Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power That Elevates People and Organizations

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Marcella Bremer

Compassion at work is crucial for successful organizations

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 27, 2018

Compassion at Work is a really important book for people to read and, moreover, to apply. As Fred Kofman wrote in Conscious Business, “There are no death camps in corporations, but many apparently successful companies hide great suffering in their basements.”
Is it really that bad? There are still too many organizations where it is that bad. That's why the research that Jane Dutton and Monica Worline present, is vital. This is not touchy-feely stuff. This is proven to be a competitive advantage in the workplace. There's a business case for caring and compassion. It's as the tagline says: Compassion is the quiet power that elevates people and organizations.

As Dutton and Worline write: The vast majority of businesses continue to be run by men, based on a very limited set of hypermasculine values, such as domination, aggression, ambition, competition, winning at all costs, short-term thinking, and a zero-sum view of the world. Do you face brutal deadlines, competitive pressure, insensitive management, toxic work cultures, relentless schedules, and demands?

Healing of suffering begins with compassion. That is the master key. Compassion is rooted in a fundamental human drive: the need to care. Human beings have at least three primary drives: self-interest, the need to care, and, increasingly, the need to live a life of meaning and purpose.
But will employees who are treated with compassion take advantage of their managers or their organizations? Will compassion toward one member of the team set a precedent that locks the manager or organization into a costly pattern of action in the future?

Research shows that is not the case. Instead, it builds loyalty and teamwork. Because of its role in enhancing collective capabilities like innovation, service quality, collaboration, and adaptability, compassion matters for competitive advantage. Compassion contributes to an organization’s financial resilience, profitability, and customer retention after downsizing. ∞ Compassionate business units exhibit better financial performance and higher employee and customer retention.

Compassion is an irreplaceable dimension of excellence for any organization that wants to make the most of its human capabilities. So, how can you enable it at work? Dutton and Worline share many small but impactful things to do - that contribute to creating a positive culture. Read this book to see what you can apply!

Dennis Matthies

Wise. Beautiful. Practical.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 21, 2017

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Do you remember how, after 9-11, we were so gentle with each other? It makes you wonder, when compassion is lost, what else is lost? When it’s regained, what becomes possible?

Why is compassion so fragile? At the grocery store someone feels compassion for a panhandler by the entrance. Next time they might avoid that same person’s eyes or feel a tinge of scorn at their hand-written sign. It’s not that different in the workplace, where compassion can bloom or perish in an instant. Compassion can be quick to materialize in one department, hollow or non-existent in another department.

How can compassion become more resilient? How can it be cultivated by individuals, not just in daily life, but especially at work? And is it possible for compassion to reach the point where it becomes an organizational competence?

The authors are world-class experts on questions like these. This is the first book to wrap its arms around several decades of research into the role of compassion in the workplace. This is also the first book to catalog the benefits and explain why, at the organizational level, compassion is worth the effort.

The intended audience is not just an HR partner, OD professional, or leadership team. It includes anyone interested in the life of groups. Indirectly this book can serve as a concrete introduction to organizational psychology.

Part Two shows, in exquisite slow motion, how compassion unfolds, or doesn’t. Just studying those four chapters will be enough to heighten your sensitivity to both the surfacing and the suppressing that takes place around you. But how to respond?

At its heart this book is practical, helping us find pathways for expression and action. At an organizational level, there’s a complete set of tools and blueprints that help us move from good intentions to organizational competence.

And the book is well written. Just reading the stories (all of which are authentic) would be an education in itself. The authors respect, equally, both beauty and evidence.

Around the globe, so many of us are now wondering how to regain and deepen compassion on a national scale. Is that too much to hope for? Not if we awaken compassion in ourselves, and not if we start learning how to weave compassion into the fabric of our organizations.

9 people found this helpful

Gretchen Spreitzer

You won't be the same person after reading this book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 23, 2017

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Reading this book not only makes me aspire to be a more compassionate person but also shows me how to do it!

Worline and Dutton do an amazing job of providing a science-based trove on how to become a more passionate person, leader, and organization. They unpack years of research (both their own as well as other scholars in many fields) to help readers understand what compassion is and why it is so critical in a work context. There is always suffering in the workplace, whether generated in the doing of the work (such as a downsizing or an incivility) or outside of work (such as a personal or family illness or traumatic life event). I have certainly been the beneficiary of many compassionate responses in my own life from work colleagues - so I know they make a world of difference.

I find the four stage model of compassionate responding to be very intuitive and useful. Compassion indeed is the culmination of noticing, interpreting, feeling, and acting. For me, I realize that too often I want to move straight to action, but without the earlier steps my response is likely to be incomplete or even harmful. The stories the authors weave into the narrative are brilliant and inspiring -- they really unpack the complexities of compassion at work. It is so much more than being nice to others!

The second part of the book is focused on what it takes to build compassionate organizations. Again, the story line is powerful because the authors draw on research as well as real world examples to build the case for how to envision, understand, design and lead with compassion. Their story of Zeke helps us see the possibilities for building a truly compassionate organization.

Whether you already live in a compassionate workplace and want to take it to the next level or you are struggling with how to help make your organization or leadership more compassionate, this book is for you. You won't be the same person after reading it!

5 people found this helpful

vivalasvogus

Compassionately transform your work life and workplace

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 6, 2017

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If you want to learn about how to awaken compassion at work, go to the oracles. Monica Worline and Jane Dutton are brilliant researchers who have, in my estimation, done the most important and outstanding research on compassion at work and their beautiful writing mirrors the beauty of the suject. But they also work to illustrate with a series of very specific and detailed examples how that research can get turned into effective and meaningful personal practice.

Not only do Worline and Dutton inform you how to get there through their accessible and crisp summaries of the research as well as evocative and inspiring stories of individuals in organizations, they also provide two invaluable sets of roadmaps. First, the structure of their book systematically gives you not only an understanding of the multi-faceted ways through which compassion works (noticing, interpreting, feeling, and acting) and how to organizational compassion competence (envisioning, understanding, designing, and leading), and second, they provide you with a set of assessments that will guide you to greater compassion and your organization to greater compassion competence.

So if you are researcher looking to understand the literatures on compassion, compassion in organizations, compassionate leadership, and compassion organizing. You'll walk away from this book with a much deeper and fuller understanding of compassion, have an inspiring model for clear and effective writing, and find numerous nuggets that can fuel future theorizing and empirical work.

But this book is powerfully for anyone looking to be more compassionate, lead more compassionately, and seed compassion wherever you go. In the last case you might be trying to nudge your supervisor, inspire your peers, or energize your subordinates. This book gives you all the tools. And it's a pleasure to read. You won't want to put it down because the research and model will edify, the stories will provide concrete roadmaps, and the exercises and reflections

Buy it, read it, reflect on it, and use it.

One person found this helpful

Michael MacDonald

Compassion at work? It pays!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2021

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A critical foundational piece of literature in the realm of positive organizational scholarship.

The authors build an undeniable case for incorporating compassion and empathy into the workplace. It transcends simple encouragement to embrace emotional intelligence; the book demonstrates how and why action matters.

Using a blend of case studies and academic findings, the authors help us realize how an orientation to alleviating suffering will foster a better workplace and support team consolidation which in turn increases productivity and general success.

Well done.

Robert Stocking

In Times of Great Suffering, Practical Inspiration

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 27, 2017

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This book is an incredibly powerful response to suffering in the world. While it extensively discusses the suffering in the workplace witnessed and researched by the authors over nearly two decades, it also feels extremely timely because the pain endemic to the workplace is now manifesting itself in our wider culture. This book can bear witness to this pain in multiple ways. Have you intuitively felt that organizations that care about their employees are not only better places to work, but are also more profitable and successful? Monica and Jane show you that your instinct is spot on. Want to see examples of what compassionate workers, teams, and organizations look like? The stories in this book are incredibly compelling. Do you want to know how to assess your own organization demonstrates compassion, and enables its workers to exhibit it? My favorite section, near the end, guides you through simple but powerful tools for making yourself a compassion architect, and your organization a compassionate one. If you want to be a candle against the darkness of our times, read this book.

4 people found this helpful

Margaret H. Greenberg

Be a Positive Deviant: Show Your Compassion Rather Than Your Frustration

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 28, 2017

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Awakening Compassion at Work sounds fluffy, but it is the soft stuff that's the hard stuff. Drawing upon the latest research in positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship, Worline and Dutton make their business case for why compassion is desperately needed in the workplace today. At any given time, someone on your team is suffering, yes suffering, be it from the latest org. change to challenging circumstances outside of work. Find out what happens when we take the time to notice, offer generous interpretations as a starting place, get curious, and customize our approach. Well organized and written in a conversational tone, Worline and Dutton's Awakening Compassion at Work includes an assessment to measure your strengths and challenges, and even includes a blueprint for action. Business leaders and executives coaches: Make this your next book club read.

Margaret H. Greenberg is the co-author of Profit from the Positive: Proven Leadership Strategies to Boost Productivity and Transform Your Business, with a foreword by Tom Rath , with a foreword by Tom Rath, (McGraw-Hill).

Dan Lovaglia

Compassion Requires More Than Emotional Intelligence

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 28, 2017

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Emotional intelligence is valuable, but only scratches the surface when it comes to exhibiting true compassion. Monica Worline and Jane Dutton tackle the complexities of interpersonal care in the workplace with grace and truth. They don't just present research and theory, they steer readers toward personal change and practical application. If leaders in more MBA programs and organizations take Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power That Elevates People and Organizations seriously, it won't just impact the business sector--it will affect individuals, families, and communities as well. This isn't a quick-read leadership book. It's a guide for transforming people managers from the inside out so that everyone they lead experiences the heartfelt change compassion can make. (p.s. Thank you to Weaving Influence for the signed copy!)

Mary Ceccanese

Creating a work culture that reflects equal opportunities for all

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are paramount to creating work cultures that reflect equal opportunities for all. Compassion plays a vital role in achieving that type of climate. Professors Worline and Dutton not only demonstrate what compassion looks like in various industries but also provide a step-by-step guide (blueprint) that helps us as individuals and as members of teams, units, departments, and entire organizations promote and embrace a work culture that reflects the humanness of us all. This is a must-read for leaders and for all who wish to understand how best to notice, interpret, feel, and act when we witness suffering in the workplace.

CC

Deep. Practical. Insightful!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 22, 2017

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I just finished reading this book cover to cover. Compassion is something to be demonstrated. Leaders are the high-level architects of compassion in our organizations. We move people by modeling personal presence in the face of suffering. I am reminded that by these words of wisdom for leaders. "Leaders who invest in compassion competence and communicate to reinforce shared humanity unlock resources to alleviate suffering that they themselves may never have dreamed possible. By legitimizing suffering and compassion, leaders shape the contours of our collective empathy and offer us new ways to make more generous interpretation of one another." Thank you Monica and Jane for sharing your lives' research stories!

One person found this helpful

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