Gans was also interested in experiential self-directed learning and co-founded an individualized MA program in Humanistic Psychology for Antioch University in London. In practice he follows the ethics of Emanuel Levinas who bases ethics on the “face to face” encounter and argues that we should always “put the other first”. He has co-authored Just Listening: Ethics and Therapy with Dr. Leon Redler. In a series of dialogues they discuss the ethical practice of psychotherapy.

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