wholeness in everything, even marketing

I’ve been thinking about the idea of wholeness the past couple weeks, because of the Marketing Like a Human program. We just finished up week 5 out of 6 and some of the conversation has been about creating an offer that feels balanced in wholeness. By that I mean, the offer meets your customers needs and your needs in ways that have a sense of fairness and generosity in both directions. There’s a million ways to experience wholeness in our world, because it is hidden in all things – even marketing, product mixes, and pricing decisions.

So, in the spirit of seeing, feeling, and celebrating wholeness that is always with us beneath the surface, I’ve been sharing quotes on the idea of wholeness.

 

Here are my favorites of the week:

“When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.” – Margaret J. Wheatley

 

“You don’t need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.” – Maya Angelou

 

“Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.” – Parker Palmer

 

“Out of the cacophony of random suffering and chaos that can mark human life, the life artist sees or creates a symphony of meaning and order. A life of wholeness does not depend on what we experience. Wholeness depends on how we experience our lives.” – Desmond Tutu

The question of wholeness suggests answers of how to navigate our personal experience, but also how we live in community with each other. And because it captures so much of our human experience, it’s been a wonderful launching point for discussions in marketing.

 

Exploring Wholeness in Music

Wholeness is perhaps what they are singing about in the first song, the U2 cover of I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. I love that they then move into Stand By Me, which is an incredible love song evoking a sense of wholeness. While this isn’t the prettiest video you’ll ever see, these guys can sing!  

I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Lookin’ For/Stand By Me by The Light Parade

Experiencing Wholeness – A Couple Practices

Mindfulness
For many of us, it is all too easy to notice what is wrong and missing. We can list the ways we are not enough way faster than we can define the ways we are enough. Same thing with how our lives or situations may be unacceptable over how they are acceptable. However, the hidden wholeness of any situation is not in seeing what is not present, but it lies in seeing what is present. As we practice noticing what is present, we don’t need to judge things as good or bad. We practice just noticing and this simple act is enough to open us to the possibility that there is wholeness here, too. 

Imagination and Wholeness
In the Marketing Like a Human class, we used imagination as a tool to ask the question of what wholeness is like in our businesses. I asked the class participants to close their eyes, settle into their bodies and to use their imaginations to experience what wholeness is like in the business. What does it feel like to have a business in balance, serving the needs of all involved? What does it feel like to have engaged, loving connection with customers or employees? I asked them to settle into that feeling and then ask what is present in our imagination that makes the business feel that way? What images or thoughts come up? What did you learn from your imagination and sense of wholeness?