Greetings all,

I am feeling amazed at the moment at how much time can be "eaten up" writing emails! I sent some thank you notes to friends we connected with in Oakland this weekend, and all of the sudden its 9:30 pm and I still haven't gotten the NVC-NM newsletter out.

Today at the CNVC office I facilitated a session on gratitude and used the following as our remembrance. I wanted to pass it on to you in the hopes of meeting a need for contribution and inspiration...

Peace,
Jim

Life-Enriching Organizational Structures
Q: What needs are fulfilled in life-enriching structures?
MR: Life-enriching structures—the kind of structures that I would like to see us creating and participating in—are structures whose vision is to serve life. And how do we know if an organization—whether it's a family, or work team, or government—is a life-serving organization? We find out by asking: Is its mission to meet the needs and enrich the lives of people within—and affected by—the organization?
And what do people need? Money is not a need. It's a strategy that sometimes might meet a need. Fame is not a need. Status is not a need. These are things that domination structures use to mislead people—take a real need and misrepresent it, and get people to think that these false things are the needs. So, a life-enriching organization, in fact, serves life, serves needs.
Next, all work done within a life-enriching structure is motivated by the mission. Not by money, not by salary, not by position, not by status. Every bit of work that a person does is coming from this joy of meeting that mission. And life-enriching organizations give the workers within them the nurturing they need to live that mission. Now, here's where money comes into play. They might get a salary for some food for their family and themselves, but that's not why they're doing the work. They're motivated to do the work purely by the life-serving mission. But the most important part of an organization in this respect isn't the money. A life-enriching organization must be set up to do very well to get genuine gratitude to every worker. That's the fuel necessary to keep people working in a life-enriching organization: sincere gratitude. When you do so people can see how their efforts are instrumental in the life-serving mission.

Want more? Marshall Rosenberg on Applying NVC/