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Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do
Poll after poll has confirmed that an astonishing number of workers are disengaged from their work. Why is this happening? And how can we fix the problem? In this bold, enlightening book, social psychologist and professor Daniel M. Cable takes leaders into the minds of workers and reveals the surprising secret to restoring their zest for work. Disengagement isn't a motivational problem, it's a biological one. Humans aren't built for routine and repetition. We're designed to crave exploration, experimentation, and learning--in fact, there's a part of our brains, which scientists have coined "the seeking system," that rewards us for taking part in these activities. But the way organizations are run prevents many of us from following our innate impulses. As a result, we shut down. Things need to change. More than ever before, employee creativity and engagement are needed to win. Fortunately, it won't take an extensive overhaul of your organizational culture to get started. With small nudges, you can personally help people reach their fullest potential. Alive at Work reveals: Filled with fascinating stories from the author's extensive research, Alive at Work is the inspirational guide that you need to tap into the passion, creativity, and purpose fizzing beneath the surface of every person who falls under your leadership.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published March 27, 2018
212 people are currently reading
2619 people want to read
About the author
Daniel M. Cable
8 books28 followersDan Cable is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School.
His research and teaching focus on employee engagement, change, organizational culture, leadership mindset and the linkage between brands and employee behaviors. Dan was selected for the 2018 Thinkers50 Radar List, the Academy of Management has twice honored him with Best Article awards and Academy of Management Perspectives ranked Dan in the Top 25 Most Influential Management Scholars.
Dan is also a founding partner at Essentic, an organization dedicated to helping people discover their potential and enabling organisations to offer truly personalised fulfilment in the workplace. Essentic assessments offer individuals evidence of their distinctive strengths and the moments when they have the greatest impact on people close to them – colleagues, family and friends.
Dan’s newest book, Alive at Work, will appear in March 2018 through Harvard Business School Press. Dan’s first book was Change to Strange and he has also published two edited books and more than 50 articles in top scientific journals. His most recent research was published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Journal and Administrative Science Quarterly. This research has been featured in The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The New York Times and Business Week.
Dan has worked with a broad range of organizations – from high-tech startups to the World Economic Forum. His recent clients include Carlsberg, Coca Cola, Estée Lauder, EY, HSBC, IKEA, McDonalds, MS Amlin, Prudential, PwC, Rabobank, Roche, Sanofi, Siemens and Twitter.
His research and teaching focus on employee engagement, change, organizational culture, leadership mindset and the linkage between brands and employee behaviors. Dan was selected for the 2018 Thinkers50 Radar List, the Academy of Management has twice honored him with Best Article awards and Academy of Management Perspectives ranked Dan in the Top 25 Most Influential Management Scholars.
Dan is also a founding partner at Essentic, an organization dedicated to helping people discover their potential and enabling organisations to offer truly personalised fulfilment in the workplace. Essentic assessments offer individuals evidence of their distinctive strengths and the moments when they have the greatest impact on people close to them – colleagues, family and friends.
Dan’s newest book, Alive at Work, will appear in March 2018 through Harvard Business School Press. Dan’s first book was Change to Strange and he has also published two edited books and more than 50 articles in top scientific journals. His most recent research was published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Journal and Administrative Science Quarterly. This research has been featured in The Economist, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The New York Times and Business Week.
Dan has worked with a broad range of organizations – from high-tech startups to the World Economic Forum. His recent clients include Carlsberg, Coca Cola, Estée Lauder, EY, HSBC, IKEA, McDonalds, MS Amlin, Prudential, PwC, Rabobank, Roche, Sanofi, Siemens and Twitter.
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October 10, 2018
There are books that make me wish that pamphlets were a viable publication medium. This book has excellent content which anyone involved in leading or motivating people should be aware of. However, even at ~170 pages of not-dense text, it felt longer than it needed to be. Since this is a common failing of the business book genre, I am rating the model more than the book. Thus, expect more like 2-3 star read but great ideas.
This book discusses motivation in the workplace. It covers the same territory as Daniel Pink's Drive, but in a framework that feels more actionable. The models are similar enough that it is worth comparing them directly (caveat: I haven't read Drive in a while, so I'm going off of memory here).
Drive models intrinsic motivation in terms of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Alive at Work focuses on self-expression, experimentation, and purpose. I'll go into how Cable defines those more in a moment. These two models are not dissimilar. You can even squint and look at these aspects as being really the same, although I think it's a stretch. Autonomy covers the freedom aspects of experimentation and self-expression. Mastery covers the depth that comes from learning through experimentation and utilizing your personal strengths.
However, I think it's more useful to look at autonomy, mastery, self-expression, experimentation, and purpose all as ways to activate what Cable calls the seeking system. Humans are intensely motivated to explore, learn, do important things, and be curious. We find this sort of behavior intrinsically rewarding. Both the Drive model and the Alive at Work model are about ways of activating people's seeking system. Activating the seeking system makes people happier and more creative. That's the real goal. Thus, my preference for the Alive at Work model is mainly because it feels more actionable in the workplace.
Why should leaders care about motivating employees? There's the ethical reason and the business reason. We'll start with the business reason. In a factory based job, motivation was less important than predictability. However, as more employees focus on problem-solving, businesses need solutions that are creative and exploratory. They need the exact sort of thinking that comes along with an activated seeking system.
More importantly is that people are happier and healthier when their seeking systems are activated. We spend a huge fraction of our lives at work, and as leaders, we should care about the human impact of the choices we make. People are not cogs in a machine. They are living breathing individuals much of whose happiness depends on the workplace. As leaders, we have an ethical duty to create environments that are beneficial to the wellbeing of those who spend time there. Helping people love what they do is a way to fulfill that ethical duty.
Yet, at the end of the day, businesses exist to accomplish some mission. Thus, we cannot give people free reign to go wherever their seeking system points them. (This is one of the challenges with autonomy as a top-level goal.) The job of a leader is to provide a frame within which people have freedom. The frame provides boundaries, and it points toward goals. It is an oft-repeated piece of advice that constraints can help prod creativity. The goal of leaders should be to provide the useful constraints that will allow people to work creatively toward a goal without getting too scattered by all of the possible directions we could go.
Three ways of activating the seeking system are to give people opportunities for authentic self-expression, provide room to experiment, and give people a clear sense of purpose.
Self-expression is how Cable describes the strengths-based perspective on self-development. For those unfamiliar, strength-based development is based on the idea that once you are above some minimum required for basic competency, improving your weaknesses is less valuable than learning how to better utilize your strengths. No one is strong at everything, so utilizing strengths allows you to find areas where you can really shine rather than being average on everything. From the perspective of work satisfaction, strengths have a separate advantage: we tend to find using our strengths to be energizing. To get people to utilize their strengths at work, they first have to spend time discovering their strengths through reflection and asking peers. Assessments (such as this one: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.up...) can also help although they are not necessary.
The most fundamental way to encourage self-expression via strengths is to help people modify their role to let them utilize their strengths more. This doesn't mean allowing people to do a job that isn't their job (although sometimes it may be a role change they need). Rather, it means acknowledging the breadth that most roles and the way that people complement each other in a team to find ways for people to better utilize their strengths. Strengths become even more powerful when they are shared, not private. This can be accomplished through fun changes like encouraging self-reflective titles (mine is Solution Synthesizer). It can also be accomplished through discussion of people's roles and strengths.
One important note. Cable talks about the importance of self-expression when it comes to diversity. The research on diversity both claims that diverse teams do better and that they do worse. What this difference depends on is whether or not a team is able to utilize the different perspectives and life experiences of the group. If members of a team do not feel like they can express themselves on their team, then diversity causes worse performance because of an increase in friction and resorting to least-common-denominator norms (i.e., people become afraid of saying the wrong things). But if a team can openly share their perspectives and build an understanding of each other's strengths, then diversity can be a boon because the team will bring more to the table leading to more creativity and better outcomes.
The second way to activate the seeking system is through encouraging experimentation. People learn better when they can experiment -- when they can try new things without worrying that failure will cause serious consequences (such as losing a job). Experimentation here does not mean a framework for trying N different things. What experimentation means in this context is allowing people to play, to have fun, to do things without knowing how they will turn out. This is not fun as a glossy coating on top of an otherwise fear-inducing situation. Rather, what helps activate the seeking system is to deeply integrate play into the process of change. Contrast this with the fairly common way of introducing change through rules and processes. Such rigid systems are not very fun and they create their own fears over compliance failures.
One way to allow experimentation is to give people opportunities to work on passion projects that are aligned with the broader goals of the business. However, companies need to take caution here. Forced participation or too much overhead can suck the fun out of these sorts of experiments quickly. Another risk is that events like these will seem fake unless there is some chance of the outputs of the process becoming real. Not everything needs to become real, but there needs to be a path to doing so with understandable, transparent criteria for what will make the cut.
Although it is only somewhat related, the section on experimentation ends with a good discussion of what it means to be a humble leader. The connection to self-expression is that a humble leader gives people space to have ideas and experiment. But it goes beyond that. Humble leaders see their role as acting in service to their employees. This has repercussions across the dimensions of self-expression, experimentation, and purpose.
The third area for helping people feel alive at work is to inspire a sense of purpose. What I like about Cable's perspective is that meaning is a narrative we each tell ourselves. This has several consequences. First is that meaning is personal. A leader can set up situations to help people discover meaning (e.g., meeting with customers) but individuals themselves have to discover the meaning that is motivating for them.
Second, purpose does not need to be some grand pursuit. A grand pursuit can be meaningless if you cannot connect it to what you do. Just as importantly, a pursuit that seems minor in the big scheme of things can be meaningful if you understand how what you do has a positive influence on others. One example of this is that some people find meaning in helping their teammates even if they work in a "boring" industry.
Finally, purpose is a narrative we can craft intentionally. It requires thinking about your own values and how those values connect to what you do. We can choose a higher level, positive purpose and choose to structure our work around that. Doing this doesn't just help motivation on the job. It can help make your whole life better.
This book discusses motivation in the workplace. It covers the same territory as Daniel Pink's Drive, but in a framework that feels more actionable. The models are similar enough that it is worth comparing them directly (caveat: I haven't read Drive in a while, so I'm going off of memory here).
Drive models intrinsic motivation in terms of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Alive at Work focuses on self-expression, experimentation, and purpose. I'll go into how Cable defines those more in a moment. These two models are not dissimilar. You can even squint and look at these aspects as being really the same, although I think it's a stretch. Autonomy covers the freedom aspects of experimentation and self-expression. Mastery covers the depth that comes from learning through experimentation and utilizing your personal strengths.
However, I think it's more useful to look at autonomy, mastery, self-expression, experimentation, and purpose all as ways to activate what Cable calls the seeking system. Humans are intensely motivated to explore, learn, do important things, and be curious. We find this sort of behavior intrinsically rewarding. Both the Drive model and the Alive at Work model are about ways of activating people's seeking system. Activating the seeking system makes people happier and more creative. That's the real goal. Thus, my preference for the Alive at Work model is mainly because it feels more actionable in the workplace.
Why should leaders care about motivating employees? There's the ethical reason and the business reason. We'll start with the business reason. In a factory based job, motivation was less important than predictability. However, as more employees focus on problem-solving, businesses need solutions that are creative and exploratory. They need the exact sort of thinking that comes along with an activated seeking system.
More importantly is that people are happier and healthier when their seeking systems are activated. We spend a huge fraction of our lives at work, and as leaders, we should care about the human impact of the choices we make. People are not cogs in a machine. They are living breathing individuals much of whose happiness depends on the workplace. As leaders, we have an ethical duty to create environments that are beneficial to the wellbeing of those who spend time there. Helping people love what they do is a way to fulfill that ethical duty.
Yet, at the end of the day, businesses exist to accomplish some mission. Thus, we cannot give people free reign to go wherever their seeking system points them. (This is one of the challenges with autonomy as a top-level goal.) The job of a leader is to provide a frame within which people have freedom. The frame provides boundaries, and it points toward goals. It is an oft-repeated piece of advice that constraints can help prod creativity. The goal of leaders should be to provide the useful constraints that will allow people to work creatively toward a goal without getting too scattered by all of the possible directions we could go.
Three ways of activating the seeking system are to give people opportunities for authentic self-expression, provide room to experiment, and give people a clear sense of purpose.
Self-expression is how Cable describes the strengths-based perspective on self-development. For those unfamiliar, strength-based development is based on the idea that once you are above some minimum required for basic competency, improving your weaknesses is less valuable than learning how to better utilize your strengths. No one is strong at everything, so utilizing strengths allows you to find areas where you can really shine rather than being average on everything. From the perspective of work satisfaction, strengths have a separate advantage: we tend to find using our strengths to be energizing. To get people to utilize their strengths at work, they first have to spend time discovering their strengths through reflection and asking peers. Assessments (such as this one: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.up...) can also help although they are not necessary.
The most fundamental way to encourage self-expression via strengths is to help people modify their role to let them utilize their strengths more. This doesn't mean allowing people to do a job that isn't their job (although sometimes it may be a role change they need). Rather, it means acknowledging the breadth that most roles and the way that people complement each other in a team to find ways for people to better utilize their strengths. Strengths become even more powerful when they are shared, not private. This can be accomplished through fun changes like encouraging self-reflective titles (mine is Solution Synthesizer). It can also be accomplished through discussion of people's roles and strengths.
One important note. Cable talks about the importance of self-expression when it comes to diversity. The research on diversity both claims that diverse teams do better and that they do worse. What this difference depends on is whether or not a team is able to utilize the different perspectives and life experiences of the group. If members of a team do not feel like they can express themselves on their team, then diversity causes worse performance because of an increase in friction and resorting to least-common-denominator norms (i.e., people become afraid of saying the wrong things). But if a team can openly share their perspectives and build an understanding of each other's strengths, then diversity can be a boon because the team will bring more to the table leading to more creativity and better outcomes.
The second way to activate the seeking system is through encouraging experimentation. People learn better when they can experiment -- when they can try new things without worrying that failure will cause serious consequences (such as losing a job). Experimentation here does not mean a framework for trying N different things. What experimentation means in this context is allowing people to play, to have fun, to do things without knowing how they will turn out. This is not fun as a glossy coating on top of an otherwise fear-inducing situation. Rather, what helps activate the seeking system is to deeply integrate play into the process of change. Contrast this with the fairly common way of introducing change through rules and processes. Such rigid systems are not very fun and they create their own fears over compliance failures.
One way to allow experimentation is to give people opportunities to work on passion projects that are aligned with the broader goals of the business. However, companies need to take caution here. Forced participation or too much overhead can suck the fun out of these sorts of experiments quickly. Another risk is that events like these will seem fake unless there is some chance of the outputs of the process becoming real. Not everything needs to become real, but there needs to be a path to doing so with understandable, transparent criteria for what will make the cut.
Although it is only somewhat related, the section on experimentation ends with a good discussion of what it means to be a humble leader. The connection to self-expression is that a humble leader gives people space to have ideas and experiment. But it goes beyond that. Humble leaders see their role as acting in service to their employees. This has repercussions across the dimensions of self-expression, experimentation, and purpose.
The third area for helping people feel alive at work is to inspire a sense of purpose. What I like about Cable's perspective is that meaning is a narrative we each tell ourselves. This has several consequences. First is that meaning is personal. A leader can set up situations to help people discover meaning (e.g., meeting with customers) but individuals themselves have to discover the meaning that is motivating for them.
Second, purpose does not need to be some grand pursuit. A grand pursuit can be meaningless if you cannot connect it to what you do. Just as importantly, a pursuit that seems minor in the big scheme of things can be meaningful if you understand how what you do has a positive influence on others. One example of this is that some people find meaning in helping their teammates even if they work in a "boring" industry.
Finally, purpose is a narrative we can craft intentionally. It requires thinking about your own values and how those values connect to what you do. We can choose a higher level, positive purpose and choose to structure our work around that. Doing this doesn't just help motivation on the job. It can help make your whole life better.
May 7, 2020
A good analysis of the actual processes that can produce meaningful engagement with our work. Written primarily for organizational leaders, this book outlines how to promote neural activity by tapping into the individual’s responses to opportunities for self expression and a deep understanding of the purpose of the work. Supported by several corporate examples described in an easy narrative style, the author demonstrates both theory and practical application. Probably a bit longer than it needed to be and a bit short on application (examples) for those leading smaller organizations. Most of the stories were of significantly large entities. Regardless, the book has something for all leaders seeking to better support the most important resource we have.
May 20, 2018
Excellent guide on how to improve employee engagement in a sustainable manner
As a people manager, I think about employee engagement all the time. It’s something that’s on my mind a lot more than delivering results. As such, I decided to read this book after it was recommended to me by a colleague.
This book does a great job of breaking down the engagement problem into a simple lifecycle that ties ‘self expression’, ‘experimentation’, ‘purpose’ and ‘seeking self’. It does a great job at elaborating on each of the concepts above with real and relatable examples, and always tying them back together throughout the book. I also appreciated the use of scientific evidence and research when arguing certain matters.
In summary, the book talks about how it is important to let employees express themselves freely and give them space to ‘experiment’. Moreover, helping employees discover purpose, by interacting with their customers, leaves a long lasting impact on their productivity and overall satisfaction.
My only criticism of the book was that the anecdotes, while helpful, were often very long and unnecessarily detailed. Shorter anecdotes would have helped me finish the book much faster.
As a people manager, I think about employee engagement all the time. It’s something that’s on my mind a lot more than delivering results. As such, I decided to read this book after it was recommended to me by a colleague.
This book does a great job of breaking down the engagement problem into a simple lifecycle that ties ‘self expression’, ‘experimentation’, ‘purpose’ and ‘seeking self’. It does a great job at elaborating on each of the concepts above with real and relatable examples, and always tying them back together throughout the book. I also appreciated the use of scientific evidence and research when arguing certain matters.
In summary, the book talks about how it is important to let employees express themselves freely and give them space to ‘experiment’. Moreover, helping employees discover purpose, by interacting with their customers, leaves a long lasting impact on their productivity and overall satisfaction.
My only criticism of the book was that the anecdotes, while helpful, were often very long and unnecessarily detailed. Shorter anecdotes would have helped me finish the book much faster.
August 4, 2021
I read this book for our company bookclub. I am quite skeptical regarding books giving advises, because I read a lot of bad ones, where you just get impressions but don't learn anything you can apply. This was different here because it shows why people think and act like they do and how we can use these biological imprint to make people happy and productive at work (and also usable for private life). I learned some new things, reflected a lot and had a very interesting discussion with my colleagues about how we feel at work and what we can change with our new knowledge.
July 11, 2020
Short but powerful take on leading with purpose and activating “seeking systems” for individual and organizational performance. It’s hard to overcome the industrial revolution mindset that rules so many companies. Some of it isn’t new but the examples and stories are something I will remember and take with me to disrupt the workplace in a positive way.
August 25, 2019
Though it’s a simple, fairly short read, the book delivers a compelling and compressive view of what it takes to feel “alive at work.” The research notes alone are worth four stars.
October 10, 2021
Many worthy concepts here, in a nice, eminently readable format. Recommended, especially for leaders.
November 28, 2019
Alive at Work - don't we all wish we were!
Cable has given us a very accessible presentation of research on neuroscience and how it applies to employee engagement in the workplace. This is the first book of this kind that I have read. It was a breath of fresh air.
As a supervisor, there are several take-aways that I will be putting into practice. The main question I'm asking those I supervise is what they need from me to do their jobs well. Their own answers are not always the things I see. That is important to know.
The book offers several points that I won't go into here, but are worth your time to dig in a discover. It is not a long book. Some thought it should have been shorter. Personally, I was surprised it ended when it did. Every point is shown through the experiences the author has had in the real world too. This is not theory in the abstract - this is theory applied. Definitely the kind of book you want to be learning from.
On a personal note, I thought there was more mention of human evolution than was necessary. Whether one believes in evolution or intelligent design, neuroscience is neuroscience. Beating one worldview drum over the other is not necessary.
Anyway, grab a copy of this book, give it a read, and enjoy!
Cable has given us a very accessible presentation of research on neuroscience and how it applies to employee engagement in the workplace. This is the first book of this kind that I have read. It was a breath of fresh air.
As a supervisor, there are several take-aways that I will be putting into practice. The main question I'm asking those I supervise is what they need from me to do their jobs well. Their own answers are not always the things I see. That is important to know.
The book offers several points that I won't go into here, but are worth your time to dig in a discover. It is not a long book. Some thought it should have been shorter. Personally, I was surprised it ended when it did. Every point is shown through the experiences the author has had in the real world too. This is not theory in the abstract - this is theory applied. Definitely the kind of book you want to be learning from.
On a personal note, I thought there was more mention of human evolution than was necessary. Whether one believes in evolution or intelligent design, neuroscience is neuroscience. Beating one worldview drum over the other is not necessary.
Anyway, grab a copy of this book, give it a read, and enjoy!
June 17, 2021
Important neurology-based information for both managers and employees that could be a good springboard for discussion and implementation but seriously problematic. Some of the neuroscience concepts described present findings from animal experimentation, including things that are flat-out cruel (painful shocks administered to dogs). This alone makes me reticent to consider recommending this to readers, especially highly-sensitive persons. Additionally, as one might glean from the title, the book takes a managerial approach including at the expense of addressing some basic worker psychological safety issues, something that deserves more attention especially now; while the book can't be faulted for being written in the "before times," it suffers from not addressing issues and concerns that existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic: racial and gender dynamics, income inequality, etc.
October 25, 2025
A little too lengthy for the message it wants to convey. Nevertheless, it are usually the examples and the stories that I personally remember about books and this one contains plenty of them.
Key take away for me is, that it can make a huge difference in order to feel alive at work, to come up with your personal mission statement of why you are doing what you are doing. And as a leader, support your employees to find their „why“ and help them connect to the customer and how their work and service/product makes the customers life better. Rather than defining a purpose or mission statement for your employees, let them build it through eye opening emotional experiences where they see their outcome being valuable.
Key take away for me is, that it can make a huge difference in order to feel alive at work, to come up with your personal mission statement of why you are doing what you are doing. And as a leader, support your employees to find their „why“ and help them connect to the customer and how their work and service/product makes the customers life better. Rather than defining a purpose or mission statement for your employees, let them build it through eye opening emotional experiences where they see their outcome being valuable.
October 10, 2018
A lot of people proudly proclaim that they work to live and not live to work. Daniel M. Cable is a social psychologist and professor of organisational behaviour at the London Business School and he has seen this kind of thing in practice. There are an alarming number of people who claim to be completely disengaged from their work. In Alive at Work: The Neuroscience of Helping Your People Love What They Do, Cable explores this phenomenon and presents some possible ways that we may rectify this issue. This book is an informative and important look at human psychology and behaviour.
To read the rest of this review please visit: https://100percentrock.com/book-revie...
To read the rest of this review please visit: https://100percentrock.com/book-revie...
March 8, 2020
A very light read that is lacking a consistent storyline, except for the mantra “activate the seeking system”. The book presents a couple studies and supplies them with unscientific factoids like “when people fulfill their purpose, it gives meaning to their lives” (not an exact quote, but you get the point), and overall the material is pretty shallow. “Alive at Work” could be potentially recommended to first-time senior managers or those who're just starting out in consulting, in my opinion, and that's probably it.
April 10, 2019
Pop science organisational behavior is one of my favourite genres. The idea of experimenting, having more play, having a purpose at work - these are all things I'm attracted to - but I've always wondered if it's all wishful thinking from the perspective of an employee.
I would still recommend many of the things in this book - they resonate in the same way Google's "Work Rules!" book did. I'd like to see some of these principles in practice in my workplace.
I would still recommend many of the things in this book - they resonate in the same way Google's "Work Rules!" book did. I'd like to see some of these principles in practice in my workplace.
February 7, 2020
An interesting book of short stories about how managers activate what is known as “the seeking system” in their employees. The seeking system is basically a neuroscience term describing the state of pleasure and curiosity generated when we do certain work. I cannot stop relating this to some moments happening to me in the past when I was as if hypnotized by an unknown force and ended up spending several hours working (designing a website, making a logo or drafting a story) without any awareness of time.
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Even though the book is managers-oriented, I think it is helpful reflecting on how our brain works and apply the knowledge to self-trigger our own “seeking system.”
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Even though the book is managers-oriented, I think it is helpful reflecting on how our brain works and apply the knowledge to self-trigger our own “seeking system.”
November 30, 2020
I like this book as it’s quite easy to read and understand.
The main idea is for the leaders or management to make their people feel alive, engage and creative & innovative at work.
From human biology, our seeking systems will be stimulated by exploration such as self-expression, experimentation, and purpose. It then will result in zest, curiosity, enthusiasm, and creativity for the employees.
Prof.Cable raises and supports his ideas with a lot of research and case studies.
The main idea is for the leaders or management to make their people feel alive, engage and creative & innovative at work.
From human biology, our seeking systems will be stimulated by exploration such as self-expression, experimentation, and purpose. It then will result in zest, curiosity, enthusiasm, and creativity for the employees.
Prof.Cable raises and supports his ideas with a lot of research and case studies.
May 21, 2021
Seeking system
Humble leadership
Defining/experiencing your purpose
Nothing really earth-shattering about the book and the ideas presented (very research-based and noted), but a good read nonetheless. The culture organizations develop is at a crossroads. They can either continue with an industrial revolution style and not win over employees or they can change for the better and do what is outlined in this book.
Humble leadership
Defining/experiencing your purpose
Nothing really earth-shattering about the book and the ideas presented (very research-based and noted), but a good read nonetheless. The culture organizations develop is at a crossroads. They can either continue with an industrial revolution style and not win over employees or they can change for the better and do what is outlined in this book.
March 12, 2024
Everyone should read this book in order to reevaluate his/her relation with work. We are all searching for purpose and sometimes we need to search somewhere else or in another way. This book helps you understand how you can find purpose and motivation at work even though you fought you completely lost it and its especially good for people that are managing others as it gives you ideas on how to approach the employees and how to motivate them. Very easy to read and highly recommend.
August 19, 2018
Great points about choosing your attitude
Some new things here for me: it highlights our innate seeking systems and focuses on how to better develop a mentality that honors it in everything you do. It’s a choice in being a good leader or teammate to bring people up or not - doing it authentically so it honors each persons unique ability to contribute raises everyone’s purpose.
Some new things here for me: it highlights our innate seeking systems and focuses on how to better develop a mentality that honors it in everything you do. It’s a choice in being a good leader or teammate to bring people up or not - doing it authentically so it honors each persons unique ability to contribute raises everyone’s purpose.
November 9, 2018
This book was really eye-opening. It is very accessible, marrying neuroscience with real-life examples from employers, it offers a great insight into why and when people do their best work. This is a must-read for any team-leader or line manager, because it will give you invaluable insight into creating the kind of workplace that will allow your employees to bring their best selves to work.
November 18, 2018
Read this alongside his other book: Change to Strange! After reading Daniel M. Cable's other book, Change to Strange, I had to read his most recent work. Both books filled me with inspiration on how I can create a truly remarkable organization for my employees, my customers, and ultimately for myself.
April 14, 2022
I read this book from my job. It was assigned and provided to me through a leadership training session. It was easy and a quick read. Brings back memories of neuropsychology classes from college. The seeking systems and learned helpless are real things and interesting to apply this already obtained knowledge to another areas of life related to leadership.
August 6, 2023
I struggled a little with this book I think because I listened on audio and I find the typical American narrator a tough listen. There are some really useful pointers in this book, but ultimately it's about effective engagement with staff and colleagues, finding/offering purpose and why, and enabling people to be creative and share ideas that could contribute to greater success.
October 7, 2023
Guess I have come across certain ideas in other book such as crafting purposes or the power of storytelling. Some examples are focused on the type of specialized, somewhat mechanical job, which makes me wonder if this book (the focus on seeking system) is just a temporary cure for Marx’s diagnosis of capitalism’s alienation.
November 2, 2025
I strongly recommend someone who is seeking the reason behind why they are working in the office environment for what they are doing. It is self help book to encourage leader to foster culture of finding their own seeking system to motivate & drive the team to achieve greater result, in both personal and professional.
May 11, 2018
I highlighted about 30% of the book. And it took me 5x longer to get through because in each section, I‘d pause and think about how it relates to my own situation, which it always did. I want everyone I work with to read this.
February 25, 2019
As a Harvard Business School contributor, Cable's voice is one I appreciate regarding business. I loved the simple breakdown of this book into three sections, and the practical examples that accompanied them. Refreshing and an easy read!
June 18, 2019
I took this book in little pieces, while lots of other things happened along the way. For me this was mostly inspiring to lead by empowering those who work for or around me. The sections that address the Seeking System and Purpose were especially helpful.
August 5, 2019
The title is a bit misleading because this book is applicable to anyone who wants to feel alive at work, not just leaders. It also cites more psychology and social science studies than neuroscience studies. Despite the misleading title, this is a great book!
August 10, 2019
Every leader should read this. I’m a teacher, and although the book is focused mostly on the business world, there is information here that I will use with my students. It’s an interesting, inspiring book.
March 7, 2020
Kinda just skimmed through the book after the author referred to the amygdala as a "heart shaped organ in the middle of the brain". It has some interesting concepts and ideas but its definitely not worth spending a lot of time reading - find a summary.
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