The Way We're Working Isn't Working
The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance
1 of 1 copy available
The Way We're Working Isn't Working is one of those rare books with the power to profoundly transform the way we work and live.
Demand is exceeding our capacity. The ethic of "more, bigger, faster" exacts a series of silent but pernicious costs at work, undermining our energy, focus, creativity, and passion. Nearly 75 percent of employees around the world feel disengaged at work every day. The Way We're Working Isn't Working offers a groundbreaking approach to reenergizing our lives so we're both more satisfied and more productive—on the job and off.
By integrating multidisciplinary findings from the science of high performance, Tony Schwartz, coauthor of the #1 bestselling The Power of Full Engagement, makes a persuasive case that we're neglecting the four core needs that energize great performance: sustainability (physical); security (emotional); self-expression (mental); and significance (spiritual). Rather than running like computers at high speeds for long periods, we're at our best when we pulse rhythmically between expending and regularly renewing energy across each of our four needs.
Organizations undermine sustainable high performance by forever seeking to get more out of their people. Instead they should seek systematically to meet their four core needs so they're freed, fueled, and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
Drawing on extensive work with an extra-ordinary range of organizations, among them Google, Ford, Sony, Ernst & Young, Shell, IBM, the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Cleveland Clinic, Schwartz creates a road map for a new way of working. At the individual level, he explains how we can build specific rituals into our daily schedules to balance intense effort with regular renewal; offset emotionally draining experiences with practices that fuel resilience; move between a narrow focus on urgent demands and more strategic, creative thinking; and balance a short-term focus on immediate results with a values-driven commitment to serving the greater good. At the organizational level, he outlines new policies, practices, and cultural messages that Schwartz's client companies have adopted.
The Way We're Working Isn't Working offers individuals, leaders, and organizations a highly practical, proven set of strategies to better manage the relentlessly rising demands we all face in an increasingly complex world.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 18, 2010 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780743597470
- File size: 180554 KB
- Duration: 06:16:09
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Based on solid research presented in the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, this richly textured book argues that we are more productive and feel better about it when we supply four kinds of energy to ourselves--physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Our culture and most employers expect us to work continuously with no time to balance effort with renewal, action with reflection, and serving others with caring for ourselves. Tony Schwartz's measured passion and resonant voice make this audio sound like a polished documentary--engaging, heartfelt, and dense with satisfying intellectual substance. With many attractive suggestions for getting our lives back in balance, the audio strikes the type of humanitarian chord needed to stimulate broad personal change. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine -
How often has work piled up around you, and no matter how many hours you toil--you feel you're getting nowhere? Narrator Jonathan Hogan nimbly guides the listener through a fascinating study of the science of performance and why four essential needs--sustainability (physical), security (emotional), self-expression (mental), and significance (spiritual)--are not being met at work. It's been proven that 75% of employees are feeling increasingly defeated in their workplaces--drained of energy, focus, creativity, and fulfillment. Hogan convincingly delivers effective strategies to help listeners cope with increasing demands and never-ending pressure on the job, making this a stress-buster for both managers and workers. B.J.P. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
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March 22, 2010
Schwartz, CEO of the Energy Project, stretches an obvious thesis to the breaking point in his plaint on how the American workplace—theoretically where technology has allowed us to reach for more, bigger, faster—has bred an atmosphere in which workers have become disengaged from their work. We fail to take care of ourselves, he points out, and end up undermining our health, happiness, and productivity. Using a series of quadrants describing the emotional workings of both employees and companies, he argues that nothing is gained—and much is lost—by constantly pushing people to achieve more and more in less time and with fewer resources; rejuvenation and rest are necessary for creative breakthroughs and broader perspectives. All well and good, but the bulk of the book is then eaten up exhorting readers to get more sleep, exercise, eat better, and take care of their emotional health. While a reminder to cultivate engagement and mindfulness is always relevant to the modern business reader, the usable content is slim—and fluffed out beyond the point of readability.
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