22 Keys to Creating a Workplac

Tom Terez, in his book 22 Keys to Creating a Meaningful Workplace, gets to the heart of the motivation and values issues that today's workforce struggles with on a daily basis. His solid research and real life examples define the issues and he goes beyond the broad brush cliches. He gives many of his examples in the voice of the people who provided him with his data. Every reader can see pieces of themselves and their organization in the pages of this book. This clear, concise and well written manual then goes on to provide a template to assess your own organization and helps you wrestle with the "meaning" question to obtain positive results. Tom Terez has a real talent for getting to the heart of the matter and cutting out useless jargon. He has made the subject understandable, useful and actionable. After reading this book-I can't wait to use his concepts in my organization to help all our employees build shared meaning. I will be giving this book to all of our senior management staff for Christmas!

So many business books these days are full of buzzwords and slogans -- stuff that just doesn't lead to any deep insight or positive change. "22 Keys" is different. It shows respect for its readers. It gets into the underlying issues and challenges that affect employee satisfaction. And it's written in a neat style -- down to earth, personable, genuine. The author seems to have done his homework too -- he knows what's happening in the real work world. In terms of a criticism (actually, more of a suggestion), it would nice to have an audiotape version of this book, because people spend so much time in their cars going to and from work.

As an internal quality management consultant for the past 10 years, I have always made the point that "slightly more than 1/3 of one's waking hours are spent at work, and - if not a place you get up in the morning raring' to go to - it ought to at least be a place you don't mind being at for that length of time."Here's a book that helps you, and others in any organization, figure out how your workplace can become a meaningful one. The book is the result of years of observation and interviews and provides a framework by which you can assess your organization, and create an action plan for yourself and your workplace.What I liked about the book was the way it organized a way of thinking about what makes for a workplace that works for the people that inhabit it, and respects us as individuals. In that organization is both a teaching tool and a way of doing assessment that leads to action. For you quality professionals, it's a way of doing "Plan-Do-Study-Act" around the topic of workplace environment. Its also full of personal stories that illustrate concepts - a necessary way of making concepts come alive.I read a lot of books and articles on the subject of quality management - and this one tops my list from the last year.

This book provides so much useful information -- practical action ideas, real stories about real people, profiles of meaningful workplaces, a meaningful workplace scorecard, even "believe it or not" sidebars that show what really goes on in some organizations. My favorite sections were the end-of-chapter "reality checks," which you can use to evaluate your workplace in terms of the 22 "keys." These quickie assessments helped me and my colleagues take the temperature of our current situation -- and we've been using this as a starting point for focused conversation and improvement planning. If you want to increase job satisfaction -- your own and your colleagues' -- this book is required (and fun!) reading.

I knew my workplace was `toxic.' I determined to find a new one that wasn't. I read this book - and yes, it gave me a fresh set of criteria to use when looking for a better place to share my talent at. This book helped me - as a person - to think about what was important to me in a workplace. But this book is really meant for people who are responsible for setting the tone in their workplace - for managers and HR and teams who need to think about things like respect, and flexibility, and purpose. (I wish my old boss had read it!) Even with those big topics, though, the book reads quickly, with lots of stories and examples, and a laugh every now and then. Lots of interactive, thought-provoking questions and worksheets, too, to make sure I was paying attention! I liked it, learned some new ways of thinking about what's important in daily work, a good read, interesting.