The Soul Manifesto has a simple but profound aim - to offer support to those of us who work in organizations - of whatever type, scale, location and purpose - and who believe that it is possible to make those organizations better - for customers, staff, managers, shareholders and suppliers - with the introduction of some soul.

This manifesto is being created initially by me, John Schonegevel, and hopefully by more people as it develops.

My desire is for this manifesto to be a practical guide to implementing a better way of working rather than a polemic railing against the way things currently are. So positive, practical, helpful and useful are the key words against which I would like you to judge this site's contents.

By soul, I mean - a desire for our work to be meaningful, for it to enrich our spirits as well as our bank balances. Soul has the potential to lift us out of the mundane, to make our spirits sour and help us want to work, rather than having to work.

The Soul Manifesto is for those of us who want to change ourselves, and our organisations by developing and applying methods by which we link our hearts and souls, our skills and passions, our dreams and desires with our organization's goals. And in the process, modifying and adjusting those goals.

In essence, to create organizations;

• with integrity
• that appreciate the human touch
• where doing the right thing is the right thing to do
• where ethical considerations are recognized as leading to sustainable long run success
• where I'm encouraged to work out how what I want can be aligned to what the organisation wants
• where we work together to achieve greater success than can be achieved by selfish means
• where success is shared and failure is learned from

If you share this aim, then please bookmark this site and come back to see how we have got on in developing our ideas and approaches.

Or even better, please contribute to its development with your stories, examples of good and bad practice and ideas.