After the popularity of our blog post earlier this year on 7 seminal Conscious Business Books we decided to do a follow up with another 7!
There are so many we could include, but these are 7 that we rate particularly highly, while also trying to strike a balance between theory and practice.
OK, in no particular order…
Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose – Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth & David B, Wolfe
Ever read Good to Great? It’s one of the classics of business. Firms of Endearment is like a conscious business version of Good to Great. It’s based on in-depth research into 30 companies that are strongly passion and purpose-driven.
Guess what? These companies, like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Southwest Airlines, and Patagonia, are not just great places to work… they also blow their competition out of the water in terms of their financial performance!
This is one of the foundational books of the Conscious Capitalism movement, and it’s well worth reading if you want to get a real feel for what conscious businesses look and feel like… and how they perform!
Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges – C. Otto Scharmer
For years now, Theory U has been redefining the theory and practice of leadership and transformation. It’s a deep dive into how discovery and transformation unfold at the levels of individuals, groups, and systems.
If you don’t mind the academic prose (Scharmer is a Senior Lecturer at MIT), this book offers a wealth of insight into the process of transformation. And consciousness and presence are at the heart of it.
SQ21: The 21 Skills of Spiritual Intelligence – Cindy Wigglesworth
An honest admission up front – we haven’t actually read the whole book yet!! However, we know Cindy’s work really well, and from what we’ve seen so far, this looks like a cracker.
The idea of IQ and EQ has become well established in today’s world, but, as Cindy argues, it is our spiritual intelligence that is the new frontier of personal growth and organisational leadership.
The first chapter is available for free, and it kicks off in inspiring form asking how can we become fully human in the work we do? Surely there are few more important questions today.
ReWork: Change the Way you Work Forever – Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson
This is one of those books that probably wouldn’t be labelled ‘conscious’ by many people, but is actually a wonderfully practical articulation of such an approach.
ReWork is a collection of short, punchy and practical chapters each addressing real problems that any entrepreneur or business practitioner will come up against. Gone are the clunky old conventions of how it should be done, and instead we’re served a fresh, energetic and creative roadmap for how to play a new exciting game.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to practice business in today’s world, and it’s perfect for dipping into whenever you feel like a injection of liberating common sense.
The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance
In this classic, Tony Schwartz, bestselling co-author of The Power of Full Engagement, makes the case that there’s an energy crisis in the workplace. Most of us fail to re-fuel and engage all of our four ‘gas tanks’ at work: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
This is both a rich and practical book, because it covers key aspects of fully engaging all of those four core needs in our work. It includes a passionate case for sleeping in the workplace, cultivating your whole brain, and bringing all of yourself to work. A beautiful book, that will definitely help you wake up the workplace!
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity – David Allen
Although Getting Things Done (GTD) is an absolute classic, it’s not commonly thought of as ‘conscious business’. We disagree. You may think this book is about time management. It’s not. It’s about how you manage your attention (consciousness), so that you can get to what’s most important.
If you’re going to change one thing about how you work, make it this: empty your head. It’s the source of endless power and creativity. And most of us are clogging it with ‘stuff’. More than anything, this book is a practical walk-through guide from overwhelm to relaxed and conscious productivity. Awesome stuff.
The Lean Startup: How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses – Eric Ries
The angle for this book is entrepreneurship: how you start and build new products and companies. While most of those fail, this book argues that those failures are preventable.
Lean Startup is a new approach to business that’s centered around becoming conscious of your assumptions, and testing and adapting them continuously (before it’s too late). Although it doesn’t explicitly use the language of conscious business, it’s about ruthlessly facing reality as you build your business. And that’s pretty conscious, don’t you think?
How many have you read? Which one’s are your favourites? And what’s missing from the list!?
Leave your comments below…
Transparency is a real buzz word in business these days. If we’re talking about making business more conscious, then isn’t it about time to get honest and transparent with each other about what’s really going on?
Here is a powerful example of workplace transparency that my Dad sent me recently. It’s from a prime time British TV show and the guy they’re talking about is actually someone he knows :). Enjoy!
The field of Conscious Business is a relatively new one, yet some of the seeds of it were sown some time ago. People have been writing about this kind of work for at least a decade.
Here are 7 books that I consider seminal in this field. There are many others of course, but these are 7 that have deeply informed my perspectives and practice.
OK, onto the list, in no particular order…
Conscious Business – Fred Kofman
Quite aside from the fact that a list of 7 seminal books on conscious books needs to include the book that’s actually called conscious business, this really is a massively important and rich book.
Fred brings his immense depth and precision to what he posits are the key capacities of someone embodying a conscious business approach, from unconditional responsibility to authentic communication. Constructive negotiation to emotional mastery.
This book had a profound impact on me when I read it, and I keep returning to Fred’s work year after year.
Good to Great – Jim Collins
Perhaps the most mainstream book in this list, ‘Good to Great’ is something I think every conscious business aspirant should read.
The thing that I think is most powerful about this book is the massive research that went into its creation. This is not about subjective opinions so much, as looking at the data that marks ‘great’ companies from ‘good’ ones. And it’s full of robust and lucid insights into what makes that difference.
It may not be explicit about the impact of consciousness in the mix, but I do think that’s what the book is really pointing to. Cracking stuff.
Anything you Want – Derek Sivers
This book is a little different. In fact it’s a lot different, but it’s still wonderful! It’s a short read (I read it in a lunch break), and tells the story of Derek’s business CD Baby, which he started by accident and then sold for $22 million.
Derek’s story is an inspiring journey through his own brand of consciously doing business (even though he wouldn’t necessarily describe it that way), full of snappy take aways, insights and philosophies.
Derek is someone who is a wonderful mix of idealism and pragmatism, and this is a must read for anyone in the conscious entrepreneurial game.
First, Break all the Rules – Marcus Buckingham
This is another one that may not typically considered to be about conscious business, but I think it’s a deeply informative book.
Based on 25 years of Gallup research, First Break all the Rules looks at what great managers do differently to ‘ordinary’ managers. The results and conclusion are wonderfully enlightening.
For me, this book nailed the fundamentals of good management and leadership. So many books go into the high level capacities of leadership, but this one goes back to basics and shines a light on the simple dynamics that mark great managers from poor ones. Some heart warming stories in it too.
Immunity to Change – Robert Kegan & Lisa Lahey
This is one of the most mature and lucid explanation of change I’ve ever seen published. Kegan’s previous work was rich and deep, yet dense. In this book he and Lisa Lahey not only create simplicity out of complexity, but get super practical.
Their immunity to change process in one they’ve been using in business for some years now, and I can only imagine the traction they must have got with it. But it’s also something you as an individual can guide yourself through.
Laying the ground for conscious business means change, and this book goes to the nub of why creating change is so hard, and how to get to grips with overcoming that difficulty.
A Theory of Everything – Ken Wilber
This is the least business focused book on this list, but Wilber’s work is, I believe utterly crucial for the growth of conscious business. In this more popularist presentation of his complex theories, Wilber shows the high level values dynamics that are at play in today’s world, and why things are the way they are.
If you’ve never read Wilber’s work, this is a great place to start, and I really do encourage you to start.
Yes, his work is very high level and based on orienting generalization, but he is, I believe one of the most important writers of recent times, and he changed my life. Any conscious approach to business that doesn’t take Wilber’s work into account is going to fall very short of what’s possible in my opinion.
Synchronicity – Joseph Jaworski
Joseph Jaworski’s story of his spiritual quest into the heart of leadership is breathtaking. Everyone I know who has read this book has been deeply impacted by it.
Jaworski was a successful lawyer, when catalysed by the breakdown of his marriage, he found himself doing some major soul searching. As he goes deeper into the heart of what he feels he’s here for, strange synchronous events start to weave together a path toward his realized dream.
Synchronicity is a profound and magical book. It’s not a set of steps or models, but a capturing of what happened to one man when he really let go into what he deeply cared about.
What are some of the books that have impacted you that aren’t on this list?
What have I missed? Would love to hear your favourites!
“Hóka-héy (Let’s do this), today is a good day to die!†Sioux leader Crazy Horse is attributed with shouting this approaching battle.
Perhaps our modern battle cry can be “Hóka-héy, today is a good day to wake up!†In some way or another, I find myself reflecting on this during most everyday. “This moment is a good moment to wake up!†And even better, I recognize moments where waking up is happening – in myself and others.
Ultimately, Waking Up the Workplace is nothing more or less than individually and collectively Waking Up and embodying this awakened-ness in our work.
A Day in the Workplace
So what does a day in the process of Waking Up in the Workplace look and feel like for me?
Not surprisingly, it begins by waking up – as in shifting from a sleeping state to an alert state. Opening my eyes, realizing that I am in a transition moment, taking stock of my physical and mental states (have had a lot of injuries lately, which require tracking my body to inform how I will get out of bed!), and shifting from horizontal to vertical. While this may seem like no big deal or irrelevant to waking up the workplace, I protest otherwise. This is, after all, the first moment of our day in which we can engage our Conscious Awareness, the principal tool for Waking Up. And this moment can set the tone of our entire day, whether we are consciously aware of the moment or not.
This morning, for instance, I woke up sore and a little tired, carrying thoughts I had when I woke up in the middle of the night, which related to a conversation with a client yesterday in the context of a significant decision with a long-term project we are collaborating on. Recognizing all of this, I brought it to the front of my awareness and attention, recognized how the physical sensations and thoughts were affecting my movement and energy. I reflected on what I planned to do to address both of them – into my morning stretching and strengthening with ease and care; and on a 9:00 am call with my client proceeded by a call with my design collaborator on the project.
Within moments I felt my energy shift into more fluid movement, as I checked my email, engaged in my physical routine and began the daily rituals of taking herbs, making my morning drink and my daughter’s breakfast. After rousing her up, I returned to stretching, breakfast-making, reflections and email responses.
This pattern of moving, reflecting, thinking, communicating weaves throughout the day, as I continuously, purposefully and, by now, habitually, shift from one channel or form of engaging with work and life to another, from one project or task to another, in what increasingly seems like effortless movement.
When I recognize effort, I usually notice that I am either not especially skillful in what I am doing in the moment (sadly to say, surfing in big waves fits that description, or doing some kinds of technical computer work) or, more often the case, whether skilled or not, I am resisting something and the friction that comes with resistance creates the feeling of effort and a drag on energy and attention.
I don’t presume that my approach to moving through tasks, projects and a day is suited for others. I know it is not for everyone. But moving from one thing to another, and from one channel to another makes my experience of every day filled with energy, meaning purpose and flow. I find great relevance in this quotation from Gandhi “One man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.â€
To be a little more specific, parenting, self-care, partnering and work all require and receive attention and energy, and they feed each other. Learning in one area translates into enhanced capacity in another. The perspective and vitality that come through self-care, exercise and rest are invaluable to performing well and to waking up at work. Parenting and partnering (as in primary intimate relationship) cultivate awareness, sensitivity, patience and other insights and skills that are invaluable to working with others and knowing yourself.
The contexts and practices of my work
My practice of Waking Up at Work and, perhaps, Waking Up the Workplace, has had many contexts during the past thirty years. I have collaborated to build small companies in various industries including music (Private Music, Yanni, Hearts of Space), fitness (Spinning and ChiRunning), natural products (Seeds of Change and O.N.E. Coconut Water) and social transformation (FLOW, Esalen, GlobalGiving), among others. I generally and currently work as an “independent†consultant and service provider, though very much connected with and embedded in the organizations I work with.
My current projects and affiliations include CEO of Working for Good, executive director and producer of Being Human – a multi-channel project of the Baumann Foundation, campaign director for the Liquid Revolution – for O.N.E. Coconut Water, and trustee and executive committee member of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. I will soon be launching a weekly radio program called It’s Just Good Business via the en*theos Academy. The bottom line: I have lots of opportunities to practice Waking Up at Work and to participate in the process of Waking Up the Workplace.
Here are a few of the things I do – the practices I employ – in my pursuit of ever-increasing awakening at work. I do my best to employ all of them every day or at least many times a week.
- Reflect: This waking up practice, which I typically wake up with (as above!) is one I employ throughout the day. It includes both observation of external circumstances – including the attitudes and “energy†of the people I interact with, and introspection – self-observing internal conditions (thoughts, feeling, physical sensations).
- Report: Communicate – to myself and others – what I am observing, what I am doing and what I expect from them.
- Inquire: Ask questions to explore what is going on with others and to encourage their feedback to me.
- Move: Literally. Run, surf, Jiu Jitsu practice, dance, walk. Shift channels from my head to my body. Get the blood flowing. Face edges and learn new things through my body, that inform my thinking, my perspective and overall orientation to life.
- Rest: I take 10 – 20 minute naps several times a week. (usually only once on any given day!) Amazing what a cat nap can do for increasing energy, refreshing focus and expanding perspective.
- Nourish: Drink lots of water and coconut water and eat plenty of fresh organically grown food – of all colors and types (especially fruits, vegetables and meat).
- Serve: Create value for others in some way or another and support them in their process, advancing our work together and fostering their flow.
- Acknowledge: Appreciate and applaud the good work of others.
The workplace is an incredible crucible for Waking Up and an essential domain for collective awakening.
I appreciate the forum Diederick, Ewan and Jeroen are building with Waking Up the Workplace and the service they are providing to our individual and collective awakening.
Hóka-héy, today is a good day to wake up!
Let’s do this!
About Jeff Klein
As CEO of Working for Good, Jeff Klein activates, produces and facilitates mission-based, Stakeholder Engagement Marketingâ„¢ campaigns and Conscious Culture development programs.
Jeff is a trustee and executive committee member of Conscious Capitalism, Inc. and authored the award-winning book, Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living, to support entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders and change agents at work.
He enjoys surfing, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, ChiRunning and moving in general. He is an active father of a 13-year-old daughter, and resides in San Rafael, California.
For more information visit workingforgood.com.
In his Waking Up the Workplace interview “Work is Love Made Visible” earlier this year, Jeff talked about his 30-year journey of working in Conscious Business. You can find it on the downloads page (you’ll find the link in your email when you register for free).
Yes, it’s true. The series continues…
And we’re VERY excited about the three people we’ve got lined up to talk with over the next month. Here they are!
David Allen
If by some bizarre chance you don’t know who David is (and if you don’t you really should) he is the author of the famous ‘Getting Things Done’, an international bestseller that helps people with their productivity and self-organization.
David is currently implementing Holacracy in his own consulting organization, so we got in touch with him via our mutual friend Brian Robertson. David kindly agreed to take part in the series, and we’re very excited to bringing his diverse perspectives into the conversation.
Our dialogue with David Allen is on 24th November at 8pm CET / 7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST Click for other timezones
Brett Thomas
Brett cofounded Stagen with Rand (one of our previous speakers) and designed their 12 month Integral Leadership Program for CEOs. He’s been an entrepreneur for over 20 years and has clocked over 10,000 hours of coaching CEOs.
I had the immense pleasure of working alongside Brett on the Integral Leadership Collaborative a few months ago and was floored by his skill and generosity. Having got to know him, I was keen to bring his leadership and coaching perspectives to bear on the Waking up the Workplace conversation.
Our dialogue with Brett Thomas is on 1st December at 8pm CET / 7pm GMT / 2pm EST / 11am PST Click for other timezones
Derek Sivers
Derek was the founder of CD Baby (a company he started by mistake and then sold for $22 million), and the author of the Amazon bestseller ‘Anything  You Want’, his story of building a business close to his heart.
I read Derek’s book over the summer during a morning break from my work (it only takes about an hour to read). I was so utterly inspired and excited by it I immediately emailed Derek and begged him to be a part of the series, which he eventually agreed to. And then I posted a facebook message to all my friends offering to buy free copies for people (which I actually did too!).
Our dialogue with Derek Sivers will be on 15th December at 10am CET / 9am GMT / 4am EST / 1am PSTÂ Click for other timezones
To take part in the dialogues, just make sure your on our mailing list by entering your email in the box in the top right and we’ll let you know how to join us. They’re free if you hadn’t realised!
The airwaves have been a little quiet for a while now…well, no longer. We’re back with a vengeance.
Watch the video below to find out what’s next, and why we need your help to make it happen.
Post your reactions to my question…
What is your main frustration or tension when it comes to your work right now? What’s really confusing you or pissing you off??
…in the comments section below and let’s get the conversation rolling.
