If you're looking for a hopeful, sober, and provocative book about our nation and economy, please consider listening to (or watching) Purpose Work Nation. For free.
The book explores our nation's purpose (Author's Notes), our history, and the role of business as a force for national renewal (Chapter 1).
It also contrasts the hyperindividualist ethics of the bald eagle, our national bird, with the more robust, connected and inspiring ethics of our national mammal, the bison (Chapter 2).
We then survey the battlefield of the culture war between the eagle and bison, and how it shows up in organizations (Chapters 3 & 4), outline a path forward for leaders to transform their organizations, activate individual and collective flourishing (Chapters 5 & 6), lead our national renewal, and save the Republic (Conclusion & Epilogue).
The book explores our nation's purpose (Author's Notes), our history, and the role of business as a force for national renewal (Chapter 1).
It also contrasts the hyperindividualist ethics of the bald eagle, our national bird, with the more robust, connected and inspiring ethics of our national mammal, the bison (Chapter 2).
We then survey the battlefield of the culture war between the eagle and bison, and how it shows up in organizations (Chapters 3 & 4), outline a path forward for leaders to transform their organizations, activate individual and collective flourishing (Chapters 5 & 6), lead our national renewal, and save the Republic (Conclusion & Epilogue).
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In the spirit of a "Director's Cut" movie, I read the book and expand on the key points in the 10 videos (with summaries) below. If you want to watch them all in order, you can do that by clicking on this playlist.
The running time at 1x speed is 8 hours, and at 1.5x (recommended), it is 5 hours and 20 minutes, so it's well suited to time spent commuting or exercising or on your next roadtrip. |
Video #1: Welcome, Overview & Author's Note #1
Author's Note #1: Why I Wrote This Book is my personal story leading up to the book. I share why I needed to put pen to paper, what was going on in my life, and my feelings about our economy, society and democracy.
Video #2: Author's Notes #2-6
Author's Note #2: Choosing Citizenship - expands on what the purpose of the United States is, and how we must actively choose it if we are to call this place home.
Author's Note #3: Who This Book is For - invites leaders to make the choice to serve our nation's purpose on behalf of the people in their care (employees), all who call this place home (the nation), democracy, and humanity's well-being and future evolution.
Author's Note #4: How to Read This Book - offers practical guidance related to self-care and taking bold action at work.
Author's Note #5 - Statement of Privilege - acknowledges the limitations of my biases and perspective.
Author's Note #6 - Privacy Statement - informs the reader that I changed all the names to protect the identity of folks involved.
Author's Note #3: Who This Book is For - invites leaders to make the choice to serve our nation's purpose on behalf of the people in their care (employees), all who call this place home (the nation), democracy, and humanity's well-being and future evolution.
Author's Note #4: How to Read This Book - offers practical guidance related to self-care and taking bold action at work.
Author's Note #5 - Statement of Privilege - acknowledges the limitations of my biases and perspective.
Author's Note #6 - Privacy Statement - informs the reader that I changed all the names to protect the identity of folks involved.
Video #3: Opening Quotes & Introduction
I share quotes from Dr. King and Amanda Gorman, and then invite leaders into the difficult questions of leading in these uncertain times. I also give an overview of what to expect in the book.
Video #4: Chapter 1 - Business as Religion, Villain, & Savior
We explore the mixed legacy of business in the United States and its impact on society, our democracy and the planet.
Chapter 1 Summary:
1. In the 20th century, capitalism was regarded as an unqualified moral good.
2. The current political economy of the United States fails to fulfill our nation’s purpose, and instead creates inequality, division, exploitation, climate change, and human suffering.
3. Business is more powerful and trustworthy than the government.
4. While this is undoubtedly an “all-hands-on-deck moment” for leaders across sectors, without the leadership of business, at best our nation will remain a languishing, apartheid state, and at worst, the republic will fall and our planet will become uninhabitable.
Chapter 1 Summary:
1. In the 20th century, capitalism was regarded as an unqualified moral good.
2. The current political economy of the United States fails to fulfill our nation’s purpose, and instead creates inequality, division, exploitation, climate change, and human suffering.
3. Business is more powerful and trustworthy than the government.
4. While this is undoubtedly an “all-hands-on-deck moment” for leaders across sectors, without the leadership of business, at best our nation will remain a languishing, apartheid state, and at worst, the republic will fall and our planet will become uninhabitable.
Video #5: Chapter 2 - The Bison Way
We contrast the ethics of our national bird, the bald eagle, with those of our national mammal, the bison, and explore how the ethics of the bison might guide our organizations and nation towards greater purpose and flourishing.
Chapter 2 Summary:
1. Every nation has a myth that governs their actions towards each other, the earth, and other nations. The same is true for organizations.
2. We have been shaped by the myth of the eagle, a parasitic individualism that has resulted in slavery, genocide, an apartheid, climate change, rape culture, and a $50T wealth transfer to the 1%.
3. We have an opportunity to adopt a new myth—the way of the bison—to reckon with our past, accept responsibility, repair the damage caused, and be redeemed and renewed.
4. By most measures, bison-led companies significantly outperform those that do not.
Chapter 2 Summary:
1. Every nation has a myth that governs their actions towards each other, the earth, and other nations. The same is true for organizations.
2. We have been shaped by the myth of the eagle, a parasitic individualism that has resulted in slavery, genocide, an apartheid, climate change, rape culture, and a $50T wealth transfer to the 1%.
3. We have an opportunity to adopt a new myth—the way of the bison—to reckon with our past, accept responsibility, repair the damage caused, and be redeemed and renewed.
4. By most measures, bison-led companies significantly outperform those that do not.
Video #6: Chapter 3 - Culture is a Matter of Life and Death
We explore the central role that organizational culture plays in organizational, economic, and national health, and detail the severe consequences of the current dynamic of racial animosity and political tribalism.
Chapter 3 Summary:
1. The eagle has divided us against each other along the lines of ideology and race, and it’s eroding the foundations of our organizations, society, economy, and democracy.
2. The use of violence is supported by 1/3 of us, expected by most of us, and regarded as a problem by almost all of us.
3. Organizations cannot keep developing people and culture in the same ways; they are not working.
4. Organizations must scrap all their plans, dump everything on the table, and rebuild their businesses and cultures mid-flight with an entirely new ethos.
Chapter 3 Summary:
1. The eagle has divided us against each other along the lines of ideology and race, and it’s eroding the foundations of our organizations, society, economy, and democracy.
2. The use of violence is supported by 1/3 of us, expected by most of us, and regarded as a problem by almost all of us.
3. Organizations cannot keep developing people and culture in the same ways; they are not working.
4. Organizations must scrap all their plans, dump everything on the table, and rebuild their businesses and cultures mid-flight with an entirely new ethos.
Video #7: Chapter 4 - Bison @ Work
We contrast the ethos of the eagle and bison as they show up in L+D, DEI, wellness and culture.
Chapter 4 Summary:
1. Traditional approaches to L+D, DEI, wellness, and culture are dehumanizing and ineffective, perpetuating harm and wasting billions of dollars and millions of hours a year.
2. The pandemic revealed how much our children and female and BIPOC friends and colleagues are suffering, and have always suffered under the eagle.
3. People strategies must be broken down and recreated from the ground up to be more social, inclusive, empathetic, and purpose-driven.
4. By activating a bison-led approach to learning, DEI, wellness, and culture, we become more fulfilled and connected, reach our full potential, do our best work, and heal the soul of the nation.
Chapter 4 Summary:
1. Traditional approaches to L+D, DEI, wellness, and culture are dehumanizing and ineffective, perpetuating harm and wasting billions of dollars and millions of hours a year.
2. The pandemic revealed how much our children and female and BIPOC friends and colleagues are suffering, and have always suffered under the eagle.
3. People strategies must be broken down and recreated from the ground up to be more social, inclusive, empathetic, and purpose-driven.
4. By activating a bison-led approach to learning, DEI, wellness, and culture, we become more fulfilled and connected, reach our full potential, do our best work, and heal the soul of the nation.
Video #8: Chapter 5 - The Twin Drivers of Flourishing
We explore the twin drivers of flourishing, purpose and belonging, and lay out the research and evidence based best practices for culture change and social learning.
Chapter 5 Summary:
1. There is an overwhelming amount of research that suggests activating purpose and belonging drives flourishing for employees, customers, and investors.
2. Like purpose, belonging must also be cultivated across L+D, DEI, and wellness functions.
3.The current best practice to unlock individual and organizational flourishing is to bring peers together in small, diverse learning groups to activate their purpose at work and share their experiences with each other.
4. Organizations and nations thrive when diverse people work together towards a common purpose.
Chapter 5 Summary:
1. There is an overwhelming amount of research that suggests activating purpose and belonging drives flourishing for employees, customers, and investors.
2. Like purpose, belonging must also be cultivated across L+D, DEI, and wellness functions.
3.The current best practice to unlock individual and organizational flourishing is to bring peers together in small, diverse learning groups to activate their purpose at work and share their experiences with each other.
4. Organizations and nations thrive when diverse people work together towards a common purpose.
Video #9: Chapter 6 - Elements and Emergence
We explore the critical elements of bison-led transformation, and the pathway to begin your organization's journey to purpose and belonging, the ethics of the bison and the renewal of our nation's sacred purpose.
Chapter 6 Summary:
1. These are unprecedented times requiring bold action, humility, trust, purpose, agility, constant learning, and collaboration versus expertise, knowledge, and hierarchy.
2. Begin your organization’s transformation with these elements: employee purpose activation, a Golden Gate Bridge pedagogy, an inclusive and digitally native culture strategy, redefining a company as a community with a mission, purposeful leadership practices, and triaging crises from the heart.
3. The path to change varies for each organization, but may follow a progression through stages, such as: 1. Humbly making the invitation, 2. Administering employee purpose activation, hiring a CPO and enacting the table stakes, 3. Consecrating the organization’s mission and values,
4. Aligning the business with the mission and values and weeding out bullshit. 4. Good leaders are gardeners.
Chapter 6 Summary:
1. These are unprecedented times requiring bold action, humility, trust, purpose, agility, constant learning, and collaboration versus expertise, knowledge, and hierarchy.
2. Begin your organization’s transformation with these elements: employee purpose activation, a Golden Gate Bridge pedagogy, an inclusive and digitally native culture strategy, redefining a company as a community with a mission, purposeful leadership practices, and triaging crises from the heart.
3. The path to change varies for each organization, but may follow a progression through stages, such as: 1. Humbly making the invitation, 2. Administering employee purpose activation, hiring a CPO and enacting the table stakes, 3. Consecrating the organization’s mission and values,
4. Aligning the business with the mission and values and weeding out bullshit. 4. Good leaders are gardeners.
Video #10: Conclusion, Epilogue, Appendices, and Gratitude & Acknowledgments
In this video we recap the key points of the book in the Conclusion, evoke a felt sense of what fulfilling our nation's powerful purpose looks and feels like in the Epilogue, provide you with tools and resources to take this work further in the Appendices, and honor the team that stitched this book together from the tethers of heartbreak, data, story, and a deep love of the sacred purpose of The United States of America.
If you want to engage more deeply, below are some ways you can do that:
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- SPEAKING: If you want to book me to speak, you can learn more here.
- ORGS: If you want to activate purpose and belonging in your organization, reach out to Unity Lab.
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