Challenged by Workers : ‘New Age’ Pep Talks: a Backlash

Eager to improve his performance at work, Dong Shik Kim didn’t mind when his boss asked him two years ago to enroll in a special training seminar. Kim thought he might find some new ways to increase sales and improve morale among fellow employees at a big produce market near Atlanta.

Instead, Kim says, the sessions--some of them 15 hours long--became a nightmare. He claims that consultants running the seminar bullied employees into tearful confessions about intimate and heart-wrenching episodes in their lives. The consultants, Kim says, also pressured participants to totally commit themselves to their employers and to believe that “the world is whatever man says it is” because people create their own reality.

“The sessions put people into a hibernating state,” Kim says. “They ask for total loyalty. It’s like brainwashing.”

Didn’t Give Up

Faced with the choice, Kim says, of staying in the program or losing his job, he quit. But he didn’t give up the fight.

Kim and seven other former employees of DeKalb Farmers Market recently sued the business and its consulting firm. The plaintiffs claim that they were forced out of their jobs for objecting to a “new age quasi-religious cult” that they contend was developed by Werner Erhard, founder of the human potential movement known as est.

The suit is part of an emerging backlash against employers who try to boost productivity by requiring workers to take part in so-called human potential seminars, motivational programs designed to change workers’ values, attitudes and self-esteem.

Some workers--including Kim and his co-plaintiffs--maintain that the “new age” programs are indoctrination that challenges their religious beliefs. Other workers say the programs cause mental anguish by manipulating emotions, and some object on the grounds that their privacy is violated by any required instruction that focuses on attitudes instead of skill development.

Offbeat Seminars

But many businesses, including a number of the nation’s biggest industrial concerns, press ahead with offbeat training seminars that involve group therapy-type sessions, meditation or self-hypnosis. Amid widespread concern about the quality and commitment of the American work force, human potential programs have been regarded in some quarters as a welcome innovation for unleashing creativity, breaking down outdated organizational barriers and simply getting workers to take fresh approaches.

“The world is changing very fast and American business is looking for ways to deal with change,” said Michael Ray, who teaches business management innovation at Stanford University. “The old ways don’t seem to be working very well.”

The new breed of training seminars, however, have forced businesses and workers alike to grapple with an important issue: Where do you draw the line between legitimate productivity-boosting activities and intrusive programs that may clash with an individual’s deeply held personal beliefs?

Still in its early phases, the challenge to some of the human potential programs is already prompting some rethinking among corporate executives.

“All of this will make more companies more careful,” said Curtis Plott, executive vice president of the American Society for Training and Development, a trade association based in Alexandria, Va. “They’re going to ask: ‘Is this going to be a potential problem?’ ”

One of the first flaps over human potential training came in 1987 at San Francisco-based Pacific Bell, California’s biggest phone company. The program, developed by an outside consultant, was designed to enhance problem-solving and efficiency.

But some employees objected. One told the California Public Utilities Commission that seminar leaders tried to persuade employees that “everything we know is wrong” during “long, arduous” and “emotionally draining” sessions. Others said they were forced to think and talk alike, using a confusing glossary of terms.

Commenting anonymously in a questionnaire distributed by PUC staffers, one worker said: “Dissent is discouraged . . . dissenters are referred to as ‘roadblocks’ or having ‘Bell-Shaped Heads.’ Only new ways of thinking and talking are acceptable.”

Program Halted

After the PUC released a survey showing widespread opposition to the program by employees, Pacific Bell halted it.

Many of the recent flaps have wound up in court or administrative hearings. In a pending suit filed in state court in Pierce County, Wash., Steven Hiatt, a former sales manager for a Tacoma car dealership, claims he was fired because he objected to training materials that presented concepts inimical to his Christian values. The program emphasized self-will rather than God’s will, Hiatt asserted.

Some scholars and management experts also are offended by the idea of human potential programs in the workplace.

“Religious beliefs include your view of the world and your place in the world,” said Carl Raschke, a professor of religion and director of the Institute for the Humanities at the University of Denver. “When they (consultants) start to tamper with self-concepts or psyche, people with strong religious beliefs object.” Peter Drucker, a leading management theorist who teaches at Claremont Graduate School, objects to programs in which employees are asked to tell a seminar gathering about painful personal experiences.

“It’s an absolutely indefensible invasion of privacy,” Drucker said. “They’re asking people to do things that they normally do in a confessional with a priest.”

But Drucker predicted that some companies will continue to hire consultants with intrusive methods despite employee objections. He said many managers have not learned to heed the concerns of their workers.

Many of the complaints about training programs are filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a government agency that investigates job discrimination claims. Acknowledging a rise in complaints against so-called new age consultants, the EEOC has been circulating a policy notice to commission employees to help them deal with the issue.

Civil Rights Act

The notice cites Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which protects employees from religious discrimination. The act requires employers to provide “reasonable accommodation” for a worker’s religious beliefs unless it creates “undue hardship.”

The directive cites meditation, visualization, self-hypnosis and yoga as examples of “new age” program techniques. It also cites a magazine report that found that new age consultants try to change employee attitudes and boost productivity by promoting self-esteem, assertiveness and creativity.

“While there may be some disagreement over whether the training programs themselves are religious,” the notice says, “an employee need only demonstrate that participation in the program in some manner conflicts with his/her personal religious beliefs” to be exempt from it.

However, the EEOC directive also notes that the courts have not resolved questions about human potential seminars and religious freedom.

Dong Shik Kim’s suit may give the courts an opportunity to do that, said Amy Totenberg, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing Kim and the seven other plaintiffs in the Atlanta suit.

“While there are clearly established points of law on religious freedom, it has not been applied to this novel situation,” she said. “Employers will have to be more careful . . . . They can’t expect employees to adopt (just any) program.”

The suit, filed last December, seeks back pay and compensation for emotional distress from DeKalb Farmers Market and a Miami-based firm called Consulting Technologies. The firm is an affiliate of Transformational Technologies Inc., a Greenbrae, Calif., organization established by est founder Werner Erhard. (Consulting Technologies executives say they provided training to DeKalb employees, but denied involvement in the seminars specifically named in the suit.)

In the suit, the former farmers market employees said the programs violated their religious freedom by using hypnosis to try to reshape their religious values. The suit also said the consultants required employees to discuss their relationships with their parents and spouses.

The plaintiffs contend that the program promoted the notion that “man gives complete definition to his world--and that the world is whatever man says it is. It is a system of beliefs which by its essence denies the centrality of God and historical concepts at the heart of many established religions.”

Flatly Denied

Those charges were flatly denied by the lawyer representing the DeKalb Farmers Market, Edward D. Buckley III. “There is nothing religious at all” about the seminars, he said.

Consulting Technologies also denied the suit’s charges. The firm’s lawyer, Martin Steckel, said his client provides training programs based on sound and widely accepted management principles. He added that some business organizations may file briefs supporting his Consulting Technologies because the case could have a wide-ranging impact.

“In fact,” Steckel said, “if there is any legitimate objection to these training programs, then there is not a group--from McKinsey & Co. to Dale Carnegie--which would escape the prospects of similar litigation at the hands of an aggressive plaintiff.”

Executives of Transformational Technologies, which provides training programs to Consulting Technologies, said they offer nothing that is intrusive, religious or mind-altering.

They said that they help companies get rank-and-file employees to develop goals. Once a goal is defined, TTI urges companies to use words such as “commitment” and “promise” to reinforce the goal. If an employee is asked to make a commitment to a project and responds by promising to complete the task, there is more motivation to get the work done, according to TTI executives.

“It’s linguistic-based . . . and is designed to produce action or a commitment that produces action,” said TTI President Michael McMaster.

TTI officials would not name current clients, but a TTI brochure said the company works with some Fortune 500 companies, including Monsanto Co., a St. Louis-based firm with pharmaceutical, agribusiness and chemical operations.

Mark L. Schannon, a Monsanto spokesman, confirmed that the company has used some affiliates of TTI.

“It’s a pilot program and we’re not in a position to say whether it’s effective,” Schannon said. “In some cases there have been positive attitude changes, in some there haven’t been any changes . . . . Monsanto is trying lots of different ways to empower employees. TTI is one approach and there are others--all with the goal of helping employees get the job done and get it done effectively.”

Founded in 1984, TTI’s roster of affiliates--firms licensed to provide TTI training--has grown to 70, up from 55 a year ago. Company executives say revenue has risen to $25 million annually, up from $15 million in 1986.

Settlement Reached

In California, an out-of-court settlement recently was reached in a case involving a man who claimed he was impaired after having his emotions manipulated in a training program. In the suit, James Haslip of Twain Harte, Calif., said he lost control of his car, crashed and was hurt because he suffered from “mind-manipulative” techniques used by Psi World, a San Rafael-based human potential consultant.

Psi World admitted no guilt, but paid a six-figure settlement last year to have the case dismissed, said Joel Kleinberg, Haslip’s attorney.

Haslip said he enrolled with Psi World to become a better salesman. He said he had participated in a previous Psi World class that helped people improve their memories and develop good relations with potential customers.

Expecting something similar, Haslip decided to enroll in a five-day Psi World program. But instead, Haslip said, the program was a psychological encounter group in which participants were asked to act out situations. For example, he said, participants were asked to imagine that their spouse was on the verge of death and to demonstrate a reaction. Some participants reacted by screaming and some by crying, Haslip said.

Participants also were asked to demonstrate their resentment or negative feelings about their mothers, according to Haslip.

Haslip said he was physically and mentally exhausted by the seminars, describing them as emotional 10-hour sessions. And Haslip had to forgo sleep two nights to complete homework assignments. In one assignment, participants were asked to report every incident in life that had disturbed them, Haslip said.

“The activities were intense,” Haslip said. “There was no clock and no one was allowed to wear watches. We were going long periods of time without eating and without breaks.”

Ultimately, Haslip said, he began “dreaming in a waking state because of the physical and mental fatigue.”

Declined Comment

Psi World executives declined to comment on their seminars. The firm’s lawyer, Stephen Jamieson, said it was willing to settle the suit “because it was more economical to settle than to go through a trial.

“Psi World did not admit to any guilt; nor do they believe that there was any merit to the claims,” he said.

Jamieson said the rise of training-related litigation stems from broader societal trends.

“It comes down to litigiousness in society in general,” he said. “There are more and more frivolous lawsuits. People are starting to think of companies as targets. . . . There is nothing Psi World has done that would cause any damage to anyone.”

The growing number of complaints against human potential programs are raising unwarranted suspicions about all types of consultants that use unconventional methods, said Michael Goodman, vice president of Innovation Associates, a management consulting firm in Framingham, Mass.

Innovation Associates promotes “visioning,” a process in which a person imagines the successful completion of a task before actually making the effort. The aim of the firm’s programs is to help clients identify problems and develop solutions.

Partly for legal reasons and partly out of concern over public reaction, corporate executives generally are reluctant to talk about human potential programs. Innovation Associates’ programs, however, have drawn warm praise from participants.

Polaroid Corp. Vice President Sheldon Buckler, for example, has characterized the firm’s programs as “illuminating” and “revitalizing.”

Stanford’s Ray said some consultants are helping companies discard or reduce their emphasis on rank and chains of command. Many emphasize a team approach and help companies find ways to spread decision-making authority more broadly, Ray said.

Communication Channels

These efforts include having companies develop or restore channels of communication by encouraging employees to speak their minds and by teaching managers to be more receptive to the thoughts of their workers.

Lately, he added, some consultants are popularizing a healthy new approach by helping workers and managers define and agree upon a vision of an ideal product or service.

Ray said that employees sometimes resist new kinds of training because they fear change or don’t understand the process or the objectives.

“There is an attempt to get people aligned together and that looks like brainwashing to some,” he said. “It looks like coercion in that they (some employees) feel they may not get a promotion if the don’t participate.”

While Ray would like to see companies continue to hire competent consultants with non-traditional approaches, he also believes the legal challenges to mandatory programs are a healthy sign. The most effective programs are voluntary, he said, and employees should carefully examine any human potential seminar they are ordered to take.

“When a consultant tells management that employees should not be given a choice on attending, that should raise some questions,” Ray said. “If a consultant says there is only one proper way to do certain things, that should raise some questions. That attitude is consistent with rigid thinking, brainwashing and cults. . . . I think it’s good that people are vigilant about these things.”