This update includes:

1. Status of first draft

2. Fresh Insights

3. Your Input

4. Publisher Update

1. Status of First Draft: Several of you have written to ask when Chief Leadership Officer will be ready.  My goal was to have the first draft written by the end of August, but the end of September is looking more realistic. Setting goals is the writing process involves a hubris because books, especially narratives, tend to take on a life of their own. I've been working diligently because, frankly, I want to get the first draft on paper. 

Authorship is a bit like having a master thesis hanging over your life. Every moment of relaxation is tinged with the thought that there's this deadline looming, promises to be kept, and, more importantly, a message to be released into the world. If I hit the end of August I'll be surprised but I am pushing diligently. At this point the end of September may be more realistic. That doesn't even get me into the edits and re-writes! Hang in there. This will be worth the wait.

I hit a "writer's block" a couple of weeks ago around chapter 9. I don't really believe in writer's block, per se. Rather I see it as a healthy gestational period where undeveloped thoughts are maturing in the background, where something better is emerging. And that's the case here in spades.

2. Fresh Insights: CLO is a very important message so I have a deep sense of stewardship of this message. The writing process is a richly clarifying time of research, thinking and writing. The past several weeks have been mind blowing in terms of the richness and depth of thought. This only complicates the writing process because the hallmark of my books is: making the complex simpler to understand, and short to read while long on meaning. The narrative format forces concise, tight writing within a plausible story.

Entwined in my writing process is my business consulting / advisory practice. With CLO, I've found the two cross-pollinating. The strategic consulting work being done at On-Purpose Partners is strongly influenced by CLO; and CLO is being strong influenced by On-Purpose Partners. This is best described as an enriching, fluid interchange between the theory and the practice. The effect is that the two are being re-written at the same time! More on that in another update.

For example, I'm tackling the very big question of, Why Does Business Exist? Ponder it a second and you'll find your mind is likely running in circles with more than the occasional rabbit trail. Being true to the On-Purpose® Approach of using 2-word purpose statements with a generic beginning of, "Business exists to serve by ...," I've decided that the purpose of all business is, "Increasing Wealth." 

Knowingly I risk this sounding like a "prosperity gospel" message, but it isn't. This is a roll-up your sleeves, get your head clear, and your heart right purpose. It took me to research, what is wealth, really? It comes from the word weal, frankly, a word I've never heard of before or used; but it means well-being. So wealth is the state of being well in the most holistic presentation possible. Popular usage shoves wealth in a financial-only box. And that's exactly the problem with business today in far too many corner offices - it is only about the money and the greater good is forgotten, yet that's where the true wealth is created! Ironic, isn't it.

Naturally, the question is whose wealth is being increased? Not unexpectedly, perhaps, I propose that everyone's wealth is increased or else the business leader isn't thinking completely. Ergo, why CEOs are more than a few brick short of a full load. And why CLOs are the complete package.

Paul Zane Pilzer's 1991 book Unlimited Wealth has always spoken to my both my soul and my b-school education. In it he observed that economics is based on the distribution and allocation of scarce resources. His premise was that this definition was incorrect, self-limiting and spurred the win-lose mentality–my paraphrase. Instead, he proposed an alternative theory called Economic Alchemy whereby economics needs to be about the study of the distribution and allocation of abundant resources. This shift in orientation carries powerful implications.

3. Your Input: First, I cherish your thoughts about my proposed 2-word purpose of "Increasing Wealth," for why business exists in society. This means that your business would be a part of this larger context. Be brutally honest as you share your thoughts!  

Second, the proposed working subtitle to Chief Leadership Officer would become: Increasing The Wealth of the World From Where You Work. Where you work is where you are working–at a laptop, in a company, in a field of endeavor. I want this message to be profoundly personal and profoundly organizational. 

My audacious goal is to re-calibrate business to its organic heritage and appropriate role within society. Many businesses are setting the trend, but they're still one foot stuck in the past working from old Industrial Age models of business and leadership. There's a wise saying that says, "You don't put new wine in old skins or they will burst." Folks we're bursting!

Companies like Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Whole Foods Market, Method, Automattic (where my daughter Anne works), Tom's Shoes, plus the entire B-Corp movement are actually vintage ventures, not contemporary do-good abnormalities. They represent the forgotten past as much as they do the future of business and leadership. It is because they think and feel big that they can act and serve on a large scale. They are "increasing wealth" for all as best they can given that perfection will never exist. Each in its own way is: Increasing the wealth of the world from where they work.

So what do you think of my working sub-title for Chief Leadership Officer? (See update cover below) Can you now appreciate why I'm re-writing so much? My email link at my signature.

4. Publisher Update: The www.Publishizer.com platform did its job. Now I need to do mine. I'm in discussions with several solid publishers who can likely accommodate my jaded, love-hate relationship with the traditional publishing model, method and mindset. I've decided to hold off making a decision to self-publish or go with a publisher until the book content itself is further along. In good conscience and given the manner in which this message is unfolding, I want to be and do right by both the publisher and readers to be assured that I've done right by all, especially the message itself. 

Pioneering into an leadership frontier, yet again, is my blessing and my curse. Back in the late 1980's when I started talking about purpose and being on-purpose, I was truly a voice in the wilderness. With CLO, I expect it might be the same way. The difference this time, however, is I have learned much in 25 years and, most importantly, I'm not alone.

I have you. As an angel investor, you've help to fund this expedition. Your money is set aside for use with this project development, not to underwrite my research and writing. Please keep your eyes and ears open for me for CLO speaking venues, as High Point University has done, where I can share the CLO message and underwrite the writing. Yes, I am still offering corporate and academic sponsors for speaking engagements.

You've also provided encouragement and trust. You're also additional minds and hearts who can give me feedback and help me feed my family. Writing is an expensive proposition. 

I beg your patience and ask that you trust my stewardship of this project and its noble purpose. It will get there and it will be a book, like The On-Purpose Person, that shifts the cultural conversation, but this time as a team effort thanks to you.

Be On-Purpose!
Kevin

Email Me your thoughts.

PS: Here's an updated version of the book cover with the proposed new sub-title. What do you think?