Stewardship

Choosing Service Over Self-Interest

Peter Block, Steven Piersanti

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English

Berrett Koehler
01 January 2018

Economics & Business; Business ethics; Management & management techniques

One of the most provocative and revolutionary books written on leadership, business, and organizational design, Stewardship remains just as relevant, even twenty years later, to transforming our organizations for the common good of the wider community.

We still face the challenge of fostering ownership and accountability throughout our organizations. Despite all the evidence calling for profound change, most organizations still rely on patriarchy and control as their core form of governance. The result is that they stifle initiative and spirit and alienate people from the work they do. This in the face of an increasing need to find ways to be responsive to customers and the wider community.

Peter Block insists that what is required is a dramatic shift in how we distribute power, privilege, and the control of money. ""Stewardship,"" he writes, ""means giving people at the bottom and the boundaries of the organization choice over how to serve a customer, a citizen, a community. It is the willingness to be accountable for the well-being of the larger organization by operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us.""

Block has revised and updated the book throughout, including a new introduction addressing what has changed-and what hasn't-in the twenty years since the book was published and a new chapter on applying stewardship to the common good of the wider community. He covers both the theory of stewardship (in particular how it ameliorates the shortcomings of traditional leadership) and the practice (how it transforms every function and department for the better). And he offers tactical advice as well on gearing up to implement these reforms.

Revised and expanded- this classic guide to business leadership presents ""an original and profound new view on how to run an organization"" (Library Journal).

Despite all the evidence calling for change, most organizations still rely on patriarchy and control as their core form of governance. The result is that they stifle initiative and spirit and alienate people from their work. In Stewardship,Peter Block calls for a dramatic shift in how we distribute power, privilege, and the control of money. ""Stewardship,"" he writes, ""is the willingness to be accountable for the well-being of the larger organization by operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us.""

Block has revised and updated the book throughout, including a new introduction addressing what has changed-and what hasn't-in the twenty years since the book was published. It also includes a new chapter on applying stewardship to the common good of the wider community. Speaking in practical terms about how stewardship transforms every function and department for the better, Block also offers tactical advice on gearing up to implement these reforms.

By: Peter Block
Foreword by: Steven Piersanti
Imprint: Berrett Koehler
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 2nd edition
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 170mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 516g
ISBN: 9781609948221
ISBN 10: 160994822X
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 01 January 2018
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Foreword by Steven Piersanti Welcome Introduction to the Second Edition: What Has Changed? It’s a Digital World What Is Good for Business Is Good for the World Side Effects Goods We Can Build Upon PART I TRADING YOUR KINGDOM FOR A HORSE 1 Replacing Leadership with Stewardship Something more is required The essence of Stewardship Choosing Partners Choosing Empowerment Choosing Service We Don’t Act on What We Know The Leadership Question The Underbelly of Leadership The Stewardship Answer Three Organizational Challenges 2 Choosing Partnership over Patriarchy Creating Order Distributing Ownership and Responsibility Partnership as the Alternative Balancing Power Four Requirements of Partnership 3 Choosing Adventure over Safety The Wish for Safety Entitlement Is Empowerment Run Aground Choosing Empowerment Stewardship Begins at Home 4 Choosing Service over Self-Interest A Model of Stewardship Teaching Revolution to the Ruling Class The Realm of Management Rank without Privilege Connecting the Heart and the Wallet The Point PART II THE REDISTRIBUTION OF POWER, PURPOSE, AND WEALTH A Case Study: Sometime Later in the Week 5 Defining the Stewardship Contract Principles for the Practice The Stewardship Contract Life in the Balance 6 Upsetting Expectations: The Emotional Work of Stewardship The Trail Is Inside Out Facing the Wish for Dependency and Dominance Freedom’s Just Another Word for Escape from Freedom Unstated Emotional Wants: Breaking the Pattern Just Say No I want my mentor 7 Redesigning Management Practices and Structures Full Disclosure Management Practices Changing Basic Architecture Boss as Banker and Broker 8 Rethinking the Role of Staff Functions In the Service of Top Management Police and Conscience to the Line Mandated Supplier Mandated Services Offering Choice and Building Capability Service Guarantee 9 Financial Practices: Creating Accountability with Self-Control The Money Is about control Building Widespread Financial Stewardship Living within the Law 10 Human Resources: Ending the Practice of Paternalism Institutional Caretaker A New Purpose and Role The Structure of Human Resources Human Resource Practices That Support Stewardship 11 Compensation and Performance Evaluation: Overturning the Class System The Divine Right of Kings Pay Reinforces Class Distinctions Performance Not for Sale Rank Individualism Confusing Boss Evaluations with Performance Pay for Empire Reward Systems That Support Stewardship The End of Caretaking PART III THE TRIUMPH OF HOPE OVER EXPERIENCE 12 Cosmetic Reform: When the Disease Becomes the Cure nothing is next The Open Office Patriarchy Recreating Itself 13 Recreating Our Organization through Stewardship Stewardship Strategy for Political Reform Steps toward Political Reform A Case Study Continued: The Answer to the Power Company Story, “Sometime Later in the Week” 14 Cynics, Victims and Bystanders The Power of the Cynic Rescuing the Victim Facts Won’t Help Treating Caution as a Choice 15 The Answer to “How?” How “How?” Is a Defense 16 Stewardship for the Common Good The Business Perspective The Point References Index Designed Learning The Author The Artist

Peter Block is a global bestselling author and consultant. His work is about empowerment, stewardship, chosen accountability, and the reconciliation of community. He is a partner in Designed Learning, a training company that offers workshops designed by Peter to build the skills outlined in his books. Peter is the recipient of the Organization Development Network's 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2004 he received their first place Members' Choice Award, which recognized Flawless Consulting as the most influential book for OD practitioners over the past 40 years. He has received national awards for outstanding contributions in the field of training and development, including the American Society for Training and Development Award for Distinguished Contributions; the Association for Quality and Participation President's Award; and Training Magazine HRD Hall of Fame. Peter lives in CIncinnati. OH.

Reviews for Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest

An original and profound new view on how to run organizations...Block transcends all extant leadership literature. --Library Journal Stewardship is one of those books that permanently changes how you think. It obliterates the wall between good business and ethical business...Get better business results, change the world, and save your soul with a single book. --Gifford Pinchot III, cofounder and President, Bainbridge Graduate Institute The most insightful analyst of what ails organizations has written a very timely update of his book Stewardship. With America's newest civic generation, millennials, now flooding the world of work, Block offers a system of governance that captures that generation's need for 'service over self-interest.' --Morley Winograd, coauthor, with Mike Hais, of Millennial Momentum The new edition of Stewardship is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in building sustainable businesses, organizations, and communities. [Block's] ideas create more engaged organizations, which are better for people, the environment, and business. --Brian Camastral, CEO, Riversong Sanctuary; cofounder, BLITS Foundation; and former Global President, Mars Food Be forewarned: this is a scary read. In the twenty years I have been engaged in collaborative leadership programs, Peter has been a go-to author for challenging the theory and practice of leadership. In this second edition of Stewardship, Peter leaves us nowhere to hide as he takes an in-depth look at what it truly means to lead from the heart in a culture driven by accountability, metrics, and control. Every 'yes but' I raised is countered with examples, metaphors, skillful explanation, case studies, quotes, practical suggestions, and Peter's trademark creativity and faith in our ability to do the right thing for the common good. --Anne J. Udall, Trustee, American Leadership Forum (ALF); former Director, Charlotte Region Chapter, ALF; and Vice Chair, Udall Foundation Like Robert Greenleaf before him, Peter Block's voice is that of a contemporary prophet. This revised edition of Stewardship is one of the best books ever written. It serves as a powerful source of hope and encouragement for servant-leaders everywhere. --Larry C. Spears, coauthor of Insights on Leadership, The Spirit of Servant-Leadership, and Fortuitous Encounters Over the past forty years, through Stewardship and other seminal works, Peter Block has articulated the course required for effective leadership in the 21st century. If only more managers and leaders from every sector took note and practiced the principles of stewardship--productivity would rise, people would be healthier, local community life would be flourishing, and the spirit of democracy would be enlivened worldwide. His message is that essential and that scalable. --Lynn Luckow, President and CEO, LikeMinded.org, and former President and CEO, Craigslist Foundation Stewardship is love in action. It is time for our organizations to rethink how they exercise power and control. In our changing country and world, our capacity for stewardship may be what ultimately saves our democracy and models accountability and freedom, in their real sense, for the rest of the world. As usual, Peter Block points us in the direction of our better selves, living out a better future. --Sayra Pinto, Principal, Matriz Coaching & Consulting This is one of those very rare anomalies: a second edition that is more essential and timely than the first. It spotlights our current dysfunctionalities--such as the literal looting of so many of our organizations by self-serving top levels--and how far we have actually regressed from a pattern of commitment to service and healthy work environments in most corporations. It's impossible to read this book and then continue to look at current organizational processes as (desirable) 'business as usual.' --Fritz Steele, organizational and environmental consultant and coauthor of The Arrogant Leader As with his other books, the second edition of Stewardship forces the reader to rethink basic assumptions about leadership and change in organizations. Peter always challenges my thinking and offers a perspective that I have never found elsewhere. He makes espoused values come alive. Leading in the way Peter describes requires courage, a virtue missing in many of today's organization leaders. Peter's unique ability to pinpoint the true source of power and confront the reader in a way that cuts through defenses makes reading Stewardship a true learning and growth experience. --Cliff Bolster, Leadership and Learning Consultant, Bolster & Associates, Inc. Peter Block is one of the most provocative and iconoclastic thinkers we have on the topics of leadership, business, and organizational design. His insights are still fresh and razor sharp, and he expresses them in a singular, poetic style. The new edition of this foundational text extends the scope of his insights to meet the challenges that have arisen in the last twenty years and shows how to create not just productive and humane workplaces but vibrant communities, an engaged democracy, and a healthy planet. --Toni A. Gregory, EdD, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Studies, Union Institute & University Peter Block's second edition of Stewardship is even more provocative than the first edition was twenty years ago because we are more fearful about our economic and personal well-being than ever before. Block helps us see our own complicity and interconnectedness with all that goes on around us and, with this updated edition, will help a new generation learn that the way to find meaning and purpose in life is to form partnerships for the common good, empower each other through human understanding, and together, build competent societies. --Frances Strickland, PhD, President, Smith Educational Enterprises Be forewarned: this is a scary read. In the twenty years I have been engaged in collaborative leadership programs, Peter has been a go-to author for challenging the theory and practice of leadership. In this second edition of Stewardship, Peter leaves us nowhere to hide as he takes an in-depth look at what it truly means to lead from the heart in a culture driven by accountability, metrics, and control. Every 'yes but' I raised is countered with examples, metaphors, skillful explanation, case studies, quotes, practical suggestions, and Peter's trademark creativity and faith in our ability to do the right thing for the common good. --Anne J. Udall, Trustee, American Leadership Forum (ALF); former Director, Charlotte Region Chapter, ALF; and Vice Chair, Udall Foundation Like Robert Greenleaf before him, Peter Block's voice is that of a contemporary prophet. This revised edition of Stewardship is one of the best books ever written. It serves as a powerful source of hope and encouragement for servant-leaders everywhere. --Larry C. Spears, coauthor of Insights on Leadership, The Spirit of Servant-Leadership, and Fortuitous Encounters Over the past forty years, through Stewardship and other seminal works, Peter Block has articulated the course required for effective leadership in the 21st century. If only more managers and leaders from every sector took note and practiced the principles of stewardship--productivity would rise, people would be healthier, local community life would be flourishing, and the spirit of democracy would be enlivened worldwide. His message is that essential and that scalable. --Lynn Luckow, President and CEO, LikeMinded.org, and former President and CEO, Craigslist Foundation Stewardship is love in action. It is time for our organizations to rethink how they exercise power and control. In our changing country and world, our capacity for stewardship may be what ultimately saves our democracy and models accountab