Spiritual truth and business method
Volker Heine asks: can the wisdom of the Quaker business method be applied in secular life?
Spiritual truth is not like maths and physics, where we have a universal language precisely defined and understood in the same way around the globe ‘from Tokyo to Timbuktu’.
I respect the efforts of theologians and of the many Quakers quoted in our Book of Discipline to say clearly what they mean, and each is largely successful within its community. But spiritual truths are rather like poetry. They are certainly meaningful, just as music and art are meaningful, but one cannot demand that the poetry of one person has to be the same as the poetry of another.
The logical conclusion, I believe, is that it should be possible to express the Quaker insights of our business method in a twenty-first century idiom for the twenty-first century world.
Business method
Quakers have no monopoly on making harmonious, fruitful decisions, but they have developed a theological and rational methodology that has stood them in good stead in straightforward and difficult situations alike. Of course, we mean here decisions about running our affairs, not ‘business’ in the commercial sense.
So, how do we transfer and re-express the Quaker approach to business meetings for use in secular contexts? I have heard some Friends say ‘it cannot be done’ because (allegedly) the whole scheme collapses if one removes the element of ‘God’s guidance’. I disagree, but while broaching the issue of the theological or theoretical formulation, I need to describe two extended cases from my own experience.
Doing what is best
The first example is the way the master of my College, (Clare College, Cambridge), in the 1960s chaired and steered meetings of the College Council and Governing Body. He was not a Quaker, but I remember him once referring to Friends in connection with making decisions.
The era 1955 to 1975 saw historic changes in the College, such as the inclusion of women and a more than doubling in the number of fellows, so that there were certainly some deeply held, conflicting opinions. With meetings of several dozen people, it was sometimes useful to take a ‘straw vote’ just to inform ourselves how people’s thinking was going, but we never ever used a majority to vote issues through. This, occasionally, meant a majority deferring to a strongly held minority view.
The point is that there was, and is, a unanimous commitment among the fellows to do what is best for the future of the College, to carry it forward into its eighth century. This commitment underpins all. But no one has a crystal ball to tell us how future generations will judge our decisions, and hence no one can assert that they know this or that policy to be the right one.
All that any of us can do is to give our opinion. Once we have together done our collective best we truly unite around that decision and move forward without rancour, committed to the future of the College. Hence, there have never been any ongoing factions among the fellows. The decision making process calls for a measure of humility and realism about the future.
The same adherence to an overarching commitment applies in my second example. It is in my scientific field and concerns the Psi-k Network, a european scientific research network (named from a scientific symbol with the Greek letter ‘psi’). Its purpose is to help scientists across the whole of Europe achieve excellence in research through active cooperation and consultation about expertise and recent developments in our particular field.
Three commitments
We never decide important issues by voting, but are guided by three principles. These may sound obvious, but even among scientists with international experience, nationalism can sometimes break out all over them – like boils! National prestige, with commitment to nationally established ways of doing things, can exert powerful forces, as can, of course, the prospect of money.
Our first commitment in the Psi-k Network is that excellence in science matters more than anything else, such as nationality, funding or a big name.
Second, our mission is to support all scientists in our field across the whole of Europe – from strong groups to isolated individuals who might not appear to matter so much.
Third, we are committed to providing opportunities for young researchers to enter our relatively new and developing field: the advancement of first-principles computational materials science.
These are the three absolute overriding commitments around which we unite unanimously, while deciding on practical issues such as the opening speaker at a conference or the funding of workshops. Incidentally, through our unique degree of cooperation we have made Europe the leading area in the world for our particular type of research.
Reaching united decisions
Yes, a Quaker-like method of reaching united decisions can work when underpinned by a unanimous and absolute commitment to some clear overarching objectives.
Then there is another ingredient. In a Quaker Business Meeting we seek the guidance of the Inward Light not only in deciding on this or that tack, but to open ourselves to ‘what does Love require of us?’ in ways we might not previously have thought of. ‘Open to new Light’ is an essential ingredient.
I know from research that it can be incredibly difficult to think a completely new thought that no one in the world has ever thought before. What we usually do in Quakerism and in research is to seek and forage amongst stray hints and ideas from a wide field.
Human beings, in order to stop themselves from going mad, constantly restrict their attention to selected inputs to the brain, but sometimes we need to let go a bit and let ourselves be carried away by the beauty of a sunset or the unexpected.
Sharing thoughts
I think that in my College and in our research network we have not cultivated this kind of seeking as much as in Quaker worship and in various forms of meditation, but by tradition and instinct we do pay attention to it.
In College we have a concept of being ‘one body’ – from the master to the newest ‘fresher’ student. The fellows come from an amazing range of nationalities, backgrounds and experiences from having lived, studied or/and worked in different places around the world.
Part of being ‘one body’ is that we give ourselves opportunities for just relaxing and sharing thoughts and experiences with one another, including at meals together. Similarly, in the Psi-k Network we have a mingling of experience from around the globe.
The trick is to be enthusiastic about this variety and to value learning from it.
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