I believe that a corporation that encourages employees to be open and friendly with each other and thus to wear their humanity on their sleeve, is one of the most important things for its success. Certainly, working to create such a culture is very central to my corporate work.

In a friendly environment, I find that employees feel respected, empowered and more relaxed, which in turn allows them to perform better, to feel free to share creative ideas with each other and most important, enables them to see their “work” as part of their “life” and so dichotomies such as the need to maintain a healthy “work/life” balance become less important.

In such an environment, it is much easier for people to work together as teams, a much healthier top-down / bottom-up flow exists, and far from people feeling that going to work means needing to “sell their soul to the company store”, instead may be delighted to find that that selfsame “store” offers a unique opportunity for them to discover it!

What Liberates?

The Oxford Dictionary defines liberation as: ‘the act of setting someone free from slavery, imprisonment or oppression’. Liberation, therefore, has both inner and outer dimensions which are intrinsically inter-related because if we are not free inside ourselves, it will inevitably limit our ability to live a liberated outer life, even if the society we live in is a relatively free one. The same can hold true the other way around as well. Many of us, therefore, need liberating not only…