The Office: Thoughts on Ai and Work

Written by Brian Canright, Lead Recruiter and Transition Coordinator for Shepherds College



In this blog, I will focus on the first two principles of Appropriate Independence.

Created on and For A Purpose… 

For me, life has been a process of awakening to the diverse and expansive nature of God’s activity in the world, corresponding with an ever emerging clarity on how my unique set of strengths can be developed and concentrated to join Him.  The journey of self-discovery has been, and I assume will continue to be, arduous. As Sir Ken Robinson has stated, 

“Human resources are like natural resources; they're often buried deep. You have to go looking for them; they're not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves.”

I’ve learned a lot about myself by not fitting in, failing, enduring difficult circumstances, and by doing a thousand things I didn’t like doing, for thousands of hours I would have preferred to be doing something else. But through those experiences I’ve learned just as much about who God has made me and what he has created me for. There is always something to learn from every experience. 

The greatest single factor influencing my decision to return to Shepherds College in this new role was a clearer sense of vocation and identity forged through a diversity of life experiences. 

Individuals for Community 

“Human communities depend upon a diversity of talent not a singular conception of ability” – Sir Ken Robinson

In Robert Bellah’s book, Habits of the Heart, he describes “expressive individualism” as the primary contributor to our culture’s lack of “capacity to imagine a social fabric that would hold individuals together.” His proposal for transformation is to “re-appropriate the idea of vocation or calling, a return in a new way to the idea of work as a contribution to the good of all and not merely as a means to one’s own achievement.”

 Tim Keller in his book, Every Good Endeavor, describes vocation as work “re-imagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests. Thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment, and self-realization slowly crushes a person and undermines society itself.”

 

There is dignity and value in every good work. For example, when I think about the roles people play here at Shepherds College, and I consider how each role plays a part of the whole, one of the most essential responsibilities is to sanitize the door handles, dining room, kitchen and bathrooms to prevent the spread of germs and microbes. In so doing, the employees in domestics literally save lives; seriously! Does that fit the criteria of a vocation? Absolutely! 

Each uniquely designed student at Shepherds College possesses a set of qualities, strengths and abilities which are intended to contribute to the distinctive character of their communities. They have been undergoing this process for three years, and it will continue for a lifetime. 

I encourage them to learn from every experience.

I hope they see the work they do (whether paid or voluntary) as a calling to contribute to their communities in a meaningful, God-glorifying way.

And I hope they experience the fulfillment that comes with doing something of such great importance. 

Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.