Conscious Corporate Culture: How Organizations Can be a Force for Good with Catherine Bell

Can business be a force for awakening? 🌿

In this insightful episode, Catherine Bell—best-selling author, entrepreneur, and founder of The Awakened Company—shares how organizations can build cultures rooted in awareness, purpose, and authentic connection.

Drawing on her work with global leaders and Fortune 500 companies, Catherine offers a new model of leadership that begins with self-awareness and radiates outward through relationships and teams. Her approach shows how businesses can move beyond profit to create environments that foster meaning, creativity, and wellbeing.

Highlights include:
• The three pillars of awakened organizations: Self, Relationships, and Team
• How loneliness and disconnection affect modern workplaces
• The role of vision, intention, and values in conscious leadership
• Practical steps for building relational trust and authentic culture
• Why awakened companies are essential to global transformation

Catherine’s message reminds us that awakening doesn’t stop at the individual level—it can live within every team and organization.

awakenedcompany.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

I think it's very, very important that everybody sees organizations as forces for good. For those who don't believe in organizations, I believe organizations are the only way that we are going to solve our collective challenges. So how do we bring humanity back into our organizations to be this force, field for service for good?

Speaker 2 0:38

Welcome to the Field Dynamics Podcast. We're here to facilitate inspiring dialogues about the nature of consciousness across disciplines, communities and practitioners, all with a holistic perspective.

Speaker 3 0:50

From energy healing to somatic therapies, from neuroscience to meditation. We believe the most interesting things happen at the boundaries of disciplines.

Speaker 2 0:59

I'm Christabel.

Speaker 3 1:00

And I'm Keith.

Speaker 2 1:01

Thanks for joining us today and enjoy the episode.

Speaker 3 1:13

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Field Dynamics podcast. Today, we are joined by Catherine Bell. Catherine is a successful entrepreneur, business leader and best-selling business author. She founded the Awakened Company based on her best-selling book of the same name, which focuses on helping organizations create healthy corporate cultures through awakening the self relationships and team dynamics. Her book, the Awakened Company, was awarded the Nautilus Book Award in Business and Leadership and listed in eight of the best leadership books of 2015. The book aims to awaken the fire within organizations with passion, purpose and playfulness. Catherine has been published in Fortune, harvard Business Review, profit Conscious Company Magazine, women of Influence, and has written for the UN. She's worked around the globe, from the UK to Cuba, with everyone from Fortune 500 companies to serial entrepreneurs. She has an MBA from Smith School of Business at Queen's University, a sociology degree from Western University, and is certified in the Enneagram. As CEO of the Awakened Company, catherine now consults all over the world, teaching people and organizations the Awakened Company process. Catherine, thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 1 2:24

It's an honor and a privilege to be with both of you. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you also to everybody who is listening.

Speaker 3 2:34

Let's get to the basics here. Can you share the inspiration behind writing your book the Awakened Company? You know what motivated you to explore conscious business practices in this way.

Speaker 1 2:45

So picture this I'm sitting in a dimly lit cafe in New York City and it was like lightning struck my head, and the lightning said you were to write a book called the Awakened Company, and at this time it was about 2008. And at this time it was about 2008,. I was starting a business and the business was called Blue Era. And it was called Blue Era because when you look at the planet, it's blue, and we felt that the whole next generation is going to be about taking care of the earth, so we called it Blue Era. Anyway, so I started writing this book and this book on. Really, it was a recruiting book because I was in executive search and I said I shared it with my partners and my partners were like Kath, this is terrible, it's absolutely terrible.

Speaker 1 3:37

And then I realized what was actually what the universe was asking for. What the field was asking for was a book on the corporate culture that we were creating at Blue Era, like we were doing mindfulness in 2008. We were doing unlimited vacation at that time, too, and doing things radically differently in terms of how do you build healthy cultures and healthy organizations and healthy leadership. And I'm a mom and I was juggling so much and I wanted to provide kind of an example, a new example of how to be in organization. And at the same time I really wanted Eckhart Tolle's publisher to publish the book because I felt it represented that their work really represented the consciousness that's needed in organizations, that their work really represented the consciousness that's needed in organizations. So knocked on Constance's door a number of times and she said, yes, we'll publish this book.

Speaker 1 4:31

And at the same time, you know, a real community was evolving around Awaken Company. Like Otto Scharmer from MIT, rose Mercario, who was then the CEO of Patagonia, got behind it. Dr Julian Barling, who's one of the top business leadership researchers in the world, got behind it. And then I'm like you know what the universe is asking for me to really help organizations create healthy culture. So that's the genesis is through building. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I can't help. One of my core values is to create and be created. I can't help but to create and build. So I, you know, I'm like I'm to help other people build their organizations and in many respects it's through the mistakes that I've made, so that other leaders don't make the same mistakes, and I believe everybody's a leader.

Speaker 2 5:24

Let's define this term awakened company, right, and I'm just going to flip to the inverse right. So what's an unawakened company, or what kind of practices and experiences are employees and leadership having in such companies, and where is it that you're flipping the script, and why is this so important in today's business landscape?

Speaker 1 5:43

Well, so let me start with the definition first an awakened or an awakening? You know I use the term awakened because it's punchier than awakening organization. It really is awakening because I see it as an ongoing process. I don't see it as something that has passed. So an awakening organization is one that works to solve either a human or planetary challenge and in so doing does not cause harm intentionally to humans or the planet.

Speaker 1 6:12

When we look at now what's happening in organizations, we look at the data on loneliness, the data on people not feeling like they belong. The engagement is up and down, but overall we've got a lot to do because I believe organizations are the way we're going to solve the world's greatest challenges and it is only by organizing differently that we will actually be able to address these challenges challenges. So when we walk into organizations and it feels like a dead forest instead of an alive, vibrant, emerging forest, that's when we know we're kind of in that either asleep place or awake place and the invitation is to bring, you know, our awakened selves to work. But often people don't even know why they're working, who they work for. I'll say to a CAO so what's your vision? They won't know, they won't be able to clearly articulate it more times than not. And then I go around the table, ask the CFO, cto, the same question and they don't know. So unless we have a clear reason why in our organizations, how can we possibly motivate people?

Speaker 1 7:25

Very challenging we help companies create strategies with soul, and I've changed my thinking around the term strategy because strategy is based on war and I don't think businesses should be at war with anything. I think businesses are a powerful, healthy force for good for solving challenges, are powerful, healthy force for good for solving challenges, not to be at war. Same with the term ally, ally is used in war. These war metaphors have got to go. So I'm looking at very deliberately changing some of my own language, as I've changed with the Awakend organization or Awakend company, to be more peaceful. And that is really, you know, when peace isn't present in organizations, when creativity, innovation, belonging meaning, that means we are in an asleep place.

Speaker 3 8:16

What would you say are like key principles or pillars that distinguish an awakened company? Then what are the things put in motion into the company culture?

Awakened Leadership and Organizational Culture

Speaker 1 8:24

So I'd love for everybody listening to think about three things, and if the answer is no to one of those three boxes, then the invitation is to bring it in and let's talk about each one of these three pillars. So we need to awaken leadership. Well, what does that really mean? People need to understand what transformational leadership is. It's one of the most well-researched leadership models in the world and it has everything to do with elevating the other. So, first, how do we awaken ourselves? And we know the highest performing leaders are those that are self-aware, and yet only 10 to 15% of people are actually self-aware, according to HBR.

Speaker 1 9:03

Super interesting is the business research, the wisdom, traditions and my practical experience. They all point in the same direction. They aren't mutually exclusive. They're all very, very, very consistent. So, as leaders and I believe everybody's a leader here's one reason why business research we put one group in a room. We call them followers. We put another group of people in another room. We call them leaders.

Speaker 1 9:30

There's a mock accident. Who behaved in a helpful manner? It was those that were labeled as leaders. Those that were labeled as followers did nothing. So the labels we stick on ourselves back to the self-awareness matter matter and then okay. So that's awakening ourself.

Speaker 1 9:52

People need personal aims and I'm sure you work with people on creating personal aim, personal intention, super super important. Mindfulness, super super important, using tools such as the Enneagram to understand how can we be more present and not operate from default. So that's one pillar self-awakening. Next pillar relationships. People rate the worst time of their day is their time with their bosses. So how do we change that? Because people don't, leaders don't really want to be boss holes. They really don't. So how do we cultivate healthy relationships? And one small thing we can do is like positively notice each other, like right now. I'm noticing that the two of you are very present with me. I'm very present with my words and really intently listening, and so just to positively notice and reaffirm the other, so that we catch people in the act of awesome, is such a small little thing everybody can do.

Speaker 1 10:51

I was at an event recently and there were university presidents speaking and one of the university presidents was asked what's the most powerful thing you've done in your career? And her response was I wrote five thank you notes every night. So it's how do we build these little micro practices of gratitude, of love, into what we're doing and to have relationships that are mindful and spacious and loving. And then when we come to the awakened organization, so that's culture, which is like I love, culture on a group. I see the group as having like a field of its own.

Speaker 1 11:34

And so the core pillars are energized, sustain and regenerate. And when I speak of energized, do organizations have vision? Do they have metrics? Because what gets managed gets measured right, like when we're measuring stuff. People will work towards those measurements and we know that companies that focus two-thirds on corporate culture, one-third on financial results, that's where alchemy is. Yet most leaders don't know that. So vision metrics do we celebrate? So those are under the energized pillar. And then we have the sustaining pillar, which is do we know what our values are in organizations? Do we know our connections? Do we have proper structure? And then the last pillars regenerate, and that's innovation, creativity and peacefulness and taking, allowing more space in our organizations to create. You know, and it's so, it's. This is probably a decade overdue, but for the first time in a decade, I'm doing something called the awakened company certification to teach leaders how to actually do this, and it is soue, and yet I feel like the time is now for it. So I'm really excited to be teaching people that and how to bring this leadership approach to life.

Speaker 2 12:54

This is incredibly ambitious, catherine, and I'm sharing this from a perspective of someone who spent the sort of, let's say, one of my life a foot in heavy London corporate culture everything from consultancy firms through to creative companies in fashion, pr, marketing, the art world and I just I struck upon that phrase you mentioned at the beginning bring your awakened self to work and I thought, wow, I mean from my perspective, then, historically good luck, because you know I'm working in spaces at that time where you know the idea of developing culture is maybe, if you're lucky, someone throwing a yoga class in on a Friday lunchtime right for a team which half the corporation you know might just turn their face away from and then just the women go, or et cetera, et cetera, and I'm thinking about the idea of leadership, being self-aware, and I work with some incredible individuals but that would be not something that I would say necessarily was top of their priority list, let alone possibilities, when I think about their stress levels and their availability during working hours and the pressures that they're under.

Speaker 2 14:05

So I'm fascinated by what you're sharing. I celebrate what you're sharing. It's long, long overdue. How are you finding this pressure point going into? You mentioned in the bio there, fortune 500 companies right down to these solo entrepreneurs. How is this going? What's the resistance factor and what's the reality here on the ground for you?

Speaker 1 14:27

Oh, what a beautiful question. So the companies that I founded they were rated as best workplaces and also extraordinarily profitable, and I think that there's an illusion in our society about this do, do, do, do, do, do, do. But then we get caught in this hamster wheel of doing. When we allow being to enter, we are far more creative, we're actually far more productive. And what just so you know, just a hack for you personally is that I have found, when I provide business research and also research on mindfulness, when I say, you know, like let's take a breath, like tomorrow I'm going into a strategy session with a team and I'll begin in stillness, and when we take a breath, when we relax, when we ground, things just flow faster. Yet we are trained in our society to be automatic. What do I mean by that? I mean by the relentless calendar invites the no time for being. Yet the business research and also the research on mindfulness shows us, when we take a break and begin in stillness, we begin in mindfulness, we begin in center. We're actually more productive and we're more creative and it's more fun. So it involves taking a risk, though, of stepping off of the train of normal. So are we willing to lean into that discomfort and say, hey, everybody, let's stop, let's do a grounding before we move ahead with the agenda.

Speaker 1 16:19

And when I first did this in the early 2000s I do it. I presented to one of the largest banks in the world and I got up there and I just started to sweat and I was beet red and I was like I I'm like I can't believe I'm gonna do it, and yet I know it's right action. So I'm gonna just begin in ground grounding, begin in mindfulness and give people the research. And at first they were sitting like like this. So I'm sitting with my arms crossed, so the listeners, listeners here like totally unreceptive. We did it and the entire field changed.

Speaker 1 16:52

So like, how can we lean into as leaders? We can't change other people. We can change ourselves. So the invitation is to step into our own vision, step into our own healthy power, healthy love, healthy wisdom, and then that changes the entire edifice of what's around us. It can't help but to be so. Yet so often there's this illusion of we're going to change the other. No, let's begin with ourselves. Let's lean into our discomfort, let's talk about, you know, relaxing our shoulders and play, because to me it's also the future of corporations.

Speaker 3 17:30

I can certainly see the win-win idea of being present and more productive, slash, profitable, right, that's the ideal, because that's fundamentally, just speaking at an organizational level. If you said to a business, I have a way to make you more profitable than the business, just the business consciousness, so to speak, says yes, how can I be more profitable and successful? But if you said, oh, I can do that and actually make everyone's experience of working at the business better, then that also would seem like a win-win. A win-win. So I'm curious engaging at this level or at the umbrella of a business, which means potentially hierarchies or organizational structures, leaders, and how does this translate into then? How do you cultivate that individual responsibility required? That goes beyond just stepping into the office, nine to five, so to speak. As you said, individuals are the ones who have to change fundamentally. So how, in a sense, do you advocate for or see through? Okay, we can do something in a meeting, but then how does that? How do you inspire, advocate for or suggest people then do this on their own, in their non-business?

Speaker 1 18:37

hours? Great question. So do the two of you both have a personal aim question? So, do the two of you both have a personal aim? So most people don't have a personal vision. So it's like we're all ships at sea. Some people know which island they're going to and other people don't. So which way do we want? And life will blow us into different winds, right? So how do we want to direct our boat? What is our inner compass and our north star? So, for me, my personal vision is, uh, to evermore be a healthy muse radiating love, wisdom and healthy power and service to humanity and the planet. So I, you know, my service orientation is the north star and the inner compass is this uh, paying attention to what is healthy power, love and wisdom and what's being asked for in the moment. That's the muse part of it.

Speaker 1 19:38

So, for everybody to get clear on what their personal intention is or else we were our ships at sea and we will be guided by other people's winds and to stay true to what our being is wanting is very, very, very important and that alignment of the being and the and the doing very, very, very important. However, if we're not clear and personal intention and aim can change over time. However, if we're not clear in the moment and it's very challenging, we have 60,000 thoughts a day, 85% are repeating, 95% of those are negative. To change, to focus and put our intention. Our intention really does matter.

Speaker 1 20:52

To have positive intention and have positive aim. Intention and have positive aim it can open up portals in people's lives. However, for to get people to stop and actually do it, I love working with teams and doing this because it ignites everybody like do your, do the work and and people get uncomfortable with it because I think it's because of this automaticity, like we're on this train. But how do we stop back and stop and reflect and consider who it is we really want to be and what's being called for in our lives?

Corporate Culture & Alignment of Vision & Values

Speaker 2 21:27

you mentioned patagonia at the beginning. There as an example, uh, at least, of a company that got on board with your principles and desired to share this. I wonder if you could share some examples of other companies or include Patagonia, where this has been successfully implemented. These are weakened practices and the impact that the employees, particularly, have experienced. I'm always interested in hearing about leadership, but particularly where people are in a position where they are employed by and you spoke to this beautifully in this there's a fine line between fulfilling somebody else's desires and employment and employees that there's something very subtle there, so I'd love to hear about the impact that's had on employees and their ability to align their personal endeavors as opposed to just solely to leadership's endeavors this is a great question and it gets back to hiring too.

Speaker 1 22:20

I think it's very important that people hire and people who are being employed have alignment around vision and values. When we don't have alignment, that's that's not a good recipe. The stew is not quite. It doesn't work very well because it's like a rub every day you go to work and we don't want that right. So alignment of value is very, very important. Um so what? One organization, one service organization we were working with, they measured wanted and unwanted turnover and so, by employing these practices, their unwanted turnover went down. So, in other words, people were staying longer.

Speaker 1 23:03

But I invite every leader on this call to think about how would you measure your culture, because this is what you're tapping into here. So our clients choose what they're going to measure culture on, and I don't believe in kind of a one size fits all for corporate culture. No, it's not an equation. This is more mercurial what they're going to measure culture on, and I don't believe in kind of a one size fits all for corporate culture. No, it's not an equation. This is more mercurial. This is way, way, way more mercurial.

Speaker 1 23:28

Another client we are working with, a renewable energy company. They measured the different aspects of the nine different Enneagram types and where they didn't have very much of one energy, they then put in practices to reinforce. It was the Enneagram types. And where they didn't have very much of one energy, they then put in practices to reinforce. It was the Enneagram type four and five, which is the individualist and the investigator. They put in practices to increase that energy in their team. So they looked at the map for where is our team on this and how can we improve these different segments? So it's just really, when it comes to culture, our imagination is unlimited and our creativity is unlimited. It's just back to where do we want to focus as a community and how do we see our organizations? As organisms, not simply as a set of individuals, like taking on more of an organism role in the health of the organism.

Speaker 2 24:20

That brings me to this word, culture, catherine, and this idea of fields of influence. Right, and the culture is very much the summation, as I understand it, of all those individuals inputting and therefore the experience and environment in which a person is either thriving or surviving in these scenarios. So what makes for a great culture? It's a hot buzzword. It was certainly around when I was back in the corporate world. Right, we're going to have a great culture, you'd have your town halls once a month to work on culture. But what's the boots on the ground experience of that? How do we get that into practical frameworks?

Speaker 1 24:57

Great question and I love the boots on ground because ultimately it's all about what are the smallest things we're doing as leaders, and people think it's an astronomical thing, but it's what are everyday. What are the tiny micro things that we're doing? Okay, so we've talked about individual awakening. We've talked about kind of group. The glue for culture is relationships. It is if you have a positive relationship with your boss, you will more likely stay way longer, you'll be effectively more committed, you'll find it more enjoyable, more fun. So we don't put enough attention. The town hall is the group.

Speaker 1 25:35

Yet when I looked at a uh, I did a research study about a thousand leaners their bias was toward group or individual, at least towards one-on-one relationships. And one-on-one relationships and healthy one-on-one relationships is where the rubber meets the road. So, for example, there was a ceo was working with and when you entered his office all you could see was a wall of books. I'm like, ooh, we need to do some work here. So he made a commitment to take one person out for lunch and ask one personal question and that transformed his team. So it's like how do we, what are the smallest things we can do to see another, to compliment another, to empower another, and that is where culture actually is formed to live and embody the values. However, where we're talking, what we're talking about right now again, the majority of leaders- when.

Speaker 1 26:33

I ask what's your vision, what's your values? I hear different stories from around the table. I ask what's your vision, what's your values? I hear different stories from around the table. So, unless we have that North Star, that clarity of vision and it's interesting, it's not hard to do. Yet can we take the time? Can we sit back and reflect enough?

Speaker 3 26:54

on the values, on the glue that holds us together. You started off by explaining a moment of inspiration to write the book. What about before that? What was your experience that brought you into being a person who was in business or in corporate world, but also had some pulse on consciousness, practices, cetera?

Speaker 1 27:16

I moved every two years of my life growing up and I think moving really teaches people about other people and what's important and the importance of community, and I've never seen anything as separate. So, for example, just now, just this morning, I went for I was meeting with the CEO and we ended up speaking about the Bible. Well, you know, like we're spiritual beings, we're spiritual beings at work and under development. I took a sociology degree and then I have an MBA and then I'm a trained yogi and then I studied the Enneagram. So, and I don't see any of it as separate, and the root of that is is probably my parents.

Speaker 1 27:59

Um, I think you know our leadership begins with our parents. I think our everybody's parents are their first leaders and my mom and my dad were great. They were always. I was given books before anything else and reaffirmed for kind of reading and investigating things and also not seeing life as separate. Um, I also um the whole.

Speaker 1 28:28

I think it's very, very important that everybody sees organizations as forces for good, and I think that was probably just through seeing the amazing things that organizations can do for community, and I'm involved right now in a number of not-for-profits and there's not a different. I think our that line between social organization, not-for-profit and for-profit is very, is becoming very blurred, because I think every organization must be a social community and I was raised with social my parents. Giving back to community and being involved in community was very important, because where else do we find meaning and belonging other than community, like in that, just having that? We're all mirrors and webs for each other. We can't exist without the other. So your healing is my healing, my healing is your healing, and organizations are places of healing because it's where we spend the majority of our time.

Speaker 1 29:35

My mother's a teacher. You can tell those are probably right from you know, right from her lips. So, um, and then how do we honor? You know? I think right now we're at a very interesting time in humanity. How do we heal the past for the future? And it's it's the very important work that that you do. That is needed because in one ounce of healing it heals so many other things Like and how can we all be the medicine that the world needs right now? That's the invitation for everybody listening. We are all the medicine. Can we sense it? Can we just do small little things to help humanity and the planet at this very, very important time?

Speaker 2 30:25

It's interesting you speak of the blurred boundaries, catherine, because it brings to mind this idea that we're slowly breaking down the divisions and maybe the whole great pause of COVID was part of this in terms of a lot of organizations having people functioning from their home environments for extended periods rather than within their office environments. But this idea of the boundary between personal life and work life which, certainly when I grew up in the 80s and my parents were first, you know, in their heights of their careers, this was a very firm footing. Right, you had your personal life and you had your work life, and very rarely did the two intertwine. Right, you're not taking your personal life into your work life. That's unprofessional.

Speaker 2 31:02

I'm seeing, you know, at least from clients that we're interacting with and people who are coming to do the work right, to experience healing, to bring more balance and harmony to their lives, that they're seeking more and more equilibrium or at least truth and authenticity between these what were apparently segmented aspects of their lives that operated in a silo. Right, my work persona, my personal persona and I I believe what you're speaking to here is is really part of that movement in terms of how do we be our authentic self regardless of our environment, regardless of whether we're in our professional role or our social worlds. And how do we bring more authenticity, truth, wholism, to to all that we're doing?

Speaker 1 31:49

I love the way you just described it and I really do see life as music and life as integration. And what is? What is the harmony that's asking to be sung right now and can we pay? What is the harmony that's asking to be sung right now and can we pay attention to the harmony that's asking to be sung and to stay in alignment? I do believe in boundaries, like it's very, very important to have boundaries, and I have never worked in a traditional way, like I'm a mother of two boys, built organizations while having two boys wrote a book. So it's it's.

Speaker 1 32:19

How do we stay into the tune, into the heartbeat of the universe and the heartbeat of ourselves, so we can stay in an alignment with what is most being asked for? However, are we also listening to that music and not beating a drum that's not meant to be played at the moment? You know like it's, it's a very. Again, back to that self-awareness and that inner attunement, that inner melody. Do we know our inner melody? And I have many stories of CEOs in parking lots crying because they've lost their way, they've lost their heart, they've become human doers, not human beings at work. No, like it's the time for harmony, for integration and for a different tone to be sung that's in alignment with the universe.

Speaker 2 33:17

Somebody is listening to this and they work in a supermarket or they're a lawyer at a traditional law firm, and these principles that you're describing so eloquently have not yet reached their organization. What is it that they can do? How is it that they can practically start to bring some of these principles to their workplace?

Speaker 1 33:43

And create a personal aim. Know your Enneagram, become self-aware. Every time you walk through a door, repeat it to yourself. So, instead of those other mantras that I was speaking of, those negative words, replace it with personal aim. Every time you go through a door, every time you go through a meeting, think about how you can elevate somebody in that meeting, how you can be a positive force, how you can positively notice another human being, and if you are a leader, to cultivate vision, values, connectedness, proper structure, peace, creativity and give people freedom to be who they are. So there's many, and ultimately, though, it's every day. What is the tiniest thing you can do in the moment? To be of service?

Speaker 3 34:30

You've referenced the Enneagram a number of times. I'm not that familiar with the Enneagram outside of Gurdjieff's work. I'm curious if you would describe what the Enneagram is to listeners and how you implement it in your practice, if you would describe what the Enneagram is to listeners and how you implement it in your practice.

Building Healthy Organizational Cultures

Speaker 1 34:50

The Enneagram is a very ancient, ancient methodology and Eckhart Tolle speaks of being present, and the Enneagram is the roadmap for how do we be present. It tells us what our strengths are, what our work ons are. It's often a secret tool. It's a process map for how do we become more present. It shows what happens when we behave in default. It shows what happens when we're at our higher selves. It gives us a real roadmap, a real spiritual and practical leadership roadmap for how to be present. We have a ton of resources on our website and also on our YouTube, and it's one methodology to really improve your lives and to improve lives, to improve impact, to improve your own harmony, and when we improve our own harmony, then we improve everybody else's harmony, because we're all singing music together you've mentioned values a couple of times, both personal and corporate, and I wonder if you could share how the role of purpose and values helps shape culture at awakening company.

Speaker 1 35:54

Our values are triple p, which is playfulness. So, um, for example, tomorrow, again, the strategy I'll be bringing some very playful chocolates to begin the session so like actually embodying the playfulness, purposefulness, being deliberate, and passion it's because that's like my natural MO is passion to actually be to care about the world, and that's not often people don't really care. So how do we instill that passion with everybody we work with? So, for example, sherry, who I work with, she's constantly giving me little message of impact around, around what we do, and to me that just fuels the passion of what we do. And there's been some companies who's actually had uh values awards and this is a way of building culture and what they've done is they um have designed again chocolates coming up. I don't know why. They've've designed chocolates around their values, and so the people are awarded for their values, for living the values, and then the person who's awarded has to choose who gets it next in terms of living the values. So these are like little practical things that elevate the energy in a company, in an organization, and reaffirms you know, the values.

Speaker 1 37:26

One of my colleagues I've made so many mistakes when it comes to vision and values. However, and I'll tell you, maybe I'll tell you my vision mistake. It was an absolute leadership disaster. We're in the bar drive and I this was a while ago and I'm like, okay, hey, team, here's our, here's our vision. And I was like so excited and ignited about it and everyone kind of nods their head like yeah, okay, great, kath, okay on, we go, plow through the agenda back to what we were speaking about earlier.

Speaker 1 37:59

And then we brought in a consultant from Denmark to work with us because nobody was doing in North America what we were speaking about earlier. And then we brought in a consultant from Denmark to work with us because nobody was doing in North America what we were doing. And he asked everybody what's your vision? And nobody raised their hands. And so I cried myself to sleep that night because I realized what a poor job I had done in terms of leading. And one of Margaret Wheatley's core principles is people support what they create. And so we then redid the vision together and nobody ever forgot the vision or the values of the organization. And one of my teammates made a huge popcorn jar and on the ingredients were the values of the organization, with what percentage she felt that they were represented. So there's just again our creativity, and it's a simple little thing to create a popcorn jar with a sticker on it. You know, it's not complicated but it leaves an impact because it's unique.

Speaker 2 39:01

I'm interested in the question of personal responsibility in this right, because there's a lot of talk about how we bring corporations, organizations, business leaders, models under responsibility for our health and happiness. Right, so we attend a workplace and they're responsible for our health and happiness, right, so we attend a workplace and they're responsible for our health and happiness, right, which is obviously not how it rolls. But I'm just trying to sort of flip it back as well to personal responsibility, and you mentioned healing and this idea that each individual's healing is contributing to the whole, and we understand that, of course, from our perspective of doing healing work with people. But how is that applying in a in a corporate business world sense?

Speaker 1 39:43

personal responsibility is very, very important. Once we define ourselves as a leader, then we've got to take responsibility for our leadership, and we've got to take responsibility for our being, and everything back to what. What we were talking about earlier is a matrix, so we pull on one piece of the spider web. Another piece moves. So by somebody claiming their own personal power, personal responsibility it actually serves the whole. By claiming our vision and how it aligns to the organization's vision, it actually helps the whole. The illusion is, though, that it doesn't.

Speaker 1 40:20

Personal responsibility is key around boundaries, and I've had to learn some personal hard lessons around that.

Speaker 1 40:26

Like, one of my things that I work on is I give my energy away, so I've really had to work on what are my boundaries around that, because when I do that, I end up getting burnt out, and that doesn't serve anybody.

Speaker 1 40:38

So it's taking me taking responsibility for my own stuff, and then, in me taking responsibility, it gives other people more freedom, and it also actually makes the whole system sing or hum more consistently, and it's not very empowering either when you give away your energy and people use it and use your ideas or what have you. It doesn't allow them space to come up with their own, so it's not really of service to them either. So it's it's what you speak of is very, very important, and that's why we must do our own development and our own healing work. Like I'm a very strong proponent for what? For what you do, like I have people support me in my work and I use various tools, like I use astrology, I use Tarot, I practice I have a very devout Buddhist practice and all of these methodologies help me to be more whole and are very important to me, living in alignment with what I think I'm here to do.

Speaker 3 41:48

By a person becoming more self-defined, boundaried, empowered, self-responsible, identifying themselves as leaders, etc. Then all the different units can start to kind of collaborate from a place of centeredness. At least, that's how I'm hearing this, and I really think that the message that you're imparting is really important, that organizations can be a force for good, that organizations overall can be a force for good, seems like a very important thing because we can do what we can as individuals. But fundamentally, we realize we are in a world where business, corporations, money, have tremendous amounts of power and influence and can be great forces for change, either good or bad. So what do you think is the future or the leading edge of how this evolving landscape is in terms of seeing organizations as positive forces?

Speaker 1 42:40

I think the future of organizations is emergent organisms, so that the organism is focused on service to solving a problem, either a humanitarian problem or a planetary problem. And in so doing, I feel like the field of organizations can become informants to solve those challenges in breakthrough ways, because it's almost like another instinct or another sense will have been developed in these organizations because of their collective field. For those who don't believe in organizations, I believe organizations are the only way that we are going to solve our collective challenges. So how do we bring humanity back into our organizations to be this force, field for service, for good, and that is of utmost importance at this time. And I also believe in using untraditional methodologies to help heal what has gone on in organizations and in society as a whole.

Speaker 1 44:10

I believe in humanity. It's like we're all being invited into a new way of being and doing. Are we willing to step in individually, step in in our relationships, step in to the collective? And it doesn't mean everything's going to be perfect. No, it's like a learning organism. Are we learning, are we developing? Are we um cultivating healthy, healthy thoughts, healthy heart, healthy body, in in how we are at work and how we are in life, because we don't get our moments back. We do not get our moments back and, you know, for future generations it's it's time to kind of readjust the way society has been organized. Let's face it, okay, the majority of people are disengaged at work. People rate the worst time of the day as the time with their bosses. Most organizations don't survive past nine years. We are hitting our head against a wall again and again and again. It's time for something new and it's the invitation to self-awareness, to mindfulness, to healthy relationships, healthy relatedness, to creating deliberate corporate cultures so that we have healthy forests, not forests that are going to wither away and die.

Speaker 2 45:36

You're sharing Catherine in the third party and I'll use field dynamics as an example here because Keith and I are in a position of responsibility as co-founders of an organization and it's in some ways in its infancy in terms of what we hope for it in its long-term ambitions.

Speaker 2 45:56

But we're very aware of that sense of custodianship and that each and every person interacting and engaging with trainings, whether they then move on or remain an active part of the community, of the organization, right of the community. That that is, creating a collective field, a collective input and recognizing the potency of these I don't want to say group minds, but this group field and how the sum total. It's exponential. It's more than the individuals contributing the vision of the future that you foresee or hope for in terms of this becoming more of a working model, an approach for all types and sorts of organizations. And I think that the thing that I'm taking away primarily from what you've shared today is it's the holistic model that people are learning to apply to themselves as individuals right, mind, body, body, spirit and it's applying that holism, it seems, to an organization organizations have mind, body, spirit.

Speaker 1 47:07

This last friday was presenting to a un group and a grade 12 group and the students got it like that. There was no convincing, there was no, they immediately got it and then, so I know for upcoming generations the field is already different. I think we're at a very exciting time in humanity's precipice. Shall we say, this very moment, we're at a very, very exciting time.

Speaker 3 47:40

If people are interested in finding your work, find out your services, read your book, where would you generally direct them?

Speaker 1 47:48

Oh, please visit awakenedcompanycom. Sign up for our newsletter. I really look at making our newsletter super, super practical, so my latest one's been on how to hire from a conscious perspective, so super, super practical. We're on all the social media LinkedIn, instagram, facebook, twitter and again, the certification I'm really, really excited about and check out our video on demand. We've got so many services to help people awaken individually, in their relationships and as teams, and I love working with teams, so awakencompanycom is the best resource. Thank you for asking.

Speaker 2 48:29

Thank you, catherine, for sharing. We'll be sure to include that in the show notes, and thank you for sharing your wisdom today and your voice of expertise as a pioneer in the evolution of conscious business practices. It's been really fascinating to learn more.

Speaker 1 48:43

Such an honor and privilege to be with both of you, and I also believe in thanking the Invisible. So thank you to the Invisible that helped bring us together and to everybody listening too.

Speaker 3 48:57

Thanks for listening to the episode. What really supports the podcast is providing a rating and review of the show on your preferred listening platform. This helps us get the message out to a wider audience. If the topics we discussed today appeal to you, do take a moment to subscribe. Lastly, we invite you to check out our website, fielddynamicshealingcom, to learn about our training programs, private session work and to see how we're setting the standard in contemporary energy healing. Many thanks and see you next time.