Foreword
The world is on the verge of a new economic era. For the past century, the Industrial Age has been defined by tools and skills targeted at control, efficiency, specialization, delegation, scalability, and replicability. Accounting makes people an expense, a piece of equipment, an investment, and people are motivated by the great jackass theory of the carrot and stick. But although this paradigm has led to a 50-fold increase in productivity over the previous farming mindset, it has also led to a control paradigm, an entrenchment of a “leadership by position” mentality, with organizational hallmarks of lack of clarity regarding high priorities, lack of commitment or emotional connection by the workforce, lack of line-of-sight translation to specific action, disenabling systems and processes, no synergy — interpersonally and interdepartmentally — and a lack of accountability.
Studies show that the vast majority of employees possess far more talent, more intelligence, more capability, more creativity, and more ability than their jobs require or even allow. Their deep potential remains dormant, untapped, and unused. Today, the Industrial Age is ending, and the Information Age or Knowledge Worker Age is opening. This new, emerging age is defined by “leadership is a choice” with an empowerment or unleashing-potential mentality; choices guided by values in the light of unchanging principles. In the new paradigm, the greatest asset in any organization is its people — whole people ...
