I had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Jeff Klein at the recent Innovation and Humanities Conference in Orange, CA. It was an inspiring to hear him speak, and I was very impressed by his message and passionate delivery. I subsequently have had several deep dialogues with Jeff and feel honored to know a man who’s mission is to help shift how we think about our work.
Jeff starts the preface of his book with a wonderful quote from Kahlil Gibran, “Work is love made visible”, and there could be nothing more true. “Working for Good” has been written to support any conscious entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, and change agents at work who truly want to make a difference while making a living.
Jeff refers to as the essential skills of working for good as 1) awareness 2) embodiment 3) connection 4) collaboration 5) integration. The combination of these five skills forms an integrated Working for Good system.
While each skill is connected and informs the other, there is a progression of development and application from awareness to embodiment, connection, collaboration and integration. Awareness asks questions that seek to penetrate, to get behind facades and into the depth. What’s going on here?
Connection begins with cultivation awareness–connecting with ourselves and working with our minds and hearts–and emerges as we carry awareness into embodiment, into action with our bodies.
Collaboration leads to integration and completes the full circle of the Working for Good system. Integration is the dynamic process of combining various elements into a new whole that has its own presence and integrity.
Jeff Klein is truly a thought leader with a unique message, attempting people to understand that they have the abilities to apply new skills and passion to do good, and make a big difference through the work that they choose to do, no matter what the work. As Jeff says, “Awareness is the first step to becoming a more conscious leader, and with this first step we can all create work with a purpose focused in doing good in and for the world”.
I encourage everyone to not only read Jeff’s new book, “Working for Good“, but to practice the exercises at the end of each chapter. Jeff’s website is awesome and loaded with content, videos and downloads. I highly recommend that you download the 26 principles of working for good.
Do yourself a favor and listen to this great podcast with truly a wonderful thought leader, then go to his website by clicking here and watch a couple of his video’s. Enjoy this podcast–and start your practice of Working for Good.