Embracing Stewardship: An Interview
with Peter Block
by Ray A. Hemachandra
...continued
Peter Block is trying to change American workplace
culture, and he believes New Age stores are great testing grounds for
workplaces emphasizing stewardship, empowerment, accountability,
engagement, and community.
Block’s best-selling books are
Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used;
Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest;
and
The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work.
His other books include
The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters,
which won the 2002 Independent Publisher Book Award for business
breakthrough book of the year, and
Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the
Real World,
coauthored by consultant and philosopher Peter Koestenbaum.
Block is a partner in Designed Learning, a training and consulting
company that offers workshops based on the vision, values, and concepts
outlined in his books. He has received numerous national awards for his
contributions in the field of training and development. Block lives in
Cincinnati, where he serves on the board of directors of Cincinnati
Classical Public Radio and acts as an advisor to the City of Hope and
Hip Hop Center.
Ray A. Hemachandra:
How would you describe the core of your work?
Peter Block:
The core of the work is to help people build or create habitable
institutions. Most of our organizations — our schools, our businesses —
are designed to be rather uninhabitable. Underneath the idea of making
them habitable is giving people more choice and freedom in their lives
and demonstrating that you can claim your freedom and make a living at
the same time. These are issues I have struggled with in my own life.
Hemachandra:
Tell me about your background.
Block:
I grew up in the Midwest. I was a dependable boy. Mrs. Shea, in the
third grade, said, “Peter was a very dependable boy.” I took that as a
message from God. I went to the University of Kansas, and I studied
engineering and finance. I was looking for a safe pass — one in which I
could make a living. To be economically self-sufficient meant the world
to me, because I had not had that. Then, in graduate school and beyond,
I got distracted and became interested in personal development, in group
process, and in group dynamics. I participated in different kinds of
self-development groups, and the ideas captured me. And they have owned
me ever since.
I worked for Exxon for six years, and then, with my boss, I started a
consulting firm in 1970. Since then, I have kind of been on my own —
consulting, talking, writing. I didn’t start writing until I was 40.
Then the books took on a life of their own, because they touched a cord
in me. I realized I had a thought that might be useful. I recently moved
to Cincinnati. I was living in the country in eastern Connecticut, and I
just felt I wanted to be in a big city. There were people I knew here
who mattered to me, and so I decided it was time to start again in some
sense, despite my advancing years.
Hemachandra:
Let’s get into the work. What is stewardship? How does it differ from
leadership, or at least from traditional notions of leadership?
Block:
Leadership is about creating a place for accountability by centralizing
power. Leadership is about making a center and a top — the owner of a
store, for example, who is kind of the hub of the wheel. The leader
creates the vision. The leader decides how an organization is going to
operate and basically tries to get people to support that end.
Leadership can be done very compassionately, but it still has to
control, in its mind.
Stewardship is trying to create accountability in the world through the
dispersion of power. Distributing power means giving people on the edge
as much choice as possible about how to serve a customer and how to
serve a business.
Leadership culture is a patriarchal culture. In some ways, the New Age
movement — the Aquarian movement — I think is trying to create an
alternative to this model of patriarchal leadership.
Hemachandra:
What are some ways retailers can encourage their staff members to view
the business as partners would — through the lens of shared interest?
Block:
First, decide to do that. Most business owners haven’t decided to do
that. They want to be good to their people, but they still think they
own their people. They haven’t decided the business is a partnership.
There is a great opportunity for small businesses to become learning
laboratories. Part of the work of a small-business owner is to teach all
who pass through the business what it takes to run and sustain a small
business.
Small businesses can’t compete on salary, benefits, promotion, or any of
the normal incentives that the culture thinks it wants. But small
businesses can give people learning opportunities they just can’t get
anyplace else. As a retailer, I would give enormous attention to that
aspect of the business.
There is a small business called Highland Hardware in Atlanta. When I
was in contact with them, they were trying to teach each person to do
all the jobs in the store. Everyone would learn how to write copy for
the catalog. Everyone would learn how to merchandise the ends of the
aisles. They would learn how to do purchasing. They would learn how to
handle the front end and the cash wrap. I thought it was a great
concept. The business got more committed, smarter employees from having
that mentality, rather than the mindset that the people I can afford to
hire simply are going to pass through this place.
Hemachandra:
What shifts in mindset do retailers themselves need to make to actualize
workplaces based on interdependence?
Block:
First, they have to care about the kind of culture they are creating.
Most small-business owners are so worried about survival that they are
not very conscious about the fact they are creating a workplace at the
center of a lot of people’s lives, whether they have three employees or
20. It matters that they invest energy, attention, and time in the
training and development of their own people.
Everything starts with a decision and a possibility. An owner says,
“Part of why I started this business is to create a place where people
are going to be touched and can learn a lot from working here.” This
mindset really fits with your leaders — retailers who sell spiritual
products — who often are biased toward learning, discovery, and the
creative and spiritual sides of life. So, why not create a small
business that is an example of everything that lies beneath what people
are purchasing from you?
Hemachandra:
What you propose is a fairly radical cultural shift from the standard
American business model, even for many New Age retailers, isn’t it?
Block:
Unfortunately.
>Continues
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