Building a Values-Driven Organization: A Whole System Approach to Cultural Transformation (Paperback)

by Richard Barrett (Author) "My purpose in writing this book is to develop and build on the ideas contained in Liberating the Corporate Soul: Building a Visionary Organization published..." (more)
Key Phrases: desired culture values, current culture values, potentially limiting values, Positive Value, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Societal Value Figure (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Richard Barrett is the world's leading thinker in creating values-based organizations. This new book is his most wonderful gift yet to practitioners and business leaders alike."
-- Michael Rennie, Director, McKinsey and Company, New York

"When I reflect on what makes an outstanding organization, I keep coming back to the effectiveness of our people individually and collectively. Our responsibility as leaders therefore is to enhance, harness and direct the capacity and energy of our people towards virtuous and valuable ends. Long-term success has to have a solid foundation built on principles and values that act as a centre of gravity. In business you get what you target, design, measure, provide incentives for and are passionate about. This applies equally to principles and values, which need to be nurtured and directed through an effective whole systems approach and values-management framework. This is exactly what Richard Barrett provides in Building a Values-Driven Organization. As an active and experienced user of Richard Barrett's Cultural Transformation Tools, I commend his ideas and frameworks to anyone who is committed to a values-based approach and to long-term sustainable success."
-- John McFarlane, Chief Executive Officer, ANZ Bank, Melbourne, Australia.


"We began working with McKinsey's to research bank turnarounds out of which was the great story of the turnaround of ANZ bank in Australia under the leadership of John Macfarlane. This in turn led us to Richard Barrett's book Liberating the Corporate Soul.
The book gave me not only a much clearer insight into culture and values but for the first time provided a way of mapping values and measuring alignment. These concepts and methodologies have been taken to new levels in Building a Values Driven Organisation - a Whole System Approach to Cultural Transformation. The whole system approach has provided our organization with an extraordinarily powerful practical framework for guiding and driving transformation in every aspect of our organization."
-- Tom Boardman, Chief Executive Nedbank Group, South Africa

"Whether you are about to start your cultural transformation or have been working on it for some time, this book will give you a lot of practical and useful tips on how to continue your journey. This book is a must for anyone who wants to understand and manage successful cultural transformation."
-- Tor Eneroth, Culture Manager, Volvo Information Technology, Gothenberg, Sweden


"Richard Barrett has masterfully integrated the key dimensions of cultural transformation in a very clear, concise, and practical way. The book is a compelling invitation for leaders and change agents to embark on the journey toward self-actualization and organizational greatness for the global common good."
-- Alain Gauthier, Associate Author of "Action Inquiry - The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership" and author of the forthcoming book "The Inner Dance of Partnering"


"Managing your enterprise and your life through values is the path to follow to achieve self-realization. Richard Barrett gives us an excellent guide to accomplish this cultural transformation."
-- Oscar José Rodríguez López, President and Managing Director Venezuela and Andean Pact Countries, Bridgestone Firestone, Valencia, Venezuela


"This book succeeds in helping companies to understand their organizational values.
It introduces the revolutionary concept and technology of Values-Management. It is widely utilized among merging companies in Japan."
-- Shogo Saito, Chairman, Business Consultants, Inc., Tokyo, Japan


"Living and leading by values is the foundation for individual and organizational success. It is also the greatest challenge that leaders must confront if they are to truly make a difference. Richard Barrett has further clarified the pathway we can take on that journey; I am grateful for having RBA as a partner as I coach leaders to build values-driven organizations."
-- Tom Brady, Executive Coach, The XLR8 Team, Inc., Rochester, New York


"Richard Barrett shows us how to make sense of the yearning to create organizations that are more productive and more profitable and also more satisfying places in which to work. This is a first-class, practical, book that any business, government or non-profit agency can use to good advantage. It should be read by anyone who believes values shape behavior. And it should certainly be read by anyone who does not. Barrett is smart. More importantly, he is wise."
-- Susan A. Lieberman Ph.D., Director, Leadership Rice, Rice University, Houston, Texas


"Richard Barrett's latest book is the definitive change agent's bible and a practical leader's guide and roadmap to cultural transformation. At CIBC, Richard has shared both his vision and enthusiasm in leading us on our journey of being a leader in client relationships."
-- Philip Wilson, Senior Vice President Shared Services, Human Resources, CIBC, Canada


"At last! A book that focuses on the "How" rather than the "What." The insights in this book represent leading-edge of thinking in whole system change. Richard's passion for making the world a better place through business will move several steps closer as people employ the tools and techniques detailed in this book. Well done Richard!"
-- David Carter, Chairman & Founder, Merryck & Co., London, UK

"Richard's new book makes me think of a quote Gandi made: "Be the Change and you'll Be the world". Indeed, organizational transformation always starts with the personal transformation of the executive team. The deepest connection that bonds people together is shared values. In a very clear and comprehensive way this book explains how one can enhance this bonding, create an atmosphere of wellbeing at work, and improve performance. A must read for every leader."
-- Adelheid Maekelberg , Head of Service Training, Coaching & Development, Banksys, Belgium


"Richard Barrett at his mind-expanding best. The reptilian part of me frets that our competitors might get this book before it has become part of our DNA."
-- John Elkington, Chair, Sustainability, London, UK


"As a former leader of an organization that was listed as one of the most values aligned companies, this book truly represents my experience. Barrett's brilliance is in taking a highly complex models and making them understandable for practitioners to follow. For consultants, this book is a comprehensive resource for transforming organizations and is full of leading-edge thinking. This book is a must read for anyone that wants to create a values-driven organization. More than that, it is a must read for anyone that wants their organization to have long term success! Well done!"
-- Bambi McCullough, Partner, Chrysalis Partners and Former Executive Vice President of Sterling Bank, Houston (listed on Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work for 2002, 2003 & 2004)


"Richard Barrett lays a vital foundation that helps all business leaders understand not only why change is difficult but how to make it happen. Building a Values-Driven Organization goes to the core of what drives change and sustains systems: what motivates and influences us as individuals. This link between strategic goals on the macro level and individual behavior is invaluable for anyone involved in effecting a cultural change. For practitioners in the area of business ethics and compliance, Barrett's analysis is the most innovative to date in helping build a true integrity-based culture by looking at the values and motivations of individual employees and managers that drive ethical behavior."
-- David Gebler, President, Working Values, Ltd., Sharon, Massachusetts


"Now business managers have a way forward. A brilliant, clear-minded exposition to enable the urgent creation of the better world we all want to see."
-- Goderic Bader, Life President, Scott Bader, Wollaston, UK

"If you want your organization to consistently perform at peak levels you need to become values-driven - a company that is characterized by strong
alignment between individual values and corporate values; a company characterized by strong alignment between individual and group sense of
mission; a place where the 'walk' matches the 'talk'. And it all starts with you, the leader. Whatever the current state of your organization, Richard Barrett's Building a Values-Driven Organization: A Whole System
Approach to Cultural Transformation is a must read. The cynics in the audience may see his call for self-actualized leaders creating a
values-driven future for business as 'pie in the sky'. However, as someone who has hired Richard as a consultant to work with our business,
I can assure you this is a practical, 'how to' guidebook. You will be amazed at the response from your organization and the resulting manifold
benefits for your employees, your customers and the results of your firm."
-- Grant Kvalheim, Co-President, Barclays Capital, New York

"Richard has that rare gift for pragmatic vision. This vision is fully displayed in Building a Values-Driven Organization. He can translate the future into the present in a matter of minutes, always in a way that is comprehensive and applicable to your situation. I recommend to any leader in any organization that you have Richard show you the way to meet the future, today."
-- John J. Smith, President/CEO, HearthStone Homes, Inc.

"Richard Barrett has drawn from and synthesized many diverse philosophies to give us a brilliant and original measurement tool. He has moved us forward from the one-dimensional assessments of the past and given us an instrument with which to interpret the full dimensions of people and organizations."
-- Lance H. K. Secretan, Author, ONE: The Art and Practice of Conscious Leadership

"Today, the need for change in organizations is everywhere. The challenge is to choose from and synthesize all of the models and tools that might help. In Building a Values-Driven Organization Ri...

Book Description
New thinking from best-selling author on the value-driven organization

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Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1 edition (March 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750679743
• ISBN-13: 978-0750679749
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #143,523 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barrett on Values, April 10, 2006

By	George Starcher "President, European Baha'i B... (Chambery, France) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Many of us read Richard Barrett's best-selling book, Liberating the Corporate Soul, and admired his visionary and soul nurturing approaches to building sustainable and enduring organisations. Now he has given birth to another major leap forward in how to develop and sustain values-based organisations. In this new book, Richard demonstrates again his genius at delivering clear conceptual and experience-based thinking on organisation culture as a new frontier of competitive advantage. Building on his experience in carrying out over 600 cultural values assessments in 35 countries, he shows how to build full-spectrum consciousness in leaders and organizations and how to carry out whole-system change to meet the challenges of accelerating change, deepening complexity and growing systemic risks.
George Starcher, President, European Baha'i Business Forum

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Book Review, January 25, 2007

By	Harry R. Owens Jr. "Harry Owens, Jr., MD, MIM" (Bend, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Richard Barrett again does an outstanding job of clearly stating his main points, then building on them with facts and good examples. He is able to expertly blend some of the key principles of other authors -- Ken Wilbur and Don Beck -- with some of his material. The text provides some excellent evaluation tools, both for individuals and organizations. He references a number of websites for additional clarity of some of his points. He has an excellent reference list at the end of the book. Anyone who is looking at leadership and organizational values/vision/mission will do well to read this timely book.

Harry Owens, Jr., MD, MIM

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful model to measure & build organizational culture, July 19, 2006

By	Robert B. Peter II "Culture Advisor & Coach, ... (Rochester, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Richard does another excellent job describing the seven levels of consciousness model and how this framework can be used to effectively measure an organization's culture. This process provides a values-based approach within a whole system perspective. Regardless of the status of an organziation's cultural health, this whole system approach provides the opportunity to integrate where an organization is (its current strengths, opportunities, systems and resources) and provides a map to get to where the organization wants to be. A great book that helps make sense of the complexity of organizational culture and how to improve it. Nice work!