Making Business Personal is the title of a fascinating April 2014 Harvard Business Review (HBR) article. It features the latest insights from Harvard based Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey with whom in 2014 Rodger became New Zealand’s first Certified Immunity-to-Change™ Coach. Kegan and Lahey are co-authors of the book Immunity to Change and an earlier HBR article The Real Reason People Won’t Change. In the latest article Kegan and Lahey have teamed up with Andy Fleming and Matthew Miller to offer an account of what they describe as a deliberately developmental organisation (DDO).
The authors spent three years in search of a DDO – an organisation committed to developing its people by weaving personal growth into daily work. They looked worldwide, in the public and private sectors, for organisations with at least 100 employees and a track record of at least five years. They found only about 20 companies and of those two stood out: Bridgewater Associates, an East Coast USA investment firm, and the Decurion Corporation, a Californian company that owns and manages real estate, movie theatres, and a senior living centre.
The article describes how these companies believe that not only is attention to the bottom line and the personal growth of all employees desirable, but also that the two are interdependent. Echoing our view and reflecting our own research and experience over the past 30 years and the raison d'être of Rodger Spiller & Associates, the authors maintain that the quests for business excellence and individual fulfilment need not be at odds – they can be combined in such a way that causes each to flourish.