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Road to Flourishing
hardcover
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ebook
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What makes for a flourishing workplace?
Many organizations find themselves spinning their wheels in work cultures filled with toxicity, dysfunction, conflict, and fear. Unengaged employees drag down productivity, and ineffective management undermines morale. How can we create workplaces where people don't just struggle to get through the day but instead thrive and love what they do and where they work?
Al Lopus, cofounder and CEO of Best Christian Workplaces Institute, has studied hundreds of organizations to discover eight key drivers in companies with healthy culture and engaged employees. He gathers best practices from across a range of companies and ministries to demonstrate how people at all levels can work together to accomplish work that matters. Principles and real-life examples provide concrete ways that organizations can flourish by building fantastic teams, cultivating life-giving work, attracting and retaining outstanding talent, and much more.
With compelling case studies, behind-the-curtain revelations, and enlightening personal anecdotes, Road to Flourishing will motivate leaders, managers, and their teams to reimagine, reassess, and renew their commitment to building healthy work cultures where everyone can flourish.
"If you regularly ponder and discuss your organization's culture or you have never given it much thought, you will benefit from the principles Al shares in this book. In its pages, you will meet leaders who are actively shaping workplace culture. Whether you work within the nonprofit or for-profit sector, you will gain a greater awareness of your organization's needs and how to build a vibrant culture and an engaged team. Al shares stories from some of the countless organizations the institute has helped on the path to flourishing, and implementing his advice will help yours too."
"Al Lopus has built a remarkable niche of coming alongside ministries—both large and small—to reshape their cultures. While not promising an overnight cure, he identifies areas of unhealthiness and charts doable pathways to flourishing. I have seen his handiwork up close, and it is transformative. With this book, his sphere of influence is broadened. I believe that the Lord is well pleased with his efforts."
"If you are a leader who wants your team and mission to thrive, you're holding in your hands an extremely helpful guide. Al Lopus has been researching and reflecting on the principles and practices that make for a flourishing organization for decades, and his voice is wise, gentle, and trustworthy. Apply the contents of this book and the journey ahead will be transformational for all."
"Al Lopus is the culture champion and wise guide who provides Christian leaders with what is needed most to ensure their employees thrive. In The Road to Flourishing you will never have a reason to lose your way. God has entrusted leaders with men and women who have been called to accomplish his plans. This is the book that will enable you to create a culture where everyone passionately gives their best so that God's best is achieved."
"When it comes to our jobs and the way we work together, God describes his heart in Psalm 115:14, 'May the Lord cause you to flourish.' It's a glorious goal, but how do we reach it? In this powerful new book, my friend Al Lopus describes the key benchmarks in creating an organizational culture where people thrive. Al Lopus was instrumental in helping Joni and Friends become a flourishing workplace—our ministry is a place where our employees love what they do, respect one another, and enjoy extending Christ's kingdom. I highly recommend this exceptional book to your business, church, or ministry organization."
"There is a growing consensus among organizational gurus and leaders that a healthy organizational culture is one of the most powerful tools available for lifting performance and improving competitiveness. But just how do you improve something as intangible as your organization's culture? One answer is to call in the 'culture doctor'! Al Lopus is an experienced real-world culture doctor, who has diagnosed and treated hundreds of ailing and failing organizational cultures. In Road to Flourishing, Al lays out his tried-and-true methodology for understanding, assessing, and addressing the common weaknesses in organizational cultures. Reading this one book could be the most important thing you can do this year for your employees and your bottom line."
"One of the greatest privileges of my life was my twenty-year tenure as president and CEO of MOPS International. I arrived in the role as an inexperienced thirty-four-year-old and learned as I led. Along the way I met Al Lopus and began to benefit from his workplace discoveries. In his book, Road to Flourishing, Al lays out the core principles for leaders of any age and any length of experience to develop flourishing organizations and workplaces. I'm so grateful for his clear and helpful guidance!"
"Al Lopus doesn't mince words when writing about the toxic work cultures he's observed. But Road to Flourishing is also upbeat—you can create 'life-giving work' for every team member. You have two options: (1) continue to apply inappropriate Band-Aids to your sick workplace, or (2) go deeper and discover how your organization's culture will flourish with God-honoring and intentional best practices. Reading this book with your team members is a no-brainer. Pick one: life-giving work or life-sapping work."
"'When a Christian-led team is working together, it's supposed to flourish while the whole world is watching and thereby lead it to Jesus,' writes Al Lopus, and in this book he gives us a lifetime of experience and insights to accomplish that very task. Filled with stories that instruct and inspire, with insights that both reveal the keys to a healthy workplace and the steps leaders can take, this book is both a trustworthy tool and a great gift."
"A truly flourishing organizational culture is a self-sustaining structure. When you treat your people well, trust them, and care about them, they will treat their colleagues the same. This increases productivity, creates improved innovation and collaboration, and greatly enriches the quality of workplace relationships. Al Lopus doesn't just tell you how to create a flourishing culture—he walks you through it along the Road to Flourishing. Read this book, build a healthy workplace culture, and watch your people flourish!"
"Al Lopus has been influencing our organization's culture for years through his leadership of the Best Christian Workplaces Institute. Through our work with BCWI, we have been learning key principles that help us mold our school into one with a healthy and flourishing culture. It's great to now see these principles put together in this impressive book. I recommend it to all who want to bring health to the core of their organization."
"A flourishing culture is a powerful apologetic to the world! Even the most post-Christian world is craving authentic love, meaningful work, and dignity. This book is a guide with great practicality brought to life with real stories, and can help a leader build a great organization capable of a greater purpose. I'm a better leader, our business is more effective, our people flourish, and God is honored by my work because of the ways Al, Best Christian Workplaces Institute, and these ideas have guided us. Every business is in the people business, and God is in the people business. This is one of the most important issues for any Christian leader to press into!"
"Al brings such an advantage to Best Christian Workplaces from his work in the marketplace. His vast experiences qualify him to be a national leader with just what it takes to have a great organizational culture. He understands how to identify, develop, and retain great talent. Every employee basically wants the same thing: 'To wake up every day feeling valued.' Al knows all about that. He teaches how to move a lifeless organization toward flourishing. His biblical, practical analysis of the crucial steps necessary to have a healthy team are developed in this great work. Very few leaders are willing to admit that their teams just might need to improve. Using this book as a guide can transform your team members and your church or nonprofit. Road to Flourishing becomes your in-house conference on how to have healthy culture."
Foreword by Peter Greer
Preface
1. From Toxic to Flourishing: The Eight Keys to a Transformed Culture
2. Fantastic Teams
3. Life-Giving Work
4. Outstanding Talent
5. Uplifting Growth
6. Rewarding Compensation
7. Inspirational Leadership
8. Sustainable Strategy
9. Healthy Communication
10. Journey Inward, Journey Forward: Your First Steps on the Road to Flourishing
Acknowledgments
Appendix: Workplace Culture Pulse Survey
Notes