More than ever, companies need employees who contribute all their creativity, intuition and inspiration, who are committed and willing to take on responsibility. New Work and agile methods are supposed to achieve this. But many organizations are finding that these methods are not so easy to implement and are already turning away from them in disappointment.
Our central thesis is therefore: the principles of New Work, agility or Working World 4.0 can only unfold their power if the corresponding organizations integrate the principle of humanity into their own cultural organizational DNA.
With this in mind, the aim is to address various aspects: We want to encourage people to embark on the path of conscious organizational development. We want to show how rewarding this path is - for people and organizations.
Our aim is to make an appropriate contribution today to the economy of the future, which will be characterized by greater humanity. Be a trendsetter and shape organizations that will be considered progressive and forward-looking for generations to come.
The form of cultural development that we propose will only succeed if top management is prepared to honestly question itself. That is why we are primarily addressing owners, managing directors and other managers who - in the sense of first movers - want to be at the forefront with their organization when the fifth revolution in the world of work that we are predicting takes off.
We are also addressing organizational developers who want to promote or support such cultural development in their sphere of influence.
This book gives you concrete starting points to understand where you stand with your organization in terms of values and humanity and what you can do to develop certain areas.
You can find out why this is not a nice add-on but a hard, economic necessity in the following sections.
We invite you to explore the possibility of a culture of humanity. You can find reasons why this is beneficial for you here.
We invite you to read our book,
In order to better understand the demands of today, we turn our gaze to the past, to the three previous industrial revolutions, and work out what this means for today. In doing so, we analyze the question of what role humanity has played in these politically, economically and culturally very different periods. We learn how humanity was able to take on a greater significance with the development of civilization and what role it plays now.
Many organizations and managers still think that performance has to be "extracted" from employees. But nothing could be further from today's reality: if intuition and creativity are the new superpowers, then we need organizations that know how to unleash these superpowers. A culture of humanity creates the necessary framework conditions. In this way, a nice add-on becomes a clear competitive advantage, even a prerequisite for the long-term survival of organizations.
Agility is not an end in itself, nor a fad, but the answer to dealing with increased complexity. Companies need to become more agile if they want to survive on the market in the long term. However, it is currently assumed that half of agile transformations fail. In literature and science, the reasons for this are clear: agile transformation does not succeed without simultaneous cultural transformation
Cultural development is a matter for managers and must be seen as a strategic task. The problem is that culture cannot be prescribed. In fact, organizational culture is like a shy deer that is difficult to catch. That is why we need a special language and concepts with which we can approach culture. The terms values, mindset and attitude play an important role here. However, they are usually used arbitrarily and with little precision, which leads to further confusion and frustration. With the attitude development model, we offer a tried-and-tested tool to make existing individual and collective values, mindsets and attitudes discussable. This is used as a starting point for step-by-step cultural development.
Many cultural processes begin with the definition of target values, which are often developed in complex processes. In our book, you will find out why we advise against this idea and why it makes more sense to start where you are.
Values are always valuable. Cultural development should start where you are as an organization. Only if this basis is right, if the organization is at peace with where it stands today, can healthy, organic development build on it.
This approach ensures significantly less use of resources, significantly less frustration and more effectiveness today (and tomorrow).
Now it gets specific. We describe the procedure in detail, naming the decisions that need to be made if an organization wants to embark on the path of cultural development, what obstacles and pitfalls await them and how dangers can be avoided.
Readers are also given detailed information on the seven subcultures that make up a culture of humanity.
A questionnaire for determining the status quo of the sub-cultures forms the starting point. Building on this, we explain in detail which steps are important for the further development of a particular sub-culture. A wide range of downloadable content, specific questions for meetings and immediately implementable suggestions for a process architecture or committee structure, for example, will support you all the way.
Finally, a word about resistance: In every (!) development process there are problems, crises and resistance. Resistance in a change process means first of all that the impetus for change has reached the organization. This is a good sign. Consider resistance as an unfriendly offer of contact. Enter into dialog and appreciate the other points of view. But make it clear: a purely negative and destructive attitude has no place in your organization.
Dr. Bernd Schmid, founder and leading figure of the Institute for Systemic Consulting (isb-GmbH, Wiesloch) and the Schmid Foundation
What should be the point of doing business if not to make people's lives richer? Business should therefore have a serving function, should combine resources in such a way that added value is created. Economic activity must not mean enriching oneself through exploitation and thus ultimately diminishing the lives and opportunities of others. The world has reached a global crossroads. This makes it imperative that we fundamentally rethink our way of life and thus our economic activity.
Economic future will be more human or fail.
And we should do well in business. Working life is also life and is often crucially valuable. Self-efficacy is essential for human happiness, and of course we should be appropriately rewarded for our work. However, we should constantly ask ourselves what is really attributable to our work, what proportion of the added value we can rightly claim as a reward and what should benefit everyone.
Business is therefore always a question of culture, just as culture is not possible without successful business.
It is part of economic competence to act efficiently and effectively, but also to constantly re-examine what needs to be managed and how in order to improve real living conditions for all.
This book focuses us on the question of what a culture of humanity encompasses and shows in many facets what values and attitudes we can develop for this, what language we can use and what concepts and approaches are useful for daily activities in this sense.
Everything is based on concrete experience and formulated in such a way that it can be used to reflect on and transform everyday economic life.
Taking this as a guide and transforming current habits and daring to try something new together with other creators strengthens human economic activity and one's own satisfaction in facing up to human responsibility.
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