Why The Way We're Working Isn't Working -- A Survival Manual for the Modern Age

via AlterNet:



Huffington Post / By Arianna Huffington

Why The Way We're Working Isn't Working -- A Survival Manual for the Modern Age
The authors of a new book offer an alternative to the dominant idea that human beings operate most productively in the same way computers do.

May 15, 2010 |


From Wall Street, to the lagging economy, to Greece and the "euro zone," to our broken regulatory system, to the high-speed computer trading system that might have played a role in last week's mini-meltdown in the stock market, to those two wars we're still in a decade later, it's clear that something is wrong. It's not that our political leaders and economic chieftains aren't, for the most part, smart people -- it's that they're making their decisions without judgment or wisdom. And when so many smart people end up making so many mistakes, clearly the way we're working isn't working.

Figuring out why this is so -- and what we can do about it -- is the animating idea behind The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance by Tony Schwartz, Jean Gomes, and Catherine McCarthy, a terrific new book. It is essential reading for anyone who wants a more productive and meaningful life.

The book is a synthesis of Tony Schwartz' thinking over the years and the latest and most rigorous research across a host of disciplines on what makes people most fulfilled -- in their lives and, specifically, in their jobs. It's less a self-help book than a peer-reviewed survival manual for the modern age.

When you read The Way We're Working Isn't Working, you get that satisfying feeling you have when someone intelligently articulates something you feel everyone knows is true, but couldn't explain why. As Schwartz writes, "across disparate cultures and at all levels, people share both a visceral sense that the way they're working isn't working and an intense desire for more satisfying, productive, and sustainable ways to work and live." ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/vision/146880/why_the_way_we%27re_working_isn%27t_working_--_a_survival_manual_for_the_modern_age/

really, that is the sort of language i would expect to hear coming from the tv at 2 or 3 in the morning.

On the other hand, I'm not really sure what we can do about it.