{"id":245,"date":"2006-08-30T20:18:06","date_gmt":"2006-08-30T20:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php\/2006\/08\/30\/love_at_work\/"},"modified":"2006-08-30T20:18:06","modified_gmt":"2006-08-30T20:18:06","slug":"love_at_work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"Love at Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve just been reading World Vision Australia<\/a> CEO, Tim Costello’s<\/a> chapter in the recent Australian Institute of Management<\/a> publication, Love @ Work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It looks like we’ve been reading pretty much the same books as Tim over the
\nlast five years. Well, that’s probably an unfair comparison. Reading the chapter
\nwe think Tim may have read many more books than we have in that time. But let’s
\nsay we’ve read most of the books he refers to.<\/p>\n

We started with the last chapter and haven’t looked at the others yet but
\nwe can say it is compulsory reading for anyone with an interest in "leading
\nwith heart".<\/p>\n

Tim reviews social movements through the ages and looks at what motivates
\npeople like William
\nWilberforce<\/a> . We hadn’t know that 45 years elapsed between the time Wilberforce <\/p>\n

\n

first presented evidence to a committee of the Privy Council in 17888
\nat the age of 29…until the final Commons reading on 26 July 1833 abolishing
\nslavery in all British colonies. [and that] Wilberforce died three days later.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For all that, this is no sentimental soft motivational piece. Costello carefully,
\npainstakingly and forcefully constructs his argument and finds room for critiques
\nof many modern movements.<\/p>\n

We rather like his calling of so called "Gurus" and consultants
\nas charlatans. (Of course the latter title does not apply to ourselves.) Mission
\nstatements such as Exxon’s<\/a> “The
\ncustomer comes first” get revealed for what they are — platitudes designed
\nto hide the truth that senior executives come first (thanks to a reference
\nto
\nArt Kleiner<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

Tim uses culture change "guru"
\nEd Schein’s<\/a> willingness
\nto compare his methods to those used against POWs in communist prison camps
\nas one example of how the latest "spirituality at work" movement
\nmay in fact be just another method to bleed employees dry of not only their
\nphysical and emotional health but of their souls as well.<\/p>\n

We have quite some respect for the group Costello regards we think positively
\nbut with caution — Senge<\/a>,
\nKahane<\/a>, Jaworski<\/a> Kleiner
\nand Danah Zohar<\/a> :<\/p>\n

\n

Their books have a complex mixture of personal narrative, management theory,
\ntribal wisdom and New Age views on particle physics and human nature.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Through all this he builds a dilemma around spirituality at work. On the one
\nhad it may satisfy the need to find fulfillment at work and bring more of ourselves
\nto creative solution making. On the other hand is the ever present danger of
\nmisuse and abuse.<\/p>\n

Tim quite beautifully creates the argument that perhaps the solution to this
\ndilemma is not to think about spirituality so much as think about Love. <\/p>\n

\n

Some have wondered whether such altruistic love that transcends ordinary
\nhuman limits might require and inflow of love from a higher source. But whatever
\nfaith background one does or does not come from, altruistic love is at the
\ncore of what makes individuals, families and societies whole, The very fabric
\nof society is held together by those people and associations who work for
\nthe common good and not their self-interest alone. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We hope you buy the book. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve just been reading World Vision Australia CEO, Tim Costello’s chapter in the recent Australian Institute of Management publication, Love @ Work. It looks like we’ve been reading pretty much the same books as Tim over the last five years. Well, that’s probably an unfair comparison. Reading the chapter we think Tim may have read […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriscurnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}