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The
Power of Mind
Dennis P.
Heaton
The
key to productivity improvement is to unfold the latent potential
of the human mind. Progressive stages in the evolution of organizations
correspond to progressively deeper aspects of the mind. Task-based
management corresponds to the most superficial sensory and concrete
thinking levels of the mind; this approach of rigid rules and structures
is now unsuited for an increasingly knowledge-based economy. The
next stage, process-based management, makes greater use of the intellect
of organizational members to design, implement, and evaluate systemic
productivity improvements. A few organizations today demonstrate
the lasting success of values-based organizing, managing on the
level of feelings and ego.
The
future of management will see organizations that utilize the deepest
level of human consciousness, connecting the human mind to the intelligence
of natural law that spontaneously organizes for optimal simplicity,
synergy, and holistic progress. Seven properties of a consciousness-based
organization are:
1)
efficiency on a par with nature's principle of least action;
2) spontaneous and frictionless coordination;
3) creative inspiration akin to artistic genius;
4) doing well by doing good: prosperity and social value;
5) harmony with the natural environment;
6) spontaneous change in an evolutionary direction; and
7) leadership which promotes full human development.
Influential
Readings
- Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi (1995a), Maharishi University of Management: Wholeness
on the move, Maharishi Vedic University Press, publication N3530,
Vlodrop, Holland.
- Harung,
H. S. (1999), Invincible leadership: Building peak performance
organizations by harnessing the unlimited power of consciousness,
Maharishi University of Management Press, Fairfield, IA.
- National
Research Council. (1994), Organizational linkages: Understanding
the productivity paradox, National Academy Press, Washington,
D.C., USA.
- Alexander,
C. N., Davies, J. L., Dixon, C. A., Dillbeck, M. C., Druker, S.
M., Oetzel, R. M., Muehlman, J. M., & Orme-Johnson, D. (1990),
"Growth to higher stages of consciousness: Maharishi´s Vedic Psychology
of human development", In C. N. Alexander & E. Langer (eds.),
Higher stages of human development: Perspectives on adult growth,
pp. 286-341, Oxford University Press, Oxford, Great Britain.
- Kegan,
R. (1994), In over our heads: The mental demands of modern life,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
- Wheatley,
M. J. (1992), Leadership and the new science: Learning about organization
from an orderly universe, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, California,
USA.
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Dennis
is Chairman and Professor in the Department of Management
at Maharishi University of Management (M.U.M.) in Fairfield,
Iowa, USA, where he has founded a cooperative education program
for international students, and a specialization in Electronic
Business. He has a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership
from Boston University, and is the author of numerous chapters
and articles on higher stages of individual and organizational
development. Dr. Heaton has created and taught courses for
M.U.M.'s international distance education MBA program. He
has also organized conferences, continuing education courses,
and professional development workshops, and authored and implemented
successful grant programs for curriculum development, employee
training, business internships, small business development,
and health research. e-mail: dheaton21@yahoo.com.
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