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On Value and Values: Thinking Differently About We in an Age of Me Hardcover – January 1, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars 10

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"On Value and Values by Doug Smith is a radiant, intelligent, wonderfully readable book. It is part adventure story in the spirit of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, part guidebook for American leaders like In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. This impressive book will challenge everyone who reads it and give them a blueprint for changing their lives. Virtually every part of American life has become a marketplace, with the pursuit of prosperity driving out an appreciation of principle. Smith explains how our understanding about the relationship between these elementary concepts has been turned inside out. As a compelling alternative, he shows how the pursuit of personal values we hold dear allows us to increase all kinds of value in our lives."
--Lincoln Caplan, Editor and President, Legal Affairs magazine

"In the grand tradition of Aristotle's Politics, Alexis deTocqueville's Democracy in America, and Robert Putman's Bowling Alone, Doug Smith's book On Value and Values is a passionately written, ethically informed, and carefully researched social commentary. Like his illustrious predecessors, Smith demands that we think differently about what community means in our own times. Yet unlike most writers concerned with building community, Smith is unburdened by nostalgia or sentimentality--this book looks forward to a challenging tomorrow, not backwards at a lost yesterday. Based on deep thought and on an equally deep practical knowledge of how modern organizations really work, Doug Smith teaches us why we may hope for a bright future and what we need to do in order to get there. I will recommend this book to my students--as I recommend it to everyone seeking to conjoin material success and ethical values in the 21st century."

--Professor Josiah Ober, Department of Classics and Center for Human Values, Princeton University

"Talking heads on both the Right and the Left toss around the word 'community' these days without bothering to explain what they mean. Now Doug Smith has really worked through what respect, trust and open communication within non-hierarchical settings can deliver in terms of productivity, institutional responsiveness, and recovered vitality for the polis. This is a profoundly democratic essay, written with imagination and verve, from someone who clearly cares about good management but who cares even more about the democratic promise."
--Rev. Peter Laarman, Senior Minister, Judson Memorial Church, NewYork City, and founder of The Accountability Campaign Meaning, Not Just Money: Living Better Lives in a Better World

Have we become half human, half dollar?

Our grandparents lived their lives in families, neighborhoods, towns, and nations. We live ours in organizations, markets, networks . .. sharing life with millions of people we know less well, yet depend upon every day. We build value . . . and worry about values.

What is the meaning and direction of our lives in this different world? What do we owe each other now? How do we share responsibility for a future that will not shame our children? Writing with courage, and without illusion, Doug Smith helps us answer questions like these . . .and offers us a clear path forward.

This book is about bringing value and values back together in our organizations, our markets, our networks, our entire lives. It's about reinvigorating old values that can still work for us . . . without imposing ideologies from a mythical past. It's about leading good, honorable, and fulfilling lives where we are now . . . and building a better world out of the one we actually live in.

  • Values that work for the 21st century--Personal and organizational ethics for an age of markets in which we act as employees, consumers, investors, and networkers
  • Shared values, paths, roles, status, and fates--What we share, what we don't, and what it means to take responsibility for the fate of our planet
  • Reintegrating our fragmentary lives--How markets and organizations divide value from values--and how we can put them back together
  • Rebuilding democracy: beyond anger, apathy, and proceduralism-- Healing democracy and extending it to where we really live together

Reconnecting money and values . . . in our lives, our work, our world

  • Revitalizing old values for the radically different world we actually live in
  • How money and ethics were driven so far apart--and what we can do about it
  • Living a good life in our organizations, markets, networks, and friends and families
  • Beyond individualism only: reinvigorating both the "we" and the "I" in our societies, institutions, and politics
  • Taking shared responsibility for making our world safer and saner

Our values and our realities have come apart at the seams. It's time to put them back together. We were taught 19th century values for a life of neighborhoods and extended families, but we're living in 21st century organizations, networks, and global markets in a world that measures everything in money. That's why we struggle to find meaning . . . to live a good life . . . to make our societies work. This book is about revitalizing our values for our world. It's about building good and honorable lives, stronger and more courageous relationships where we are. . . not fantasizing a return to some lost golden age. It's about finding a new vision for ourselves and our institutions, so we can go forward, not back . . . and succeed morally, not just financially.

About the Author

Doug Smith has drawn the lessons for On Value and Values from hiswork across more than 40 industries and professions as a teacher,lawyer, writer, historian, consultant, and thinker. Named in The GuruGuide as one of the worldÕs leading management thinkers, he is author orcoauthor of five books, including Make Success Measurable, TheDiscipline of Teams, Taking Charge of Change, and the internationalbestsellers The Wisdom of Teams and Fumbling the Future: How XeroxInvented Then Ignored Personal Computing. His work has been featured inBusiness Week, The Wall Street Journal, The Harvard Business Review, TheNew York Times, and The McKinsey Quarterly, and has been cited forinnovation and impact by experts ranging from Tom Peters to WarrenBennis. Smith holds a B.A. from Yale and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.He lives in LaGrangeville, New York

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ft Pr (January 1, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 284 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0131461257
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0131461253
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.18 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 out of 5 stars 10

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