The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win [Hardcover]

Dave Ulrich (Author), Wendy Ulrich (Author), Marshall Goldsmith (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2010

THE NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND USA TODAY BESTSELLER!

Before you ask, "Why aren't my employees working harder?" . . . ask yourself, "Why are my employees working?"

PRAISE FOR THE WHY OF WORK:

“This book may well be held up as a game-changer in the world of work.” -- Edge magazine/International Leadership and Management

"Will help managers create a sense of purpose among employees, motivating them and inspiring them to break out to do more." -- Publishers Weekly

"Principled, timely, and engaging, The Why of Work teaches that building a culture of abundance and common purpose is essential to organizational success." -- Stephen R. Covey, bestselling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"Will have a major impact on how individuals shape their attitude to work, how organizations create abundant cultures, and how leaders turn personal meaning into public good." -- Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister of Bhutan

"The Why of Work shows a better, different way to build and lead organizations. It is an insightful guide to how leaders can infuse meaning into their organizations."-- Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business and author of Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don't

"This book brings the question 'why' to the place in which we spend most of our adult lives, giving us insightful tools to help make a meaningful difference in people's lives." -- Don Hall, Jr., president and CEO, Hallmark Cards, Inc.

"This is a must read for anyone who works, leads others at work, or works to build a supportive environment." -- Beverly Kaye, founder/CEO, Career Systems International, and coauthor of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay

"Breaks new ground . . . . Going beyond competence and commitment to create abundance at work could be the next frontier for leaders." -- Paul Humphries, EVP Human Resources, Flextronics

"The Why of Work opens the door to significant employee engagement. The alignment between company values and those of customers and communities can indeed give employees a sense of purpose while delivering great results to customers!" -- Paula S. Larson, Chief HR Officer, Invesys

"Blackstone has proved that finding superior leaders produces superior results. Dave Ulrich has brought this thinking to a new level at Blackstone. Every private equity investor and senior manager must read this book." -- James Quella, Senior Operating Partner, The Blackstone Group

According to studies, we all work for the same thing--and it's not just money. It's meaning. Through our work, we seek a sense of purpose, contribution, connection, value, and hope. Digging down to the meaning of work taps our resilience in hard times and our passion in good times. That's the simple but profound premise behind this groundbreaking book by renowned management expert Dave Ulrich and psychologist Wendy Ulrich. They've talked to thousands of people--from rank-and-file workers to clients and customers to top-level executives--and synthesized major disciplines to identify the "why" behind our most successful experiences.

Using the model of the "abundant organization," they provide you with the "how" to create meaning and value in your own workplace. Learn how to:

• Ask the seven questions that drive abundance
• Understand the needs of your customers and staff
• Personalize the work to motivate your employees
• Build and grow your business in any economy

By following the Ulrichs' step-by-step guidelines, you will set off a chain reaction of positive and enduring effects. Employees who find meaning in their work are more competent, committed, and eager to contribute—and their contribution will result in increased customer commitment, which delivers a winning performance on the bottom line.

The Why of Work includes targeted checklists, questionnaires, and other useful tools to help you turn aspirations into action. Using the proven principles of abundance, you can coordinate your needs with those of your employers, your employees, and your customers--and create a vision that resonates for years to come. When you understand why we work, you know how to succeed.

DAVE ULRICH, PH.D., is a professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and cofounder of The RBL Group. He has written 23 books that cover topics in HR, leadership, and organization; he serves on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller and the Board of Trustees of Southern Virginia University; and he is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources.

WENDY ULRICH, PH.D., M.B.A., has been a practicing psychologist for over 20 years. She is the founder of Sixteen Stones Center for Growth, which offers seminar-retreats on creating abundance and meaning, and she has authored two books on personal change.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The authors, a consultant and a psychologist, set out to help leaders (within and outside organizations) understand the meaning and purpose of work. We learn that as employees find meaning in their efforts, they contribute to creating value for customers, investors, and communities; hence, finding meaning is good for business. The Ulrichs offer seven disciplines, each with a unique perspective, that leaders can use to build meaning in their organizations or personally, identifying these disciplines with extensive interviews of a wide range of individuals, through training programs for numerous executives and human resource professionals, and by researching academic sources on meaning and living well. These seven disciplines include positive psychology, social responsibility, and employee engagement. This book is an infomercial and handbook for the authors’ teaching/consulting efforts and they emphatically conclude that meaning matters for good business, but also “for the hearts and souls of millions of people who get up and go to work every day.” --Mary Whaley

About the Author

About the Authors
Dave Ulrich's work passion has been how to build organization capabilities (systems, processes, cultures) that create value to multiple stakeholders, then to help leaders build intangible value in organizations. Working with over half of the Fortune 200 and with companies throughout the world, he provides seminars, writes books, and coaches leaders to build sustainable organizations by turning customer and investor expectations into personal and organizational actions. He helps leaders move beyond employee engagement to helping employees find real meaning from work. He is a professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and co-founder of The RBL Group. He has written 15 books covering topics in HR and Leadership; is currently on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller; is a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources; and is on the Board of Trustees of Southern Virginia University.

Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D., has been a psychologist in private practice in Michigan for over twenty years. She is founder of Sixteen Stones Center for Growth in Utah, offering seminar-retreats on abundance. Their work with organizations and individuals intersects at helping people find meaning at work. Dave works to rethink and redefine how organizations work and Wendy works to help individuals rethink and redefine their own lives. At the same time, they are committed to the importance of the organization's responsibility to shareholders and investors as they respond to external conditions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (June 6, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071739351
• ISBN-13: 978-0071739351
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #57 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Management Science

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The power of purpose-driven abundance, June 6, 2010

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win (Hardcover)

Dave and Wendy Ulrich organize the material in this book within a framework of seven questions. As you review the list, begin to formulate your answers.

1. What am I known for?
2. Where am I going?
3. Whom do I travel with?
4. How do I build a positive work environment?
5. What challenges interest me?
6. How do I respond to disposability and change?
7. What delights me?

They devote a separate chapter to each of these seven questions, focusing on real-world situations in which various people address the given issues each query raises. Perhaps your initial responses to the questions have begun to suggest what you would like to change. Perhaps they have evoked others. For example, which of the seven are the easiest for you to answer? Which are the most difficult? Is the answer to any one of them of greater importance to you than any others?

In the Preface, the Ulrichs explain what they hope their book will accomplish. They seem wholeheartedly committed to helping their reader to add substantial value in all areas of her or his own life (notably family, career, and community), and also to help their reader help others to do so. There are frequent references to meaning or the absence thereof. The Ulrichs share their thoughts and feelings about both the "why" and the "how" of meaning at work. "The why refers to the human search for meaning that finds its way into our offices and factories, a search that motivates, inspires, and defines us. The how gets us into the practicalities of how leaders facilitate that search personally and among their employees." Purpose gives both meaning and value to such initiatives. The Ulrichs characterize human beings as "meaning-making machines" who seek and often find inherent value in making sense of life.

Such meaning also has market value because "meaningful work solves real problems, contributes real benefits, and thus adds real value to customers and investors." In this context, the Ulrichs introduce their concept of the "abundant organization" and identify its dominant characteristics: "a work setting in which individuals coordinate their aspirations and actions to create meaning for themselves, value for stakeholders, and hope for humanity at large"; an organization that "has enough and to spare of the things that matter most": creativity, hope, resilience, determination, resourcefulness, and leadership; a profitable enterprise that concentrates on opportunities, potentialities, synergies, and fulfillment of a diversity of human needs and experiences; and especially when times are tough, a social as well as economic forces that can "bring order, integrity, and purpose out of chaos and disintegration."

An abundant organization gives meaning to everyone involved by offering a spiritual as well as physical environment within which to thrive as human beings; their contributions, in turn, create a decisive competitive advantage for the organization while increasing and enhancing its market as well as its social value.

In the final chapter and then in the Apppendix, the Ulrichs share their thoughts and feelings about the implications of the seven principles as well as actions of abundant organizations that they proposed in the first nine chapters. Once again they stress the importance of identifying and then resolving the root causes of both organizational and individual dysfunctionality and deterioration rather than merely respond to its symptoms. Once again, they reassert that the underlying cause of many (most?) problems in the workplace is a "deficit" of both meaning and purpose.

To become and then remain "abundant," an organization must help its people to leverage their strengths and serve their core values, meanwhile doing so with their career objectives in proper alignment with their organization's strategic objectives. That is the "Why" of their relationship. In this brilliant book, Dave and Wendy Ulrich also provide leaders with the "How," the information and counsel they need, to create an abundance of purpose and meaning both for themselves and for everyone else involved, at all levels and in all areas of the enterprise they share.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Andringa, June 8, 2010

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Mary V. Andringa - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win (Hardcover)

This is an inspiring book for leaders who strive to keep their employees engaged in their work. In a time of economic challenges this book encourages leaders to infuse real meaning into their organizations. The book is filled with stories that inspire and practical, effective steps to ensure meaningful work in your organization.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You Can Become a Meaning Maker, June 13, 2010

By 

Sheryl Dawson (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win (Hardcover)

Dave and Wendy Ulrich collaborated to create a real gem on how leaders can influence whether workers perceive their work as meaningful and why that is so important. Essentially their recommendations, based on extensive research and experience in organizations and psychology, provide a guide to create meaning that results in tangible value to employees, customers, investors, and communities. Sound too good to be true? It's not -- leaders can help employees build professional friendships which brings meaning to relationships; leaders can facilitate building personal strengths and expand organizational capabilities, both essential to increasing performance and results. There is no fluff in The Why of Work -- read it and become a meaning maker.

Sheryl Dawson
COO, Total Career Success, Inc.
Co-Author, Job Search: The Total System (3rd Ed)