Helping Gen Zs Thrive: From Inclusive Authenticity to Beingfulness (Part 2)

In an earlier post, I argued that an effective way to manage Gen Zs is to lead by example through inclusion and authenticity in one’s interactions with them. This would enable managers to reconcile within themselves the profound tension between self-absorption and care-for-others that is inherent to everyone, and especially Gen Zs. But how do we do so?

We need to show that caring about oneself and caring about others are not really contradictory and are instead a paradox.

1.     The first step is to move beyond models that force a false choice between self-interest and altruism, as modern philosophers have suggested. In effect, we need to reject “either/or” thinking and replace it with “and” thinking when it comes to self- and other-interest.

2.     The second step is to apply this thinking to our sense of self and ask if it can be revised. Ancient wisdom urges us to move beyond seeing ourselves as separate individuals. Instead, it reminds us that our true self is deeply interconnected with others. We can choose between two views: the separate self, focused on exclusion and uniqueness, or the interconnected self, grounded in inclusion of others. These are the two categories of the Inclusion dimension of the Inclusive Authenticity Matrix (I-AM) below.

3.     The third step is to consider where authenticity fits into this chart. Authenticity is popularly described as the unobstructed operation of our true or core self in our daily enterprise. Psychology research discusses two kinds of authenticity - “know thyself” authenticity that is about authentic self-awareness, and “be thyself” authenticity that is about authentic self-expression through action. These are the two categories of the Authenticity dimension of the I-AM chart.

I-AM chart:

I-AM Chart

Now that we have constructed a 2x2 I-AM chart that maps Authenticity to Inclusion, we can see that the left-hand column of the chart is about self-absorption, where we see ourselves as unique and separate from others. If we reside in this column, we focus our attention on discovering how we are truly special (self-awareness) and how we can express this uniqueness in our everyday actions (self-expression). But it can turn us into desperate victims when we rely heavily on others in our social groups for our self-worth.

Rather than sail the ego-tossed seas of our social groups, a beingful orientation urges us to be anchored in the subtle, mysterious, and profound experience of “what it is like” to be a human being. This is shown in the right-hand column of the I-AM chart. The top right cell of the matrix corresponds to an awareness of my profound interconnection to other living things, because my essence, or Being, is the same as theirs.  The bottom right cell corresponds to an authentic expression of this interconnection in our everyday life in our own unique ways.

A beingful orientation to life and work is at the heart of the Beingfulness approach.

This orientation sees the self of every sentient being as comprising a unique aspect called the individual self, and a shared or common aspect called the universal self or Being. In the Upanishads, this description is beautifully conveyed through the metaphor of two birds in a tree, where the tree represents our mind-body complex, one of the birds (typically depicted in a lower branch of the tree) represents the unique or ego self (ahankara), and the other bird (typically depicted at the top of the tree) symbolizes Being as the universal or witness self (sakshi). A beingful orientation describes the integration of these two kinds of consciousness, where the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours of the ego self are unique expressions of the shared values and principles of the universal self or Being.

This anchoring will become even more important to Gen Zs and other generations as AI rapidly acquires more intelligence and consciousness and even exceeds human capabilities through Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) within a decade. In a fascinating article in The New Yorker on how AI will disrupt the humanities, the author describes how a Gen Z student reflected on the great power of ChatGPT: “The A.I. is huge. A tsunami. But it’s not me. It can’t touch my me-ness. It doesn’t know what it is to be human, to be me.”

The author’s conclusion succinctly describes how a beingful orientation can help Gen Zs and other generations live meaningfully in a world dominated by AI: “We can return to what was always the heart of the matter—the lived experience of existence. Being itself.”

The rise of AGI could well enable Gen Zs and future generations to truly know their shared humanity far more than earlier generations could.