Do you want to save the world? Your employees do.

Want to significantly impact employee satisfaction?  According to Tim Sanders, one key factor is whether or not your employees believe they can change the world through their work.  And they want to do it with your help and support. 

Tim, former Chief Solutions Officer for Yahoo! thinks its not only possible but necessary.  In his new book, Saving the World at Work he explains how.  This book is filled with memorable anecdotes and tangible  steps for taking action.

This is a business book -- don't be fooled by the mission or the title.  Within its pages, you'll learn how to ignite your employees' passions, earn their loyalty and turn them into your biggest evangelists.

Tim also has a website devoted to this topic and an excellent blog.  If you recognize his name, you might have read his earlier Love is the Killer App.  He truly believes that any individual can be an agent of change in the workplace and any workplace can be an agent of change in the world.

Not a bad belief to hang onto.

You can also read Tim's interview in US News and World Report.

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Comments

[John Rosen]

Drew:

You're right, this is a very good book and an important message. By the way, the ur-business book from the early 1980's, In Search of Excellence,was largely about this same issue -- "igniting employees passions." I believe Tom Peters short-handed it as "getting ordinary people to envision and accomplish extraordinary things."

John

[Drew McLellan]

John,

Do you think Peters meant "envision and accomplish extraordinary things" within the company or did he have as broad a view as Sanders does?

Drew

[Mark]

The amazon link provides a Q&A via PDF which was pretty interesting. I just checked - not yet available on the i tunes site but probably will be in the not to distant future.

Regardless peoples interest and devotion to something is directly proportional to feelings surrounding that "something" with work being no different. If it leaves them feeling good they'll work all that much harder. The other side of the coin is most people with any morals won't work well at all in a negative environment.

[John Rosen]

Drew:

Peters was, of couse, writing largely about how to make companies perform better. BUT, he did write abut how employees always want to feel they are also makign the world a better place by doing whatever it is the company does. He included stories about Procter brand managers on the Charmin business who were absolutely convinced that what they were doing, while admittedly limited to selling more toilet paper at higher prices, was a vital mission. This was Peters' main point -- the job of senior management is to instill in the employees that level of missionary zeal. Sanders, I think, would claim that that level of zeal is always there, just waiting to break out.

John

[zapatos de mujer]

its increidble but in the companies the employees are the most important and expensive part... the work that all our emplyees could do for us its incredible big.. and the price of all together means are the capital of our company, never the cars, never de builings etc etc

[Drew McLellan]

John,

That's how I saw Peters' thinking versus Sanders as well. Perhaps the Sanders view is the evolution of Peters.

In Peters day, it was still more of a monologue, even internally. And maybe we needed to get our internal/company ducks in a row first.

But in today's world with today's employees, we do need to think broader and more universally. I wonder what Peters would say about Sanders' book?

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Zapatos,

You are correct. A company's employees are without a doubt their most valuable asset. As we all face an employee shortage -- Sanders message becomes even more important.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Mark,

You make a good point. If you don't have a work environment that supports people's bigger picture needs, you'll lose the good ones.

Drew

[Drew McLellan]

Mark,

You're very right. By creating a positive, supportive work environment -- we get to keep the best of our employees and attract the best of the new recruits.

Drew