First, there were the management consultants. Then came the diversity consultants. Now, some enterprising graduates of divinity schools have found a way to sell their talents, or at least their credentials, to corporations. Nellie Bowles reports on these “divinity consultants,” who have discovered that the coronavirus epidemic has created a market for their services:
They blend the obscure language of the sacred with the also obscure language of management consulting to provide clients with a range of spiritually inflected services, from architecture to employee training to ritual design.
Their larger goal is to soften “cruel” capitalism, making space for the soul, and to encourage employees to ask if what they are doing is good in a “higher sense.” Having watched social justice get readily absorbed into corporate culture, they want to see if more American businesses are ready for faith.
Or, if not for faith precisely, for some of its accoutrements. Bowles continues:
Before the pandemic, these agencies got their footing helping companies with design—refining their products, physical spaces, and branding. They also consulted on strategy, workflow, and staff management. With digital workers stuck at home since March, a new opportunity has emerged. Employers are finding their workers atomized and agitated, and are looking for guidance to bring them back together. Now the sacred consultants are helping to usher in new rituals for shapeless workdays, and trying to give employees routines that are imbued with meaning.
Read more on New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/business/remote-work-spiritual-consultants.html