Book Description
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry describes a new strategy that inspires people and brings about a higher performance level in any organization. This method encourages people to study, discuss, learn from, and build on what works well when they are at their best, rather than focusing on what's going wrong.
The theory, practice, and spirit of this approach to organizational change is described in plain language. The authors provide guidelines for defining the change agenda, initiative, or project; forming the "steering team"; and launching an organization-wide kick off. Case histories demonstrate how organizations can attain sustained positive change by studying their strengths.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book describing important new planning tool.......2007-10-17
The book, written by Appreciative Inquiry (AI) pioneers and current thought leaders who continue to fine-tune this approach, provides an excellent overview of the AI philosophy and is accompanied by concrete examples that show its value and application.
A Life-Changer for Me.......2006-12-12
Appreciative Inquiry is a process that I feel is one of the most powerful there is for - as the subtitle of this book says - offering a practical tool to create positive change. It's easy to talk in abstract terms about change and improving the world, but it isn't often we come across a way to actually make it happen in concrete terms. AI is one of those tools. This book offers a very thorough guide to the history, mindset, methodology and diverse potential use of this powerful process. In addition, it was instrumental in the startup and methods that I now use in my own coaching, consulting and training firm. It was both an inspiration and a way of approaching the world that has helped me grow tremendously.
The right balance of principles and methodology.......2006-11-03
As an OD professional, I own a dozen different books on AI. This book is the one I most frequently buy for my business leader clients because it offers a great balance between principles and methodology. The clear writing, ongoing case examples and useful tips make "The Power of Appreciative Inquiry" a powerful resource for consultants and managers interested in putting AI into immediate practice.
Appreciative Inquiry.......2006-09-28
This is an excellent book. It is very readable while it explains the theory and foundations of AI. There are examples of its use in the for profit and non profit world. I have been involved in strategic planning for several year with non profits and this is one process that folks get excited about. I would highly recommend this book and "The Appreciative Inquiry Summit" to get a practical outline on how the process can be put into practice with groups and organziations.
Inspiring and Practical.......2006-05-03
As a professional organization development consultant for over 20 years, I have found The Power of Appreciative Inquiry extremely helpful, not only in change consultation but in many other aspects of working with human systems. I recommend it highly.
Book Description
Misaligned companies, like cars out of alignment, can develop serious problems if not corrected quickly. They are hard to steer and don't respond well to changes in direction. This groundbreaking book shows you how to get -and keep -all the vital elements of your organization aligned and headed in the same direction at the same time.
Managers must now keep their people centered in the midst of change, deemphasize hierarchy, and distribute leadership by distributing authority, information, knowledge, and customer data throughout their organization. Alignment is a response to the new business reality where customer requirements are in flux, where competitive forces are turbulent, and where the bond of loyalty between an organization and its people has been weakened. The old linear approach to management has given way to one of simultaneity -to alignment.
As pioneers of the alignment concept, the authors have developed this unique approach based on their work with leading companies throughout the world. The Power of Alignment is packed with war stories and the firsthand perspectives of industry leaders. You'll learn how world-class organizations, including Federal Express, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, Citizens Utilities, AirTouch, and UNUM achieved extraordinary business results. Now, through the authors' expertise, you'll see how alignment can work for your organization.
In essence, alignment links the five key elements of an organization -people, process, customers, business strategies, and, of course, leadership -to obtain breakthrough results, chief among them, sustained growth and profit, loyal customers, and a high-performing work force. The Power of Alignment:
* Offers a clear framework for aligning and linking the crucial elements that build and sustain a company's success
* Provides self-assessment tools as well as benchmarking measures for evaluating an organization's critical competencies
* Enables managers to create a work force where each employee can relate his or her activities to the goals and strategic objectives of the company
* Helps a company determine when and where it is out of alignment, and gives descriptions of such common company pathologies as "The Phantom Limb Syndrome," "Strategy Interruptus," and "Dead Man Walking"
* Prescribes specific steps for getting an organization back on track toward a single, shared vision of its goals
Essential reading for all managers and executives, The Power of Alignment offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance.
"This book is savvy, detailed, timely, and clearly written. I highly recommend it for any leader facing the challenges posed by global business today." - Dana Mead Chairman and CEO, Tenneco Former Chairman National Association of Manufacturers
"It's not only the stars that have to be in alignment to reach your destination, it's all the internal processes, rewards, and drivers. Read The Power of Alignment, and while you may not unlock the secrets of the universe, you will overcome the barriers to corporate success." - William L. Boyan President and COO John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company.
"This important book goes beyond TQM and reengineering by creating a new approach called Alignment. The authors show that great companies manage to link strategy and people and integrate customer needs with continuous improvement processes." - Peter Augustsson President and Group Chief Executive AB SKF.
"The Power of Alignment gets to the heart of a critical element of organizational leadership, namely focus. Every leader who reads it will undoubtedly do some serious soul-searching about the consistency of corporate vision, goals, management systems, and incentive mechanisms." - Louis E. Lataif Dean Boston University School of Management.
Customer Reviews:
As significant today as it was when first published.......2007-08-26
After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.
This Is a Great Resource!.......2007-07-10
I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.
One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!
Make Sure That Everything You Do Points To Success !.......2006-05-03
Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.
Five Stars
Powerful Organizational Focus.......2003-05-28
Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.
In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.
The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.
The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.
The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."
Alignment is Key Essential Usually Overlooked.......2001-07-13
I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.
Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.
For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.
The concepts are basic and fundamental, but usually overlooked and forgotten in the day to day business of rapidly growing companies and changing environments.
Amazon.com
Stemming from research in their previous book, Managing for Excellence, David Bradford of Stanford University and Allan Cohen of Babson College have developed a new "leadership system" based on reciprocal behavior between managers and subordinates. In Power Up: Transforming Organizations Through Shared Leadership, they diagram this model and show corporations how to adopt it. Blasting the fundamental assumption that leaders are responsible for everything within a company (and any unit therein), they suggest that management actually is the responsibility of everyone and offer ways to encourage such behavior even when resistance exists.
Book Description
"Cohen and Bradford give both leaders and followers the tangible tools they need to create high performance. Their transformational leadership system is both sophisticated enough to capture the realities of life in today's organizations and simple enough to be immediately useful to managers in any part of the world. This book will be read, re-read, and sent to bosses everywhere."--Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management
"In Power Up, Bradford and Cohen not only convincingly argue the benefits of leading by building a shared responsibility team, they also describe in detail how to do it. Loaded with many powerful examples and detailed cases that bring their concepts to life, this book will inspire any leader."--Jerry Porras, coauthor of Built to Last and Lane Professor of Organizational Behavior and Change, Stanford Business School
"Traditional assumptions about the roles of managers and subordinates are barriers to long-range success . . . Bradford and Cohen provide practical insights into how to transform the leadership systems of modern business organizations, and these insights should be shared among employees and managers at all levels."--Yotaro Kobayashi Chairman and CEO, Fuji-Xerox
"Post-heroic leadership and shared responsibility teams have made a big difference in how we operate at Autodesk. Power Up is critical reading for every manager in high-tech." --Carol Bartz President and CEO, Autodesk
"Power Up's message is clear: in today's business arena, global players must rely on shared leadership, not a single voice. Post-heroic leaders place responsibility where the knowledge is: at every level. Siemens is committed to this new way of working."--Dr. Heinrich von Pierer President and CEO, Siemens
Countless articles and books have called for an end to "heroic," command-and-control management. In principle, at least, business has heeded that call. Acknowledging the need for employee leadership and shared responsibility, companies worldwide have invested heavily in every variety of employee-empowerment program. Yet, such reform efforts seldom have any lasting effect, and managers and subordinates quickly slip back into old follow-the-leader patterns of thinking and behaving.
Does this mean that the skeptics were right all along? Are participative management, self-directed work teams, and other popular empowerment programs just part of a futile effort to change "human nature"? Not at all, say David L. Bradford and Allan R. Cohen in this practical follow-up to their international bestsellers Managing for Excellence and Influence Without Authority. They show conclusively that to believe this grossly underestimates human capabilities and sacrifices any chance for success in today's fiercely competitive global marketplace.
Drawing upon close observation of successful leaders and followers, Bradford and Cohen reconceptualize shared leadership to show how it requires tough and decisive behavior from managers and those who report to them. The authors provide a blueprint for making it work personally and in your organization, whatever your position or formal power.
Exercising their critically acclaimed talent for translating complex concepts into actionable advice and guidance, they show how to create a dynamic, supercharged organizational culture of shared responsibility. Using many real-life examples and vignettes, the authors reveal the mind-traps that keep organizations locked into outmoded concepts of leadership. A pathbreaking contribution to the new leadership from two pioneers in the field, Power Up arms managers with the concepts and tools to release the potential of employees for greater heights of productivity and performance.
Customer Reviews:
God is in the details and this book captures the key ones.......2004-03-17
I am biased in my report in that I know the book intimately. I can only say that I am aware of no other leadership book that has captured the correct essence of where human leadership is and where it could go.
Yes, read the stories, and the author's words, but I challenge you to look beyond all that they have thankfully given us as simple stories and realize the potential of the type of leadership that they call post-heroic leadership. Forget the label of this leadership they communicate and instead listen to underlying message of Power Up.
John P. Kotter once wrote a poem that goes something like this..."beyond the yellow brick road of naiveté, past the muggers land of cynicism, there lies a narrow path whose entrance is hard to find and poorly lit. Once found staying on such a path is even harder. Undertaking such a path is a moral undertaking. We need many more to take such a path...many, many more." Power Up describes a way that might help you see your way down your own path better and a way that is good for all mankind.
I have always said that this book will never be a best seller, because that just means that a lot of people read it, but I believe that hundreds of thousands of years from now it will still be revered as a great work in promoting the understanding of improving human leadership. It will get there I think, because of those few souls who read it and understand.
I will fight by your side if your purpose is good, and I follow you if your path is pure.
Focus,
Thundering Eagle
ugh!.......2002-02-07
This book is one of the worst business books I have ever read. The authors are clearly on the gravy train trying to sweep up some more consultancy dollars.
This book basically breaks leadership up into two schools, the heroic school and the post-heroic school. The way it works is really simple. Anything bad, belongs in the heroic school, and anything good is post-heroic! WOW! This book is very one-sided and does not even try to entertain the notion that the most effective style of leadership can vary depending upon the situation. It continuously hammers home a certain style of leadership never exploring the situations where different approaches are effective.
I strongly recommend that if one wants to learn and think about leadership, read about leaders!....and by the way, the kind of leaders that we all admire do not even fit into this post-heroic category! This idealistic kind of approach recommended by academics lacks practical real-world substance, and only has value in a classroom.
I am considering using this book to prop up my dining table!
Can't be this simple?.......2001-09-26
The authors make the impossible seem very possible in this excellent book. The differences between heroic and post-heroic leadership is well defined through stories involving real people. Can an organization switch from heroic to post-heroic leadership, sure, but it is not easy. Somehow this book and its ideas make that ideal a bit more reasonable. Only for managers and leaders who are ready to go out on a limb and turn everything they thought they knew upside down. Good luck.
Book Description
Praise for The Power of Feedback
"Some books are worthy of being recommended simply because of their subject matter. . . . There is no greater force to improve the quality of human relationships or improve the way organizations function than to multiply the amount and improve the quality of feedback."
"Other books are worthy of being recommended . . . when an author takes an otherwise abstract, obtuse subject and turns it into an actionable, practical set of things to do. Joe Folkman has accomplished that task . . . helping individuals and organizations to develop feedback-rich environments . . . [and] change through the use of a variety of surveys and feed?-back instruments. He has made this topic highly engaging and accessible."
"So, here you have the best of everything--an important topic; a talented, entertaining, and highly qualified author; content that is practical; and a text written in an easily comprehended manner. Enjoy."
--From the Foreword by John H. "Jack" Zenger
"Joe Folkman has years of experience and miles of wisdom from coaching and training high-performance organizations. He speaks truth: change is hard. But feedback can be very powerful if the receiver makes the commitment to lasting change. Folkman has scored a home run with The Power of Feedback."
--Maria Nalywayko Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Fremont Investment & Loan
"Most of us are clueless when it comes to providing feedback. But now, thanks to Joe Folkman's The Power of Feedback, we have a road map for turning the feedback we receive into lasting and profound change."
--Jeffrey Gill Director of Organization Capability, The Coca-Cola Company
Amazon.com
The search for competitive advantage, write management consultants and educators David Nadler and Michael Tushman, is "the defining goal of modern-day business." Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture, is their guide to reaching that goal through total integration of corporate structure, workplace culture, and employee motivation. Bringing all such processes together into one unified organization, they contend, is as important to a company's future as the architectural unity of the building that houses it.
Book Description
If the defining goal of modern-day business can be isolated to just one item, it would be the search for competitive advantage. And, as everyone in business knows, it's a lot harder than it used to be. On the one hand, competition is more intense than ever--technological innovation, consumer expectations, government deregulation, all combine to create more opportunities for new competitors to change the basic rules of the game. On the other hand, most of the old reliable sources of competitive advantage are drying up: the hallowed strategies employed by GM, IBM, and ATandT to maintain their seemingly unassailable positions of dominance in the 1960s and 70s are as obsolete as the calvary charge. So in this volatile, unstable environment, where can competitive advantage be found? As David Nadler and Michael Tushman show, the last remaining source of truly sustainable competitive advantage lies in "organizational capabilities": the unique ways each organization structures its work and motivates its people to achieve clearly articulated strategic objectives. For too long, too many managers have thought about "organization" merely in terms of rearranging the boxes and lines on an organizational chart--but as Competing by Design clearly illustrates, organizational strength is found far beyond one-dimensional diagrams. Managers must, argue Nadler and Tushman, understand the concepts and learn the skills involved in designing their organization to exploit their inherent strengths. All the reengineering, restructuring, and downsizing in the world will merely destabilize a company if the change doesn't address the fundamental patterns of performance--and if the change doesn't recognize the unique core competencies of that company. In this landmark volume, the authors draw upon specific cases to illustrate the design process in practice as they provide a set of powerful, yet simple tools, for using strategic organization design to gain competitive advantage. They present a design process, explore key decisions managers face, and list the guiding principles for incorporating the design function as a continuing and integral process in organizations that are looking to the future. In 1918, Henry Ford's Dearborn assembly plant was the model of the new assembly-line technology. Today, the assembly plant is an aging relic, but, incredibly, the organizational architecture it spawned lives on in steep hierarchies, centralized bureaucracies, and narrowly defined jobs. As companies are coming to realize they can't compete successfully in the 21st century with organizations based on 19th century ideas, Competing by Design shows clearly and persuasively why--and, most importantly how--to harness the power of organizational architecture to unleash the competitive strengths embedded in each organization.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent overview.......2003-08-12
This is a good book for both practitioners and academics. Full coverage of many topics.
Too Academic.......2003-07-14
This book is fine if you are interested in a purely academic approach. This offers nothing for practitioners.
Good Start.......2001-07-17
This is a very good start for Org Design consultants. The book correct addresses the key principles in designing an organization (Chap. 3) and explores the key issues that affect the key crucial design issues (Chap. 4). Don't wait for a "how to" book, this is much more a "what" one.
Organizational design made feasible.......2001-06-20
Competing by design is a great source for for anybody who thinks about organizational design. After having read it, you will never consider "cocktail-napkin" designs again, and you will recognize when you see a design created that way. The book doesn't only explain the basic elements of design, but also the do's and dont's of a design project. The structure of the book is very well-conceived, and the level of detail is just right: Focus on the important steps, best practices and lessons, with enough backup examples, and without boring repetitions or lenghthy explanations. I'm not sure you will sleep better after having read the book, as the size of the design project becomes clear, but you will certainly have the tools to make the process a successful one.
"The Lessons of Design.".......2000-05-04
"Today, more and more companies are coming to realize that they can't hope to compete successfully in the twenty-first century with organizations based on nineteenth-century design. Radically different organizational architectures are emerging in much the same fashion as new schools of physical architecture...In order to perform effectively, the new architectures require new collateral technologies. In particular, they demand new leadership skills, new methods for selecting and developing key people, new human resources approaches to assessment and reward, and new techniques for enhancing the organization's capacity for collective learning...In this book, we consider a number of leading companies in the United States and around the world that are developing their own versions of the new architecture.(pp.7-10)."
Throughout this study, David A. Nadler and Michael L. Tushman present a comprehensive, balanced approach to design that recognizes the technical requirements, human dynamics, and strategic demands of successful design in any organization or business unit.
Nadler and Tushman summarize the ten basic themes that capture the essence of this book :
1. Organizational capabilities represent the last truly sustainable source of competitive advantage.
2. Organizational architecture provides a conceptual framework for employing strategic design to develop organizational capabilities.
3. At every level of the organization, design constitutes one of the most powerful tools for shaping performance.
4. Regardless of its scope or scale, there are certain fundamental concepts that apply to design at every level.
5. There is a logical sequence of actions and decisions that applies to the design process at any level of the organization.
6. There are no perfect design; the design process requires the weighing of choices and the balancing of trade-offs.
7.The best designs draw upon the knowledge, experience, and expertise of people throughout the organization.
8. Even the best designs can be derailed by ill-planned, poorly executed implementation.
9. As continual redesign becomes a fact of life, successful organizations will learn to create flexible architectures that can accommodate constant change.
10. Flexible architectures and designs that leverage competitive strengths will themselves become the ultimate competitive weapons.
I highly recommend.
Book Description
Trust. Speed. Change. They may seem like disparate goals, circling in separate galaxies. And plenty of companies certainly treat them as such, destroying the trust and morale of employees in the name of brief bursts of speed and short-term change initiatives.
But trust, speed, and change are not disparate. In fact, they're inextricably entwined and absolutely essential for survival, says Dr. Edward M. Marshall, an early and active proponent of the collaborative workplace and the author of the landmark Transforming the Way We Work. "In business," assures Marshall, "you do not get speed by going faster. You create speed by breaking through the barriers of distrust in our work relationships."
In his latest book, Marshall offers a breakthrough model for building organizations that can swiftly and effectively respond to rapidly changing business needs. It's a model that values principle over power and people over processes--and that focuses on integrity, trust, and collaboration. His approach treats the workforce NOT as a cost or liability, but as an intellectual asset and irreplaceable resource.
While other books and business thinkers recognize that trust is a crucial ingredient to achieving success, BUILDING TRUST AT THE SPEED OF CHANGE is the first to explain HOW to tap into the power and flexibility of this "relationship-based" corporation. Complete with step-by-step instructions, benchmarks and guideposts for tracking your way, ready-to-use tools and techniques, illuminating vignettes, and a running case study, the book shows you how to: * Strip away the old fear-and-compliance management style * Cultivate the full commitment and loyalty of employees * Re-engage the knowledge, energy, and potential of your workplace * Infuse the element of trust into your organization's culture, leadership, work processes, structure, systems, and outcomes * Understand how the principles of character, will, and discipline affect leadership, the workforce, and the organization as a whole * Overcome obstacles that can stand in the way of creating a fully functioning, trust-based corporation.
Marshall's "Collaborative Method" has been tested and fine-tuned in hundreds of companies, both small and large. It's worked to mend strategic alliances, facilitate business process redesign, mediate solutions between entrepreneurial partners, jump start cross-functional teams, push forward cultural transformations...it's worked in any situation where companies needed a new, better way to achieve greater quality and faster speed.
In fact, in today's relentlessly competitive marketplace, speed is of the essence. New information technologies and simplified processes won't help you outstrip the competition. The old command-and-control style of leadership definitely won't do it. Only re-engaged people can create fast, flexible organizations--and only trust will motivate your workforce to meet the challenge. Let this inspiring, deeply felt, yet pragmatic book help you mobilize the extraordinary power of the trust-based relationship.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent "Why" Book.......2002-11-07
If you are looking for a "how" book, look elsewhere. However, if you are looking for a "why" book this is the one. Why is trust important? Why are relationships essential? Why follow the relationship-based approach? The answers lie here. It is a well documented and, I believe, important book to read.
no valuable content.......2002-05-13
I was looking for a book on how to create trust. The title of the book, and the idea that fundamental change only happens in a culture of trust, seemed to be exactly, what I was looking for. The book contains chapter after chapter just a description of a dream world. The plenty of examples are simply narrative stories that are full of fairy tale. The examples to show, what doesn't work are simply fiction by the author. Anybody can make any point and invent a story to proove that point.
I couldn't read the book entirely. Reading a few chapters and picking interesting spots didn't show a single concrete step on creating trust, or concept on how trust is created.
Read the title, that's about the only valuable part of the book and save the money.
Book Description
One of the leading pioneers in the field of organizational change argues that real transformation does not result from corporate mandate but from the expression of the spirit and passion of the people in the organization. He suggests ways to release this spirit and dissipate the "Soul Pollution" -- apathy, stress, and exhaustion -- that plagues today's workforce.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Read!.......2002-02-23
Harrison Owen's book has its share of shortcomings, but there is certainly something to recommend here as well. Owen's explanations of organizational change, complex adaptive systems and chaos theory as they apply to business and innovation are lucid and easy to understand. Less appealing are his lapses into jargon that seems more appropriate to a yoga class than a human resources department, and the theoretical tone that permeates the book. We from getAbstract recommend this book to anyone in search of an alternative perspective on modern management.
The Difference That Makes a Difference..........2001-02-09
is that this book is clearly written from the heart, and offers a deeply human solution to the "soul pollution" in today's workplace. I've read most the well known books on organizational change/transformation - and there are some excellent ones - but this one really rings true.
Mr. Owen suggests that management, a barely disguised euphemism for control, is a figment of our imagination. He holds that choas is actually the natural state of human affairs, not the exception. If we let go of outdated beliefs, and simply observe how things really get done, we will transform toxic workplaces into inspired organizations. By simply embracing what is.
Like a lot of people, especially women, I left corporate America because I was unable to reconcile their values w/ mine. Always puzzled by people who contrasted their "work personalities" with their "real personalities", I'm more convinced than ever that separating from ourselves at work is not only unnecessary, but destroys the organization along with the selves that make it up!
Spending time with Harrison Owen's voice allows you to hear your own.
Average customer rating:
- Finally, a complete book of how to manage change!
- Change Management
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The Power of Agreement
Brian D. Molitor
Manufacturer: Broadman & Holman Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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| Books
General
| Small Business & Entrepreneurship
| Business & Investing
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Business
| Christian Living
| Christianity
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ASIN: 0805418369 |
Customer Reviews:
Finally, a complete book of how to manage change!.......2000-01-16
Molitor really captures the entire process of how to manage change! Too many books on success stop short of actually tying it all together. The Power of Agreement explains how it all fits togehter and provides a step by step process for success. Great book for all leaders!
Change Management.......1999-12-15
If your company/workforce is looking for a refreshing, new and dynamic way to expedite success and change the way you do business, then this book (and the techniques it explains) is for you. Principled Leadership, as well as "Followership," based on rock-solid moral and ethical underpinnings, will lift any organization from stagnation to dynamism. This book and Brian's approach to change management are full of those underpinnings. I have read and been trained in all the "modern techniques" of change management, but none have matched the quality and the spirit-power of Brian's. I highly recommend this book as "must reading" for any organization that wants to succeed in the new millennium.
Book Description
Do governments seeking to collaborate in such international organizations as the United Nations and the World Bank ever learn to improve the performance of those organizations? Can international organizations be improved by a deliberate institutional design that reflects lessons learned in peacekeeping, the protection of human rights, and environmentally sound economic development? In this incisive work, Ernst Haas examines these and other issues to delineate the conditions under which organizations change their methods for defining problems.
Haas contends that international organizations change most effectively when they are able to redefine the causes underlying the problems to be addressed. He shows that such self-reflection is possible when the expert-generated knowledge about the problems can be made to mesh with the interests of hegemonic coalitions of member governments. But usually efforts to change organizations begin as adaptive practices that owe little to a systematic questioning of past behavior. Often organizations adapt and survive without fully satisfying most of their members, as has been the case with the United Nations since 1970.
When Knowledge Is Power is a wide-ranging work that will elicit interest from political scientists, organization theorists, bureaucrats, and students of management and international administration.
Book Description
Take an up-close look at inclusive urban schools that work. This important new book addresses head-on the critical national concern of educating an ever-more diverse student population. Visionary Middle Schools describes how three schools developed unique local solutions that were responsive to their particular students, to their cultures, and to their district and state mandates. Each school is organized around a different school-wide instructional practice—a "signature practice"—that reflects that school's particular beliefs about learning. Despite obstacles such as poverty, low English-language proficiency, and new immigrant status, each of these schools is the strongest performing in their respective districts and presents approaches and lessons of relevance to urban schools across the country.
* Introduces the concept of "signature practices" in schools and provides working models of what is possible for urban education.
* Demonstrates how school-wide, culturally responsive practices were created in schools where all members of the faculty shared a sense of moral imperative.
* Brings together classroom instruction, organizational structures, and leadership, showing how they can work together to achieve academic success for all students
Books:
- The Power of Play: How Spontaneous, Imaginative Activities Lead to Happier, Healthier Children
- The Restaurant Managers Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a Financially Successful Food Service Operation
- The Secrets of Facilitation: The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Getting Results With Groups
- The Shadows of Power: The Council on Foreign Relations and the American Decline
- The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
- UP: Influence, Power and the U Perspective- The Art of Getting What You Want
- Visual Systems: Harnessing the Power of a Visual Workplace
- WORDS THAT WORK: IT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY, IT'S WHAT PEOPLE HEAR
- Working and Poor: How Economic and Policy Changes Are Affecting Low-Wage Workers (National Poverty Center Series on Poverty and Public Policy)
- 50 Best Girlfriends Getaways North America
Books Index
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