A conversation with Jeff Klein, author of Working for Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living.

Q: Tell me about the title of your book Working for Good. What does it mean?

The title, Working for Good, is intended to be an inspiration and a call to action. It speaks to people who are working to or looking to integrate their work with their values and higher aspirations. It says “Yes! We can apply our productive, creative energy through our work and our businesses to address the common good, solve pressing social and environmental challenges and to fulfill our dreams.”

Q: What is the philosophical statement of Working for Good?

Working for Good recognizes that work is a human activity and business is a form of human social organization. People come together in the context of a business for a specific, common purpose – to create value for themselves, others, and society. Working for Good is about bringing our humanity to work and about cultivating learning, growth, development, and well-being in and through our businesses. As we become more human and humane in business, we build more human and humane businesses and foster a more human and humane culture.

Q: What inspired you to write Working for Good?

I wrote Working for Good because people ask me all the time for advice and insights related to integrating work and business with purpose, values and service. I recognized that the idea of Working for Good is a reflection of an emerging paradigm and movement, which has called me for decades, and I realized that my experience and insights could serve and support others who are working to integrate purpose and profit, business and service, values and wealth creation.

Q: Who should read Working for Good?

I wrote Working for Good for conscious entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, leaders, and change agents at work. Given that we all have an active relationship to business – as owners, employees, customers, investors, citizens, etc. – Working for Good is really for anyone who wants to approach their work and their relationship to business as an opportunity to make a difference for themselves, in the way we conduct business and in the way we function as a culture.

Q: What are the essential skills of Working for Good?

The essential skills of Working for Good are:

• Awareness
• Embodiment
• Connection
• Collaboration
• Integration

The combination of these five skills forms an integrated Working for Good system. While each skill is connected to and informs the others, there is a progression of development and application from awareness to embodiment, connection, collaboration, and integration. In summary, these skills provide support for:

• Cultivating our minds through awareness practice
• Finding our purpose and following our passion
• Connecting with others by letting go of our attachments
• Listening deeply, and expressing ourselves authentically
• Caring for ourselves and others
• Cultivating the skills to facilitate true dialogue and collaboration
• Dealing with challenging issues

Q: What can leaders do to create the conditions for Working for Good?

Leaders must begin by cultivating their own practice of Working for Good: developing their skills of awareness, embodiment, connection, collaboration and integration. By modeling these skills and bringing them into their business through their actions, they serve as inoculators for a culture of Working for Good. They can further increase their influence by explicitly engaging others throughout their organization to cultivate these skills and they can create cultural and structural conditions, including incentives, to foster the development of a Working for Good culture.

Q: What can employees do to create the conditions for Working for Good?

An employee can recognize that we are all leaders and our efforts and example can catalyze change throughout our entire business. With this perspective, they can cultivate and embody the skills of Working for Good, encourage others to do the same and advocate for company-wide initiatives to foster a Working for Good culture.

Q: What do you mean by “the process is the product?”

How we treat ourselves and others in our work and through our businesses is as important as what we are doing or producing. We may be creating a great product or delivering a wonderful service, but if we are not treating human beings with respect, trust and concern for their well-being, our efforts to create a more human and humane business and overall culture will fall short.

Q: How does Working for Good relate to the new movement in business called Conscious Capitalism?

Working for Good deeply reflects the principles and practices of Conscious Capitalism. Both are rooted in the belief that businesses have a purpose that includes, but is beyond return on investment. Both recognize that business can and does create value for all of its stakeholders. And both propose that by cultivating conscious leadership and a conscious, life-enhancing culture throughout a business and its ecosystem, we create a healthier, more resilient, sustainable and profitable business and society.

Q: What’s the biggest message you’d like readers to come away with?

“The shift we are sensing and experiencing is real. We are all a part of it.” We are witnessing and participating in a profound shift in human orientation to life, work and business. The movement towards Conscious Capitalism is increasingly being embodied by entrepreneurs, CEOs and other business leaders, consumers, investors, and all of the other stakeholders in business and society.