Article July 10, 2000 Issue

Turning up the heat

Kim Shippey with contributions from Martin Rutte

The Third International Symposium on Spirituality and Business convened at Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, in March. The closing speaker, after three days of vigorous discussion on leadership, values, and ethics in business, was Canadian-born Martin Rutte, president of Livelihood, a management consulting firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is a coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work.

"There has been a reluctance to present our spiritual self in public," said Mr. Rutte, "and that time is over. We've not been good at engaging in spiritual discussion and spiritual policy-making; and that time is over. We've wanted to lift up the quality of public discussion concerning spirituality; and that time has begun. Spirituality has moved from being just an idea, to becoming part of the mainstream.

What is emerging now," said Mr. Rutte, "is the realization of how already present and already centered spirituality is for business people. . . . And it's a global emergence. An unleashing of the human spirit." He described it as a "clamoring" on the part of thousands of people all over the world.

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