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Leadership coach, consultant, and keynote speaker Steve Arneson, named one of the country's top 25 leadership coaches by Leadership Excellence Magazine, helps aspiring leaders overcome cutbacks in corporate training and "pull themselves up" the leadership ladder in 50 practical, tested tips.
Just as Thomas Piketty offered a sweeping critique and progressive reassessment of capitalism, former World Bank Group chief financial officer Bertrand Badré looks at the destructive role finance played in the global economic crisis of 2007-2008 and offers a bold prescription for making finance a force for good.
The overwhelming view following the recent global financial crisis was that finance itself was the cause of the crisis and the disasters that followed. But former World Bank Group CFO Bertrand Badre says that ultimately finance is just a tool--the most powerful tool on earth. Used correctly it can be at the heart of the way we address many of the world's problems, ranging from climate change to the eradication of poverty to building much needed infrastructure. Badre shows how to turn our financial system from a poor master to a great servant. He describes the innovations in financial tools and approaches that are already happening around the world. He looks at the role intelligent regulation can play in channeling the power of finance in a positive direction. He details options for overcoming the risks and obstacles to international cooperation for financial stability and prosperity, in contrast to the blinkered nationalism currently on the rise. And he tells what is working and what needs to change in financing the sustainable development of the world. The result is a blueprint for regaining power over finance to promote the public good.
The overwhelming view following the recent global financial crisis was that finance itself was the cause of the crisis and the disasters that followed. But former World Bank Group CFO Bertrand Badre says that ultimately finance is just a tool--the most powerful tool on earth. Used correctly it can be at the heart of the way we address many of the world's problems, ranging from climate change to the eradication of poverty to building much needed infrastructure. Badre shows how to turn our financial system from a poor master to a great servant. He describes the innovations in financial tools and approaches that are already happening around the world. He looks at the role intelligent regulation can play in channeling the power of finance in a positive direction. He details options for overcoming the risks and obstacles to international cooperation for financial stability and prosperity, in contrast to the blinkered nationalism currently on the rise. And he tells what is working and what needs to change in financing the sustainable development of the world. The result is a blueprint for regaining power over finance to promote the public good.
One of the world's top experts on applying analytics to organizational performance provides a new, more comprehensive approach for using analytics to effectively guide business decisions.
There are tons of books on how to do strategy execution better, but they all operate from the premise that their one-size-fits-all solution works for what ails all companies. But each company's context and problems are unique. You need analytics to diagnose where improvements really need to be made, but existing approaches don't give you the full picture. Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations, Alec Levenson provides a roadmap for doing diagnostics that will lead to actionable insights and solutions.
Levenson's model, combines the enterprise (or organization-level) approach to analytics and the human capital (or job-level) approach. This solves two parallel problems in organizations today: senior leaders pay too little attention to the practical challenges of implementing the business strategy and setting goals for achieving it, and frontline managers and HR too often focus on narrow improvements to jobs and processes that appear to be useful yet have little strategic value. The book provides an in-depth critique of common measurement approaches and, through case studies and real-world examples, shows how to apply the model to increasing customer retention, spurring innovation, developing go-to-market strategies, making budgeting and investment decisions, and more.
There are tons of books on how to do strategy execution better, but they all operate from the premise that their one-size-fits-all solution works for what ails all companies. But each company's context and problems are unique. You need analytics to diagnose where improvements really need to be made, but existing approaches don't give you the full picture. Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations, Alec Levenson provides a roadmap for doing diagnostics that will lead to actionable insights and solutions.
Levenson's model, combines the enterprise (or organization-level) approach to analytics and the human capital (or job-level) approach. This solves two parallel problems in organizations today: senior leaders pay too little attention to the practical challenges of implementing the business strategy and setting goals for achieving it, and frontline managers and HR too often focus on narrow improvements to jobs and processes that appear to be useful yet have little strategic value. The book provides an in-depth critique of common measurement approaches and, through case studies and real-world examples, shows how to apply the model to increasing customer retention, spurring innovation, developing go-to-market strategies, making budgeting and investment decisions, and more.
For hundreds of millions of people around the world, there is a new life phase between middle age and old age: life reimagined. This is the first book describing this new life phase and the new possibilities that it offers. Bestselling author Richard Leider and Fast Company cofounder Alan Webber are backed by 37-million-member AARP in bringing this message to the world.
America's poor, working poor, and middle class are in a waiting game they cannot win. Jobs will not come, times will not get better, and communities will not flourish until they “get the memo”-that is, take charge of their own financial futures. Bestselling author John Hope Bryant (How the Poor Can Save Capitalism-40,000 copies sold) tells them how.
At long last, John Hope Bryant lays out five simple rules to provide a path to economic liberation for anyone in any situation. The Memo provides a simple path from financial literacy and mindset shifts to ownership, positive relationships, and a completely new attitude toward money. In a provocative exploration of the intersections of race and class, Bryant preaches the definitive conclusion that to be free, one must be economically liberated. Readers will learn how to achieve economic power in the following chapters:
• We Live in a Free Enterprise System-Embrace This
• Your Mindset Makes or Loses You Money and Wealth
• Your Relationships Are Your Investments-Your Most Important Relationship Is with Yourself
• Don't “Get a Job”-Create Value. You ARE Capital.
• Spiritual Capital Is the Start of True Wealth
Those who suffer from poverty haven't gotten “the memo”-until now. For decades, John Hope Bryant has reached out to the underserved in our “free enterprise” system. Through Operation HOPE, he has reached tens of thousands of people. In this work, he's found that most problems that stem from racism are directly linked to economic slavery. The five rules are spelled out clearly: readers must embrace the “free” in free enterprise, shift their mindset, build relationships, switch from working a job to actively creating value from within, and realize that they can never be truly wealthy without hope.
At long last, John Hope Bryant lays out five simple rules to provide a path to economic liberation for anyone in any situation. The Memo provides a simple path from financial literacy and mindset shifts to ownership, positive relationships, and a completely new attitude toward money. In a provocative exploration of the intersections of race and class, Bryant preaches the definitive conclusion that to be free, one must be economically liberated. Readers will learn how to achieve economic power in the following chapters:
• We Live in a Free Enterprise System-Embrace This
• Your Mindset Makes or Loses You Money and Wealth
• Your Relationships Are Your Investments-Your Most Important Relationship Is with Yourself
• Don't “Get a Job”-Create Value. You ARE Capital.
• Spiritual Capital Is the Start of True Wealth
Those who suffer from poverty haven't gotten “the memo”-until now. For decades, John Hope Bryant has reached out to the underserved in our “free enterprise” system. Through Operation HOPE, he has reached tens of thousands of people. In this work, he's found that most problems that stem from racism are directly linked to economic slavery. The five rules are spelled out clearly: readers must embrace the “free” in free enterprise, shift their mindset, build relationships, switch from working a job to actively creating value from within, and realize that they can never be truly wealthy without hope.
In his groundbreaking book Somebodies and Nobodies, Robert Fuller identified a form of domination that everyone has experienced but few dare to protest: rankism, abuse of the power inherent in rank to exploit and humiliate someone of lower rank. It plays a role in just about every form of social oppressionÑracism, sexism, homophobia, and religious intolerance all have a significant element of rankism in them.
Most everyone has felt the sting of rankism--at the hands of a dictatorial boss, a condescending teacher, an arrogant doctor, or an imperious bureaucrat. But, equally, most everyone has inflicted it on someone of lower rank. That we are, all of us, both victims and perpetrators of rankism mandates a novel, multifaceted strategy for confronting it.
Fuller isn't proposing that we do away with rank--without it organizations become dysfunctional. He's not advocating an egalitarian society where all are equal in rank but rather a "dignitarian" one where all are equal in dignity: a society in which rankholders are held accountable, rankism is shunned, and dignity is broadly protected.
Most everyone has felt the sting of rankism--at the hands of a dictatorial boss, a condescending teacher, an arrogant doctor, or an imperious bureaucrat. But, equally, most everyone has inflicted it on someone of lower rank. That we are, all of us, both victims and perpetrators of rankism mandates a novel, multifaceted strategy for confronting it.
Fuller isn't proposing that we do away with rank--without it organizations become dysfunctional. He's not advocating an egalitarian society where all are equal in rank but rather a "dignitarian" one where all are equal in dignity: a society in which rankholders are held accountable, rankism is shunned, and dignity is broadly protected.
Joan Hangarter bought a disability policy in 1990 to protect her should she ever become seriously ill. She dutifully paid her annual premiums for nearly a decade. But when she became disabled, she and her children found themselves homeless and bankrupt when her insurer--UnumProvident--stopped paying her benefits. With the help of attorneys Ray Bourhis and Alice Wolfson, Hangarter won a landmark $7.7 million jury verdict against Unum.
Through the compelling stories of ordinary people who have been driven to bankruptcy--or worse--when tragedy struck, Bourhis shows how the insurance industry runs roughshod over the very people it is paid to protect. He shows how the industry has become so insulated from accountability that neither lawsuits, punitive damage awards, federal court injunctions, newspaper headlines, nor television exposure can derail their determined efforts to turn a profit at any cost.
Bourhis, a national champion of policyholder rights, walks readers through both Joan Hangarter's heart-wrenching case and the stories of Susan McGregor, Stuart Gluck, John Tedesco, Laurie Hindiyeh, Eugene Molfino, Julie Guyton, Michael Baldwin, Margaret Santana, and numerous other claimants--real people with heart disease, AIDS, spinal injuries, brain damage, Parkinson's disease, and other disabilities whose benefits were cut off just when they needed them most. Bourhis shows how the world's largest disability carrier, UnumProvident, has relied on a host of shady practices--from surveillance to one-sided medical evaluations to policy re-interpretations-to target and terminate benefit payments.
Through these cautionary tales, he shines a spotlight on widespread bad faith double-dealing by insurance providers and details the key regulatory failures that enable these practices to continue unchecked.
Through the compelling stories of ordinary people who have been driven to bankruptcy--or worse--when tragedy struck, Bourhis shows how the insurance industry runs roughshod over the very people it is paid to protect. He shows how the industry has become so insulated from accountability that neither lawsuits, punitive damage awards, federal court injunctions, newspaper headlines, nor television exposure can derail their determined efforts to turn a profit at any cost.
Bourhis, a national champion of policyholder rights, walks readers through both Joan Hangarter's heart-wrenching case and the stories of Susan McGregor, Stuart Gluck, John Tedesco, Laurie Hindiyeh, Eugene Molfino, Julie Guyton, Michael Baldwin, Margaret Santana, and numerous other claimants--real people with heart disease, AIDS, spinal injuries, brain damage, Parkinson's disease, and other disabilities whose benefits were cut off just when they needed them most. Bourhis shows how the world's largest disability carrier, UnumProvident, has relied on a host of shady practices--from surveillance to one-sided medical evaluations to policy re-interpretations-to target and terminate benefit payments.
Through these cautionary tales, he shines a spotlight on widespread bad faith double-dealing by insurance providers and details the key regulatory failures that enable these practices to continue unchecked.
It seems like everywhere we turn, we're confronted by shaking heads, thumbs down, brick walls, brush-offs, and closed doors. NOs surround us--in our workplaces, in our communities and places of worship, in government, in social settings, in schools, and even within our families.
Whether you're applying for a job, making a request, looking for a house, dating to find the right mate, seeking some type of approval, selling a product or an idea (or yourself), or trying to organize others into getting something accomplished, you're going to encounter rebuffs and resistance. What can you do to overcome so much negativity?
This wise, insightful parable follows our hero who ventures into the Land of NO in search of YES. He watches well-intentioned characters flounder and fail--while noticing other characters using different approaches and achieving success. Our observant hero learns from others' experiences, as well as his own.
Through his journey, you will discover how you, too, can persist in the face of frequent NOs--both the NOs uttered by people around you and, perhaps more importantly, the insidious NOs whispered by your own inner voices.
The second half of the book takes you from parable to practice--with proven tips, tools, and strategies to help you persevere, develop tenacity, persist in the face of rejection, and overcome the inertia of the status quo. Taken together, the two parts of this book provide a how-to manual that's both practical and entertaining. It will help you find the YESes you seek--faster, more effectively, and with a lot less discouragement and despair in the process.
Whether you're applying for a job, making a request, looking for a house, dating to find the right mate, seeking some type of approval, selling a product or an idea (or yourself), or trying to organize others into getting something accomplished, you're going to encounter rebuffs and resistance. What can you do to overcome so much negativity?
This wise, insightful parable follows our hero who ventures into the Land of NO in search of YES. He watches well-intentioned characters flounder and fail--while noticing other characters using different approaches and achieving success. Our observant hero learns from others' experiences, as well as his own.
Through his journey, you will discover how you, too, can persist in the face of frequent NOs--both the NOs uttered by people around you and, perhaps more importantly, the insidious NOs whispered by your own inner voices.
The second half of the book takes you from parable to practice--with proven tips, tools, and strategies to help you persevere, develop tenacity, persist in the face of rejection, and overcome the inertia of the status quo. Taken together, the two parts of this book provide a how-to manual that's both practical and entertaining. It will help you find the YESes you seek--faster, more effectively, and with a lot less discouragement and despair in the process.
Ron Wallace rose from driver to president of UPS International. Here he reveals the UPS secret sauce--culture--that allows it to outcompete younger companies that are not unionized, not sprawling, and not Brown.
The steady, long-term success of UPS is sometimes a mystery to business observers. Founded over a century ago, UPS has been moving up, not down the Fortune 500 list. Massive in size, UPS has cultivated a family environment where promotion is almost always from within, lifetime employment is the norm and even the executives are union members. In one of the most mature of mature industries, UPS is consistently seen as a strong investment on Wall Street.
What is the UPS secret sauce? In this groundbreaking book, Ron Wallace credits the unique “people culture” of UPS as the distinguishing factor. Ron credits this culture with giving him his start in management and helping him rise from driver to president of UPS International. Different from the typical business memoir that celebrates the leader as celebrity, Ron's book focuses on the people and simple principles that taught him the UPS way. He exhorts his fellow leaders to grow their people, not just their business plans. Ron's key takeaway comes straight from the UPS founder and Ron's inspiration, Jim Casey: “Treat your people well, and the company will flourish.” These simple principles can work in any company, whether or not brown is the wardrobe color.
The steady, long-term success of UPS is sometimes a mystery to business observers. Founded over a century ago, UPS has been moving up, not down the Fortune 500 list. Massive in size, UPS has cultivated a family environment where promotion is almost always from within, lifetime employment is the norm and even the executives are union members. In one of the most mature of mature industries, UPS is consistently seen as a strong investment on Wall Street.
What is the UPS secret sauce? In this groundbreaking book, Ron Wallace credits the unique “people culture” of UPS as the distinguishing factor. Ron credits this culture with giving him his start in management and helping him rise from driver to president of UPS International. Different from the typical business memoir that celebrates the leader as celebrity, Ron's book focuses on the people and simple principles that taught him the UPS way. He exhorts his fellow leaders to grow their people, not just their business plans. Ron's key takeaway comes straight from the UPS founder and Ron's inspiration, Jim Casey: “Treat your people well, and the company will flourish.” These simple principles can work in any company, whether or not brown is the wardrobe color.
These leadership lessons work for leaders at every level when everything goes wrong, from the doctor who saved lives after the 9/11 attacks, in war-torn Ukraine, and on the NFL sidelines.
Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.
In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.
Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.
Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.
In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.
Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.
Business is waking up to a global shortage of resources of every kind. Raw materials are running out, whether in Tokyo or Quito. While businesses have toyed with the idea of sustainability as a means to market to eco-minded consumers, this book shows that scarcity must become central to their thinking and the key driver of strategic innovation.
Smart Videoconferencing is the first book to show people how to participate effectively in videoconferences, rather than just how to set them up. The authors show that just like traditional meetings, mastering a few tricks and simple skills can mean the difference between a successful videoconference and an unsuccessful one.
Tom Szaky sets out to do the impossible – eliminate all waste. This book paints a future of a “circular economy” that relies on responsible reuse and recycling to propel the world towards eradicating overconsumption and waste.
The Future of Packaging provides a straightforward solution to tackling the daunting issues of waste in the packaging industry by returning to a “circular economy.” Beginning with a critique of the irresponsibility of the packaging industry and its contributions to wastefulness, Tom Szaky and his coauthors illuminate the path towards a waste-free future with lessons from the past. The goal of this book is to serve as a guide for designing a circular economy, showcasing how the world has moved away from circular systems of consumption (i.e. refillable milk/water/beer) to largely linear systems (i.e. milk bags/plastic bottles/plastic kegs). Objects were circular up until the 1940s, after which complex materials and a culture of consumerism began to create waste that nature couldn't handle. The way to get back to more circular systems starts with design and, after that, implementing systems. With the support and experiences of industry leaders in sustainable development, Szaky helps readers make the shift from a linear economy, which depends on extracting resources and overconsumption, to a circular economy that allows for growth.
The Future of Packaging provides a straightforward solution to tackling the daunting issues of waste in the packaging industry by returning to a “circular economy.” Beginning with a critique of the irresponsibility of the packaging industry and its contributions to wastefulness, Tom Szaky and his coauthors illuminate the path towards a waste-free future with lessons from the past. The goal of this book is to serve as a guide for designing a circular economy, showcasing how the world has moved away from circular systems of consumption (i.e. refillable milk/water/beer) to largely linear systems (i.e. milk bags/plastic bottles/plastic kegs). Objects were circular up until the 1940s, after which complex materials and a culture of consumerism began to create waste that nature couldn't handle. The way to get back to more circular systems starts with design and, after that, implementing systems. With the support and experiences of industry leaders in sustainable development, Szaky helps readers make the shift from a linear economy, which depends on extracting resources and overconsumption, to a circular economy that allows for growth.
We are living in a time when dishonesty and duplicity are common in our public institutions, our workplaces, and even in our personal relationships. But by recognizing and resisting the small, seemingly inconsequential ways we make moral compromises in our own lives, we can repair the tear in our social and moral fabric.
Most people believe that integrity is something you “just have” and as “good people,” we think we are naturally doing “the right thing.” We are certain we act with integrity when it counts, even as we breach integrity every day in ways we dismiss as “small.” The Law of Small Things depicts these and other illusions we deploy to appear to act with integrity without actually doing so.
The Law of Small Things exposes how our culture encourages the breach of integrity through an array of “permitted promise-breaking,” a language of clichés that equates self-interest with duty, and the “illusion of inconsequence” that excuses small breaches with the breezy confidence that we can fulfill integrity when it counts. Ultimately, Brody challenges the prevailing notion that integrity is a possession you hold permanently. No one “has integrity” and no one is perfect in practicing it. What we have is the opportunity to uphold promises and fulfill duties in each situation that faces us, large and small. Developing skill in the practice of integrity relies on missing the mark as much as hitting it. The practice of integrity is our roadmap across unknown terrain on a pathway beyond our limitations and toward personal authenticity; toward knowledge of who we are-not in the way the culture defines us, but in the way we truly know ourselves to be.
Most people believe that integrity is something you “just have” and as “good people,” we think we are naturally doing “the right thing.” We are certain we act with integrity when it counts, even as we breach integrity every day in ways we dismiss as “small.” The Law of Small Things depicts these and other illusions we deploy to appear to act with integrity without actually doing so.
The Law of Small Things exposes how our culture encourages the breach of integrity through an array of “permitted promise-breaking,” a language of clichés that equates self-interest with duty, and the “illusion of inconsequence” that excuses small breaches with the breezy confidence that we can fulfill integrity when it counts. Ultimately, Brody challenges the prevailing notion that integrity is a possession you hold permanently. No one “has integrity” and no one is perfect in practicing it. What we have is the opportunity to uphold promises and fulfill duties in each situation that faces us, large and small. Developing skill in the practice of integrity relies on missing the mark as much as hitting it. The practice of integrity is our roadmap across unknown terrain on a pathway beyond our limitations and toward personal authenticity; toward knowledge of who we are-not in the way the culture defines us, but in the way we truly know ourselves to be.
Drive through just about any low-income neighborhood and you're sure to see streets lined with pawnshops, check cashers, rent-to-own stores, payday and tax refund lenders, auto title pawns, and buy-here-pay-here used car lots. We're awash in "alternative financial services" directed at the poor and those with credit problems. Howard Karger describes this world as an economic Wild West, where just about any financial scheme that's not patently illegal is tolerated.
Taking a hard look at this fringe economy, Karger shows that what seem to be small, independent storefront operations are actually part of a fully-formed parallel economy dominated by a handful of well-financed corporations, subject to little or no oversight, with increasingly strong ties to mainstream financial institutions. "It is a hidden world," Karger writes, "where a customer's economic fate is sealed with a handshake, a smile, and a stack of fine print documents that would befuddle many attorneys."
Filled with heartbreaking stories of real people trapped in perpetual debt, Shortchanged exposes the deceptive practices that allow these businesses to prey on people when they are most vulnerable. Karger reveals the many ways this industry has run amok, ruining countless people's lives, and shows that it's not just the poor but, more and more, maxed-out middle class consumers who fall prey to these devious schemes.
Balancing compassion with a realistic awareness of the risks any business faces in working with an economically distressed clientele, Karger details hard headed, practical recommendations for reforming this predatory industry.
Taking a hard look at this fringe economy, Karger shows that what seem to be small, independent storefront operations are actually part of a fully-formed parallel economy dominated by a handful of well-financed corporations, subject to little or no oversight, with increasingly strong ties to mainstream financial institutions. "It is a hidden world," Karger writes, "where a customer's economic fate is sealed with a handshake, a smile, and a stack of fine print documents that would befuddle many attorneys."
Filled with heartbreaking stories of real people trapped in perpetual debt, Shortchanged exposes the deceptive practices that allow these businesses to prey on people when they are most vulnerable. Karger reveals the many ways this industry has run amok, ruining countless people's lives, and shows that it's not just the poor but, more and more, maxed-out middle class consumers who fall prey to these devious schemes.
Balancing compassion with a realistic awareness of the risks any business faces in working with an economically distressed clientele, Karger details hard headed, practical recommendations for reforming this predatory industry.
This deeply lyrical book offers perspective for those struggling to hear the quiet voice of the soul over the din of the contemporary workplace. Alan Briskin shows how the modern organization has gradually increased its demands on us-beginning with our bodies, then our minds, and now our souls. But through the moving personal stories of people fighting to reclaim their souls, he also sends a message that encourages individuals to keep their spiritual integrity and values alive.
In The Stirring of Soul In the Workplace, Briskin weaves together lessons from history, psychology, and management theory, with numerous real-life examples, to tell the story of how the modern workplace has evolved to value technology and productivity over soulfulness and relationship. From the Industrial Revolution's marriage of mechanization and efficiency to the management theories of the early 20th century, Briskin traces the emergence of the quest for efficiency and control in the workplace. He questions the corporate concept of "individual personality" that asks us to check our emotions, fantasies, imaginations, and souls at the door. He describes the history of the soul as a dynamic force that continues to influence our behavior, and shows how excluding it from our work life actually flattens our potential and dampens our creativity.
Rather than solve the conventional question organizations have been asking for years-how can we change people?-Alan Briskin examines how organizations can better reflect personal and human values in the workplace. For organizations that too often have sacrificed the well-being of the individual for the goals of the organization, the author suggests a more active way of taking up our work roles that can bring more of our experience and imagination into play. He points out that meaning cannot come from corporate mission statements or reengineering programs. Instead, it needs to be nurtured through dialogue and reflection, the courage to ask troubling questions, and a willingness to face the consequences of our collective and individual actions. When we learn to honor the contradictions, uncertainties, and interconnections inherent in the workplace, the energies of the soul will begin to stir with revitalizing results.
In The Stirring of Soul In the Workplace, Briskin weaves together lessons from history, psychology, and management theory, with numerous real-life examples, to tell the story of how the modern workplace has evolved to value technology and productivity over soulfulness and relationship. From the Industrial Revolution's marriage of mechanization and efficiency to the management theories of the early 20th century, Briskin traces the emergence of the quest for efficiency and control in the workplace. He questions the corporate concept of "individual personality" that asks us to check our emotions, fantasies, imaginations, and souls at the door. He describes the history of the soul as a dynamic force that continues to influence our behavior, and shows how excluding it from our work life actually flattens our potential and dampens our creativity.
Rather than solve the conventional question organizations have been asking for years-how can we change people?-Alan Briskin examines how organizations can better reflect personal and human values in the workplace. For organizations that too often have sacrificed the well-being of the individual for the goals of the organization, the author suggests a more active way of taking up our work roles that can bring more of our experience and imagination into play. He points out that meaning cannot come from corporate mission statements or reengineering programs. Instead, it needs to be nurtured through dialogue and reflection, the courage to ask troubling questions, and a willingness to face the consequences of our collective and individual actions. When we learn to honor the contradictions, uncertainties, and interconnections inherent in the workplace, the energies of the soul will begin to stir with revitalizing results.
Bestselling author Bill George (True North 150,000 copies sold) and longtime corporate executive Doug Baker have participated for decades in a unique small group of peers dedicated to personal growth and leadership development. In this book they provide the first practical guide - including detailed instructions, rules, and resources - for anyone to start and manage such a group on their own.