Dharma At Work Place - Doing the Right Thing

‘Dharma’ comes from Dhri/Dharti (that which upholds). One of my teachers taught me that ‘Dharma’ has three actions:

- that which has fallen is regenerated

- that which is falling is reinstated

- that which is standing is reinforced/replenished

That which upholds life is Dharma. That which does not help it grow is Adharma.

It might be simple then to be able to reference Dharma in day-to-day living and at workplace.

One of the values at our firm is ‘Dharma’. For simplicity, we translate it to ‘doing the right thing’. In workplaces fraught with processes, checklists, dos and don'ts, it is simple and empowering to create a ‘principles’ based approach rather than a process based. We already know that companies like IBM were turned around managing by principles vis-à-vis procedures.

Principles or ‘Doing The Right Thing’ as we call it can empower you to make decisions and allow you to take responsibility. They emerge from looking at positive and best possibilities and create engagement.

So if Dharma means "to support, hold, or bear", if Dharma is that principle which remains constant, then its simple enough to have a broad principles based approach at workplaces to making decisions. There would be mistakes in the process but is sure to build Trust.