When you think about corporations and their culture, it’s unlikely that compassion is at the top of the list. It’s likely the opposite. Corporations focus on profit, shareholder value and market domination, none of which sound very compassionate.

Things are a little better in the non-profit sector. Sure, the currency may be different, with a focus on “doing good” but in my experience, compassion is not a high priority. Justice is often a key element, as is fairness, but compassion is often forgotten.

We human animals have been in survival mode for so long, for so many generations, that we are all carrying around bags and bags of trauma. Few of us do not have real childhood traumas, even if most are unaware of them. According to the UK Trauma Council, “One in three children and young people are exposed to at least one potentially traumatic event by the time they are 18.” Add to this the influence of your parents and family, how much *They F** You Up, and we are all in a pretty dire state right out of the gate.

After an incredibly bad burnout and several years of being unable to work, I started my therapeutic journey in mid-2016. It was only through this intense and challenging but healing and learning journey over several years that I was finally able to go back to work (in January 2019).

This journey helped me understand just how much trauma was in my life and how trauma begets trauma.

Will Bowen said, “Hurt people hurt people.” We are all hurt, so we hurt others, sometimes intentionally, often unintentionally. I think there is a corollary to this — hurt people get hurt. The hurts we carry around leave us sensitive to specific triggers. This can put us into a defensive mode that causes a repeat of the pattern, leading to more hurt. You may be able to think of some examples of this happening to you.

Why does it matter? We are all professionals. Shouldn’t we “man up” and leave all this stuff at home? Toxic masculinity aside - this is not possible. We are human, and no matter how much we try, it is impossible to separate our traumas or hurts from our day-to-day existence.

Most of us spend most of our time at work (and recovering from it). We do this believing that it will all eventually be worth it - perhaps when we retire or finally make enough money to take a step back. Are we trapped in the promise of the future? I was! Do we have the mental space to realise when we get to that destination? Are we trapped in Stockholm, at the mercy of the prison we have built for ourselves?

Mindfulness aside, how can we make our day-to-day life more enjoyable? How can we make the journey more valuable than the destination? Ultimately, the destination is the same for all of us. Should we be rushing to get there? (If the idea sounded even remotely appealing, I would encourage you to consider finding a good therapist - they do wonders!)

I think it all begins with compassion, starting with compassion for oneself. What if we could create an environment where failure is not an option — not because we must succeed at any cost, but because nothing that happens is considered a failure? What if mistakes are not chastised but used as opportunities to learn from?

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
— Thomas A. Edison

How do we build an environment where innovation, imagination, and creativity thrive? I believe the key here is a sea change to the fundamental attitude and purpose of the organisation. We can create this environment by making the organisation’s primary focus collaboration (with everyone who wants to collaborate) and making compassion the most vital tool of that collaboration.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have deep pockets, so I still need to worry about paying the bills. We also do not (yet) live in a “Star Trek”-like universe where money is no longer critical to society. How will we pay the bills if we focus on something other than commercial viability?