Praise

What if your workplace culture reinforced learning and development in ways that grew capabilities for communicating, and strengthened emotional and social intelligence while contributing solid value to your key stakeholders and bottom line? And what if you discovered those same skills nourished a sense of meaning and purpose to the lives of your employees? What might your organization gain? Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute: A Fable tells the story and shows the way to unify our human needs for meaning and value with a company’s need to survive and thrive—while making a positive contribution to the world.

Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute: A Fable is not an ordinary busi- ness book. Instead, Offterdinger and Allen use a fictional story to demonstrate the practical need, yet profound impact, of developing people in the workplace. A must-read that follows a CEO’s journey to passionately invest in his employees—it will make you think differently about how we’re all responsible for contributions for the greater good.

As a TV reporter for fifteen years and now the president of a corporate coaching and content business, I believe strongly in the power of stories to define leaders and organizations. So I love the innovative storytelling Ed and Catherine use in the first half of this book to allow readers to see themselves and their own challenges and envision a path to success. The second part of this book is incredibly valuable, too, because it offers a detailed road map on how to weave humanity, compassion, connection, and learning into the workplace, rebrand so-called soft skills to stress their critical importance, and foster and prioritize critical communication skills for individual and organizational success.

A compelling vision that employee development is the highest form of social contribution. The authors provide us with a solid framework for embedding conscious people development right into your organization’s culture. They invite us to consider that developing your people might just be a core part of why your organization exists, and that growing employees who achieve not just success but also significance might be a key part of your company’s purpose.

The workforce is evolving. Those that create a culture of consciousness and cohesion will thrive, and those that don’t will fall behind the eight ball. This book takes you on a journey to discover what sparks world-class contribution to thrive. It’s a must-read for those interested in developing teams and people in the workforce.

Our global community finds itself at a moment in time when we need peo- ple operating at their highest levels of consciousness. In Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute: A Fable: How Employee Development Can Become the Highest Form of Social Contribution, Ed and Catherine share a powerful vision of the role organizations can play and practical guidance on how to build an organizational culture that helps employees grow in order to meet the rapidly changing needs of our complex world.

If you want to grow as a leader, develop better relationships with your col- leagues, and mature your business, Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Con- tribute: A Fable is a must-read. Ed Offterdinger and AO People Partners have helped me personally and professionally over the last four years. Catherine and Ed practice the Conscious Capitalism principles in their business and set a great example for all of us to follow. I am recommending this book because I know they will help you and your business grow as much as they’ve helped me and IronArch.

After twenty-five-plus years as a newscaster, I grew tired of telling viewers every day about the worst of the worst happening in our world. I founded my own company because I wanted to work with change-makers showcasing good news and driving solution-based stories and projects.
Reading Ed and Catherine’s book has helped me appreciate that conscious leadership is another way of defining my purpose, mission, and work—and that of my clients. There’s nobody better than Ed and Catherine at showing how and why using your business for good is good business.

Aligning individual vocation, work, and company purpose is a key objective of the Economics of Mutuality approach championed by my organization. Allen and Offterdinger move companies in a similar direction with their very readable take on how companies that consciously help enable their employees to fulfill their purpose will keep them and their businesses more resilient, and even more profitable. It’s all about the people, and without conscious development and nurturing, today’s employees will wither rather than flourish; they will simply move on if their purpose is not met through their work.

World-class education is the cornerstone of the Chief Executives Organization, and my team supports a membership with an insatiable curiosity and thirst for knowledge and experience. Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute: A Fable has inspired me to reconfirm my commitment to ensuring my team also has opportunities for heightened individual achievement.

Catherine and Ed are true practice leaders, driven by their vision, passion, and experience unlocking the power of people development. Their book illustrates the compelling case for a conscious, strategic, integrated approach, and then lays out tangible, practical considerations for how to implement it in your organization. This is a valuable resource for leaders who want to make a bigger contribution to society.

Now more than ever, our country and communities are looking to businesses to be forces for good, and to do more than simply deliver value by providing goods and services. Conscious, Capable, and Ready to Contribute: A Fable not only makes the case for why successful business leaders must focus on the professional and human potential of their employees, but it is chock-full of thought-provoking anecdotes and ideas on how to do so. Focusing on the “employee life cycle”—from recruiting and onboarding to skills development and performance management [to] retention and ultimately onboarding—Offterdinger and Allen’s clear, authentic storytelling and insights make this book not only an enjoyable read, but an essential read for every business owner and leader.

The story of an organization verging on either collapse or transformation draws you in and takes you deep into a world of inspiring and practical ideas. Kudos to Ed and Catherine for showing us how to move beyond implementing learning programs to building a true culture of development.

Conscious leadership with a mission to develop people for the benefit of themselves, their organizations, and society—it seems almost too good to be true! In this immensely readable book, Ed and Catherine bring to life a story that illustrates why development is vital and how leaders can embed such learning into the fabric of their organizations for the good of all. The authors seamlessly tie together the individual development journey and the systemic forces that accelerate development. As a leader of a coaching company helping organizations scale their learning culture, I consider this is a must-read for organizational leaders, HR professionals, and coaches alike.