The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All

Book description

Embrace connectivity, increase empowerment, and achieve better work-life blending

We live in a new age of global companies, hyper-access to information, and accessibility to tools that enable us to bring any idea life. Strangely, our workplaces are lagging behind the promise of this open and collaborative world. Most organizations are rule-based, top-down, dreary environments optimized for conformity and little else. The Work Revolution creates a compelling portrait of a different kind of work.

"I believe that freedom in the workplace is worth fighting for and that every person and every organization can be excellent."

Julie Clow articulates the rules we follow today in our work force, the reasons they no longer work, and what we can do instead. The Work Revolution deconstructs the magic behind thriving, liberated organizations (such as Google) into clear principles that any individual, leader, and organization can adopt to create sustainable and engaging lives.

  • Provides actionable changes anyone can make, regardless of where they work, to create a more sustainable work-life blend

  • Details concrete ways to influence existing organizations to change

  • Guides leaders to make tangible changes in their teams to enable greater autonomy and impact

  • Outlines organizational culture principles that support and nurture high-performance and healthy environments, providing clear options for instituting cultural change based on specific organizational challenges

Rejecting productivity Band-Aids and quick fixes, The Work Revolution conceptualizes a completely new workplace that embraces the always-connected reality to create organizations in which high achievers can sustainably thrive.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Contents
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Preface
  7. Chapter 1: This Thing We Call Work
    1. What Is the Problem?
    2. Starting a Work Revolution
    3. The Three Channels of Change
    4. Tying It All Together
  8. Chapter 2: Signs We Have It Wrong
    1. The Deluxe Job-Shove-It Quiz
    2. Interpreting Your Answers
  9. Chapter 3: The New Rules
    1. What Is Our Reality?
    2. Putting It All Together
    3. Breaking the Old Rules
    4. The New Rules
  10. Chapter 4: Impact, Not Activities
    1. Roots of Management by Activity
    2. Organizations as Problem Statements
    3. Leaders Asking Questions
    4. Individuals as Instigators
    5. More on Impact to Come
    6. Summary
  11. Chapter 5: Energy, Not Schedules
    1. Rivers of Energy
    2. The Energy of Individuals
    3. The Energy of Value
    4. Eliminating Bad Energy
    5. Summary
  12. Chapter 6: Strengths, Not Job Slots
    1. Strengths, Talents, Passions
    2. Naming Your Strengths
    3. Strengths of a Team
    4. Building an Organization on Strengths
    5. Summary
  13. Chapter 7: The Right Things, Not Everything
    1. And the Number One Leadership Skill Is…
    2. Strategy Is Prioritization
    3. Eliminate the Bottom, Push to the Top
    4. Team Prioritization
    5. Summary
  14. Chapter 8: Grassroots, Not Top-Down
    1. The Power of Small
    2. Empowerment through Collective Intelligence
    3. Letting Go of Control in Organizations
    4. Individuals Inspiring Differentiation
    5. Summary
  15. Chapter 9: Conclusion
    1. Fears of Leaders
    2. Fears of Individuals
    3. It’s the System, Stupid
    4. Trust versus Fear
    5. What Success Looks Like
  16. Epilogue
    1. Grassroots, not Top-Down
    2. The Right things, not Everything
    3. Energy, not Schedules
    4. Strengths, not Job Slots
    5. Impact, not Activities
    6. Putting it all Together
  17. Appendix
    1. Universal Principles
  18. Acknowledgments
  19. About the Author
  20. Index

Product information

  • Title: The Work Revolution: Freedom and Excellence for All
  • Author(s): Julie Clow
  • Release date: April 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118172056