the power of kindness – introduction
Posted by klondike on 18 Jan 2008 at 10:54 am | Tagged as: TheCodeFactory, Lifelong Learning
This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to the book “the power of kindness” by Piero Ferrucci. The book was original written in Italian and translated to English. The “thesis of the book is that true kindness is a strong, genuine, warm way of being.”
The power of kindness tag line is “the unexpected benefits of leading a compassionate life.”
The book discusses and examines the case for kindness and breaks kindness down into its component parts. The idea is that kindness is made up of a number of essential components which include:
Warmth,
Trust,
Patience,
Loyalty,
Gratitude,
And many others.
Kindness is a collaboration of all of its component parts and without even one of these qualities it is less convincing. The author postulates that kindness is the most efficient and economic attitude because it saves much energy when compared to “suspicion, worry, resentment,” and other negative emotions. Kindness in fact requires less effort than those attitudes that fritter away useless energy building unnecessary defences.
My posts will take the perspective of applying Mr. Ferrucci’s work to the culture and development of knowledge based start-ups. The quote below is taken directly from “the power of kindness” with respect to the philosophy in a corporate setting.
“And what about business and commerce? Here again we reach the same conclusion. Firms that exploit their workers, degrade the environment, deceive the consumer, and create a waste culture, will perhaps gain in the short term, but in the long run they compete less favourably than those that, in their own interests, do not take advantage of employees, respect the environment, and place themselves at the service of their clients.”
The essence of TheCodeFactory culture will be significantly influenced by Mr. Ferrucci’s work.
Cheers and have a great weekend,
Ian Graham

What a wonderful book. I read it about a year ago and enjoyed every word (they say the Italian version is even better).
I’ve devoted the last three years of my life to think about kindness in business and I came to a sad/happy conclusion: kindness on it’s own is weak. I came to this conclusion after talking to many experts and excecutives who did make it work.
No, I’m not confused- I said it doesn’t work on it’s own, and that’s true. But there are cases it does work and then the results are amazing. Think about it: we know that kindness is the only platform that brings commitment, true creativity, and other benefits no other management style can offer. The best eveidence that it doesn’t work on it’s own is that there is so few cases it triumps. What I found is that there are certain management skills “kind excellence” mangers (as I call them) practice. It’s those skills that allow their kind management style to be so effective.
I would love to chat with anyone who wants to learn more about it. I hope one day we can train managers to use these skills so kind strategies and values are taught in schools as a strong model for success in business!
Dear Reut,
Thank you for taking the time to post a comment very interesting.
Perhaps it is my naivety or newness to the concept of applying kindness to management; however, it seems to me that there should be a way to apply a strong kindness to organizations. I would definitely be interested in your thoughts and will forward you a note off line.
Best regards,
Ian Graham
[…] Anyway, Reut Schwartz-Hebron author of “Outswim the Sharks” had left a comment on that post (you can check it out here) and after exchanging a few emails and a phone call she was kind enough to send me a copy of her […]