{"id":365,"date":"2009-06-18T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-18T21:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.wpdude.com\/test\/?p=365"},"modified":"2009-06-18T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2009-06-18T21:36:00","slug":"conscious-business-fred-kofman-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/06\/conscious-business-fred-kofman-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Conscious Business \u2013 Fred Kofman – Book Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The idea that business can be a spiritual practice is bizarre to some but a reality for Fred Kofman, myself and a growing number of mainstream business people. We\u2019re coming out of the meaning closet on a daily basis. Conscious Business by Fred Kofman is the best book on the notion of business as a spiritual practice I have read. No ungrounded theorist, Fed Kofman has worked with a large number of blue-chip companies (e.g. Yahoo, Microsoft, GM, Shell) over the years and this book is as much practical \u201cnuts and bolts\u201d as visionary treatise.<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
So who is Fred Kofman anyway? With forwards by both philosophical omelette-head Ken Wilber <\/a>and business guru Peter Senge he certainly must host some interesting dinner parties. Originally from Argentina (and influenced by the linguistics of fellow Argentinean Fernando Flores<\/a>) Fred Kofman was a much loved MIT professor before becoming associated with the integral crowd (omelettes not eggs \u2013 get it? )<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Anyway…Conscious Business contains a number of great ideas which Fred Kofman elegantly brings together (few are \u201chis\u201d). Ken Wilber in the foreword defines conscious business as \u201cbusiness that takes into account body, mind and spirit in self, culture and nature.\u201d So integral basically. He suggest taking these into account not because it is nice but because they are at work anyway. This to me is the heart of the matter \u2013 conscious business works better as it is more complete. <\/div>\n
Here are some of the chapter titles to give you a feel:<\/div>\n
Unconditional Responsibility<\/strong><\/div>\n
The notion that conscious employees take responsibility for their choices rather than blaming others. Making them \u201cresponse-able\u201d rather than being a victim.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Essential Integrity<\/strong><\/div>\n
Acting from values to achieve what Fred Kofman calls \u201csuccess beyond success\u201d \u2013 win or loose you still win if you\u2019ve operated with integrity. Process over outcome.<\/div>\n

Ontological Humility<\/strong><\/div>\n
Knowing the difference between observations and evaluations \u2013 facts and opinions. Multiple truths and seeing others points of view.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Authentic Communication and Constructive Negotiation<\/strong><\/div>\n
Essentially Fred Kofman\u2019s approach to communication is like Non Violent Communication <\/a>\u2013 focusing on underlying needs and standards, making clear requests, \u201cdetoxifying\u201d language, looking for \u201cwin-wins\u201d, openness , empathy, etc.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Impeccable Coordination<\/strong><\/div>\n

Fred brings to play the linguistic distinctions of Fernando Flores and others masterfully to show how people can coordinate action.<\/p>\n

Emotional Mastery<\/strong><\/div>\n
All the skills above rely on emotional intelligence as per Daniel Goleman. A somatic (embodied) anger would add to the books content in this section, as this part of \u201cbody, mind and culture\u201d is largely missing. <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Another question for me is where are the book\u2019s practices? It shows wonderful model and has some lovely stories but HOW do you put them into place?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Fred concludes by describing work that can be \u201cself actualising\u201d and also discusses flow states at work. There is also a wonderful quote towards the end of the book which I\u2019d like to end with:<\/div>\n
\u201cContrary to business school doctrine, \u201cmaximising shareholder wealth\u201d has into been the dominant driving force of [exceptional] companies…Yes, they seek profits, but they\u2019re equally guided by…core values and a sense of purpose beyond just making money. Yet, paradoxically, the visionary companies make more money than more purely profit-driven comparison companies\u201d \u2013 Jim Colin and Jerry I Porras<\/p>\n

<\/em>My own <\/strong>conscious UK based training business is can be found here.<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n

<\/em> <\/div>\n
………………<\/p>\n

Business So What: <\/span>wake up<\/div>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea that business can be a spiritual practice is bizarre to some but a reality for Fred Kofman, myself and a growing number of mainstream business people. We\u2019re coming out of the meaning closet on a daily basis. Conscious Business by Fred Kofman is the best book on the notion of business as a spiritual practice I have read. No ungrounded theorist, Fed Kofman has worked with a large number of blue-chip companies (e.g. Yahoo, Microsoft, GM, Shell) over the years and this book is as much practical \u201cnuts and bolts\u201d as visionary treatise. So who is Fred Kofman <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9xvDN-5T","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.integrationtraining.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}