Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest by
Peter Block
"This book is about how our institutions are managed and governed..." (more) SIPs:
core work units, core work teams, stewardship contract, core work process, wish for dependency (more)
From Publishers Weekly Block ( The Empowered Manager ), a professional in organizational training, runs riot with assumptions about human nature. Reaching for the stars, he constructs a productive business/industry model under which increasingly empowered employee/workers establish a new category of partnership and accountability that will render traditional management hierarchies almost obsolete. In simple terms (not notably indulged in here), sales and service personnel will so promote the interests of customers, distributors and production workforce that overpaid executives will forgo wealth and power, re-address priorities and bend moral attitudes to this end as stewards of the common good. Though there will still, admits Block, be a place for bosses, their role will radically change when the subordinate becomes "the customer of the boss." 20,000 first printing; $40,000 ad/promo. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal Block, author of The Empowered Manager (Jossey-Bass, 1987), which offers an individualistic approach to "empowerment," here explains this movement on a much broader scale, offering his original and profound new view on running organizations. Block shows executives how to move from controlling and directing to his vision of shared governance, partnership, and total ownership of a business by all team members. This concept represents no less than a complete redistribution of power and a total restructuring, which will probably confound most present-day managers. Block transcends all extant leadership literature with this primary source on the organizational dynamics of the future, which will soon be copied. He has heard an as-yet-unknown muse and conceived the organizational structure of the 21st century. Guaranteed to be controversial; strongly recommended. - Dale Farris, Groves, Tex. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
First Sentence:
This book is about how our institutions are managed and governed. Read the first pageStatistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
core work units, core work teams, stewardship contract, core work process, wish for dependency, patriarchal governance, dependency and dominance, emotional wants, customer contribution, wish for safety, core workers, locating lines, business literacy, line foreman, staff groups, ownership and responsibility, direct billing, pay system, governance strategy
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Although he captured me with his initial quote from Shakespeare's Richard III as rationale for a practical means to insure corporate survival, I found Peter Block to be the most refreshing thinker I've yet had the privilege to study. I used this book in a Doc course where we included a fairly lengthy conference call with Block, thus giving our rather small cohort (12 of us) a good opportunity to quiz him on some of the gritty application details. I must admit that I finished the course with a distinct impression that Block may well be the next Deming. Unfortunately, the mistakes of the past seem to be repeating in that although a new generation of managers understands his philosophy and may be buying into it at a fairly respectable pace, the bulk of corporate thinkers are just not willing to jeopardize the thinking that got them into place. The problem is typical....one of my earliest lessons in administrative thinking was a CEO who told us to use that new CQI process because he was going to foster change in our org.....right up to where he told us to find a way to make sure the results of the process met his goals for the org.
There is no doubt that Block is challenging the big thinkers to have the guts to give up the power while still holding the responsibility. Like Deming before him, he's a prophet with a message everybody believes in but few are willing to sacrifice adequately to reap the enlightenment. I'm not a CEO, but I've used his principles fairly successfully the past 4 years, occasionally I can't make it work, but when it does, the results have been spectacular. What's important for me is that I think of myself as a steward entrusted with a valuable resource. There are some great lessons on how to do this in any serious biography of Henry II of England's administrative structure - which established the concept of English Common Law, among other achievements. (By no stretch of imagination could Henry II be considered a modern manager, but his concept of stewardship certainly was as radical in his day as Block and Deming in ours - the lessons of history are worthwhile.)
It's the subtitle of the book that provides the clue to the difficulty of the concept.....Choosing Service over Self-Interest....it's extremely hard to carry this out. Block himself tends to simply inform those who challenge him that he cannot provide assurances of security, that if the outcome were a sure thing there would be no need for commitment, and then he sometimes talks about installing living democracy in organizations in place of autocracy. This is radical.....so radical that the cost of believing is more than most of today's administrators can afford to risk, so perhaps the philosophy will take root in those who are listening now in anticipation of their time. When it finally happens, the world will once again become a better place.
I sat at the bookstore reading this book and nodding, saying "Yes, this author knows! He gets it, he gets it!"
Peter Block asks the important questions, gives pearls of wisdom highlighted among the content. He clearly understands what he is facing and moves the reader easily into seeing solutions which work and those which are simply adding more of the "old ways" of coercion, patriarchy and adding more "disease" to the organization instead of the RECREATION which will move the organization to its highest level possible.
This quote from Chapter 15 Sums up Block's attitude and approach... and had me want to stand on the table and applaud.
"If we took responsibility for our freedom, committed ourselves to service and had faith that our security lay within ourselves, we could stop asking the question, "HOW?" we would see that we have the answer. In every case the answer to the question, "How" is YES. It plays the location and the solution in the right place - with the question.
When will I finally choose adventure and accept the fact that there is no safe path?
I even smiled at Block's titling of the Bibliography as "Lost and Found."
Chapter 13: Recreating Our Organization Through Leadership is exceptionally strong as is Block's approach to the Cynics which inhabit (and have the ability to very simply destroy and dismantle ) positive growth.
Business consultant Peter Block is no stranger to controversy. A number of his previous works explored the reaches of transformational management, including his bestselling book The Empowered Manager. In an even bolder way, Stewardship - Choosing Service over Self-Interest offers a dynamic new organizational structure for our young century. Block defines stewardship as "the means of achieving fundamental change in the way we govern our institutions." He believes that stewardship is a choice "to preside over the orderly distribution of power." This means giving individuals at the bottom of the organizational structure the choice on how to best serve their customers, citizens and community". It also means accepting accountability at all levels. Block continues to define stewardship as being accountable to the larger organization by "operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us." His philosophy is centered on a need and commitment to service rather than self-interest.
Peter Block challenges the modern notion of strong leadership and suggests replacing the term with stewardship. His problem with leadership is that he does not believe it has the capability to create fundamental changes in our organizations. He also believes that leadership "inevitably becomes self-congratulatory and over-controlling. We expect leaders to choose service over self-interest, but it seems the choice is rarely made." Perhaps Block would have better made his point by discussing the various philosophies that pass as leadership rather than neatly collecting them all in one term. Indeed, leadership is often a vague and misunderstood term.
Stewardship - Choosing Service over Self-Interest is a book with three parts. The first part discusses the basic concept of stewardship. It highlights the promises offered by developing a passion toward stewardship in contrast to what we experience in traditionally managed organizations. The second part of the book discusses the redistribution of power in a practical way. This controversial section of the book butchers many managerial "sacred cows" and offers a vision of what stewardship can be like in action! Part three examines the reform process and explores how you and your organization can get from where it is today to an environment of stewardship.
If you are one who is not satisfied with the status quo, you will find this book exciting and refreshing. Sometimes written in almost theological terms, Block inspires the reader to expect more from our institutions and ourselves. This book should find itself on the bookshelf of every person interested in the study of leadership.
Once upon a time the Soviet Union conducted a grand experiment: In the name of equity and empowerment, management would be eliminated, and the power and control would be redistributed to the common man. The working class would enjoy the power to make their own decisions and to control their own destiny under the guidance of just a few unobtrusive leaders. Industry was re-organized into cells and cooperatives, each operating as an independent entity within loose guidelines provided by the state. The workers worked in small teams of comrades and were paid based on the success of their cooperative. The watchword of the day was self-sacrifice for the good of the team, for the good of the whole. This system of governance was called communism, and the capitalists in the west declared it one of the great evils. But here it is again, rearing its head right in our midst, right in the thick of corporate culture - and the corporate bigwigs seem to be eating it up - CEO's and Vice-Presidents from Levi Strauss and Bell Telephone to AT&T sing its praises (cover sheet). So what did it take to get the corporate culture to buy into communism? Simple. A change in name and in scale. Instead of calling it Communism, Peter Block has given the new culture the name Stewardship and he applies it, not to countries, but to corporations. The coating on the pill is different, but the same bad medicine is still the same Lets examine just some of the similarities between Communism and Stewardship:
The communists eliminated all but the uppermost positions of privilege. The Stalins and Gorbachevs retained their wealth and privilege, but the middle positions were eliminated and the responsibility was redistributed to the workers. Block states: "Service-based governance strategies mean the redistribution of power, privilege, purpose and wealth" (pg 43). Naturally, the elimination of these middle positions would terrify someone like the CEO of Levi-Strauss if it were applied to an entire society. In a countrywide system, the power and privilege of the CEO would be passed down to the workers and the CEO position would be eliminated. But, when applied to a corporation, there is still a place for the top dogs (Block says "there is still a place for bosses, just not so many of them" (pg 107). The result? The CEO saves his company labor costs by eliminating costly management positions, while the worker is asked to take on the responsibilities that used to belong to his supervisor and his hope for advancement is eliminated. Block recognizes that there will be no hope of advancement in Stewardship when he says: "In essence we are redefining our ambition. We are letting go of advancement and pleasing bosses as the measure of our success.... Our career progression is about as much in our own hands as our choice of parents and birth order" (pg 89). More stock options and bonuses for the CEO who meets his labor cost goals, less opportunity and incentive for the little guy. No wonder the recommendations in Blocks book all come from senior management while middle management and the worker, the people Block seems to want to champion, are not heard from.
Communists are hopeful that the enlightened comrade will sacrifice his own interests for the good of the organization. Block demonstrates that he agrees when he says: "The antidote to self-interest is to commit and to find a cause... To be part of creating something we care about so we can endure the sacrifice... Let the commitment and cause be the place where we work." (p 10). He seems puzzled that workers aren't eager to take on these additional responsibilities when he says "Many managers open the door to their employees and no one walks through it.... When the open hand of partnership is offered to us, we know there is a price to be paid. The price is uncertainty and anxiety" (pg 33). Block seems to have forgotten that another price to pay is a lot more work for little or no compensation. Managers are often eager to pass their responsibilities along to their subordinates in the name of empowerment. Teachers have kids trade papers and grade the work in class, it saves the teacher the trouble of doing it himself. Principals ask teachers to evaluate each other - it saves the principal the trouble of evaluating the teacher himself. And Stewardship's reward to the teacher for taking on these additional responsibilities at the expense of vacation, lunch breaks and time with family? A chance for promotion? No, we already established that that is not an option. More pay then? No, instead Block offers something fuzzy called "choice" when he says "When we tell subordinates we can no longer take care of them and no longer choose to control them, we also need something positive to offer. What we are offering is real choice in defining and creating an organization that has purpose and meaning for them....the offer in return that has the most currency is choice. The last thing to offer people for more effort is money" (pg 89). Again and again Block informs us that we cannot expect an increase in pay for our individual effort. Instead, we must depend on our comrades to have the same drive and ambition as ourselves. If they don't, we don't meet our quotas, and our individual effort is useless. "Paying primarily for individual effort is rewarding self-interest. Stewardship pays primarily for teamm and department effort" (pg 163). "The reward systems need to tie everyones fortunes to the success of the team, unit, and larger organization. Paying for outstanding individual performance becomes a minor element of pay" (pg 67).
In Stewardship, like in Communism, Block makes a call for a revolution. He calls for eliminating much of the management class in our organizations, and to be honest with the working class and tell them there is no hope for advancement. Instead of having these higher positions of privilege, a position that anyone, with hard work and perseverance could hope to someday achieve, we would ask the worker to take on additional responsibilities, to sacrifice time with family and self for the good of the organization with no real tangible reward. For anyone who has not been paying attention, here's a newsflash: the Communist experiment has failed. A victim of its own impracticality and its failure to provide incentive. Communism was born of revolution, but died of apathy. With no opportunity for advancement, with no rewards for individual achievement, people just stopped trying, and the whole system fell apart. I predict the same for Stewardship.
IF YOU ONLY READ ONE BOOK THIS YEAR, READ THIS ONE!, May 3, 2000
Reviewer: A reader This is simply a phenomenal book! You will re-read this book every year.
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See all Editorial Reviews 
Deming All Over Again - We Never Learn, October 20, 2002
Communism Has a New Name, July 25, 2001