Liberating the Corporate Soul : Building a Visionary Organization [Paperback]

Richard Barrett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0750670711 | ISBN-13: 978-0750670715 | Publication Date: November 5, 1998 | Edition: 1

The two most critical issues for business today, according to CEO's Barrett has worked with, are: "How to tap the deepest levels of creativity and the highest levels of productivity of our employees." In a world where competition has become global, successful companies are learning to build competitive advantage through their human capital. In the 21st Century, even that will not be enough. Success will also hinge on whether, in the eyes of the employees and society-at-large, the organization is a trusted member of the community and a good global citizen. Developing a values-driven approach to business is quickly becoming essential for financial success. Who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell.



"More than simply a majestic vision, Richard Barrett's book brilliantly describes the ways and means for business leaders to create the compassionate and viable future we urgently need on our beautiful planet."
-Godric E.S. Bader, F.R.S.A., Life President, Scott Bader Commonwealth Ltd.

"If every corporate executive bought this book and assigned it for in-house management development courses, the world would become a better place."
-Hazel Henderson, author, Building a Win-Win World and Creating Alternative Futures

"As we approach the new Millennium the world seeks clear thinkers with visionary concepts to help unravel the challenges before us. Richard Barrett's inspiring new book Liberating the Corporate Soul weaves a rich tapestry balancing heart and soul with a practical down-to-earth corporate vision for the future."
-Craig and Patricia Neal, Co-Founders, Heartland Institute

"Liberating the Corporate Soul presents a convincing rationale for making ethical and socially responsible behavior the best foundation for building and maintaining a high performance, globally successful business."
-Robert W. MacGregor, President, Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility

"Liberating the Corporate Soul gives a powerful set of tools for organizational transformation. I highly recommend it."
-Ann Svendsen, Consultant and author of The Stakeholder Strategy: Profiting from Collaborative Business Relationships

"Practical advice to tap the source of creativity and innovation which every business seeks."
-Ron Nahser, President and CEO of The Nahser Agency/Advertising, Chicago

"The bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business."
-Martin Rutte, President Livelihood, co-author Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

"Liberating the Corporate Soul is a must read for leaders who want to shape a government built on values, innovation, and greater efficiency."
-Jody Zall Kusek, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management, U.S. Department of the Interior

"Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."
-Marcello Palazzi, Bsc, Msc, MBA, Co-Founder and Chair, Progressio Foundation, The Netherlands

"Liberating the Corporate Soul provides a paradigm shifting look at how business leaders can harness the creative potential of their staff and their organizations. The author concisely develops and explains several tools that will enable managers to create an organizational foundation that will foster alignment, accountability and strategic focus."
-Tad McKeon, MBA, CPA, CQM, 1997 Senior Examiner, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, co-author, Transforming Home Care: Quality, Cost and Data Management

"This book has captured the true challenge of business today: nurturing values-based organizations to which employees and other stakeholders commit. It is also an excellent guide to achieving this goal which is proving to be the most important success factor of our times."
-Margareta Barchan, CEO and President, CELEMI, Sweden

"This book breaks new ground in helping business leaders take responsibility for the whole. It encourages us to build a better world through business."
-George E. McCown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, McCown, De Leeuw & Co., Chairman, World Business Academy

"If you want to install in your company a climate of trust, harmony, creativity and vision . . . If you accept to be honest about your own values and ethics . . . Jump on this book, it is one of the best I know, linking a new vision with concrete and effective tools helping you to revitalize and reenchant your enterprise."
-Marc Luyckx, Forward Studies Unit European Commission, Brussels



· This book is a process blueprint for building a visionary organization with a values-driven approach
· Based on tested models and tools developed internationally on how work, values and leadership will change in the 21st century
· Originated from work within the World Bank where the author was Values Coordinator and Founder of the World Bank Spiritual Unfoldment Society and a member of the Institutional Change and strategy Dept. at the World Bank.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Barrett is an international consultant in the field of values-driven leadership and cultural transformation. He works with leaders and senior executives in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia to develop values-driven organizational cultures that build human capital, embrace diversity, strengthen financial performance, and support sustainable development. He is the creator of the Cultural Transformation Tools. He is a Fellow of the World Business Academy, and Former Values Coordinator at the World Bank. He is the instigator and coordinator of the Whole System Change summits. Mr. Barrett is the author of A Guide to Liberating Your Soul, Fulfilling Books, 1995 and Liberating the Corporate Soul: Building a Visionary Organization, Butterworth-Heinemann, 1998. A sequel to Liberating the Corporate Soul entitled A Whole System Approach to Cultural Transformation will be published in 2005/2006. Richard can be contacted at: Tel: [phone] or by e-mail at [e-mail]. Web sites: http://www.corptools.com and http://www.valuescentre.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 248 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1 edition (November 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750670711
• ISBN-13: 978-0750670715
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quantum Leap in Compassionate Corporate Transformation, December 10, 1998

By 

Jeff Hutner "cosmic connector" (Ojai, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liberating the Corporate Soul : Building a Visionary Organization (Paperback)

In his visionary and hopeful book, Global Mind Change, The Promise of the 21st Century (1990), futurist Willis Harman observed that we are in the midst of the greatest social shift since the Middle Ages, a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. As the dominant institution in society, Willis felt business had an obligation and the potential to lead this shift. In Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society (1990), he provided some benchmarks of new paradigm business and examples of a handful of leading companies.

Richard Barrett is clearly an inspired central figure in empowering the business world to take its place as an evolutionary and transformational force. Through his consulting practice, speaking engagements and now his powerful new book, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Richard presents the business world a gift of immense proportions providing a clear understanding of how to liberate the untapped creative brilliance, deep compassion and universal love that has been trapped within the prisons of old paradigm business models.

He challenges business leaders to "create strategic goals that call for quantum increases in performance that promote transformational thinking." "These improvements are achieved", he says, "only by taking a systems approach-a shift in basic assumptions that create a new way of being and doing - evolution". "Not doing things differently, but doing different things." Not shifting things around a table but creating a new table. "When individuals are asked to participate in transformational thinking they tap into their intuition and creativity. This type of thinking can only be maintained in corporate cultures that are built around trust, employee involvement and openness."

He cites the research of Collins and Porras whose book, Built to Last, proves that "contrary to business school doctrine, maximizing shareholder wealth and profits are not the dominant driving forces in most long lasting successful companies. Throughout the history of most visionary companies a core ideology existed that transcended purely economic considerations."

Quoting mystic poet Kahil Gibran, who said "work is love made visible", he goes on to say that "the challenge for companies in the twenty-first century is to create a work environment that encourages personal fulfillment-taking care of employees' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs....to live out their passions and provide them with opportunities for service". According to a 1995 Newsweek article, 58% of Americans feel the need to experience spiritual growth. "What better place", Richard asks, "than through your work?

Building on the work of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow, he finds that "most companies are stuck in the lower levels of consciousness he has identified as survival, relationship or self-esteem consciousness."

Barrett has developed the Balanced Need Scorecard and other powerful laser-like measuring tools to help organizations determine if the values they espouse are being embraced and lived. In the end, he believes "companies either operate from the fears of the ego or the love of the soul". Richard defines evolutionary leaders as "people who hold a vision and courageously pursue that vision in such a way that it resonates with the souls of people".

As the editor of an online publication that explores new paradigms in business and other disciplines, I would not risk entering the 21st century without reading, digesting and implementing the ideas contained in Liberating the Corporate Soul. Those companies that do will have a strategic advantage over those that don't. More importantly, it is unlikely that corporations will survive without creating transformational cultures that nurture and liberate.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The process of building a visionary organization, March 25, 2001

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liberating the Corporate Soul : Building a Visionary Organization (Paperback)

"This book has been such a journey. I started out with two ideas. The first idea was that organizational transformation must look and feel a lot like personal transformation. The second idea was that the values held by successful companies must be similar to the values held by successful individuals. These two ideas led me on a journey of discovery that gladdened my heart...This book...provides a road map and tools for those who want to travel the same path" (from the Foreward).

In this context, Richard Barrett, in Chapter 11, shows a comprehensive framework for building a visionary organization. Here, he defines a visionary organization as a long-living, successful organization that cares about its employees, its customers, the local community, the environment, and a society at large. According to him, visionary organizations take social responsibility very seriously, and they display six important characteristics:

1. They have strong, positive, values-driven cultures.

2. They make a lasting commitment to learning and self-renewal.

3. They are continually adapting themselves based on feedback from internal and external environments.

4. They make strategic alliances with internal and external partners, customers, and suppliers.

5. They are willing to take risk and experiment.

6. They have a balanced values-based approach to measuring performance that includes such factors as corporate survival (financial results), corporate fitness (efficiency, productivity, and quality), collaboration with suppliers and customers, continuous learning and self-development (corporate evolution), organizational cohesion and employee fulfillment (corporate culture), and corporate contribution to the local community and society.

Hence, he develops a three-phase process for building a visionary organization: (1) preparation, (2) implementation, and (3) maintaining an evolutionary culture.

Finally, during the process of building a visionary organization, he writes that "the critical factors in successful transformations are (a) the management team's commitment to modeling the new values and behaviors; (b) integrating the new values into the structural incentives of the human resource processes of the organization; (c) building psychological ownership by involving employees in defining the missiom, vision, and values and the Balanced Needs Scorecard objectives and targets; (d) helping employees to think like owners; and (e) assigning responsibilities and developing structural mechanisms to support innovation, learning, and cultural renewal."

Highly recommended.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb approach to blending values with the bottom line, December 1, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Les Landes) (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Liberating the Corporate Soul : Building a Visionary Organization (Paperback)

New Book Provides Road Map and Tools For Building Visionary, Values-Based Businesses

(Washington, D.C. - December 1, 1998) You don't have to look far these days to witness the growing trend in business to nurture the corporate "soul." Once muttered in hushed tones of self-conscious reserve, soft-sounding words like "values" and "meaning" and "spirituality" are becoming as bold and common in the corporate lexicon as hard-nosed phrases like "bottom-line" and "return on investment." Until recently, though, the two vocabularies have struggled to come together in any cohesive, systematic process for guiding the strategies and actions of corporate America.

In a new book entitled Liberating the Corporate Soul (Butterworth-Heinemann publishers), author and business consultant, Richard Barrett, bridges that gap with an approach to organizational planning that will warm the hearts of human resources, corporate affairs and financial people alike.

The book begins with a review of Barrett's central thesis that "who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell." Next, Barrett describes his Corporate Transformation ToolsSM which is a set of measurement instruments for "auditing" individual and organizational values. Finally, the book provides a framework for using those tools to build a visionary, values-based organization.

Barrett's model is based partly on the landmark work of Abraham Maslow who defined the human "hierarchy of needs" on four main levels - security, relationship, self-esteem, and self-actualization. "Maslow himself concluded, however, that self-actualized individuals were actually motivated by higher states of consciousness, including spiritual needs," says Barrett. "But he never fully delineated what those states were."

Liberating the Corporate Soul expands on Maslow's work with a detailed explanation of Barrett's Seven Levels of Organizational Consciousness (survival, relationship, self-esteem, transformation, organization, community, and society) and Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness (authoritarian, paternalist, manager, facilitator, collaborator, partner/servant, wisdom/visionary). According to Barrett, one level isn't necessarily superior to another. "All are relevant. It's really more a question of balance," he says. "However, it is at the higher levels of consciousness that organizations are meeting spiritual needs that focus more on the common good than individual self-interest."

The book's message and methodology are receiving acclaim from noted business leaders and authors throughout the world. Martin Rutte, co-author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work calls Barrett's book "the bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant, a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business." Marcello Palazzi, Co-Founder and Chair of the Progessio Foundation in The Netherlands says that "Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."

Barrett began his search for a mechanism that would align an organization's actions and decisions with individual and social values when he was employed at the World Bank. In the early 1990s, he set out on a personal mission to move values to the top of the bank's business agenda. Through a series of determined steps - including the formation of the "Spiritual Unfoldment Society" at the bank - he managed to fulfill his mission and simultaneously formulate his values-based organizational development system.

Today, Barrett is head of his own consulting firm, Richard Barrett and Associates, LLC, and he is using his values-based system in working with organizations throughout the world. He is quick to point out that all of the organizations with which he works have values. The question is whether those values resonate internally with employees searching for deeper meaning in their work lives, as well as externally with a society increasingly favoring businesses that exhibit advanced levels of social consciousness.

The book cites revealing data from several research studies to support Barrett's claim of shifting trends in employee and social attitudes. The Cone/Roper Marketing Trends Report shows that 76% of consumers in 1997 said they would switch to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality were equal. That figure is up from 66% in 1993. On the employee front, a study conducted by Students for Responsible Business with 2,100 students at 50 graduate business programs found that 50% said they would accept a lower salary to work for a "very socially responsible" company. Perhaps more revealing, 43% claimed they would not work for a company that was not socially responsible.

Data like that is not being lost on some of the country's leading business figures. In his book, Barrett quotes Levi Strauss CEO, Robert Haas, as stating "In the next century, a company will stand or fall on its values."

None of the enthusiasm for this growing trend is much of a surprise to Barrett. "People naturally feel better about themselves and their companies when they see a clear sense of values, vision and compassion driving management decisions and actions," he says. And there's good news in that for the people watching the bottom line, because those positive feelings will translate into greater loyalty, stronger performance, and higher profits. It's a win-win outcome all the way around."

Liberating the Corporate Soul is now on sale at major bookstores across the country.