Flourishing Enterprise: The New Spirit of Business

by Chris Laszlo, Judy Brown, John Ehrenfeld, Mary Gorham, Ilma Pose, Linda Robson, Roger Saillant, Dave Sherman, and Paul Werder.

Includes a Foreword and Afterword from visionary thinkers, Peter Senge and David Cooperrider.

Published in 2014 by Stanford University Press. Available on Amazon.com.

If enterprises are to prosper and flourish, and help the world prosper and flourish, they will need something more than the usual business case for sustainability. They will need to tap into the power of human emotions and motivations beyond meeting only material needs. Fully engaged individuals who are able to experience a sense of wholeness are essential to business creativity and innovation. We have known this for some time. But more rarely have we considered that the emotional and spiritual well-being of individuals is a task of management; spirituality, not in the religious sense, but as “the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete self, others, and the entire universe.”

Developed for today’s complexities, Flourishing Enterprise proposes that strategic, organizational, and operational sustainability efforts can benefit from new management practices that contribute to flourishing at every scale: individual, team, organizational, and system-wide. By expanding purpose beyond self- interest, by engaging and helping to co-shape the larger system, and by synergistically unlocking the full potential of employees and business partners, companies can drive innovation, foster creativity and nurture collaboration that leads to even greater business success.

Written in an accessible style aimed at business practitioners, the book is based on scholarly research with extensive references as well as in-depth interviews with business leaders. Filled with practical business examples and many organizational tools, this book provides guidance towards individual, team, organizational, and system-wide flourishing.