Tony Schwartz, the co-author of the major bestseller The Power of Full Engagement and author of the critically acclaimed What Really Matters, marshals a wealth of highly persuasive research to make a powerful case that the current "more, bigger, faster" style in which we're working -- with such long hours, consistently high pressure all day, and the demand to constantly multi-task and be always plugged in -- is horribly counter-productive, leading to much lower performance than we're capable of and is bad for both employees and companies.

Instead he introduces a highly effective approach for boosting productivity and work satisfaction by making sure that we regularly attend to four essential needs: physical renewal; positive emotion; mental focus; and a sense of purpose.

Through his years of intensive work consulting to companies including Procter & Gamble, Sony, Toyota, Microsoft, Ford and Ernst & Young, with his firm The Energy Project, Schwartz has developed a powerful program for changing the way we are working that greatly boosts our engagement and our satisfaction with our work and increases our performance.

In this book he marshals a wide range of powerful evidence from business research and psychology that shows that the current model of work -- in which people are treated essentially as machines that should be able to perform at top speed for extraordinarily long hours, be able to multi-task, be always accessible and online, withstand often harsh and emotionally punishing treatment, and be primarily driven by the need to make profits-- is not only not optimal, it is specifically counter-productive because it saps us of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.

In order for us to perform at our best, we must make a set of key changes in our work lives -- and in order to develop the full potential of their work force, our managers and companies must institute changes that will provide us with the regular physical renewal, emotional reward, mental focus and stimulation; and sense of purpose and significance that we need.

The book is broken into four main sections that each address one of these core areas: the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

For each he lays out the many ways in which we can implement changes in our daily routines that will give us the regular renewal and fortification that we need.

He shows that there is a great deal that each individual can do on his or her own and first covers those, and then in a final chapter of each section he specifically addresses managers and executives and lays out what they should do at the team, department, or organizational level to best support their people.

For boosting our physical energy, he offers extensive advice about optimal practices for eating, fitness, sleep and regular resting and meditation, and for how companies can assist employees in these goals by establishing more flexible schedules, curtailing hours in which employees are expected to work and be "on call," setting up quiet rooms where they can go for regular renewal time, and providing for access to healthy foods.

For addressing our emotional needs, he introduces the profound negative effects on us of stress, fear and harsh treatment and introduces the powerful effects of adopting methods for stopping emotional triggers from upsetting us and getting out of negative emotional states, as well as setting aside sacrosanct time for refueling our positive emotions.

He also offers powerful advice for managers about how they must refrain from unleashing anger at employees or engaging in outbursts, and how counter-productive applying always more pressure is on employees, as well as specifics about the ways to express recognition of their good work.

Concerning our mental energy, he shows the extraordinarily bad effects of the ever-more multi-tasking, always online demands of the current work world on our ability to focus and to exercise our creativity, and he offers steps to take in order to carve out time for focused attention to key projects, escape from the incessant pinging of incoming emails, and methods for unleashing our creativity at work.

And for managers, he introduces the steps they should take to free their employees from the constant demands on their time and to allow them to take the time they need for research and the development of ideas.

Regarding spiritual energy, he discusses the vital role that having a sense of purpose and of feeling that you are contributing to something meaningful --not just to making money -- that drives us to our highest level of achievement and greatly boosts our engagement with our work. He critiques the short-term perspective that has overtaken business and introduces ways in which leading companies have made commitments to public service and have articulated higher values that the company espouses which have brought a new spirit of teamwork, commitment and satisfaction to their employees.

Key Selling Points

*TONY SCHWARTZ KNOWS HOW TO SELL BOOKS: He has a remarkable track record as an author; not only has the #1 bestselling The Power of Full Engagement sold a combined 335,000 copies in hard and soft, but his first book, The Art of the Deal, with Donald Trump was a major breakout bestseller, and his first solo book, What Really Matters, sold over 60,000 copies.

*FOR BOTH INDIVIDUALS LOOKING TO IMPROVE THEIR WORK LIFE AND PERFORMANCE

AND MANAGERS LOOKING TO BETTER SUPPORT AND DEVELOP THEIR PEOPLE: As with such books as Emotional Intelligence, First, Discover Your Strengths, and Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, this book offers powerful advice and action steps for both the employee looking for more satisfaction and success out of work and for managers and executives for implementing change at the team, department, division or company-wide level.

 

*INTRODUCES PRACTICAL STEPS FOR INDIVIDUALS TO TAKE RIGHT AWAY: Offers a wealth of highly specific recommendations about ways that we can provide ourselves the sustenance we need in all four areas, such as :

--Organizing our day into no more than 90 minute periods of intense, high-demand activity broken up by periods of quieter more mentally focused work

--Organizing our work schedule so that we do our most demanding tasks on Tuesday and Wednesday, which studies show are our highest energy days, and concentrating our planning, reading, brainstorming and relationship maintenance tasks towards the end of the week

--Developing consciousness of what our emotional triggers are – the things that set us off at work – and establishing cognitive rituals that short-circuit those triggers

--Carving out periods during each day when we do not respond to emails, in order to allow us to focus deeply for stretches of time

--Establishing a weekly time in our schedule for creative thinking

*POWERFUL AND EMINENTLY PRACTICAL STEPS FOR MANAGERS: Offers managers and executives

a wealth of advice about how they can change their management style and transform the workplace in ways that provide employees with the renewal they need, such as:

--Creating quiet rooms where employees can go to be uninterrupted

--Establishing shorter meeting times, so that all meetings are no more than 90 minutes

-- Incorporating regular recognition of employees’ contributions into daily management

--Banning email during meetings and establishing limits to the times of day when employees are expected to answer emails

--Articulating a clear set of values that the company espouses

 

*IMPRESSIVE SUCCESS STORIES FROM MAJOR BUSINESSES: Includes a host of stories of the successful implementation of the books’ recommendations by leading companies, including Sony, Google, Toyota, and Ford, and by William Bratton as the head of the LAPD.

 

*MAJOR ENDORSEMENTS: Schwartz is soliciting an impressive set of blurbs and we will quotes from a number of major names, likely to include: Alan Mullaly, CEO of Ford; Seth Godin; Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton of Sony Pictures; William Bratton; AG Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble; Warren Bennis, and Ken Blanchard.

*SCHWARTZ IS COMMITTING MAJOR MONEY TO PR CAMPAIGN: He is running a full-page New York

Times ad to announce publication. He has hired a PR firm, Fenton Communications as well as book promotion firm Resultsource (which handled campaigns for Marcus Buckingham is doing work for The Orange Revolution), to conduct an extensive campaign including: a 25 state tour with the books for events to be purchased from a variety of retailers; email blast campaign to a 1.5 million person email list from a combined group of bestselling authors; promotion of the book to businesses by Ashford University, which offers distance learning to business people.

 

*HUGE RESPONSE TO HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW ARTICLE When Schwartz published an article in the HBR in 2007 making the basic argument of this book he received a flood of positive responses and requests for more specifics.

Tony Schwartz is the founder and president of The Energy Project, a consulting group that works with a number of Fortune 500 companies, including American Express, Credit Suisse, Ford, General Motors, Gillette, Master Card, and Sony. He was a reporter for the New York Times, an associate editor at Newsweek, and a staff writer for New York Magazine and Esquire and a columnist for Fast Company. He co-authored the #1 worldwide bestseller The Art of the Deal with Donald Trump, and after that wrote What Really Matters. He co-authored the #1 New York Times bestseller The Power of Full Engagement with Jim Loehr.

Great advance praise for THE WAY WE’RE WORKING ISN’T WORKING.

 

“I’ve read dozens of books about leadership and management. What makes this book unique and essential is the integrated and comprehensive way it addresses the challenge of getting the best from people. At Zappos we deeply believe that truly meeting our employees’ needs is what inspires their great performance. The Way We Work Isn’t Working lays out a compelling new workplace paradigm and a detailed roadmap for organizations, leaders and individuals seeking to gain true competitive advantage, even as the rules change every day.”--Tony Hseih, CEO Zappos.com

 

“The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working offers us an engaging, thorough, and authoritative manual for optimal performance and for a rewarding life. Tony Schwartz has done it again – a business must-read.”-- Daniel Goleman, author Emotional Intelligence

 

“Tony Schwartz has become a National Treasure, the champion of a new source of renewable energy—ourselves! The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working is a great combination of engaging intellectual foundations, intriguing research findings, and truly practical advice. It’s a veritable handbook for putting each of us on a more engaged, more productive, more satisfying—more energetic!—life course.”--Robert Kegan, PhD, Harvard University School of Education and co-author of Immunity to Change

 

“Integrating our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual lives really enables “one life” and our life's work. Thank you Tony!”--Alan Mulally, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ford Motor Company

“Open heart surgery is demanding on every level. Before we understood the principles in The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, our fight with exhaustion—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—was a daily battle. Today, managing our energy—and regularly renewing it—has become a guiding principle for all the members of my operating room team. The principles and practices in this book have truly changed my life. They will increase your productivity and leave you more energized and more satisfied than you’ve ever been before.”--Mark Gillinov, M.D., Cardiovascular Surgeon, Cleveland Clinic

 

“Now, more than ever, we need a unified science of energy—what makes us work (and what doesn’t.) The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working unlocks essential insights we're going to need to get more done and feel better while we're doing it.”--Seth Godin, bestselling author, blogger and entrepreneur

Schwartz coauthored the best-seller The Power of Full Engagement (2003) and is the CEO of the Energy Project, bringing effective energy management coaching to organizations such as Google, Ford, Sony, Toyota, and the Los Angeles Police Department. His project and this book are shedding light on what most working folks know but don't like to talk about: that most of us are not fully engaged or satisfied in our work environment; that we are constantly running on an unsustainable schedule that does not allow for enough sleep; and in addition to being physically tired, we are not allowed the kind of emotional, creative, and spiritual outlets that we need to be fulfilled. Schwartz notes that people at work are expected to run continuously, like machines, but unlike machines or computers, people do not function well when forced to work and process information on a continual basis, but need a balance of activities that allow for both expending and recovering energy. He proposes solutions for business leaders to maximize human potential by embracing our need for both effort and renewal - Booklist

 

Here’s an article written by Tony Schwartz featured on Oprah.com:

http://www.oprah.com/health/Personal-Energy-Crisis-Tony-Schwartz

 

And Schwartz is currently blogging on The Huffington Post. Check out his articles here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-schwartz

Author: Tony Schwartz

Add date: 2010-06-25