Organizational Behavior - General & Miscellaneous, Leadership, Industrial & Organizational Sociology

What Happy Companies Know

Name: What Happy Companies Know
Author: Dan Baker
ISBN: 9780131858572

by Baker, Dan, Greenberg, Cathy, Hemingway, Collins

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Overview

Happy companies are winning companies. Well-adjusted, psychologically healthy companies collaborate better. They innovate more effectively. They change faster. They see reality with exceptional clarity, but they know how to address it positively. They uncover opportunities where others fixate on obstacles and blame. What Happy Companies Know reveals the five crucial elements that happy companies share in common... and shows how to lead any company to happiness! This book reflects the experiences of the world's best companies, as well as the latest scientific research. Drawing on case studies from dozens of great businesses and exceptional leaders, this book's authors offer a complete blueprint, practical tools, and proven best practices for achieving organizational happiness and breakthrough performance. This book shows readers how to build a company where individuals at every level can apply their diverse strengths towards shared goals that are meaningful, positive, and profitable.

About the Author, Dan Baker

Three professionals with unique yet overlapping backgrounds have come together to create a book that will change the way America does business. Dan Baker, a medical psychologist, has spent his life counseling business leaders and organizations and is a pioneer in applied positive psychology. Cathy Greenberg, a trained anthropologist, has been a partner with two of the world’s largest consulting firms and is among the country’s most respected executive coaches and leadership trainers. Collins Hemingway, a business professional and highly regarded author, brings 25 years of experience in a variety of challenging management positions.

Dan Baker, Ph.D., is founding director of the Canyon Ranch Life Enhancement Program. Since 1988, his mission has been to engage guests of Canyon Ranch—some of the world’s highest-achieving people—in emotionally connecting with their well being. He often coaches and consults with CEOs, corporate officers, and their organizations. An adjunct lecturer at the University of Arizona Medical College, he has also facilitated and taught at Harvard Business School.

Cathy Greenberg, Ph.D., specializes in executive coaching, eLeadership, and personal and organizational transformation. Cathy served as a founding partner of Accenture’s Institute for Strategic Change and was the founder and executive director of the Institute for Strategic Leadership, LeBow College of Business at Drexel University. A contributor to many articles and books, she is the co-author of Global Leadership: The Next Generation with Marshall Goldsmith.

Collins Hemingway, MA, who served as director of business development and international marketing for Microsoft’s fastest-growing division, is best known for partnering with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates to co-author the #1 best-selling book Business @ the Speed of Thought. He is also co-author of Built for Growth, the most thorough book on creating, establishing, and renewing retail brands. Collins is an executive coach and marketing consultant.

Greenberg and Baker are co-founders of h2c—Happy People, Healthy Companies—the first organization to specialize in coaching leaders on the art and science of building happy, high-performance companies.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly

Distinguished by optimism and honesty, a happy company has a "culture in which personal respect, appreciation, and trust become a major reason for its business success." Employees won't need to sing "kumbaya" to accomplish this, assert the authors of this persuasive and encouraging if dense guide. But promoting "happiness" may result in an innovative, collaborative company with employees who are relatively stress-free and attuned to opportunity-plus, happiness will promote the bottom line. Baker (a psychologist and coauthor of What Happy People Know), Greenberg (a leadership coach) and Hemingway (a business writer and coauthor with Bill Gates of Business @ the Speed of Thought) investigate the underlying emotional, psychological and even neurological influences on good and bad business practices. Beginning with an examination of fear and aggression as motivators for negative or even passive business decisions, the book later delves into topics including strategies for combating stress both personally and as an organization, employing humility in leadership and developing emotional intelligence. This book is relevant to both the CEO concerned with motivating workers and the employee figuring out how to improve personal coping skills. (June 6) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Suggesting that most unethical or poor business decisions are made by people who are unhappy or fearful of failure, Baker (founding director, Canyon Ranch Life Enhancement Program), Cathy Greenberg (cofounder, Accenture Inst. for Strategic Change; coauthor, Global Leadership), and Collins Hemingway (coauthor with Bill Gates, Business @ the Speed of Thought) offer an array of biological and social research findings to prove that a happy company, which "distinguishes reality through a positive lens," will be more successful. Many of this book's tenets, including the importance of overcoming negativity, were first explored in Baker's What Happy People Know, coauthored with Cameron Stauth. Each chapter is a dense compendium of information on subjects not often discussed in business literature, including brain functions and evolutionary biology. Also included are numerous references to popular and business sources (from Survivor to Warren Buffett) and corporate case studies (from Arthur Andersen to Visa). The first half of the book explores the biological roots of fearful personal and organizational behavior, while the second half offers suggestions for change (in accordance with the acronym HAPIE: leadership that is Humble, Adaptive, seeks Profit for all, Invigorates shareholders, and is Engaged). Although this is an interesting book, it may offer more science and fewer blueprints for change than business readers expect. Recommended for larger public or business libraries only.-Sarah Statz Cords, Madison P.L., WI Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Does a happy company have to partake in handholding and the sharing of personal feelings? Absolutely not, according to Baker, Greenberg and Hemingway, three professionals who have unique but relevant backgrounds that have provided a new way for companies to regard reality in a positive way, while remaining down to earth. By using the new science of happiness, the authors present tools and practices for making any company a happy company. Copyright © 2006 Soundview Executive Book Summaries