Dissecting Kahlil Gibran's "On Work"

From an organizational perspective...

I just typed out on my typewriter, Kahlil Gibran’s poem “On Work” from his most celebrated work, The Prophet.

While the poem is two-page long and a must-read if you want to understand what work really signifies, a small section of the poem really called to me for a closer look:

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

I am keen to understand what this section looks like from an organizational perspective. Here I go:

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

Not to indicate there’s no difference between professional life and personal life, but the kind of person you are somehow finds its way into your work. “Weaving a cloth with threads” is akin to the fact that we are important cogs in the wheel, doing a part of the organization’s work. “as if your beloved were to wear that cloth” is akin to one of my favorite sentences of the 21st century - Skin in the Game. A sense of ownership is critical in employees, specially when the organizational knowledge grows is hinged to the knowledge of employees.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

The structure, the processes, the culture which is part of your organization is as much your responsibility as it is yours to build, follow or imbibe it. This seems to be a corollary of the first line - you cannot truly feel that you belong where you belong unless you feel a sense of ownership.

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

The belief that what we are doing is important work and with every miniscule task is catapulting the organization forward in ways one cannot comprehend. The skin in the game and the beloved’s presence is in each line, showing that we are just nodes in a network and the world and the Universe at large is a just place, waiting for us to bloom into our full potential. And this cannot happen if short term motives are prioritized over the long term nurturing attitude. Delegating that trust can empower someone to fundamentally change and innovate how to play the game.

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit

If you are not working to bring in creative self-expression in whichever small way as possible, you might as well give up. I dread the automation that is happening in the world of content writing. AI writing tools, Grammar check tools, are inching closer to human perfection and are few steps away from dislodging me not just from my job, but from my career as well. It is the creative choices and decisions that you bring to the table which distinguish you from cogs that are working to fill in the hours.

And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

The founders built the organization with certain vision. The reason why we have founders day or foundation day is to introspect how far we have come as an organization and how true we have been to the original vision of the founders. Kahlil is hinting at one key personal trait that one should embody - Integrity.

Although I have a deep appreciation for how a system like organization works, I never imagined deriving corporate lessons from a century old poem.

Talking about the importance of work, a line from another poem Desiderata comes to my mind

Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Chat tomorrow,

Mandar