Results from the Heart
How to Instill Commitment from Your Employees By Helping Them to Fully Develop Their Talents
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Results from the Heart introduces a new and helpful approach to improving job performance, improving job satisfaction, and helping organizations better respond to the rapid changes that are an inherent part of today's business environment. Mr. Suzaki recognizes that a motivated and engaged workforce should be part of any strategy to obtain and maintain competitive advantage.
--Carl Stern, CEO,
The Boston Consulting Group
Since the publication of Frederick Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management, managers have relied on logic to compel action. Now Kiyoshi Suzaki, one of the world's leading experts on enlarging the talents, self-esteem, and growth of the individual employee, argues that logic alone cannot move people to act. Productivity problems are inextricably linked to self-esteem, he argues, and worst of all to a prodigious waste of individual talent. But each solution is personal, Suzaki concludes, and found only within ourselves.
"To find meaning and purpose at work we must use our brain," Suzaki says, "but listen to our heart." In Zenlike fashion he proposes that each of us ask ourselves a series of questions to determine the degree to which our brain is engaged with our heart. The framework around which this selfquestioning takes place is a groundbreaking concept that Suzaki calls "the mini-company." The author demonstrates how, within the larger workplace, each job is endowed with an almost spiritual meaning when each person -- at every level -- becomes president of his or her own area of responsibility. With simple diagrams, Suzaki shows how your boss becomes your banker or venture capitalist and your peers become your immediate suppliers or customers. The results are nothing short of astonishing. In Results from the Heart, Suzaki describes thousands of mini-companies he has "founded" during his worldwide consulting assignments. In most cases in which unhappy employees had previously "followed instructions like robots," there have been spectacular increases in both morale and productivity. If it is true that work is a journey, this manifesto for a more humane definition of the way we work is the roadmap.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Suzaki, a manufacturing consultant (The New Manufacturing Challenge), believes that all companies, regardless of size, need to be divided into smaller operations in order to be successful. "Mini-companies" not only foster greater productivity and fulfillment among employees but also allow management to maximize resources in all departments, thereby leading to a more dynamic business. To illustrate his point, Suzaki discusses several hypothetical companies and the structural changes they make that allow for these new divisions. For example, he cites one company that chronically complains to its financers, and another that is well organized internally. Although he believes that every company can use this method, the author acknowledges that it is difficult, particularly for some micromanaging executives, to delegate responsibility and authority to many people at different levels of the company. In such cases, Suzaki suggests a trial period. He is convinced that "mini-companies" are essential to fostering happiness among workers and greater success overall for the company. Callous, hard-nosed CEOs are not likely to adapt this touchy-feely theory (they may balk at phrases like "Whether we are running a mini-company or cleaning an office, if we practice what our heart desires I have no doubt that our actions will lead to a life well lived"), especially since Suzaki does not use actual companies as examples. However, Suzaki's book is well organized and written clearly enough that employees from lower ranks through executive boardroom will find it useful.
