Learnings from Xilai: Business
Innerland is a ‘Disneyland for Zen’, a cultural ecotourism experience park that brings people into connection with themselves, each other, and nature. The land has been purchased and a commercial Experience Lab is now open. The park's grand launch is in 2022. The tagline is "Life is your amusement park 生活是你的乐园", and it has 4 main centers: Tea 茶, Food 食, Gardening / Farming 田, and Writing & Music. They want people to leave feeling:
I have been so deeply loved my whole life 你一直深深被爱着
The extraordinary is in the ordinary 平凡里的非凡
A moment of deep calm/ peace/ silence /stillness 宁静
FULL SCREEN PHOTOS
The seed intention of Xilai is to make the ancient and systemic wisdom of Chan (Zen) alive, relevant, and accessible to people today. "Chan is Life, and Life is Chan.” It means that spirituality is the same as life, and that life is the greatest teacher, temple and school. Foundational practices = breathing, sitting, walking, standing, sleeping, eating, drinking, playing music. It's genius because the practices are so ingrained in my daily life that it becomes unavoidable and then invisible.
Top 10 Learnings from Working with the Innerland 时观 Team
Clarity and Commitment to Work As Spiritual Practice 看自己 Creates A Culture of Humility, Openness, and Iterations. Everyone acknowledges that working in the company is no different from volunteering at the temple — that everything is practice and personal transformation is the #1 purpose of Xilai. We had minimum 3-4 hours of meditation a day, which helped everyone reflect on how they showed up, when they left connection, or acted out of habit. The depth of the commitment led to rapid shifts in behavior.
The Ten Year Vision is to Create an Awakened Team, an Awakened Community, and Touch 1 Million People through the Park. It is incredibly inspiring to work with someone who is so committed and clear — and to a vision beyond one’s lifetime. There is a 500 year vision for humanity, a 100 year vision for Xilai town, a 20 year vision for the company, and a 10 year vision for the community. The company will become a foundation in 20 years after paying back investors and generating enough profit to sustain the community offering the teachings for free. Over the next 10 years, there are plans to build retirement centers for the parents, schools for the children — a whole intergenerational and harmonious way of life. I cried when I heard the intention to meet people in their needs; I thought the East was about denying needs, when in reality I found a generosity so big, it killed me over and over again with love.
The Vision has Attracted a A Group of Unique Intergenerational Individuals. I was so surprised to find a group of young and globally educated social entrepreneurs and architects supported by 50-60 year old executives at the temple. And the higher caliber of talent they attracted - Tadao Ando to build the temple and a group from Israel to design the park’s Tea pavilions. I cried a lot seeing the older generation leave their egos at the door and be just as willing to cook in the kitchen as to lead a business negotiation. It made me think of my own father who used to think we couldn't understand each other because we were 'too different' in age and cultural values.
We Are All Equal. Humans Walking Each Other Home. This belief manifested in a few business practices: 1) everyone has the same pay regardless of position, 2) park guests are welcomed as friends and not served from a power dynamic (costumes chosen based on this), 3) shareholders are just like any other team member, focused on personal transformation as the #1 priority, and 4) Titles are for external use only - internally, people have roles and a self chosen one-liner that points to the essence, the dream of what they want to offer. E.g., mine is "The Love Culture Spreader," I hold people accountable to working from and in loving connection, including the working through of conflict.
The Key to Working with Joy and Without Effort = Self Empowered Choice. Because of the belief that we do everything because we enjoy living this way, and not out of sacrifice or compromise for another, there is a lot of joy in working. A resilient joy separate from outcome. We actively called out doing from obligation, guilt or shame, which would only lead to more resentment, stress, and efforting. Inviting people to build the life they want for themselves and their loved ones, in the form of a company, unleashes a huge amount of energy and self-determination.
"I am Innerland, and Innerland is me.” Each person is fully empowered to address the gaps they see and lead the changes they want. There is no "waiting for someone else to take responsibility". No Ownership of any One Thing, Full Ownership of Everything. No ownership of any one thing also means that ideas shared don’t belong to you (e.g. Did you choose to think the idea or did the idea occur?).
Willing to Do Whatever is Needed. No Act is Beneath Anyone. The Experience Lab structure arrived one day before a Zen Retreat and there was no way the cleaning team could finish in time, so everyone including the CEO and the Chairman got down on their hands and knees to scrub. So much fluidity, and with joy! Because every act is an opportunity to practice living fully, there is no "small task", no non-moment. Taking full responsibility for one’s life in the spiritual context, as a way of living, is what leads to taking full responsibility in the company, regardless of the context.
Rotating Through Roles Creates Empowerment, Empathy and Ownership. Rotating leadership empowered each person to iterate on the improvements they wanted (vs complain about it) and encouraged them to celebrate rather than criticize each other's styles (since they would soon be in that position). It also helped the organization rapidly iterate through different approaches. People shadowing others in completely different departments also builds compassion and breaks down the "mine vs your responsibility" towards total shared ownership of the company.
Love is the Greatest Source of Creativity. The deeper the love, the deeper the creativity; the more inclusive the love, the more inclusive the reach. Loving something lets us tap into infinite amounts of energy and inventiveness in service of it. (Think of what ends you would go to for the person you love the most, now imagine if your work or your team was that person, how would things look differently?). At the end of every meeting, we asked ourselves four questions: Do I love myself more? Do I love the team more? Do I love the project more? When did I leave the love?
Consistently Iterate. Learn through the doing 边做边学 — There is No ‘Problem’.
Iterating on Rituals of Presence. We started every meeting with silence, every weekly meeting with connection, and gathered once a month to share our greatest learnings as humans. We also had a no phone policy during meetings.
Iterating on Business Model and Products. This belief is why Innerland built the Experience Lab - to experiment and build a core group of fans that the Park would have by opening day.
There is no problem because every ‘problem’ is an opportunity for the cultivation of greater compassion, love and wisdom.
Ultimate and rapid responsiveness to the moment. Have a plan but be willing to throw it out at any moment if the river flows something different to you. Listen and respond quickly to what’s alive.
Product and design learnings:
For mass appeal, make the spiritual path a lifestyle that is pleasurable and wanted (e.g. improved health and relationships, a life of beauty)
For relevance and integration, design experiences and practices that are a part of daily life (e.g. tea, cooking, breathing)
For continued transformation, create products they can take home to help them practice everyday and share the experience with others (e.g. tea, tea cups, food products, indoor gardening).
*Xingfu 幸福 is a Chinese word that encapsulates bliss, joy, gratitude, happiness, and contentment -- a feeling that 'Everything is enough, Everything is perfect, Nothing is missing.'