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Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values [Hardcover]

Fred Kofman
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

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Book Description

October 1, 2006
More and more business leaders are catching on to an often-overlooked fact: consciousness is our basic faculty for survival and success. Without it, we forget what's important to us and lose sight of the steps we might take to reach those goals. ?Conscious business, ? explains Fred Kofman, means shining this awareness on every area of your work: in recognizing the needs of others and expressing your own?in seeing the hidden emotional obstacles that may be holding your team back?in making good decisions under pressure?and even in delving into such ?spiritual? questions as ?Who am I?? and ?What is my real purpose here?? In Conscious Business, this visionary teacher and consultant to Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and other leading companies presents the complete training manual in the breakthrough techniques he has shared with over 20,000 executives on four continents.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for CONSCIOUS BUSINESS "Conscious Business is a fundamental book for our times. Few ideas have been more insidious in the industrial era than the fragmentation between right livelihood and economic success. We are running out of time to integrate the material and the spiritual worlds. Fred Kofman offers a unique set of tools to do it."--Peter Senge, MIT professor and author of The Fifth Discipline

"Fred Kofman is a genius with a heart as big as his brain, if that's possible. In this remarkable book, Fred takes us on a thrilling tour through what business would be like if it had both a heart and a mind--a conscience and a consciousness. The result is a practice of business that transforms you and your world."--Ken Wilber, philosopher and author of A Theory of Everything

"Fred has been an inspiration, helping connect responsibility and integrity to create the freedom leaders need to succeed."--Daniel Rosenberg, Chief Operating Officer, Yahoo! Inc

"Consciousness has a real and deep business impact. Learning how to work in full congruence with our values has inspired every person in my team to be a better professional--and a better human being."--Sheryl Sanders, Vice President, Global Online Sales and Operations, Google

"Fred has been a true partner in our efforts to build a conscious organization, helping us move from aspiration to implementation. His advice is never easy, but always worthwhile."--Eugenio Beaufrand, Vice President, Microsoft Latin America

"Conscious Business translates the tools of organizational learning into day-to-day business applications. Both at Chrysler and at DTE Energy, Fred's work has allowed us to shift our culture faster, but with much greater sustainability than any other effort."--David Meador, Senior Vice President of Finance, Detroit Edison

From the Inside Flap

Consciousness is the main source of organizational greatness. "Conscious business," explains Fred Kofman, means finding your passion and expressing your essential values through your work. A conscious business seeks to promote the intelligent pursuit of happiness in all its stakeholders. It produces sustainable, exceptional performance through the solidarity of its community and the dignity of each member. CONSCIOUS BUSINESS presents breakthrough techniques to help you achieve: - Unconditional responsibility--how to become the main character in your life - Unflinching integrity--how to succeed beyond success - Authentic communication--how to speak your truth, and elicit others' truths - Impeccable commitments--how to coordinate actions with acountability

- Right leasership--how being, rather than doing, is the ultimate source of excellence

"A conscious business fosters persoanl fulfillment in the individual, mutual respect in the community, and success in the organization," teaches Fred Kofman. CONSCIOUS BUSINESS is the definitive resource for achieving what really matters in the workplace and beyond.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 325 pages
  • Publisher: Sounds True, Incorporated; annotated edition edition (October 1, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1591795176
  • ISBN-13: 978-1591795179
  • Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.1 x 8.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5 stars
(33)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 51 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Creating a Cooperative Culture of Improving Performance December 13, 2006
Format:Hardcover
Conscious Business is the first book I've read on an important subject I'd like to tackle as an author: How to move those in an organization from focusing on their selfish interests to concentrating on what creates the most good for the most people . . . with the least potential harm to any individual. I thought that Dr. Kofman did a good job in defining one path to creating mutual benefit in Conscious Business. If people in your organization seem to be emphasizing their own careers rather than the tasks that need doing, this book is a must-read for you!

Let me agree with Dr. Kofman about his warning for readers: It's much easier to understand his principles than apply them. But with practice, you can do great things.

Here are the goals he sets:

"In the impersonal It dimension, the goal is to accomplish the organization's mission, enhancing its ability to continue doing so in the future, and delivering outstanding long-term returns to shareholders. In the interpersonal We dimension, the goal is to establish cooperative, trusting, and mutually respectful relationships, a community of shared purpose and values in which people feel they belong. In the personal I dimension, the goal is to live in a state of flow, feeling a transcendent happiness that comes from living in full integrity, with one's principles and ideals."

As you can see from this quote, Dr. Kofman draws heavily from his interest in Buddhist tradition and other streams of spiritual beliefs that are outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition. The text is enlivened by quotes from many sides of the spiritual spectrum and psychologists. As a result, the material will speak directly and deeply in places to virtually any reader, regardless of background and beliefs.

The risk he points to is a real one: If we don't make our intentions explicit and specific, people will take the knee-jerk route of looking after themselves. That self-focus is the basis of much bureaucratic behavior, procrastination, avoidance, poor customer service, misconceptions, disbelief about what needs to be done, poor communications and over-reliance on tradition.

A key exhibit in the book can be found on page 17 where Dr. Kofman draws a contrast between relying on unconscious versus conscious attitudes in business. Here are the unconscious attitudes and their conscious counterparts:

Unconscious Attitudes.....................Conscious Attitudes

Unconditional blame.........................Unconditional responsibility
Essential selfishness........................Essential integrity
Ontological arrogance......................Ontological humility
Unconscious behaviors.....................Conscious behaviors
Manipulative communication..............Authentic communication
Narcissistic negotiation....................Constructive negotiation
Negligent coordination.....................Impeccable coordination
Unconscious reactions.....................Conscious reactions
Emotional incompetence...................Emotional mastery

The book goes on to devote a chapter to each of the seven conscious attitudes (excluding conscious behaviors and reactions from the list above). Since those attitude titles are not exactly self-explanatory, let me see if I can explain each a little more.

Unconditional responsibility is the Victor Frankl concept of determining your response to a situation, even if it is a situation you cannot change. You take charge of choosing your response.

Essential integrity is acting in accordance with your values, even if the results are less than perfect.

Ontological humility is being open to seeing what's going on from the perspectives of others and valuing those perspectives.

Authentic communication means sharing your emotions, opinions and knowledge openly with those who appear to be headed in the wrong direction . . . and encouraging them to do the same. From that baseline, you can then proceed to develop options that may better fit what's needed.

Constructive negotiation is focused on finding a great solution for everyone, rather than simply winning your point.

Impeccable coordination involves making informed commitments, staying on top of what's needed to meet those commitments and letting others know when things go wrong to devise solutions that may improve matters.

Emotional mastery means being able to function objectively, even if something outrages or frightens you.

As you can see from these terms and concepts, Conscious Business is a book of applied psychology by someone who is well versed in the field. The strength of that approach is that Dr. Kofman can reference psychological works that you may know well to give you a touchstone. The drawback is that the book can seem to be too academic if you aren't familiar with the terms and references.

Two things humanize the book from those weaknesses:

(1) Each chapter opens with an extended example of a business problem involving unconscious behavior and reactions. The key concepts are then explained and applied to turning the extended example into a way of employing conscious behavior and reactions.

(2) Dr. Kofman has had many interesting experiences that he deftly weaves into his story. I was especially impressed by his learning from having lived in a totalitarian regime in Argentina as a youth and his mountain climbing experience in South America.

All that said, the opening of this book was awfully abstract and academic. It wasn't until page 42 that I began to resonate with the material. So be patient. The book is quite accessible and interesting from that point on.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Learning to be conscious. Learning to be. January 12, 2004
By A Customer
Format:Audio Cassette
Consious Business is a wonderful way to understand that the only way of making our businesses and lives be what we want them to be is by doing the effort of becoming aware, of becoming present and becoming completely responsible players.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Could be called 'Conscious Living' March 11, 2004
Format:Audio Cassette
Fred Kofman does an outstanding of job of teaching the essentials of human interaction; communication, negotiation and implementation. His simple but profound insights are delivered in a converstational style and by the end of the program I felt like I had found a friend who inspired me to become a 'conscious leader'!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A book everyone must read!
"Success beyond success" it's a life changer concept... how to build value through values.
"Freedom, responsiblity, and integrity are the keys to success"
Published 14 days ago by Carla
5.0 out of 5 stars Don't read this book if you are not willing to change your life.
Fredy Kofman book puts together a his own ideas along great authors in ethics, system theory and management. Read more
Published 19 days ago by J. A. Lopez
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book for me and my team!
I read this book right after reading a New York Times article about Sheryl Sandberg who recommended it. It definitely did not disappoint. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Maciej A Pawlowski
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
The information in Conscious Business when fully understood and lived has the capacity to raise the consciousness of how you experience the world. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Lisa Sparacino
5.0 out of 5 stars Of course
Ive been waiting for someone to break ground on this confluence of business and consciousness. It makes so much sense to open my work place to the integral parts of me. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brad Hallock
5.0 out of 5 stars wow. Excellent!
This is absolutely the best business book I have read in years and am going to make this required reading for everyone in our Company. Do yourself a favor and buy this book! Read more
Published 1 month ago by alexandrasaunders
5.0 out of 5 stars A very valuable book
After reading a number of useless business books in the market , this book shines as a very valuable book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tevfik Bahadir Sarikaya
5.0 out of 5 stars Great self investment
A great read for those looking to invest in themselves and their businesses. The information contained within these pages are for everyone in business.
Published 2 months ago by G. Ratliff
5.0 out of 5 stars Conscious Business
Necessary information for anyone involved in business. Purchased for a class but found it extremely beneficial. I now use it as my manual.
Published 2 months ago by doreeneverett
5.0 out of 5 stars Huge!
One of the best bussiness books I ever read. Kofman's teachings are useful not only for bussines but for daily life as well.
Published 3 months ago by José A.Civantos
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