Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance by Paul Herr

From the Publisher

As human beings, we are fascinated by what makes us tick. We know that nature gave us certain biological appetites to ensure our survival, among those the need for water, food, sex, and love, but meeting these alone is not enough to ensure happiness. Scientists, and now managers, are realizing that people have a biological need to experience social rewards like praise, the thrill of innovation, and the satisfaction of acquiring new skills. To succeed, every manager needs to realize that work must provide more than just a paycheck and that quenching these social appetites is the key to creating passionate emloyees whose productivity blows away the bottom line. Primal Management is the first book to bring together the five impulses at the core of human motivation (innovation, competency, attaining goals, cooperation, and self-protection). It reveals that to drive employees, the workplace has to satisfy these appetites, and offers practical tips on how to do it and metrics for measuring success. Respected consultant Paul Herr explodes the myth that emotions have no place on the job and explores how this belief actually harms employee performance. Using examples of companies that have benefited from the principles of primal management, he shows how businesses can measure their emotional health, address areas where they don't engage employees, and increase productivity by boosting the emotional paycheck. Based on groundbreaking scientific research, this book will change the way we inspire our people and show how fulfilled employees lead to incredibly profitable businesses.

Publishers Weekly

It's pure myth that human beings are fundamentally rational creatures-we are sublimely emotional at heart and work best when treated as such, argues consultant Herr, who contends that companies need to take a hard-science approach to the soft side of the business if they want to maximize their gains. He explores the human social appetites-innovation, skill mastery and deployment, goal attainment, cooperation and self-protection-maintaining that these drives are as integral to our biology as our need for food, sex and love. People want to excel at work, and companies that encourage that desire bring out the best in their employees. Arguing against a hyper-rational, bureaucratic management, Herr advocates a "tribal" connected workforce, a corporate superorganism composed of individual human beings who strive toward the same goal. Some fairly heavy theory is backed up with solid practical advice for leaders, including a methodology to create a high-performance workplace. The biological approach lends a fresh aspect to the subject of employee performance enhancement, and the well-researched, entertaining presentation should make this an appealing reference for progressive business leaders. (May)

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