Why does David Whyte remind me of Dilbert? With his poet's pen he probes the tender places and hard places of the work world. He reveals its unspoken center. Through poetry he shines light on the corporate life. The title from his book comes from a poem by William Carlos Williams.
Through the images of the poets, Whyte seeks to rouse the heart from its captivity to the ways of the corporate world. A snippet from a poem, such as,My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you
and concerns many a men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there
but in despised poems.
It is difficult
to get news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
can evoke a recognition of condition. The book is full of such flashes of light that speak to the soul found wandering in the corporate jungle.I awoke in a dark wood
where the true way was wholly lost
This is a book to be read in small pieces. It is something like a mirror met unexpectedly while coming around a corner in a rushing hallway. There you are right in the middle of the picture. The compromises seemingly required in order to continue in the corporate world are immediately recognizable. For instance, in his chapter on Beowulf, Whyte weaves the powerful poetic myth into the corporate life in a way that adds clarity and speaks to the soul.
Whyte would have managers understand that when the soul is gone from the worker it is the whole corporation that is diminished along with the worker.
A reader could spend days reflecting on the Coleridge and Complexity pages. The image of the flock of starlings Coleridge saw outside his carriage window creates a metaphor framework for reflection on one's life and work. There are some great organizational and management principles wrapped up in that one idea.
So much for organization charts and managers who "manage." Think of the institution as a flock of starlings. Think of employees and "managers" as the ever-changing flock in motion, each making individual choice, yet remaining in the flock.The starlings drove along like smoke…
misty…without volition—
now a circular area incline in an arc—
now a globe, now
a complete or into an ellipse…
and still it expands and condenses,
some moments glimmering and shivering
dim and shadowy,
now thickening, deepening, blackening.
A woman in one of his executive workshops wrote a poem that contained this enlightened line:
Hmmm.I turned my face for a moment
and it became my life.
It is a book, first of all, for everyone who works in a corporate situation. It could be a group of 2 or 3 or 2 or 3 thousand. After all, whether the corporation changes its soul is not our first duty. That duty is to keep our own soul. This book opens hearts to possibilities.
Second, this book could change managers and other corporate "rulers," by revealing how the open soul offers the life the corporation seeks and without which it ultimately dies.
Read this book in between others on your table. Use it when you are ready for some thoughtful reflection. Read it when you hunger for something to speak to your soul.