The Regenerative Business: Redesign Work, Cultivate Human Potential, Achieve Extraordinary Outcomes

by Carol Sanford

Overview

"The work that Carol Sanford describes in The Regenerative Business profoundly changed my life, and I'm confident it will change yours too." - Jeffrey Hollender, Founding CEO, Seventh Generation

What if leaders stripped away all preconceptions about how business operates, allowing the organization to go back to its core and build itself back up to become something new-something so responsive, so innovative and resilient, it becomes virtually non-displaceable in the market? The Regenerative Business sets the stage for what is now only dreamt of by most of today's forward-thinking leaders and paves the path to make it possible. The book features:

• Real stories from companies leading innovation and transformation across the globe including; Google, Colgate Europe, Seventh Generation, Nike and others
• A logical, comprehensive approach that factors in the complexities of the modern organization
• The work of internationally recognized leadership expert Carol Sanford, who for decades has been designing and leading systemic business change

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781473669673
Publisher:	Quercus
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	761 KB

About the Author

Carol Sanford's work is deeply rooted in the belief that people can grow and develop beyond what their leaders or anyone sees possible: to be increasingly entrepreneurial, innovative, and responsible in their business and personal actions. For forty years, she has worked with leaders of successful companies, such as Google, DuPont, Intel, P&G, and Seventh Generation, helping them to innovate and grow their businesses by growing their people. Her work is often called groundbreaking, game changing, original, and inspiring. Carol is currently Executive in Residence and Senior Fellow in Social Innovation at Babson College.

Table of Contents

About the Author xiii

Foreword xv

Foreword xix

Acknowledgements xxiii

Also Carol Sanford xxv

Introduction: Pursue Disruptive Innovation 1

The Regenerative Mindset 3

Consolidated Diesel 4

Who Is This Book For? 6

Overview 7

Chapter 1 Go Beyond Training and Develop Your People 9

Developing People in a Changing World 10

Building the Capacity for Disruptive Thinking 13

A Parable about Growing People Regeneratively 14

General Themes from This Parable 17

Chapter 2 The Evolution of Work Design 21

Coherence by Design 23

Three Approaches to Work Design 23

Seventh Generation: Systems Regeneration in Action 31

Making the Business Case for Regenerative Work Design 34

Chapter 3 Source Work Design from First Principles 39

Three Criteria for Growing Human Capacity 40

Criterion One: Internal Locus of Control 41

Criterion Two: External Considering 44

Criterion Three: Personal Agency 46

The Necessary Connection among These Criteria 49

Food Inspiration 50

The Next Step-Creating the Right Conditions 53

Chapter 4 Build Innovation into How Work Is Done 55

Criterion One: Initiative Activation 57

Criterion Two: Developmental Infrastructure 61

Criterion Three: Change Accelerator 66

The Necessary Connection among These Criteria 70

Chapter 5 Eliminate Thirty Toxic Business Practices 73

The Aristocracy Paradigm 74

The Machine Paradigm 77

The Behavioral Paradigm 84

The Human Potential Paradigm 90

Detoxifying Your Business 97

Chapter 6 Design a Developmental Organization 99

Developing Whole Human Beings 100

Phases in Work Design 101

There Are No Recipes 102

Chapter 7 Phase One-Evolve into Strategic Disruption 105

The Core Team 106

The Core Team's First Task 107

Merida Meridian 109

Recommendations 111

Chapter 8 Phase Two-Evolve a Courageous Culture 113

Characteristics of a Regenerative Culture 114

Seventh Generation 117

Recommendations 122

Chapter 9 Phase Three-Evolve People and Thinking Processes 125

Essential Business Processes 128

Deer Park 132

Recommendations 135

Chapter 10 Phase Four-Evolve Business Work Systems 139

Colgate, Salford, England 145

Recommendations 149

Chapter 11 Phase Five-Evolve Work Structures Last 151

Three Kinds of Regenerative Structure 152

W. L. Gore & Associates 157

Recommendations 158

Chapter 12 Epilogue: The Regenerative Paradigm 161

Where to Begin 162

Democracy Requires a New Workplace 163

Notes 165

Carol Sanford

Regenerative Business Offerings 171

Regenerative Business Keynotes 171

Editorial Reviews

2017-11-22
A handbook for creating a responsive company culture that offers employees a chance to shine.In this work, Sanford (The Responsible Entrepreneur, 2014) encourages business leaders to move away from top-down authoritarian decision-making to a more collaborative process that incorporates the needs of all stakeholders. Drawing on organizational theory and her own consulting work with a number of large companies, such as the bottled-water company Deer Park, Sanford offers examples of successful organizational change and the logic underlying such corporate evolution. The book also addresses what she calls "toxic" elements (hierarchical decision-making, performance reviews and feedback, restructuring) in many traditional workplaces. These, she says, must be eradicated before one can implement the titular "regenerative" process successfully—a sort of whole-lifestyle makeover. In the book's third section, Sanford guides readers through the process of applying her regenerative principles to their businesses, dividing the process into five thematic sections, or "phases," such as "Evolve into Strategic Disruption" and "Evolve a Courageous Culture." Several chapters conclude with questions designed to drive discussion and generate ideas ("What principles should guide the way we redesign our systems so that their original purposes are fulfilled, even as we make them more workable and developmental?"). Although the more theoretical portions of the book do indulge in jargon, Sanford's prose is mostly unambiguous: "bad work design relegates human beings to activities that are repetitive, uncreative, unrewarding, and spirit killing." The author makes a compelling case for adopting a new approach to structuring work, with solid examples of successful practices and guidance for business leaders who are just starting their evaluations of their own workplaces. Business-book connoisseurs will find plenty of new material in this text along with a cogent, persuasive argument.A straightforward overview of organizational theory and practice.

Kirkus Reviews