University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
The Way We're Working Isn't Working
Book

The Way We're Working Isn't Working

The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy
Free Press, 2010
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Comprehensive
  • Analytical
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This is one of those rare books that details the wrong ways you’re working without making you feel that the situation is hopelessly complex or beyond repair. Tony Schwartz (writing with Jean Gomes and Catherine McCarthy) offers interesting, practical advice to employers and employees alike on how to banish that “gerbil on a treadmill” feeling forever. With case studies from such companies as Ford, Sony and Ernst & Young, as well as helpful charts, graphs and exercises, this highly readable manual will make you think twice about how you and your employees work. Although it mentions lots of insider human resources (HR) methodologies – such as the ones in Gallup’s employee engagement surveys – the book never bogs down in jargon. However, the author may need to revise and update it in a few years as the workplace becomes increasingly dependent upon technology. getAbstract suggests this book to frustrated leaders, HR practitioners, overwhelmed employees and anyone who wants more control over his or her working and personal life.

Summary

“More, Bigger, Faster”

Modern technology increases the workplace pressure to “do more and do it faster” by making you available to other people around the clock, whether you’re away from the office, at home or even on vacation. Technology is supposed to make your work easier, but, paradoxically, it makes working life harder, because it causes workers to lose focus. Additionally, the structure of the average workday doesn’t take advantage of your or your employees’ mental and physical rhythms or performing strengths.

“The way we’re working isn’t working” because employers assume that their staffers function the way machines do: in a flat, linear fashion for long stretches at a time. But human beings are not computers. People perform best by working intensely for a period, then resting, then working and resting again – establishing an even pace of moving between the two states. Yet companies often neglect workers’ natural pacing and personal needs, leaving managers and their staffers to persevere even though they are struggling. To help people excel, address their four core needs:

  1. “Sustainability: Body” – Recharging often to remain “healthy...

About the Authors

Tony Schwartz is founder and president of The Energy Project, which helps people achieve high performance. Jean Gomes is its chairman and Catherine McCarthy is its COO. Schwartz also wrote The Power of Full Engagement and What Really Matters. A former New York Times reporter and Newsweek editor, he is the co-author of The Art of the Deal with Donald Trump.

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