We are, in our longing to matter, philosophical creatures. You don’t need to have been a student of philosophy. The ponderings and reflections that everyone falls into, at least once in a while, are preparation enough.
- Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
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What in the world have I been up to?
For the past few months, I have been working on a 14-lesson course for organizational leaders who want their people to flourish in their work. More specifically, it's for leaders who want training on what it means to cultivate good, virtuous character, to have a sense of purpose in what they do, to find meaning in their work, to fine-tune the right set of values, and to have the right alignment of agency to make all that happen.
It’s a massive project.
As I have been thinking about how philosophy can be most useful and practical these past couple years, I noticed some ongoing pain points from business leaders: work engagement is down, motivation is lacking more than ever, incivility is on the rise, social relationships and connection are tanking while loneliness levels dramatically increase, and the meaning and purpose crisis permeates every facet of work life. Generally speaking, the workplace looks bleak.
What makes things worse is that for so many who are in a position of leadership, you could have a genuine, intense desire to help, but no idea how. Business schools and even business experience give you some training and skills, but none of that trains you to deal with the intangible problems that affect the quality of work life.
But there is a discipline that has focused deeply on all those things for the past 2,500 years. So I have curated the most practical tools from philosophy, with the help of research from organizational psychology and moral psychology, to build a course that trains organizational leaders on how to cultivate a fully flourishing workplace.
I’m telling you all this to (partially) explain my newsletter absence these past months. It has taken a massive amount of time and energy. Currently, the course is in the early stages and drafts. Once I’m happy with the written workbook for each lesson--after I have several philosophers and leaders help me get it into shape (which a few people are now doing)--I will record the videos for all the lessons and get all the administrative platform stuff sorted so the purchasing process is seamless. I hope to have more of a concrete launch date by spring of 2027.
I’m also telling you all this in case you have feedback or suggestions. I have planned on doing all of it completely on my own, which takes much longer, but I won’t turn down your help if you’re interested; help with the drafts, with feedback on the videos, promotion and marketing, the finances, introducing me to someone you know who would be interested, etc.
Helping people improve their work life through talking about and applying these deeply meaningful ideas I care about would be a dream come true. All things being equal, my idea of the good life is having meaningful conversations with good people. Doing that in the context of work sounds pretty great to me.
More details on that down the line. If you’re interested, feel free to reply to this email with any thoughts.
Until next time.
Jared
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