PREFACE

THIS BOOK began as a small project that turned into its own journey. Berrett-Koehler had asked Alan to prepare a study guide for the soft-cover publication of his first book, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace. At about the same time, Cheryl was rethinking her consulting practice, looking for ways to bring understanding and renewal to those struggling for more meaning in their work. A colleague of Cheryl’s turned out to be a friend of Alan’s and suggested they meet. Soon, we had agreed to write a study guide together as a first step toward collaboration.

Some months into the project, we realized that we had stumbled onto something much bigger—a guide that would take readers along a personal journey, linking ideas about spirit and soul to the gritty realities of the workplace. What has gotten lost? How do we get work done amidst the demands and tugs on our soul? How do we awaken to our gifts? How do we join with others to make work meaningful? Through stories, reflections, and written applications, the guide would invite readers to take up these questions and apply them to their specific work settings. Knowing that so many are searching for ways to bring soul into their work, our goal became to provide encouragement as well as a pathway for the journey.

To listen to the soul’s voice is to be mindful of our own particular path and curious about the patterns that thread our lives together. How do we follow the threads that lead into our own personal story? How can we find the place where the inner world and the outer world meet—find soul, that is, in the points of overlap? As writers, we invite readers to draw on their imagination, their curiosity, their courage, and their belief that “there must be something more.”