21st Century Enlightenment
“Enlightenment is not a historical period, but a process of
social, psychological or spiritual development, unbound to time or place” (Stanford, 2017). Although it is a process mainly expressed on
the eighteenth century, it carries values, meaningfulness, challenges and
learnings which can be applied to 21st century. The current century
carries some peculiarities different from those of the “original enlightenment period”.
We are leaving in a world of constant changes (Brown, 2011), not only in the
market field, but in a human perspective. Cohesive is not our “only engine”
anymore. We are moved by ideals, same as the pioneer thinkers of enlightenment,
and our understanding of the effect between natural and social world in human
nature increased substantially (Taylor, 2010)
Taylor (2010) reinforces in the wake
of enlightenment that to live differently we need to think differently. By that
he means that we, as humans, need to see the world and ourselves from a new
perspective, with more self-awareness socially embedded in a model of autonomy,
focusing on our ability to empathize, and that we also need to resist to our tendencies to make
right or true that which is merely familiar, and wrong or false that which is
only strange. As humans, the way we perceive the world is based on our
experiences. Often, the way we perceive the world around us is more a
reflection of ourselves instead of the reality. A clear example in my company
that reflects this idea is the way the high leadership apparently perceive the
flight attendant traits, in a personal scope. For instance, in one of the
forums created and ran by leaders just to front line (to cabin crew to be more specific),
one of the highest leaders in the company, when questioned about a decision
made that impacted directly on the quality of life of the workforce, made some
statement that have shown inaccurate facts, simply based on some of the trues
about very specific people he has heard of (detail is not given due to company
policies on exposure of information).
I
believe communication, in several different ways, is the tool we humans have to
change the superficial reality of relationships and to break through the limits
of logic in science, markets and bureaucracy. Communication by acknowledging, honoring
and debating different point of views. Communication by sharing of information
(personally and virtually). Communication gathering of cultures we come across in
this global world, to make it universal apart from global.
The
lack of empathy, understanding, values norms and cognitive factors in our
relationships is undermining the full potential of human interactions. It is
also undermining the potential of changes towards evolvement. Humans are
becoming skeptical about working collaboratively. The 21st century
brings with it a virtual reality that sabotage the blossoming nature of
collaborative work environment. It does not mean that relating with each other
virtually jeopardizes completely collaboration, but I believe the barriers of virtual
relations have a destructive effect in human growth, consequently in the
potential of organization changes.
I
have been thinking through this subject for a while, as the nature of my job
allows me to constantly reflect upon the need of changes, the potential of
diversity and the power of empathy, and also due to the Master degree I am
majoring An interesting perspective
brought by Taylor (2010) that haven’t crossed my mind is how the author presented
enlightenment as a process of cultural psychotherapy. I haven’t thought about
enlightenment through these lenses, therefore I haven’t seen this process as a
correlation between all beings of a human (social, natural, cultural, intellectual).
Another take away is the reason behind the stalling of empathy and the counter
relation of globalization vs public deficits.
The questions are:
What are the necessary measures to deal with
globalization in order to achieve a positive outcome?
Currently, globalization is fostering empathy
or hostility between humans?
References
Brown, D. (2011). An
Experiential Approach to Organization Development. New Jersey, NJ: Prentice
Hall.
Stanford (2017, August
29). Enlightenment. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/enlightenment/
Taylor, M. (2010. August
19). RSA ANIMATE: 21st Century Enlightenment.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC7ANGMy0yo&feature=youtu.be
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