The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) [Hardcover]

Alan Briskin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787902810 | ISBN-13: 978-0787902810 | Publication Date: August 23, 1996 | Edition: 1st

This is a splAndid book, grounded in deep experience with organizations and with life. Its insights could help heal our souls, our structures, and our society.
-- Parker J. Palmer, author of The Active Life and To Know as We Are Known

The qualities that come to mind when we think of soul--meaning, memory, wildness, beauty, divinity--are necessary elements for navigating today's workplace. But today's employees experience a gap between what organizations say and what they do about soul in the workplace. The Stirring of Soul in the Workplaceoffers a way to understand that gap. Evocatively written, it is an inspiring alternative to the flood of management books, suggesting ways to shift your paradigm and get you home in time for dinner. It gives people seeking to balance their personal spiritual path with job realities a unique opportunity to reflect and find encouragement on their journey.

This lyrical book offers perspective to those struggling to hear the quiet voice of the soul over the din of contemporary life. Alan Briskin shows how the modern organization has gradually increased its demands on us, beginning with our bodies, then our minds, and now our souls. Filled with memorable, moving stories of people in a wide range of occupations and their personal struggles to reclaim their souls, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace sAnds a hopeful message that encourages individuals to keep their spiritual integrity and values alive within the pragmatic environment of the organization.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

An organizational consultant who is as deeply concerned about the domain of the human soul as he is about organizational development, Briskin closes the distance between the two concepts in a way that diminishes neither and augments both. Careful not to idealize the concept of soul, Briskin warns against its use as a corporate slogan to isolate excellence and the pursuit of organizational ideals. He characterizes the soul as the union of opposites within each person and suggests that when corporate goals are sought without regard for spiritual wholeness, the darker, destructive aspects of soul life come to the fore in an organization. Briskin illustrates the dimensions of the soul's influence as he analyzes the history of the power struggle in the workplace. Recommended for public and corporate libraries.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In their search for ways to make organizations work better, theorists and managers alike have begun to look outside the business world to science and nature and inward at spiritual constructs like "heart" and "soul." Briskin is a consultant who specializes in aiding other consultants in such areas as strategic planning, change management, and retreat design. Despite this seemingly traditional managerial focus, he is also concerned with the soul and its associated qualities--meaning, memory, beauty, wildness, union, etc.--and he brings to bear earlier experiences working with disturbed adolescents and correctional inmates. He considers here the "idea of the soul," looks at how past and present organizational practices have "challenged" the soul, and shows why asking and trying to answer questions about the soul should matter in the workplace. Briskin's ultimate question turns the more conventional concern, How can we change people? into How can organizations better reflect the whole human being? This reflective, contemplative book is a refreshing attempt to answer that. David Rouse

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (August 23, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787902810
• ISBN-13: 978-0787902810
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,292,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alan Briskin is author of the award-winning book The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace and coauthor of The Power of Collective Wisdom, Daily Miracles, which earned the American Journal of Nursing's Book of the Year award, and Bringing Your Soul to Work: An Everyday Practice. Alan is a pioneer in the field of organizational learning and cofounder of the Collective Wisdom Initiative.
His work with groups and collectives extends back to the early 1970s, when he was part of an international community in Israel founded on the principles of the communal kibbutz. As an educator, he contributed to the design of schools based on experiential learning and was the director of education for the Vermont group home that became the model for deinstitutionalization of confined youth. His interest in alternative educational settings continued for over ten years when he was the principal consultant to the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
As a health care consultant, he was a founding member of the Relationship Centered Care Network and developed programs at Kaiser Permanente for practicing physicians to deepen their communication skills with patients. He has continued for the past twenty years as a coach and mentor for physician and nurse leaders as well as an organizational consultant to executive teams, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at Saybrook Graduate School, where he helped design its doctoral program in organizational systems.
In corporate and conference settings, Alan has given keynotes and conducted workshops on collective wisdom throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, England, and South Africa. He has a doctorate in organizational behavior from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California, and is a professional associate of the Grubb Institute in London. Alan lives in Oakland, California. Visit his Web sites at www.alanbriskin.com. www.thepowerofcollectivewisdom.com, and www.collectivewisdominitiative.org

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intellectually, emotionally, and "soulfully" stimulating!, October 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

On a first reading, I was amazed at Briskin's ability to articulate the key issues and dilemmas that plague the workplace and those in it - amazed, because his ability to "name" what's going on had an accuracy and depth that is unmatched by anything else I've read. It's the second reading, however, that struck the deepest chords for me. I was caught off guard with the relevance of these issues to my own personal experience, my eyes opening up to how I myself had "sold out" unwittingly to these dominant forces of control, at the cost of my own soul. Fortunately, the author didn't just leave me hanging, but offered some alternative ways of thinking about work, about my "stance" toward my job and toward others, about what truly matters to me, and about more creative ways of being. In a nutshell, the book opened up my mind as well as my heart.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As an everyday middle manager, this book got me thinking., December 13, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

I stumbled onto this book at a bookstore and was fascinated by the picture of foggy mountains on the cover of a business book. I have read some of the typical leadership-type books, and this ain't one of them -- it's much better! The author made me realize that the struggles, frustrations, pain and discomfort of working in a big corporation are normal. I didn't really want to hear that, but he tells me that to find meaning in my work, I have no choice but to embrace those struggles. The good news is, he said, I don't have to stuff my feelings down a hole. Now, just to make my boss understand that..

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Read, June 25, 2002

By 

Dean Ottati (Walnut Creek, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace (Paperback)

A philospher recently wrote "the art of the future will be the work of the collective." It's clear that today's corporate structure has a long way to go before it could be called art. The typical company is not a particularly meaningful, soulful, or enduring place. Somehow there has to be a merging of the corporate need for profit with the individual need for meaning. In The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, Alan Briskin takes on the often contradictary nature of these twin needs. It raises a deep and difficult set of questions. Briskin doesn't minimize them by offering quick technical fixes, but rather he offers something far more important: the insight and understanding needed to begin honestly approaching them. As a result, Briskin may have also begun the long process of elevating corporate structure to that of collective art form.

Parts of this book are as well written and as insightful as anything I've ever read. If you've spent any time in a corporate structure, you will see a reflection of your own situation in these pages. Layered on top of that reflection are insights from the fields of philosophy, literature, psychology, physics, management and the wisdom traditions of the world. All of which help us to understand, and to live with, the ambiguities we all face. This book will challenge you to ask yourself some important questions. I highly recommend it.

Dean Ottati - Author of The Runner and the Path