Road to Flourishing - by Al Lopus (Hardcover)

About the Book

What makes for a flourishing workplace? With compelling case studies from the Best Christian Workplaces Institute along with enlightening personal anecdotes, Al Lopus demonstrates how companies and ministries can accomplish work that matters by building fantastic teams, cultivating life-giving work, attracting and retaining outstanding talent, and much more.

Book Synopsis

What makes for a flourishing workplace?

Many organizations find themselves spinning their wheels in work cultures filled with toxicity, dysfunction, conflict, and fear. Unengaged employees drag down productivity, and ineffective management undermines morale. How can we create workplaces where people don't just struggle to get through the day but instead thrive and love what they do and where they work?

Al Lopus, cofounder and CEO of Best Christian Workplaces Institute, has studied hundreds of organizations to discover eight key drivers in companies with healthy culture and engaged employees. He gathers best practices from across a range of companies and ministries to demonstrate how people at all levels can work together to accomplish work that matters. Principles and real-life examples provide concrete ways that organizations can flourish by building fantastic teams, cultivating life-giving work, attracting and retaining outstanding talent, and much more.

With compelling case studies, behind-the-curtain revelations, and enlightening personal anecdotes, Road to Flourishing will motivate leaders, managers, and their teams to reimagine, reassess, and renew their commitment to building healthy work cultures where everyone can flourish.

Review Quotes

"A truly flourishing organizational culture is a self-sustaining structure. When you treat your people well, trust them, and care about them, they will treat their colleagues the same. This increases productivity, creates improved innovation and collaboration, and greatly enriches the quality of workplace relationships. Al Lopus doesn't just tell you how to create a flourishing culture--he walks you through it along the Road to Flourishing. Read this book, build a healthy workplace culture, and watch your people flourish!"

--Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Lead Like Jesus Revisited

"Al brings such an advantage to Best Christian Workplaces from his work in the marketplace. His vast experiences qualify him to be a national leader with just what it takes to have a great organizational culture. He understands how to identify, develop, and retain great talent. Every employee basically wants the same thing: 'To wake up every day feeling valued.' Al knows all about that. He teaches how to move a lifeless organization toward flourishing. His biblical, practical analysis of the crucial steps necessary to have a healthy team are developed in this great work. Very few leaders are willing to admit that their teams just might need to improve. Using this book as a guide can transform your team members and your church or nonprofit. Road to Flourishing becomes your in-house conference on how to have healthy culture."

--Stan Endicott, chief culture officer and cofounder of the Slingshot Group

"Al Lopus doesn't mince words when writing about the toxic work cultures he's observed. But Road to Flourishing is also upbeat--you can create 'life-giving work' for every team member. You have two options: (1) continue to apply inappropriate Band-Aids to your sick workplace, or (2) go deeper and discover how your organization's culture will flourish with God-honoring and intentional best practices. Reading this book with your team members is a no-brainer. Pick one: life-giving work or life-sapping work."

--John Pearson, board governance and management consultant and author of Mastering the Management Buckets

"Al Lopus is the culture champion and wise guide who provides Christian leaders with what is needed most to ensure their employees thrive. In The Road to Flourishing you will never have a reason to lose your way. God has entrusted leaders with men and women who have been called to accomplish his plans. This is the book that will enable you to create a culture where everyone passionately gives their best so that God's best is achieved."

--Tami Heim, president and CEO of the Christian Leadership Alliance

"One of the greatest privileges of my life was my twenty-year tenure as president and CEO of MOPS International. I arrived in the role as an inexperienced thirty-four-year-old and learned as I led. Along the way I met Al Lopus and began to benefit from his workplace discoveries. In his book, Road to Flourishing, Al lays out the core principles for leaders of any age and any length of experience to develop flourishing organizations and workplaces. I'm so grateful for his clear and helpful guidance!"

--Elisa Morgan, radio and podcast host for Our Daily Bread Ministries and author of You Are Not Alone

"There is a growing consensus among organizational gurus and leaders that a healthy organizational culture is one of the most powerful tools available for lifting performance and improving competitiveness. But just how do you improve something as intangible as your organization's culture? One answer is to call in the 'culture doctor'! Al Lopus is an experienced real-world culture doctor, who has diagnosed and treated hundreds of ailing and failing organizational cultures. In Road to Flourishing, Al lays out his tried-and-true methodology for understanding, assessing, and addressing the common weaknesses in organizational cultures. Reading this one book could be the most important thing you can do this year for your employees and your bottom line."

--Richard Stearns, president emeritus of World Vision US and author of Lead Like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World

"When it comes to our jobs and the way we work together, God describes his heart in Psalm 115:14, 'May the Lord cause you to flourish.' It's a glorious goal, but how do we reach it? In this powerful new book, my friend Al Lopus describes the key benchmarks in creating an organizational culture where people thrive. Al Lopus was instrumental in helping Joni and Friends become a flourishing workplace--our ministry is a place where our employees love what they do, respect one another, and enjoy extending Christ's kingdom. I highly recommend this exceptional book to your business, church, or ministry organization."

--Joni Eareckson Tada, Joni and Friends International Disability Center

About the Author

Cory Hartman is a collaborative writer of books on Christian leadership and ministry.

Al Lopus is the president and CEO of the Best Christian Workplaces Institute (BCWI), which provides research-based measurement tools and strategic advisory services with a single vision: to help Christian organizations set the standard as the best, most effective workplaces in the world. At BCWI, Al has pioneered the broadest-ever employee engagement survey of Christian workers. To date, the survey has involved more than 1,000 Christian organizations, with employees completing over 300,000 survey questionnaires.Prior to cofounding BCWI, Al served for over twenty years in leadership roles with the global human resource consulting firm Watson Wyatt (now Willis Towers Watson), where he built a reputation for his vision and implementation of human capital programs for clients such as Boeing, Alaska Airlines, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and USAA. A former board member of Christian Leadership Alliance, Al currently serves on the association's advisory council. He also served on the Board of Trustees for Virginia Mason Medical Center, a 5,000-employee, award-winning healthcare organization. He and his wife, Kathy, are the parents of two adult daughters.