This book was an interesting look at some very “outside the box” thinking about generating joy in the workplace. Bakke presents a brave and candid memoir of his grand experiment at AES corporation, an energy production company he co-founded in the early ‘80s that went public, survived one stock price dive in the early 90’s, skyrocketed in the late 90’s, and then came crashing to earth in the wake of 9/11 and the Enron scandal, leading to his resignation as CEO. What was this grand experiment? It was a “shared values” philosophy that pushed the decision-making all the way down to the lowest practical organizational level, and asked company leaders to act as servants and advisors, rather than traditional managers. The four shared values are:
-To act with Integrity
-To be fair
-To have fun
-To be socially responsible
Did this work? Judging by the traditional ways of thinking – return on shareholder investment – AES performance was a real mixed bag, although it was undoubtedly unduly influenced by the Enron situation, something out of its control. But based on Bakke’s definition of success – how well the company adhered to its values and principles, as well as the overall happiness of its workers – he did pretty darn well. This is the central paradox of the book, this definition of success, and it does force you to rethink your whole mind-set as to what end a leader should be striving for.
Bakke sums up his ideal leader as a person who has:
· Humility
· Willingness to give up power
· Courage
· Integrity
· Love and passion for the people, values and mission of the organization
It is a truly noble approach to leadership, one strongly based on trust, and while most of us are not CEOs that can enable this kind of 180 degree turn throughout an entire company, one can certainly benefit from embracing many of the key concepts in this book, to increase the joy (and thus the effectiveness) in our workplaces. Yes, as I noted to Rosa Say, “TRUST=JOY=SUCCESS”.
Next up: Howard Schultz’s Pour Your Heart Into It
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I felt that Bakke’s book was incredibly rich with possibility Starbucker, and my fear is the same as a reason I cheered for him— he was brutally honest and candid about the pitfalls of taking the higher road of working on the soft stuff.
It is too easy to dismiss his book, saying that at the end of the day he failed to produce a sustainable model, and question if ‘getting real’ about business success will always come to bottom line results. If his book is accurate in his portrayal, I truly do not think that Bakke received enough credit for what he DID accomplish: his achievements in such a large, publicly held company are amazing.
However you pose another observation; ultimately, does one have to be a founder or CEO to stimulate radically positive change of the business model – and does it have to be radical to be effective enough that people sit up, take notice, and are willing to charge ahead?
I for one am not willing to give up on the ‘soft stuff’ of values-centered management and leadership, and I’ve been pushing everyone in our Ho‘ohana Community to read Joy At Work knowing that they can see beyond this one story to the possibilities waiting for us to bravely discover them.
Unfortunately my schedule of late hasn’t been conducive to it since my own reading of the book, but I do fully intend to explore more of his concepts in greater detail; thank you for stoking a fire of remembrance in me with your review!
You’re welcome Rosa – and thank you once again for your recommendation. I’m not willing to give up either, so I look forward to our future dialogue as we both explore the possibilites so well revealed in this book. All the best!