If you were on a mission to transform the world into a deeply spiritual place in only 48 hours, then joining a weekend conference of business leaders and entrepreneurs, sponsored by bankers, consultants and property developers, and supported by Coca-Cola, would seem an unlikely strategy.
However, the Waldzell conference is not your standard corporate bash. It is hosted by an ancient Benedictine monastery, stars charismatic writers such as the New Age bestseller Paulo Coelho and the “magical realist” Isabel Allende, and in the opening ceremony it declares itself to be “protected by higher powers”.
Ever since Jesus upset the merchant classes by overturning their tables in the temple, the worlds of God and Mammon have found themselves frequently at loggerheads. But here in Melk Abbey, Austria, the two conflicting spheres are on a joint spiritual mission. Waldzell is in the vanguard of a new trend to imbue the world of moneymaking with “inspirational” and spiritual messages.
The third annual Waldzell meeting, held earlier this month, is named after the fictional site where the players in Herman Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game withdrew from the world to engage in the “game”, a convoluted metaphysical and semantic exercise that sounds like a Teutonic form of Radio 4’s nonsensical Mornington Crescent. But here the 200 guests, both invited and paying (at a cost of £1,350 plus accommodation), are exhorted to tackle a similarly amorphous task: to debate the world’s spiritual and ethical challenges, and to network at a depth of human engagement that “could truly change lives”.
The abbey’s head, Abbot Georg, declares that the weekend’s mission is “to change this world for better, for peace, for feeling joy and love”. We hear, too, that, as a “seat for the development of spirituality, Waldzell can be one of the most inspiring places in the world and for the world”. High-flown words, indeed. The two days of lecture and discussion are punctuated by inspirational music, walks round the gardens and libraries, Tibetan chanting and a son et lumière performance in the old church.
Bustling through all this neo-spiritual New Age activity are the delegates: accountants, engineers, heads of pharmaceutical companies, investment analysts: solid types loosening their ties in a quest for some of this new good-feelin’ inspiration stuff. Each has been asked to bring a “book that changed their life” to swap with a fellow delegate (along with their business card). Such activity is bound to inspire cynicism but then, one has to ask, while sitting amid the Baroque splendour of the main hall, why not? There’s a strong case here for what business people love to call synergy; why not try to embed spiritual inspiration into the corporate hearts of a world where so many derive their life’s meaning only from getting and spending, and in which the majority of their hours are occupied by devotions at the temple of work? Certainly Waldzell is not alone in this endeavour. Margaret Benefiel, a theological teacher who lectures around the world, has set up Executive Soul in America. Her organisation promises to help corporate bosses to improve their decision-making abilities by being more spiritual at work.
Benefiel, the author of Soul At Work: Spiritual Leadership In Organisations, encourages participants to get on their knees in the pursuit of best management. “Reflection and prayer can provide a way to step back and see the whole picture, letting go of ego needs and asking what is best for the organisation,” she says.
And Ken Blanchard, who had a bestseller in the 1980s with his book The One-Minute Manager, has just co-written a business volume titled Lead Like Jesus: Lessons From the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time. Blanchard says that senior managers should strive to be more Christ-like in their employment ethos: “We are in desperate need of a new role model. I think that Jesus would run a profitable organisation, but it would be amazing what he would do with the profits.”
Already the book is a hit on Amazon. At the Ken Blanchard Company in Escondido, California, Blanchard holds the title of chief spiritual officer. He declares that business bosses can take four key leadership lessons from Christ: take time to be alone and to develop a personal mission statement; pray or meditate daily while studying inspirational texts; love yourself unconditionally; and rely on a small group of people who allow you to be vulnerable and who can give you honest advice. But companies do take a risk when adopting religious content. When Starbucks in America printed a quote from the charismatic Christian leader Rick Warren on its cups last October, critics attacked it as a crass attempt to co-brand coffee and Christianity.
Back at Waldzell, my self-appointed mission was to ask everyone whether they really believed that a two-day injection of Aquarian spirit into the business world could spark a revolution. Allende had captivated the audience with an energetic exposition of her life’s loves and losses, and her exhortation to always, always, start over again renewed. But later, she told me: “To change the world in a weekend. Well, it’s optimistic.” She laughed, but she added: “We have all got to get involved because the world is going in such a bad direction.”
Coelho, similarly, had mixed feelings. He argued: “If we come with this idea that we will change the world, then we are already lost in the beginning. But it is not very common for people to talk to each other and to hear each other. It is very powerful to create a basis or resonance for big changes in the future.”
I was surprised to see Robert Gallo — who discovered the HIV virus in 1980 — at the conference. He’s a Vincent Price look-alike with an iconoclastically mischievous sense of humour. What was he doing there? “When I read about Waldzell I wanted to ask, why bother? But I love Austria and whenever I’ve knocked on the door of the abbey, they haven’t let me in, so this was my chance,” he says.
“Then I realised that this was worthy of being taken seriously. It would take 10,000 of these conferences to directly make a difference, but if people come year after year, over time the concept can take off — and that’s the best that you can hope for.”
For further information, www.waldzell.org
