The Conscious Effect: 50 Lessons for better Organizational Wellbeing

The writer behind The Conscious Effect: 50 Lessons for Better Organizational Wellbeing, Natasha Wallace, is the chief coach and founder of Conscious Works. Conscious Works is a leadership and personal development business focused on elevating performance and wellbeing and Wallace’s résumé as an one time Human Resources director informs everything she does and writes about in this book. Her personal story, as well, figures into the overarching ambitions she aims to fulfill through the development of conscious leadership and her ideas about how wellbeing are fleshed out in ways that few of her contemporaries can readily match. The Conscious Effect isn’t a particularly long work, but Wallace manages to pack a lifetime of observation and philosophical reflection into its relatively brief space in a way that will impress all but the most cynical of readers.

The way she builds the book lends itself to re-reading and evaluation. It’s a book you can read from beginning to end, I advise that, but it’s also one that you can open at any point, dive in, and find ample meaning. The elasticity of Wallace’s text is something you do not encounter with many books on this subject. The way she mixes her personal story with her observations about the subject at hand is a winning formula for any reader. You will likely finish your reading of the work silently applauding her willingness to lay herself on the line for readers rather than making her case and asking readers to accept or reject it on its merits alone.

PURCHASE LINK: https://www.amazon.com/Conscious-Effect-Lessons-Organisational-Wellbeing/dp/1912555077 

The Conscious Effect is, ultimately, a book about achieving balance so we can realize our best selves both professionally and personally. Wallace’s book acknowledges without fail the inherent difficulties of being human and how elusive balance can be in our day to day lives, but she also emphasizes that it is a goal well within our reach if we consistently practice certain principles and realize that we are, in essence, in this together. Addressing the needs of our fellow human being has a positive effect on everyone around us.

She peppers the text with voluminous references to secondary materials, charts, diagrams, and ample opportunities for self-reflection. Each of the book’s five parts ends with a pair of “case studies” exploring how a variety of companies, when faced with challenges related to conscious leadership and organizational wellbeing, responded to those issues. These case studies are brief, but they are nonetheless one of the book’s many highlights because of how they tie into Wallace’s themes.

The book ends on a rousing note. Wallace doesn’t thump her chest, she doesn’t need to, but yet she writes eloquently and with immense passion about the common destiny we can all share if we are willing to apply ourselves towards that goal. The Conscious Effect: 50 Lessons for Better Organizational Wellbeing is a book with a lot to say and does so with impressive intelligence. Natasha Wallace assembles her materials in such a way that the book stands heads and shoulders above many other fine offerings on this subject and her work should enjoy attention from many for countless years to come.

Michael Rand