“I love this book! Backed up by extensive research, it gives the reader seven clear principles for a structured approach to understanding themselves and helping them to grow a high performance culture. Simply put, it will enable the reader to release new potential in their organization. Work That Works certainly works for me!”
—Kosta Christofi, Senior Learning Manager, Santander, UK
“The impact of language in the workplace is nothing short of amazing! When my team started to share the common language of Emergenetics, the entire atmosphere changed. People are showing greater consideration by being more inclusive of various personality types and more open to different perspectives and communication styles. The ability to Emergineer such positivity has served as a guiding light for all of us.”
—Sherrye L. Hutcherson, Vice President of Human Resources, Union Pacific Railroad
“Few things are as vital to leadership, success and overall fulfilment as self-awareness and the ability to communicate precisely and honestly. Work that Works exquisitely shows you how on both accounts. With its bullseye principles, this treasure of a book is a homerun for individuals and organizations that want to be a major contender in this ferociously competitive world. I'd be surprised if you don't find at least three things in this book that transform you positively. Forever.”
—Scott G. Halford, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Activate Your Brain, member of the National Speakers Hall of Fame, and Principal, Complete Intelligence, Inc.
“Business books are typically written with good research and deep cognitive efforts. They speak to the head. Work That Works, a second book from Dr Geil Browning did not just score well in this area; this book speaks to the heart, mind and soul. Brought to life with her years of experience creating and using Emergenetics throughout her life, Geil's masterpiece will allow you to emergineer a truly positive corporate culture and a changed organization.”
—Josh Teo, Entrepreneur and Co-founder, Emergenetics APAC, Singapore
“Dr. Geil Browning has been an inspiration to so many as she researched and created Emergenetics, founded ICAN (Institute for Career Advancement Needs) and has now developed Emergineering. As today's leaders grapple with the future of business, holding the interest of millennials and igniting profits, Emergineering is a key tool to understanding your team, growing your business and doing good in the communities where you employ people.”
—Susan L. Henricks, President and CEO, ICAN
“Dr. Geil Browning has been an inspiration to so many as she researched and created Emergenetics, founded ICAN (Institute for Career Advancement Needs) and has now developed Emergineering. As today's leaders grapple with the future of business, holding the interest of millennials and igniting profits, Emergineering is a key tool to understanding your team, growing your business and doing good in the communities where you employ people.”
—Susan L. Henricks, President and CEO, ICAN
“Leaders who value, and wish to nurture, their human capital will find an incredible resource in Work that Works. This book reminds us to seek out the irreplaceable contributions of the individual and prompts us to deliberately tap into the magic of diverse teams. Work that Works is practical and structured. It will become your go-to handbook for creating a company that works.”
—Marty Lassen, Principal, Complete Intelligence, LLC
“As I have been ‘embracing the scratchy’ since first bringing Emergenetics to U.S. Federal Government employees and their contractors in 2014, I found Work That Works an absolutely fabulous resource for the pragmatic application of Emergenetics and for fully developing the Power of We. Work That Works' eminent practicality made me wish I'd had all the templates and ideas when I had started! Bravo, Geil, and thank you for producing a succinct and powerful aid for us Emergineers!”
—Gibson Kerr, Professor of Executive Acquisition Management, Defense Systems Management College, Defense Acquisition University
“Our understanding of how human brains function effectively, means that successful future leaders and organizations need to rewire habits of where they spend their time and energy . . . every day . . . every meeting . . . every conversation. This book guides you in that quest. You will thoroughly enjoy the journey and reap the rewards. Your organization will become sustainable and transformed. Emergineer the future!”
—David Sales, Executive Director, First Ascent Group, UK
“After reading Work That Works, I formed a wholly new perspective on the importance of self-awareness. The knowledge of my preferences allowed me to renew my approach as a leader. I am empowered to Emergineer my approach in a way that will best serve those around me and the world we live in.”
—Regina Andreu, President, Latin Top Jobs, El Salvador
Emergineering
a Positive Organizational Culture
Our business model includes making sure each employee is understood, valued, engaged, and as healthy and productive as possible.
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: background © Gile68/iStock.com
Cover Illustration: © Tom Fishburne
All cartoons are created by Tom Fishburne at Marketoonist, and owned by Emergenetics
Copyright © 2018 by John Wiley and Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Browning, Geil, author.
Title: Work that works : emergineering a positive organizational culture / by Geil Browning, Ph.D.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017036478 (print) | ISBN 9781119387022 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Organizational behavior. | Corporate culture.
Classification: LCC HD57.7 .B7697 2018 (print) | DDC 658.4/092–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017036478
To Morgan, the Emergenetics staff, and Associates for pioneering Emergineering.
and
To Armistead, Tyler, and Ryan, who have been part of Emergenetics since its inception.
In the beginning, Emergenetics started as a tool that helped people decipher how they thought and behaved. It brought scientific objectivity to a most perplexing challenge: human behavior. People have characteristics that emerge from their life experiences, as well as factors that are hardwired by their genetics. The Emergenetics system introduced a simple, but not simplistic, framework that showed people how they naturally used their mental energies and how they presented themselves to the world. The Emergenetics Profile could be used by everyone to understand not only themselves but also their colleagues.
Since that time, we have seen Emergenetics evolve into a complete, scalable driver of positive change and systemic culture. The Profile still shows individuals how to prize their talents, but we also have learned so much more about helping people flex their attributes so they can perform in a well-rounded way and meet others with different preferences where they are. In addition, we have become more sophisticated at valuing and leveraging the talents of all employees in the workplace. We found out that anything can be interpreted by using an Emergenetics Profile, from brainstorming all aspects of a new project to buying a new home.
This book is written to help guide all levels of an organization to create a positive and productive working environment. When we stopped to look at our own offices and our own corporate climate, we realized that we had instinctively used Emergenetics priorities to guide our decisions, whether we were determining what colors to paint our walls or how to infuse our work, and our workplace, with our core values. In short, we had Emergineered our own organization.
Emergineering is the process of taking goals – such as building trust, preparing for the future, spurring innovation, and energizing workplace culture – and making sure every aspect of each goal reflects Emergenetics concepts. This results in a corporate climate that values and supports the most important asset of any organization: its people.
We use Emergineering to align an organization's culture and increase efficiency and productivity while fostering a climate of positivity and collaboration. The principles in this book are the culmination of over 25 years of research, data, and experience from our work with our clients as well as from our own growth. The seven principles in this book represent the best practices of Emergenetics, putting our concepts to their highest and best use.
Most organizations exist in a continuous process of transformation. Emergineering represents a company-wide approach to providing a consistent language to help people and teams work more effectively. This customizable process can fully support the vision and strategic goals of any business. Emergineering brings objectivity to difficult and subjective topics. An unwavering goal is to provide an environment in which individuals feel appreciated, heard, and unafraid. Ultimately, when people are happy in their jobs and believe their input contributes to the greater good of the company, the corporate culture becomes a key driver of business results!
Morgan Browning
President
Emergenetics International
On December 9, 2008, our largest client placed a very large order for Emergenetics training within their company. I was excited and told my staff that we might even skip the financial crisis that was facing the country.
I was wrong. Two weeks later, the client called and canceled the order. By the end of the first quarter in 2009, we had lost 40% of our business.
For the preceding 16 years we had been helping organizations by using self-development seminars in which employees learned about their thinking and behavioral preferences. We helped them recognize how their individual attributes affected their lives, their work, and their team.
The name of our company, Emergenetics, comes from the fact that we are all the product of characteristics that emerge from our life experiences as well as attributes that are the result of our genetics. We successfully and scientifically determine each employee's unique attributes by scoring their answers to an Emergenetics survey. We also provide them with a personal color-coded Emergenetics Profile, which not only illustrates their preferences at a glance, but also compares their results to a global population (see the www.emergenetics.com for more information about the Emergenetics Profile or to review our Technical Report. You can also refer to my first book, EMERGENETICS: Tap Into the New Science of Success). Once individuals better understand themselves and share their Profiles with others, wonderful things happen.
After years of assessing hundreds of thousands of people, we proved that when organizations hire competent people, put the right Emergenetics teams together, and provide an Emergenetics culture, this results in increased innovation and productivity. Our seminars were met with great success. However, the financial crisis forced us to ask ourselves, “Is this only ‘nice to know’ information? How does Emergenetics make a difference when financial times get tough?”
As I was brainstorming with my team about where to go with the new economic reality, one person said, “Well, what do we do here in our office?”
By the end of 2009, our business rebounded and we lost only 20% from 2008. We think that happened because companies got rid of their fat and decided to invest in training for their remaining leaders.
And we could help them. For the past seven years, we have made the Inc. 5000 list. In 2014, we were named one of Colorado's fastest-growing companies. We also continue to grow internationally because what works in Denver, Colorado, or New York City also works in Singapore or London or Cairo or Paris. I spend the majority of my time every year flying from our offices in Denver to destinations all over the world, speaking to prospective clients, visiting our Emergenetics offices in Ireland and Singapore, and visiting our representatives in the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. I have come to realize that languages and customs differ, but what makes people tick is the same all over the world. And the fact that people are people is great for growing our business.
The flip side is that in the United States employers and employees have the same issues.
These statistics show that many companies need to do things a lot better. To begin with, they need to understand the danger and cost of unhappy employees. Our business model at Emergenetics is to make sure each employee is understood, valued, engaged, and as healthy and productive as possible. How could we make companies recognize the value of Emergenetics in all their operations and decisions? How could we help them change their corporate cultures to fix rampant dissatisfaction?
Emergineering cannot be accomplished with memos from the corporate office. It even requires a deeper commitment than putting all your leaders in a room for one day of Emergenetics training. That's a good start, but it will take sustained commitment to create a new corporate culture.
If you resist some of these concepts, try to get out of your comfort zone – what we call feeling scratchy – long enough to give this guide your earnest effort. If you positively can't relate to any of these principles, pass this book on to someone else because you're not ready to grasp the way business is going to be in the future.
On the other hand, if you're curious about successfully Emergineering your team, department, or company, I encourage you to keep reading! As a CEO, manager, or direct report, you're in the best position to Emergineer your company into the future. This book is written for those exceptional leaders who will pass these principles on to their direct reports, who will pass them on to their direct reports, and so on, until every employee understands their new corporate culture in which everything is done with transparency, with intention, and without judgment for the benefit of all.
If you've been wondering about the best way to adapt your leadership to the future, hold the interest of millennials, and ignite profits, there's a new leadership coach in town: WORK THAT WORKS!