FROM THE CRITICS

From Publishers Weekly
From their experiences as management consultants and specialists in conflict resolution over the past three decades, Cloke (Mediation: Revenge and the Magic of Forgiveness) and Goldsmith (coauthor with Warren Bennis of Learning to Lead: A Workbook on Becoming a Leader) address "the human side of change." Whether called "reengineering" or "downsizing," the dislocation caused for those catapulted into the change process, note the authors, is reason for concern. They ask, "Why is the human side of the change process the last element... thought out?" They offer well-articulated strategies and methods to encourage industrial democracy to work, for team advancement to not be in conflict with individual success and for public- and private-sector organizations to promote ownership in a different, humanized kind of workplace. There is much of interest here, particularly for those involved in organizational change or who are dissatisfied with their work situation.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Reengineering has become an inevitability for millions of employees, and those who survive it must perform their jobs differently tomorrow from the way they perform them today. Invariably, change causes stress, negatively affecting work performance. Consultants Cloke and Goldsmith have prepared a textbook for those managers who are seeking a humane, and less stressful, implementation of organizational change. Although the authors are unabashed advocates of workplace democracy, and a few of their recommendations will strike some as extreme, e.g., having the management role rotate among employees, their book nevertheless offers valuable advice and assessment exercises for changing organizations.?  Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In the authors' view, there is a profound difference between having to prove yourself to your boss and having the capacity to express yourself in the workplace. That difference is their central focus. We learn that people create themselves through their work, and they all have the ability to learn, to grow, and to reinvent themselves through what they do and how they do it. Cloke and Goldsmith define work as the relationship between an individual and productive activity, and their mission is to show us how to create a workplace that is productive as well as pleasurable. They present their analysis of work against the backdrop of widespread corporate downsizing and other cost-cutting measures that have taken their toll on the human side of an organization. Fourteen ways are offered in which to humanize work, including collaboration, use of teams and networks, celebration of diversity, and risk taking. They believe that well-treated employees in humane companies translate that condition into greater profitability and productivity. Mary Whaley

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of Contents 3

Forward by Warren Bennis 7

Preface 12

• The Human Side of Change

• Transforming the Work Environment

• Why We Wrote This Book

• Our Audience

• Acknowledgements

Chapter I: We Are What We Do 22

• What it Means to Create Ourselves Through Our Work

• How Our Activities and Choices Create Us -- An Exercise

• Envisioning The Future of Work

• The Future is Now-An Exercise

• "Change is Mandatory -- Only Growth is Optional"

• Focusing On Growth

Chapter II: Shifting the Context 39

• Change is Constant

• The Definition of Contexts and Paradigms

• Discovering Our Contexts

• Alternative Contexts and Paradigms for Work

• Opportunity Knocks

• Changing the Context and Shifting the Paradigm

• Charting a Cultural Change

• Sources of Resistance to the New Context

• Summary of the Rules That Guide Context and Paradigm Shifts

Chapter III: Understanding How We Got Here 72

• A Short History of Work

• Paradigm #1: Labor is Performed by Slaves or by

Disenfranchised Workers Who Can be Treated Inhumanly

• Paradigm #2: Labor Needs to Be Controlled Through Scientific Management and Efficiency

• Paradigm #3: Government Has a Right to Regulate Work

• Paradigm #4: Workers are More Productive and Motivated

When Self-Managed

• Paradigm #5: Work Has A Human Side

• Paradigm #6: Work Is Both A Necessity and a Means of

Personal Enjoyment

Chapter IV: How We Can Humanize the Workplace 93

• Key Elements of The New Context

• 14 Values That Make Work A Source of Satisfaction

* 1. Inclusion

* 2. Collaboration

* 3. Teams and Networks

* 4. Vision

* 5. Celebration of Diversity

* 6. Process Awareness

* 7. Open and Honest Communication

* 8. Risk Taking

* 9. Individual Ownership of Results

* 10. Paradoxical Problem Solving

* 11. Everyone is a Leader

* 12. Personal Growth and Satisfaction

* 13. Seeing Conflict as an Opportunity

* 14. Embracing Change

Chapter V: Reinventing the Wheel 126

• Changing a Part Means Changing the System as a Whole

• Start from Scratch

• The System of Work

• Implementing the New Paradigm

* 1. Who makes the decision to hire, and on what basis?

* 2. How is compensation fixed?

* 3. Who selects the managers and how do they manage?

* 4. Who gets promoted, how and by what criteria?

* 5. Who allocates work and assigns tasks, and how is it done?

* 6. Who gets educated and in what?

* 7. How is work evaluated and improved?

* 8. Who makes and enforces rules, and how effective are they in practice?

* 9. Who deals with conflicts and how are they resolved?

* 10. How are profits and losses divided?

• Conclusion

Chapter VI: Embracing Change 157

• Embracing Change in Our Work Lives

* Being Willing to Change

* Understanding Our Natural Reactions to Change

* Being An Empowering Leader

* Facing Difficult Issues and Conflicts

* Organizing the Change Process

* Planning Strategically

* Focusing on Producing Results

* Humanizing the Change Process

• Lesson #1: Change Induces Feelings of Loss

• Lesson #2: Change Always Creates Resistance

• Lesson #3: Change is taken personally, and is interpreted through the details

* Becoming Effective Change Agents

Chapter VII: Seeing Conflict as Opportunity 209

• Conflict Is Everywhere

• How We Respond to Conflict

• Alternative Definitions of Conflict

• Conflict Resolution Strategies

• Conflict as Opportunity

• Coaching to Reveal the Opportunities in Conflict

• Lessons that are Implicit in Conflict

• Resolving Disputes by Consensus

• Mediation: The Path to Resolving Workplace Disputes

• How Conflict is Handled in Organizations

• Conflict Resolution Systems Design

• Problems with Organizational Neutrality

• The Case for Advocacy

• Using Advocacy to Encourage Dialogue Rather Than Debate

• An Alternative Organizational Design

• How a Typical Workplace Conflict Might Be Resolved

Chapter VIII: Integrating the Whole 267

• Why We Need a Humanized Workplace

• Evolution of the Manager's Role

• The Case for Self-Actualized Work

• Work as a Source of Self Actualization

• The Power of Self Management

• An Example of Humanizing the Workplace--A Different Approach to Absenteeism

• Humanization as a Motivational Technique

• Conclusion

     

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Description:
Can you imagine how rewarding it would be, each day, to truly enjoy going to work? Most people spend the better part of their waking hours in jobs they do not enjoy. The happiest, most productive employees are those who have either found a job they truly enjoy, or found ways to make their current jobs more enjoyable. If we can get more pleasure and satisfaction from our work time, it would immeasurably improve the quality ofour lives. For more than 30 years, authors Joan Goldsmith and Kenneth Cloke have worked with teams and employers to create positive work environments in which communication between all levels is respectful, creativity is encouraged and people are acknowledged and supported. Thank God It's Monday! provides real-world examples and exercises to stimulate employees and employers into creating better work lives. Thank God It's Monday! identifies 14 core values that will make any work more stimulating and satisfying, including: Inclusion of everyone; Celebration of diversity; Open and honest communication; Risk taking; Opportunities for personal growth; Thank God It's Monday! will be valuable to employees seeking to increase satisfaction in their current jobs, displaced employees searching for the work situations that are best for them, and employers and organizational leaders looking to keep their best employees by creating energetic and vibrant workplaces. Thank God It's Monday! provides scores of ready-to-use activities, worksheets and exercises that will help transform the workplace into a second home that everyone wants to return to each day.

 

 

LINKS TO MORE BOOKS BY KENNETH CLOKE AND JOAN GOLDSMITH

Thank God It's Monday! 14 Values We Need To Humanize The Way We Work , McGraw Hill (1997)

Resolving Conflicts At Work: A Complete Guide For Everyone On The Job, Jossey-Bass/Wiley (2000)

Resolving Personal And Organizational Conflict: Stories Of Transformation & Forgiveness, Jossey-Bass/Wiley (2000)

The End of Management And The Rise Of Organizational Democracy , Jossey-Bass/Wiley (2002)

The Art Of Waking People Up: Cultivating Awareness And Authenticity At Work, Jossey-Bass/Wiley (2003)

BOOKS BY KENNETH CLOKE

Mediating Dangerously: The Frontiers Of Conflict Resolution , Jossey-Bass/Wiley (2001)

 

 

 

 

 

 

“More and more, we take for granted

that work must be destitute of pleasure.

More and more, we assume that if we want

to be pleased we must wait until evening,

or the weekend, or vacations, or retirement.

More and more, our farms and forests

resemble our factories and offices,

which in turn more and more resemble prisons -

why else should we be so eager to escape them?

We recognize defeated landscapes

by the absence of pleasure from them.

We are defeated at work because

our work gives us no pleasure..."

 

Wendell Berry, Work and Pleasure

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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"When you are in the middle of a story it isn't a story at all,

but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness,

a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood;

like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat

crushed by icebergs or swept over the rapids,

and all aboard powerless to stop it.

It's only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all.

When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else."

Margaret Atwood, Amazing Grace

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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