If work is going to be more than just earning enough money to pay the bills, work has to offer the opportunity to fulfill one’s needs. If companies want workers who will stay, they have to fulfill their need to make a profit and keep their employees happy.
Instead of a didactic presentation, the author has chosen to present the material in a story format. This allows him to help the readers go through the process of discovering what is important to them and how to help them relate their needs to the needs of the company they work for. It is teaching how to have a win-win situation.
Our hero, Bob, has been called to head office to discuss overall corporate direction with other key people. His wife gets him thinking about how the company’s mission statement needs to mesh with his own. A company’s mission statement needs to include the answers to these three questions: Who do we serve? What do we do? How do we do it? The individual also has to answer these questions.
A chance conversation with his seatmate in the airplane has Bob discussing a magazine article comparing workers’ values with a company’s values and using this information to predict who would remain with the company. Where there was a shared vision, people stayed and the company was more likely to prosper.
At the meeting at headquarters, a presentation on Temperament is given showing how it helps individuals find fulfilment and successfully using their talents. The descriptions of the Temperaments are based on Linda Berens TRI presentation.
Bob finds all the answers to his questions and returns home to his wife and family. And the final chapter you are given in a more traditional format the information how you can work through your half of the shared vision process.
This was an interesting book in that it described how one man worked through the process in a way that I think is helpful to many people who need concrete examples of a concept. Instead of many small anecdotes, this is one long story. It is not great literature, but it does present the material in a rather unique way that is clear and readable.
It does outline a process you could use with your clients. It is also a book that you could use to introduce the concepts you were trying to present or as material to take home and read to reinforce what you had presented.