The Business of We: The Proven Three-Step Process for Closing the Gap Between Us and Them in Your Workplace

by Laura Kriska

Discover how this leader-focused approach to understanding, managing, and maximizing organizational diversity and inclusion can increase employee retention and productivity. Workplace misunderstandings lead to lost revenue, lost time, and increased legal risk, thus your success in the marketplace will depend on our ability to collaborate across difference. Yet, inevitably, Us versus Them gaps disrupt workplace efficiency. In The Business of WE , cross-cultural consultant and diversity expert Laura Kriska Stakeholders are demanding real change, and nothing less than comprehensive solutions that lead to meaningful and lasting solutions will suffice. The Business of WE arrives just in time to help you stop Us versus Them gaps before they start and foster authentic connections across race, ethnicity, religion, age, and any other factor of identity to exponentially strengthen your entire organization.

Genres: Leadership, Business

224 pages, Paperback

Published January 12, 2021

About the author

Born in Tokyo, Japan to missionary parents, Laura Kriska spoke her first words in Japanese and took her first steps on tatami floor. When she was two years old, her family returned to their home in Columbus, Ohio, but her interest in Japan continued to grow. While earning her B.A. in Japanese Studies at Denison University, Kriska spent her junior year abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo and devoted most of her time to practicing judo. A week after giving the commencement speech to her graduating class, she was welding parts on the automobile assembly line of the Honda factory in Marysville, Ohio, as part of her training to work overseas. Two months later, she was in Japan —the first American woman to work in Honda Motor Company’s Tokyo headquarters...

Reviews

[Srinivasan Tatachari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a big fan of social identity work and have been doing a lot of my research in that area. This book by Laura fits nicely in that area and also is directly important to the current world situation related to diversity. This led me to pick this book to review.

The book speaks directly to practical issues in organizations starting with the basic foundation of the Us versus Them mentality that affects a diverse workforce or situation. Laura gives plenty of snippets of her personal experience from working in a Japanese company to those from her workshop attendees, which provides a lot of support to the whole framework of WE.

She also shares a lot of her templates, assessment tools and facilitation tools (I loved the Team machine simulation) and other exercises - which I may even think about use in my classes). I am sure these will be of immense practical value to readers in the workplace.

I thought the book could have been more condensed in communicating the ideas, at places I thought it dragged a bit with some repetitions at places.

A good book for the current times.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

We building; steps: Awareness, Assessment, Action. Business leaders and easily measure the efficacy of any effort to narrow gaps by asking two questions: 1) Does the initiative help people build trust? 2)Does the initiative actively redraw the lines to that a greater, more diverse number of people feel they belong? // The rest of this book is very repetitive. Worth a look if you are looking to bridge gaps in your work place however, the main messages are clear and the applicability seems to work with lots of situtations.

[Andrea Stephenson]

I received this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. The book is extremely relevant for the time.

This book speaks directly to the issues in organizations that affect a diverse workforce or situation. The author gives personal examples from working in a Japanese company to those from her workshop attendees, which provides a lot of support to the whole framework of WE.

There are a lot of her templates, assessment tools and facilitation tools and other exercises.

I thought the book could have been more condensed at places I thought it dragged a bit and began to repeat itself.

[Lexi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway. It took me many months to get through it. I found a lot of the examples or anecdotes in the story to be bland and wordy. In fact, many were nothing other than political pandering. That said, section two is extremely helpful and hold the meat of the book. In fact the intro and section two were the only parts I enjoyed reading.

I do not recommend this book. I hope to find one with a similar subject matter, that feels less like a lecture on what I should believe and more informational on promotion of change and inclusion.

[Flavia Eleonora Correa Theme · Rating 5 out of 5]

inspiring

Inspirational book. A must read for any leader that wants to be successful in the global stage. With well articulated arguments, case studies and practical recommendations, the book is a framework to be used to every organization that wants to bridge the gap Us versus Them.

[Michelle Pulignani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information.

[Roopa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting points about how to drive inclusion. Examples were a little dated and specific. I didn’t completely finish it but close enough. Lol.