Maslow on Management

Amazon.com

Anyone who has sat through a psychology course has seen Abraham H. Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a pyramid capped by the highest human need of all, the need for, what Maslow famously termed, self-actualization. Since his death in 1970, Maslow's voluminous writings have made him one of the most influential thinkers in counseling psychology. He is a revered father figure to the human potential movement. But few know him as a brilliantly insightful analyst of how to lead people and make organizations more productive. Maslow on Management should change that.

In 1962, Maslow spent the summer at an electronics factory that was one of the first to try giving workers a say in organizing production. He watched and kept a journal, later published under the intimidating title Eupsychian Management. The book, which had been long out of print, has been republished with extensive commentaries as Maslow on Management.

Some of Maslow on Management is, as Warren Bennis writes in the foreword, "hilariously innocent." Reflecting on the power of well-managed workplaces to unleash creativity, Maslow suggests that the U.S. economy would benefit "if we kept all the factories running at full blast and simply gave things away." Yet his deeper point--that good management leads to good psychological health--is startlingly advanced for 1962, when the business world was still widely thought of as nurturing nothing more than soulless conformity. He was surprisingly prescient, too, in warning that participatory management taken to excess becomes sloppy and weak. While encouraging open communication, an effective leader "should have the power and the ability to keep his mouth shut," Maslow writes. He advises that gentle, permissive management is fine if workers share democratic values, but if not, "break their backs immediately."

Full of rambling, half-finished thoughts and provocative speculations, Maslow on Management is no nine-step plan for building winning work teams. But anyone seriously interested in understanding management will find the book useful as a fascinating reflection of a brilliant mind thinking deeply about the nature and purpose of work. --Barry Mitzman

Book Description

A seminal work onhuman behavior in the workplace-now completely updated

"At last! We have all been quoting Maslow for years and to now have such an excellent compilation of his seminal thoughts on management and organization comes like a timely gift from heaven. The values and principles he taught decades ago are even more relevant today." -Stephen Covey, author, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.

"Maslow's book is a readable, impressionistic masterpiece that extolled the virtues of collaborative, synergistic management decades ahead of its time. This edition reveals just how much the management thinkers of our day, including Peter Drucker, W. Edwards Deming, and Peter Senge, owe to Maslow, and how much, at the dawn of the twenty-first century, management can still learn from his insights." -Andrea Gabor, author, The Man Who Discovered Quality.

"Maslow's brilliant and humane perspectives are made easily accessible in this exceptional book. It's also quite humbling-why haven't we yet actualized the truths about human nature and the nature of work?" -Margaret J. Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science and A Simpler Way.

"Maslow's profound concept of self-actualization could generate a Copernican Revolution of work and society, catapulting us out of what future generations will look back on as the dark ages of management." -Jim Collins, coauthor, Built to Last.

The pioneer behind the hierarchy of needs and the concept of self-actualization, Dr. Abraham Maslow was-and is-one of the world's most esteemed experts on human behavior and motivation. However, while perhaps most famous for his work in the area of humanistic psychology, his legacy of work encompasses much more, extending into the realms of business and management. Having explored and studied the relationship between human behavior and the work situation, Maslow translated the science of the mind into the art of management=an important interpretation first published in the far-sighted treatise, Eupsychian Management, and whose impact continues to be felt today. Now, this seminal work has been updated, primed to introduce new readers to-and reacquaint old admirers with-what some have called the renowned psychologist's best book.

Bringing into perspective the lasting impact of Maslow's groundbreaking principles, Maslow on Management illustrates how they have withstood the test of time to become integral components of current management practices, such as continuous improvement, Theory X, and empowerment. Offering insight into using these and other tools to effectively tackle present-day business situations, from heightened competitiveness to globalization to emerging technologies, Maslow on Management covers a wealth of timeless topics, including:
* Self-actualization-the freedom to effectuate one's own ideas, try things out, make decisions, and make mistakes
* Synergy-what is beneficial for the individual is beneficial for everyone; individual success should not occur at the expense of others; align organizational goals with personal goals
* Enlightened management policy-assume that all your people have the impulse to achieve; everyone prefers to be a prime mover rather than a passive helper; everyone wants to feel important, needed, useful, successful, and proud; there is no dominance-subordination hierarchy.

To complement Dr. Maslow's original writings and to demonstrate how his forward-thinking ideas are being played out in today's business world, Maslow on Management features interviews with Perot Systems Chairman Mort Meyerson, Non-Linear Systems founder Andrew Kay, Esalen Institute founder Michael Murphy, and other prominent figures who provide incisive commentary on subjects ranging from creativity in business to leadership lessons for the digital age.

Epitomizing the genius of its author and embodying his elegant ruminations, Maslow on Management is still as important as it was when it first appeared. A true classic, this is essential reading for all managers.

Customer Reviews:

Maslow for Business.......2006-11-22

As psychologist I recommend especially this book! It is a bridge between an 'ethical theory of personality or men' and 'working with others in any organisation or business'. It can be used in 'Human Resource Management'. In the West a 'free human individual' is the piller of a free society and even all civilization, since Aknaton. (In the book Moses by Freud, Aknaton is mentioned as the first individual.) A free human individual creates more revenue for businesses and is much better for all others. It counters man just seen as a machine, rat, animal, subject or moneymaking instrument.

Insights lost in Maslow's ramblings........2002-02-27

Without the commentary, you would be hard pressed to pick out Maslow's insights in this stream-of-conscience puffery.

To save you the cost of this book, his main thesis is "A musician must make music, and an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization...
It refers to a man's desire for self-fulfillment, namely to the tendency for him to become in actuality what he is potentially:
to become everything that one is capable of becoming"

A TRUE CLASSIC, AS RELEVANT AS EVERý.......2000-12-03

One of the world's most renowned experts on human behaviour and motivation, Abraham Maslow is most famous for his perspectives on the "hierarchy of human needs" and self-actualization. This book updates the original edition published in 1963, entitled Eupsychian Management. It demonstrates how even today Maslow's seminal concepts of human behaviour are still playing out in the business world. This book offers new generations of managers insights into Maslow's influential theories which have emerged in modern business, approaches such as continuous improvement, enlightened management, Theory X, and empowerment. Maslow's work has powerfully affected managerial theory, organizational development, education, health care, and science as well as psychology.

A true classic, Maslow on Management is still as important as when it first appeared and thus essential reading for all managers.

The late Abraham Maslow is the most widely known expert on human behaviour and motivation. He is often referred to as the father of humanistic psychology, a body of knowledge and theories separate from the behaviorist and Freudian movements. His books are acknowledged as standards in psychology literature worldwide.

Deborah C. Stephens and Gary Heil are co-founders of The Center of Innovative Leadership. Deborah Stephens is an author, educator, and management consultant in the areas of customer service, leadership, and organizational development. She is co-author of One Size Fits One: Building Relationships One Customer and One Employee at a Time with Gary Heil.

Great.......2000-08-13

This is a very accessible book of brilliant ideas about management, and human nature in general. U. S. Grant once said, "the best man for the job doesn't go after the job, he waits to be called." This book affirms what I've long thought, that people like Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon, who were desperate to be president, so that they lied and cheated, etc., to get that power, are the LAST people who SHOULD be President (or CEO or whatever). Those who WANT the power are psychologically sick in some way. And Clinton and Nixon should have both gone to prison. They both broke the law. Psychopaths LOVE having power, and both Nixon and Clinton displayed strong psychopathic characteristics. This book gives one some faith in human nature because it shows that the best way to motivate humans is to NURTURE them and give them FREEDOM. That if allowed, they will be GOOD and PRODUCTIVE. There is a worthwhile insight on almost every page of this book. And Maslow had an IQ of 195. So he was no idiot.

A timeless management/psychology classic!.......2000-04-29

We've all heard of Maslow or the hierarchy of needs in some form or other, but often times simply as a side note in some management or psychology class. Here in one volume is the collection of Maslow's genius insights in to human motivation. The book is a collection of essays on motivation, learning, management, and self-actualization (essentially, to be at piece with oneself and become everything he/she is capable of becoming) Maslow examines our organizational structures and how they greatly influence our ability to achieve self-actualization. He lays out a framework and assumptions that must be made when dealing with people, managing people and motivating them, and recognizes that there are different types of personalities, beliefs, management styles, and management theories. Theory X (authoritarian, untrusting, management style) and Y (a belief that people are trustworthy, responsible, seek meaning in their work, and naturally want to learn) are explored in detail as are the effects of our belief in one or the other.

While both theories and the implications of each are discussed, it is clear that Maslow, as well as the contributors to the book focus on, and believe that in general, Y is the dominant (most beneficial, not necessarily the most practiced or popular) theory. Theory Y cultivates growth in personal meaning, satisfaction, and self-actualization, helps to propel an organization to be the most it can be, through the collective learning of the individuals that make it an organization. Applying this methodology in the right environment can contribute to the long term success of an organization as judged both by the self actualization of it's members, and the financial success of the organization.

Maslow scripted and published his journal, close to forty years ago, however, it is at least as applicable to the information based net economy of today, as it was to the economy at the time it was published. While organizations and economies change, people and psychology remain relatively constant.

Book Description

Includes Original Essays & Letters
"The more evolved and psychologically healthy people get, the more will enlightened management policy be necessary in order to survive in competition and the more handicapped will be an enterprise with an authoritarian policy."-Abraham Maslow

In a world in which each new day brings a new management theory or strategic proposition, the timeless ideas of Abraham Maslow resonate with unimpeachable insight and clarity. Dr. Maslow, the pioneer behind elemental concepts including the hierarchy of needs and the human search for self-actualization, innately understood that the goals and passions that so impact humans in their everyday life could be just as applicable-and his own findings just as valuable-in the work environment.

The Maslow Business Reader collects Maslow's essays and letters for his many devoted adherents, and introduces his published and unpublished works to readers unfamiliar with Maslow's management breakthroughs. From recognizing and warning against management's natural progression to mechanize the human organization to brilliant discussions of human motivation, Dr. Maslow never fails to instantly recognize the heart and soul of each matter and provide direct, across-the-board solutions.

Abraham Maslow's contributions to behavioral science shine on every page. In notes and articles, as well as personal letters to icons B. F. Skinner, John D. Rockefeller II, and others, The Maslow Business Reader provides his outlook on:
* Management and leadership issues such as customer loyalty, entrepreneurship, and the importance of communication
* Ways to build a work environment conducive to creativity, innovation, and maximized individual contributions
* Techniques for finding comfort in change and ambiguity, and using them to spur creativity and innovation

Amid today's impressive technological innovations, business leaders sometimes forget that work is-at its core-a fundamental human endeavor. The Maslow Business Reader reminds us of Dr. Abraham Maslow's towering contribution to the understanding of human behavior and motivation, and how his efforts can lead to a greater understanding of the twenty-first-century workplace-and the workers who call it home.

An important analysis of workplace motivation-from the twentieth century's most influential behavioral expert

Abraham Maslow is renowned-and rightfully so-for his pioneering work on the hierarchy of needs and the human drive for self-actualization. As today's worker increasingly equates professional success with personal satisfaction and fulfillment, Dr. Maslow's words and ideas have become recognized for their wisdom and prescience on performance improvement and management/employee relationships.

The Maslow Business Reader collects Abraham Maslow's most instructive, intuitive thoughts and essays into one important volume. Assembled from the wealth of behavioral research and analysis Dr. Maslow left upon his death in 1970, the enclosed selections reveal a man comfortable with his position in history, tireless in his efforts to better understand what truly makes humans strive to reach their potential, and gifted in his ability to translate the most profound concepts and realities into entertaining, thought-provoking prose.

Abraham Maslow is still regarded as the modern world's most articulate, insightful authority on human behavior and motivation. Discover his beliefs and conclusions on worker drives and motivations-as applicable today as when they were first written-in The Maslow Business Reader.

Customer Reviews:

Heirarchy of Needs is the value in the book.......2002-01-27

The key element of Abraham Maslow's work, especially as it applies to the business world is that while organizations and economies change, people and psychology remain relatively constant. Mr. Maslow's work was about his desire to better understand what truly makes humans strive to reach their potential.

Mr. Maslow wasn't a business specialist; he was a psychologist and revolutionized behavioral sciences with seminal work on the "hierarchy of needs." Mr. Maslow's work began being preached to business students in the early 1960's through Douglas McGregor's work.

This book is a collection of published and unpublished articles and thoughts by Mr. Maslow, edited by Deborah Stevens.
This book provides insights from Maslow on fostering entrepreneurship, enhancing creativity in the workplace and maximizing the organizational effectiveness of individual workers through self-actualized work.

If you are looking for a good business book GO ELSEWHERE but if you want to learn about the hierarchy of needs or Abraham Maslow this book may be the book for you.

As a general rating I give the book 3 stars. Why? Because, outside of the basic framework on the hierarchy of needs and the evolution of man within it I found the book boring and I consistently found myself searching for groundbreaking or extremely applicable comments in various sections to the realm of business. Yes, business is about creativity and innovation (even more so in today's information age) but other books provide more insight into those areas. Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen is such a book.

Don't get me wrong, if you have never read Maslow you need to as it is REQUIRED READING at all the top MBA programs and truly is essential in understanding business and managing a business. Business is about people and understanding what makes them tick. However, as it pertains to reading material I found myself searching for great commentary and not getting much. I like to read a book and find myself completely absorbed by it reading 50-60 pages at a time (with this book I could never do it and I love reading heady stuff.) I read primarily business books, even some economic philosophy stuff, which is deep stuff, but it was far more thought provoking than this book.

Excellent Maslow primer for business & management students.......2000-07-31

This collection assembles Abraham Maslow's most instructive, intuitive thoughts and essays into one important volume. Gleaned from the wealth of behavioural research and analysis Dr Maslow left upon his death in 1970, the selections reveal a man comfortable with his position in history, tireless in his efforts to better understand what truly makes humans strive to reach their potential, and gifted in his ability to translate the most profound concepts and realities into entertaining, thought-provoking prose.

The timeless ideas of Maslow resonate with unimpeachable insight and clarity. Maslow innately understood that the goals and passions that so impact humans in their everyday life could be just as applicable in the work environment.

Editor Deborah C. Stephens introduces Maslow's published and unpublished works to readers unfamiliar to Maslow's management breakthroughs. From recognising and warning against management's natural progression to mechanise the human organisation to brilliant discussions of human motivation, Maslow never fails to instantly recognise the heart and soul of each encounter and provide direct, across-the-board solutions.

This book provides Maslow's outlook on management and leadership issues such as customer loyalty, entrepreneurship, and the importance of communication. Learn ways to build a work environment conducive to creativity, innovation, and maximised individual contributions as well as techniques for finding comfort in change and ambiguity, and using them to spur creativity and innovation.

The late Abraham Harold Maslow is still regarded as the world's most widely renowned, articulate and insightful authority on human behaviour and motivation. Dr Maslow has contributed seminal works to the literature of business, applying his ideas on human behaviour, personality, and motivation to the workforce. Deborah Collins Stephens is a cofounder of the Centre for Innovative Leadership. She is the coauthor of One Size Fits One and Douglas McGregor, Revisited and a collaborator on Maslow on Management.

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Skyhooks for Leadership: A New Framework That Brings Together Five Decades of Thought--from Maslow to Senge

Manufacturer: AMACOM
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0814405169

Book Description

Nineteen authors and five decades of the best thinking on leadership inspire one all-new model for leading change effectively.

No fads or quick-fixes here. Skyhooks for Leadership presents enduring concepts on leadership from well-known business thinkers--and integrates them into an original seven-step model for leading change. In the process, it demystifies leadership, making it more attainable for people at all levels in all sorts of organizations.

Based on John Shtogren's business experience and solid research, this unique model is supported and illuminated by writings of the most respected "gurus" on leadership: O.A. Ohmann, Peter Senge, Douglas McGregor, Tom Peters, Bob Waterman, Chris Argyris, Nancy Austin, Abraham Maslow, Fred Herzberg, David McClelland, David Burnham, James Kouzes and Barry Posner, Robert Tannenbaum, Fred Massarik, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Robert Blake, Jane Mouton, and James O'Toole.

Their thinking on a wide range of topics--from trust and vision to teamwork and empowerment--shows the validity and staying power of the Skyhooks principles. With leadership based on the Skyhooks model, companies will achieve change smoothly and without undue confusion and resentment.

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Finally, a business book with SOUL!

The Maslovian Route to Corporate Greatness

Got Metaphor?

Book About The Heart and Soul of a Great Leader & Great Company ... A "Must Read"

Incredible!!!

Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow
Chip Conley
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0787988618

Book Description

After fifteen years of rising to the pinnacle of the hospitality industry, Chip Conley's company was suddenly undercapitalized and overexposed in the post-dot.com, post-9/11 economy. For relief and inspiration, Conley, the CEO and founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, turned to psychologist Abraham Maslow's iconic Hierarchy of Needs. This book explores how Conley's company "the second largest boutique hotelier in the world" overcame the storm that hit the travel industry by applying Maslow's theory to what Conley identifies as the key Relationship Truths in business with Employees, Customers and Investors.

Part memoir, part theory, and part application, the book tells of Joie de Vivre's remarkable transformation while providing real world examples from other companies and showing how readers can bring about similar changes in their work and personal lives. Conley explains how to understand the motivations of employees, customers, bosses, and investors, and use that understanding to foster better relationships and build an enduring and profitable corporate culture.

Customer Reviews:

Finally, a business book with SOUL!.......2007-10-05

I was attracted to Chip Conley's new book "Peak" not because of my interest in business, entrepreneurship or hotel management, but because of the exploration of Maslow's hierarchy, as well as principles of motivation and self-actualization. And I must say that for these reasons alone, Conley's book is worth reading.

With depth and insight, Conley explores what it is that our jobs can really be for us - more than a career, but a calling, as he puts it. He explains and illustrates with lively anecdotes how aiming for self-actualization, optimizing our human potential, through what we do is most beneficial to both our own human development as well as the business itself. After reading this book, who wouldn't want to found, lead, or work for a company that encourages every single employee to be the most fulfilled person they can be? It makes perfect sense, and yet businesses so easily get caught up in short-term gains, foresaking these higher goals. Conley's own experience proves that paying close attention to employee, leader, and shareholder satisfaction pays off in spades, in terms of both profits and human happiness.

Three cheers for Chip Conley for writing a business book with SOUL: a book that shows everyone from the hotel clerk to the founder of a multi-million dollar business how to lead optimal, rewarding lives; a book that shows companies how to make money not just in spite of but because of their conscious fostering of human potential. This book is an enjoyable read for business people and entrepreneurs as well as for anyone interested in psychology, motivation techniques, and generally improving their relationship with their work.

The Maslovian Route to Corporate Greatness.......2007-10-04

Boutique hotelier Chip Conley has written a book that captures the ethos of what we call The Age of Transcendence in our own book, Firms of Endearment. Conley's book is Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow.

Conley founded the Joie de Vivre hotel brand in the 1980s in San Francisco. His business plan called for catering to niches that do not typically show up on the radar screens of legacy names like Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt. For example Conley's first hotel, The Phoenix, is a funky establishment that caters to artists, friends of artists and sundry others inclined to travel away from the mainstreams of society.

Getting all the way down to a "niche of one," the Joie de Vivre web site invites you to answer five questions. Online personality Yvette will then match you up with a Joie de Vivre hotel that best fits your personality. This honors Conley's intention that a Joie de Vivre hotel experience delivers "identity refreshment" to each guest that validates him or her as a distinct individual.

Peak recalls the darkest days in the hotel industry since the Great Depression that occurred in the wake of the dotcom collapse and the horrific events of 9/11. Occupancy rates plunged to 50 percent in Joie de Vivre's markets. Some competitors filed for bankruptcy, including hotels operated by the biggest names in the business. But Joie de Vivre hotels averaged about a 20 percent annual market share pickup before the hospitality business returned to normal.

Abraham Maslow is the hero in Conley's story. As improbable as it may seem to some, he attributes the success of the Joie de Vivre brand to the creative application of the ideas of Maslow. Conley's heaviest Maslovian focus is on promoting the self-actualization of employees, customers and investors.

Maslow defined self-actualization in its simplest terms as "being all you can be." Once in the zone of "being all you can be," a person has a frequency of "peak experiences" not available to those yet to reach the lofty maturational levels of self-actualization.

People who still toil away to meet basic survival needs or who are still preoccupied with achieving greater social, vocational and material success have only occasional peak experiences.

In describing his Maslovian-grounded recipe for saving and growing his company, Conley writes, "I came to realize that creating peak experiences for our employees, customers and investors fostered peak performance for my company."

Peak shows why Maslovian-grounded management is not a New Age inspired approach to running a company. Rather, it is an eminently practical style of management that can produce superior results. It promotes peak performance throughout an organization at less net cost per employee than a more traditional style of management could achieve.

Take marketing costs, for example. With over $200 million in sales annually, Joie de Vivre spends less than $50,000 a year in print advertising.

Other benefits of the Joie de Vivre style of management include lower employee turnover, higher employee productivity and the deeper customer satisfaction and loyalty that inevitably flows from highly motivated, committed and satisfied employees.

Joie de Vivre is a quintessential "firm of endearment" - FoE. It follows the multiple-stakeholder operating model that is fundamental to the FoE way. Joie de Vivre is operationally organized as a network of teams rather than as a hierarchy based on title and function.. Like many FoE brands, Joie de Vivre hotels achieve virtual cult status in the eyes of many customers. That is the biggest reason FoEs typically have significantly lower marketing costs than their competitors have.

In the course of extending his points beyond the Joie de Vivre story, Conley cites other companies whose management reflects a Maslovian orientation. These include Whole Foods, Starbucks, Progressive Insurance, Harley-Davidson, Google and Best Buy - all of whom are FoEs that we hold up in Firms of Endearment as exemplary followers of the multiple stakeholder business operations model.

Conley has performed a great service by showing everyone including competitors how he steered his company through times of nearly unprecedented challenges and built it into the second largest chain of boutique hotels in the world.

Peak is a book for the times. It poignantly demonstrates the others-centered bent of a new breed of CEOs who have rejected the traditional ways outlined in Jim Collins' monumental best seller, Good to Great and set out to build great companies through a more humanistic style of management.

Got Metaphor?.......2007-10-04

If you're looking for a way to help your organization understand the steps that lead to something more than "good enough", Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow could be just the thing. So often a great metaphor makes the difference between interest and application. Peak is built on an excellent metaphor that will grab your attention right from the opening pages.

With a keen understanding of Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid, Chip Conley provides the framework for the hard work of helping organizations move beyond meeting basic expectations. Packed with stories of how Joie de Vivre was built, Peak is designed to help your organization begin helping your customers, employees, and investors realize their dreams and even their unrecognized needs and aspirations.

One of the best features of Peak are the detailed prescriptions at the end of each chapter. Additionally, each chapter includes a very helpful recommended reading section that will enhance your understanding of the concept and enrich your experience.

Peak is a book you're going to want to have your whole team unpack...and then let the games begin!

Book About The Heart and Soul of a Great Leader & Great Company ... A "Must Read".......2007-09-28

PEAK is one of my all time favorite business books. I will never be able to do it justice in this short review. PEAK is definitely a "must read" for every executive, CEO and business owner for whom "being ordinary is not an option."

Over the past 22 years, I have worked with many successful companies and leaders. Yet from the first pages of reading this book, I knew that Joie De Vivre (JDV) and Chip Conley (the CEO and author) are a rare breed in today's business world, integrating money with meaning, doing with becoming, success with significance. Here are my reasons why I love this book.

In my experience, there are few companies that go beyond meeting the basic needs of their employees, customers and investors. Only a handful of companies committed to honoring the full hierarchy of employee, customer and investor needs as the foundation to their own profitability, success and legacy. JDV and Chip Conley clearly walk their talk in that regard and are amongst that small minority.

PEAK is multi-fasceted. I felt like I was reading 3 books in one -- a personal narrative/story, a "teaching" manual and a "how to" roadmap -- packed with wisdom, inspiration, provocative ideas and action steps. The book grabbed my attention right away as the author shared his "hero's journey." A story about how JDV, a fast rising star in the '90's, plummeted into a downward spiral with the dotcom industry crash and then hit with an additional catastrophic jolt with 9/11. Tough times like these test a true leader's courage, tenacity, values and substance ... and his/her willingness to heed "the call" to embark on the hero's journey. As the saying goes, "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." It was in those trying moments and through synchronistic events that the author fell upon, via a book, his life and leadership mentor, Abraham Maslow. A mentor whose human motivation principles became the cornerstone of one the most successful hospitality companies in the world. A hero's journey is never complete without transformation and growth, and a "coming home." To me PEAK represents that "coming full circle" where the author shares his experience and wisdom gained during the past 10+ years ago.

PEAK is also a "teaching" manual. It opened my eyes to the power of Maslow's hierarchy in leadership, organizational development, marketing and investor relations ... and ultimately the profitability and legacy of a company. Below are some of my favorite gems from the book:

* The difference between "transactional" vs. "transformational" leadership
* Corporate transformation can only follow personal transformation
* The difference between a job vs. a career vs. a calling
* How JDV creates both meaning "at" work and meaning "in" work with their employees
* How JDV helps employees reach the top level of the hierarchy (meaning/fulfillment) by "becoming heroes participating in the profitability in a heroic enterprise"
* JDV's use of "dreaming sessions" with key customers
* Strategies for addressing unrecognized customer needs to create loyalty
* How to create strong investor relations that go beyond a healthy ROI and are built on trust, partnership and a common higher mission
* JDV's "heart" as the symbol of their corporate culture
* The "service profit chain" -- ie., how JDV's happy employees make happy customers make a healthy profit, and thus, happy investors.
* My favorite part of the book: the final graphic integrating the employee, customer and investor pyramids inside one big pyramid with JDV's "heart symbol" in the middle. A picture truly is worth a 1000 words.

Finally, PEAK is also a "how to" book. I love when an author pulls together at the end of each chapter the main principles and gives me (the reader) "prescriptives" how to apply Maslow's hierarchy to myself and my own business. I've already started applying a couple of Chip Conley's provocative, mind expanding prescriptives to my business - such as, applying the 4 themes that help my customers reach their own peak experience - and find every one of them worth their weight in gold.

While PEAK was my first introduction to applying Maslow's hierarchy in business, I do use Clare Graves Values System Hierarchy (who was Maslow's peer) in my corporate client work. Graves' hierarchy reflects levels of consciousness and assesses to what level an individual, an organization or even a country has evolved at any given time. There is definitely cross synergies between the 2 hierarchies. One of the big differences is that Grave's model is open-ended with no limit on how far one can evolved. According to Clare Graves, only a fraction of 1% have reached his "level 8" - the "holistic self." I sense from reading the book PEAK that Chip Conley and JDV are one of the rare few who have reached that level.

PEAK is more than just a business book. It provides an important message about how to live fulfilling, harmonious, joyful lives. If the principles of PEAK were to be applied by every CEO, executive and business owners, there is no doubt this world would be a much better place.

Incredible!!!.......2007-09-25

Chip Conley's new book "Peak" is one of the best business books I have ever read.
By applying Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Conley has been able to create a unique culture and in turn, an incredibly successful company. He has focused his attention on getting his employees, customers, and investors to the top of their respective Hierarchy of Needs' pyramids. This unique approach helped his company survive and even thrive through one of the biggest downturns in the hospitality industry.

As he states in the book "The basic premise is simple; a unique corporate culture creates happy employees, which leads to greater customer loyalty that in turn drives a profitable and sustainable business."

I cannont reccommend this book highly enough. Great insights and inspiring stories.

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Eupsychian Management: A Journal
Abraham Harold Maslow
Manufacturer: Richard D Irwin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0870940562

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Eupsychian Management. A Journal.
ABRAHAM H. MASLOW
Manufacturer: Richard D. Irwin Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K6MUZW

El Management Segun Maslow/ Maslow on Management: Una Vision Humanista Para La Empresa De Hoy / A Humanistic View for Today's Business

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El Management Segun Maslow/ Maslow on Management: Una Vision Humanista Para La Empresa De Hoy / A Humanistic View for Today's Business
Abraham Harold Maslow
Manufacturer: Ediciones Paidos Iberica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Right to Be Human: A Biography of Abraham Maslow

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Excellent Biography
Easily the greatest biography written this century!

The Right to Be Human: A Biography of Abraham Maslow
Edward Hoffman
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0071342672

Book Description

"...a solid history of uniquely American intellectual tradition..."--Kirkus Reviews. "...a fascinating and useful study."--The Los Angeles Times. "...a great deal for those seeking greater insight...."--Psychology Today. "Maslow laid the foundation for the human side of management. All students of and particpants in the human community, especially the management and organization of work, should read this seminal biography."--Warren Bennis. Recognized as one of the greatest influences on contemporary psychology, Abraham Maslow created the seminal concepts of team-decision and management, self-actualization and higher motivation. This edition of the critically acclaimed 1988 classic fully captures the renewed popularity of Maslow's business applications--what they are, what they mean, and why.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Biography.......2000-08-19

Why have almost all of today's most celebrated marketing wizards made it their business to know about this man and examine his ideas? Why does virtually every serious management book recognize, document, and praise his insights? How do his life and his legacy continue to inspire and inform the visions of today's most alert and innovative entrepreneurs? Why is global interest now mounting in his multifaceted work?

Fascinating and visionary, Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) pioneered revolutionary ideas that helped form modern psychology and laid the foundation of the human side of management and marketing. His lifetime of discoveries in motivation and personality transcended academic psychology, and extended into the major business fields of management and marketing. Maslow also loved to explore nascent, barely perceptible social trends and speculate boldly about their long-term consequences. He was the originator of such important concepts as the hierarchy of human needs, self-actualization, higher motivation, team decision-making and business synergy.

All business students-not just of management development and organizational behaviour-should read this seminal biography. Critically acclaimed in its first edition and now revised and updated for this paperback edition, The Right to Be Human is a fascinating portrait of one of the seminal thinkers of the twentieth century-at once a vivid biography of a truly original personality and an intellectual journey to the very source of how we think about and manage our businesses today.

Edward Hoffman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in New York with degrees from Cornell University and the University of Michigan. He has authored several books including Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow, The Drive for Self: Alfred Adler and the Founding of Individual Psychology and The Book of Fathers' Wisdom.

Easily the greatest biography written this century!.......1999-07-05

One of the greatest biographies written this century!! While Freud and his followers convinced the world that we all repressed our inherent wickedness and immorality, Maslow sought out the good in people--"the best of humanity". Dr. Hoffman has written one of the most accessible and fascinating biographies of the century. Shown here with warts and all, Hoffman delivers a full and rich account of one of Psychology's greatest thinkers. As brilliant as he was compassionate, Maslow radically changed both psychology and the corporate world. However, Kudos need to go to Hoffman, who skillfully and eloquently brought Maslow to the masses. Anyone interested in psychology, business, or simply the trials and triumphs of a fellow human being will take away more from this book than any other text available. Highly Recomended!!

The self. (motivation techniques in the workplace)(On Motivation, part 1)(Column): An article from: Fund Raising Management

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The self. (motivation techniques in the workplace)(On Motivation, part 1)(Column): An article from: Fund Raising Management
Michael R. Maude
Manufacturer: Hoke Communications, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Fund Raising Management, published by Hoke Communications, Inc. on October 1, 1997. The length of the article is 1884 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Self-actualization, which is characterized by productivity and increased satisfaction, begins with the proper union of motivation and ability. With this combination, one develops the drive to grow in the development profession. By overcoming external obstacles like politics and over-control, which cause undue stress and frustration, an individual also satisfies what psychologist Abraham Maslow calls as 'needs and desires' and begins to progress.

Citation Details
Title: The self. (motivation techniques in the workplace)(On Motivation, part 1)(Column)
Author: Michael R. Maude
Publication: Fund Raising Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 1997
Publisher: Hoke Communications, Inc.
Volume: v28 Issue: n8 Page: p18(3)

Article Type: Column

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Eupsychian Management
Abraham Harold Maslow
Manufacturer: Richard D. Irwin, Inc. and the Dorsey Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JR85GA

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