Do you love your job? Do you feel fully seen, supported, and nourished when you are at work, in both your personal life and your professional life? Do you leave your job feeling enriched in your heart at least as much as you do in your bank account?

For too many of us, the answer is a resounding “no”. Often we are too busy trying to manage people’s perceptions and expectations of us, or too anxious that our various weaknesses may be uncovered, or too worried that we will be easily replaced the moment someone finds us out as the imposter we fear ourselves to be. When these anxieties are running high, it is nearly impossible to feel like we can authentically “be ourselves” while at work. Work life is work life, home life is home life, and crossing those streams could have disastrous consequences for our career and livelihood.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

What if there was a new approach to work and management that actually draws upon our vulnerabilities as much as our strengths? One that does not chastise or punish us for our errors, but rather turns them into valuable opportunities for personal and professional growth? One that actually invites all of us to show up at our workplace — fully accepting us for who we are, warts and all, while also inviting us to continue on our path of personal development, interior fulfillment, and self-actualization?

Welcome to Everyone Culture — a place where everyone belongs.

“Imagine experiences where you are a wreck, where you are not at your best, and you still have absolute certainty that you are included, that you are respected, that you are accepted. It’s usually in a good intimate relationship, in a good parent/child relationship, in a trustworthy psychotherapy relationship. But, at work? Does work come to mind as a common place where you’re going to experience this? Very rarely.

Now, imagine that the place where you spend most time, more time than you spend with your family or your spouse or whatever – your workplace —is a place where you’re going to have this kind of experience. And imagine that it’s not going to be rare. Imagine that it’s going to happen on a regular basis. This is a total transformation of what work is about, what work is for.”

-Robert Kegan

About An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization

Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey (and their collaborators) have found and studied companies they describe as “Deliberately Developmental Organizations”. A DDO is organized around the simple but radical conviction that organizations will best prosper when they are more deeply aligned with people’s strongest motive, which is to grow. This means going beyond consigning “people development” to high-potential programs, executive coaching, or once-a-year off-sites. It means fashioning an organizational culture in which support of people’s development is woven into the daily fabric of working life and the company’s regular operations, daily routines, and conversations.

An Everyone Culture dives deep into the worlds of three leading companies that embody this breakthrough approach. It reveals the design principles, concrete practices, and underlying science at the heart of DDOs — from their disciplined approach to giving feedback, to how they use meetings, to the distinctive way that managers and leaders define their roles. The authors then show readers how to build this developmental culture in their own organizations.

This book demonstrates a whole new way of being at work. It suggests that the culture you create is your strategy — and that the key to success is developing everyone.

Purchase An Everyone Culture by Dr. Robert Kegan
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