An Everyone Culture

I read Kegan and Lahey's An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization as an optional “assignment” as part of my doctoral program. I will be reviewing the text with the other fellows in our program and I am sure it will make for a lively discussion.

First, I should admit that I am a proponent of adult development and I have an interest in individual and organizational leadership development. That interest undoubtedly biased my reading of this book. I found the approach of the three exemplar organizations interesting and further found myself looking up supplemental information on all three. I admire their attention to personnel development and gaze enviously upon the ways in which they have built development into their routine operations.

Kegan and Lahey have done a solid job of distilling the commonalities between the exemplar organizations into a coherent narrative. The book reads easily and is an appropriate mix between research reporting, self-help guidance, and personal stories. The personal tidbits ground the material and bring it to life. The chapter that makes the traditional business case for the deliberately developmental organization is ambitious, but from the perspective of a business owner, leaves me slightly wanting. Still, though, the text functions as a compelling call to DDO-hood and, if taken in the proper spirit, the exercise in the penultimate chapter can be revealing for the reader.

The authors make their most convincing argument surrounding the need to invest in people. I appreciated that the went well beyond presenting such platitudes as “employees are the first priority” or “our employees are our greatest assets”. This text talks about how to walk that talk. I can also appreciate the authors' take that rewards go beyond financial compensation. People do bring their humanity into the workplace and, as such, provide insight as to what motivates them. Cultivating such relationships makes the process of the work more meaningful.

For those with any type of management/leadership role in their organization, An Everyone Culture is a worthwhile read.