PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: WHY AND HOW SHOULD WE INTEGRATE IT IN THE WORKPLACE? THE EXEMPLE OF KWERK

Abstract

Times have changed, societies and mentalities have too. Today, people are more open, self aware and conscious that we cannot fully separate our personal life from our professional one. We are complex beings and although we can control our emotions, feelings and thought to some extent, we cannot suppress them depending on the environment we are in. For this reason, and because we spend a major part of our time at work, it is important to be self- conscious and work on the deeper side of ourselves while in our workplace. We have entered a couple generations ago in a new era: the digital era. These wonderful, life-changing technological advances, however, come at a cost: overstimulated, always reachable, we have become highly stressed and we have lost touch with ourselves. More and more companies have understood this change in our societies and the intrinsic need of our newer generations to understand themselves better, be considered and accepted for who they truly are and following happiness as much in their personal space as in the professional setting. These companies are trying to adapt to this new era by offering more comfortable and attractive working environments, better working conditions or more adequate salaries. However, these aspects are not the whole answer to the new issues we are facing today: personal development might very well be the key. We will see in that paper how this awareness arose through time and what personal development is about (Part 1), then we will discuss how to integrate it in the workplace through the example of Kwerk (Part 2), and we will finish by discussing the strengths and weaknesses as well as the limitations of integrating personal development in the workplace.