Change the World : How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Results

Amazon

Robert Quinn's Change the World offers profound yet practical guidance for those who truly want to improve their surroundings. Quinn, a University of Michigan professor and author of five books on change and organizational performance, bases Changeon eight "seed thoughts" drawn from the philosophies of Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. After relevant quotations from each, he cites contemporary real-life examples to show how these principles--Envision the Productive Community, First Look Within, Embrace the Hypocritical Self, Transcend Fear, Embody a Vision of the Common Good, Disturb the System, Surrender to the Emergent Process, and Entice Through Moral Power--can really be used. "All our lives we have been explicitly and implicitly taught to see human influence as an exercise in domination," Quinn writes. By learning instead to practice a new type of "transformational behavior," he suggests, even "ordinary people" can have "extraordinary impact." The section on asserting moral authority, for example, segues from his own fifth-grade coaching experiences to those of basketball superstar Larry Bird to details on building a bond between "change agents and change targets" that effects desirable modifications. Recommended for anyone open to new ideas on motivation and stimulating change. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

In this empowering book, Robert E. Quinn, author of the highly successful and influential Deep Change, gives readers the courage to use personal transformation to positively impact their home life, work life, and communities -- to be what he refers to as "inner-directed and outer-focused." We are all potential change agents, but most of us are trapped by belief that we as individuals cannot make a difference. Informed by the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- three of the most successful change agents ever -- Quinn outlines eight steps each of us can take to move ourselves and others to the highest levels of excellence. Following his advice, each of us can access and apply the power that lies within us in ways that will change our world for the better.

Customer Reviews:

My first and only review at Amazon - The Highest Recommendation.......2006-12-22

This, more than any book, has had a profound influence on my life. Quinn helps us understand why our lives are so frustrating. The basic notion is that we are hypocrites. We believe or think one thing but we act differently. This integrity gap is what causes us to continue to accept the ordinary, or transactional, world as it is. He challenges us to reduce our integrity gap, and thus transform ourselves from ordinary to extraordinary human beings.

Quinn uses three historical figures to illustrate the power of transformation - Gandhi, Christ, and King, Jr. He also gives examples from his personal life and from his work as an organizational consultant of moving from the transactional to the transformational world. If you are willing to do the work Quinn challenges us to do, you will find yourself much more in tune with your highest ideals. By transforming yourself, Quinn argues, you can change (or transform) the world around you - your family, office, organization, and ultimately, the larger world.

Please read this book. Give it to friends and family. We (and they) are all hypocrites. Let us close our integrity gaps together.

top notch.......2005-09-04

If you want to be effective at influencing others, study this book. This is one of my favorites. It also has many lots of valuable references and a great bibliography.

Change the World by Changing Yourself.......2005-05-26

Bob Quinn is definitely one of the most profound writers on change in this era. But his work is not for the faint of heart because he challenges each of us to start change initiatives in the place we'd least like to go -- inside ourselves. I found this an incredibly powerful book. I've used sections of it with my "change management" classes for several years and I know it has a tremendous impact on students, who like most managers have grown up unconsciously believing that change always needs to start with the other guy. If you want a simple formula for change, don't buy this book. Although it is full of practical, actionable ideas, "Change the World" addresses change at a profound level that asks readers to reflect seriously on what they stand for. It's a very difficult but rewarding assignment.

real change.......2001-01-07

"Typically a top management team goes off for three days," writes the author Quinn. "They hole up in a room with lots of flip charts and go to work." Then he says that when they're through they typically write words on small cards and pass them out to employees. Sadly, he observes these cards are "ignored and things go on as before." The premise underlying this book is that Quinn would have us care enough to change this way of thinking. The key, he says, is to stop doing things out of self-interest and start identifying and going after the shared goals of the group. He does a nice job of working good examples into his text. He also points out how risky it is to be a true leader since it involves overcoming a fear of failure when trying something new. He also does a nice job of making clear that hierarchy in itself is not a bad thing; it's only bad when they're perceived as mechanisms that result in getting nothing done. "Hierarchies become frozen bureaucracies due to the failure of human courage." He makes a compelling case for why it's crucial to skip the hollow words and dare to lead toward change. Only then can organizations hope for real change.

Look Within: That's Where Change Management Begins.......2000-11-24

Hopefully, you have already read some (if not all) of Quinn's earlier books, especially Deep Change which serves as an excellent introduction to this one. In the Preface, he explains that this book "is about changing the world. It is about coming to a deep understanding of human beings and human relationships." He then adds, "The book focuses on vision, unconditional confidence, and profound impact. It is about the mastery of human influence, transformational power, and the capacity to accomplish extraordinary things. It argues that everyone of us is a change agent." It is important to add, that Quinn advocates "deep change" as opposed to "incremental change." Moreover, no organization can achieve deep change unless and until those within that organization achieve deep change. So as I understand it, each of us must assume full authority as well as responsibility for (and have control of) our personal development. "There is a language of transformation. Yet most of us are cut off from that language. All our lives we have been explicitly taught to see human influence as an exercise in domination." Even the most sensitive among us is shaped by this paradigm or worldview. But this outlook prevents us from seeing more deeply into the actual workings of human systems. This book demonstrates an alternative system."

Quinn recalls the remark by Oliver Wendell Holmes that he placed little value in simplicity that lay on this side of complexity but a great deal of value on simplicity that lay on the other side. The framework within which Quinn presents his material comes from the "seed thoughts" of people who have mastered "the language of transformation." By "seed thoughts" Quinn means some of the "core notions that masters of transformation hold in common, the simplicity they send us from the other side of complexity." Specifically, Jesus, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quinn focuses on eight (8) "seed thoughts" (eg Envision the Productive Community, First Look Within, Embrace the Hypocritical Self), providing brief quotations from each of the three "masters of transformation" which he correlates with each of the eight "seed thoughts." His objective is to explain how Advanced Change Theory (ACT) can enable individuals to achieve deep change in their own lives and then within their organizations. The title of this book (Change the World) may be somewhat misleading. I wholeheartedly agree with Quinn that "ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary results", both individually and as members of a group. I also agree that Jesus, Gandhi, and King were "masters of transformation" within their respective spheres of influence as were Carnegie, Edison, Ford, Morgan, and Rockefeller within their own. Quinn's basic idea is sound. He and I may differ only when defining terms such as "change" and "world."

I urge you to read this book, to consider very carefully what ACT offers to you (personally) and to your organization, and then to select whatever is most appropriate. Quinn provides an eloquent and convincing argument in support of his concept of deep change; better yet, he suggests all manner of strategies and tactics to achieve and sustain it; even better yet, almost anyone who reads this book already has the resources required. If you need help to organize and allocate those resources, and truly powerful encouragement to support your efforts in process, look no further.

The Book of Agreement: 10 Essential Elements for Getting the Results You Want
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Comprehensible concepts from an expert in the field

Finally, a practical book for the real world

From the author of "Teamwork Is An Individual Skill"

It's all about the agreements

The Book of Agreement: An Inspiring Gift!

The Book of Agreement: 10 Essential Elements for Getting the Results You Want
Stewart Levine
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Getting to Resolution: Turning Conflict Into Collaboration

Teamwork Is an Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility

Think Before You Speak: A Complete Guide to Strategic Negotiation

Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most

Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want

ASIN: 1576751791

Book Description

For many people, negotiating an agreement is an adversarial process. But in this book, conflict resolution expert Stewart Levine shows how to design agreements collaboratively to reflect a clear joint vision of the desired outcome and produce results.

The Book of Agreement provides ten powerful tools for creating successful agreements together. These tools help both parties clarify expectations, establish standards, and build partnership. Also included are more than 25 agreement templates that cover all areas of life. Professional templates include financial planners, realtors, therapists, consultants, and engineers; personal templates include spouses and domestic partners, children, and parents.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensible concepts from an expert in the field.......2006-06-26

We all know of stories where businesses, families and communities went down the drain because the involved parties were locked into years of conflict. In this book, Stewart Levine provides an insightful framework and applications for resolutions that can be put to practice immediately; sort of a 15-Minute Gourmet Resolutions recipe book.

A must read for anyone trying to get the most out of relationships.

Finally, a practical book for the real world.......2003-04-17

The Book of Agreement is the first practical book on how to realize the potential of really working together in the world, at the office, or in the home. Stewart Levine outlines the amazingly simple, and yet so powerful, 10 elements that actually produce"agreements for results". Following this by example after example of people who actually made this work. I found this book to not only be worth my time, but such a time saver that I got copies for everyone in th office. I even sent copies out to my family.

From the author of "Teamwork Is An Individual Skill".......2003-04-12

Add this book to your shelf of most important references--like your dictionary and your "Windows for Idiots" guide--and consult it often. Your life, relationships, and career will improve immeasurably.

Stuart Levine's first book "Getting to Resolution" is the best I've read on resolving conflict. I think I know a thing or two about agreements. So I read the review copy of this new book, supplied by his publicist, with mixed emotion. I know and love Stewart, we have the same publisher, I'm thrilled his great second book is out, and he taught me good stuff about resolving conflict (we also shared an excellent glass of Merlot last year in Santa Fe, but that's a story for another day). But, just what can Levine teach this veteran partnering consultant about making and keeping agreements?

A thing or two, it turns out.

Let's start with what's critical to learn if you don't already know it.

Consider Levine's Principle #2, "We work and live in a 'sea' (context) of agreements." Do you realize all relationship behavior is governed by implicit or explicit agreements? Someone can't even push your hot-buttons unless you and they have established by implicit agreement that "those" buttons are indeed hot and that you will explode if they are tweaked in a certain way. And you know "Shhh, don't tell a soul"
implicitly means "keep this to yourself as well as I'm keeping it to myself." Even a chain of command is full of implicit agreements about norms like who can and can't tell whom what to do, who can and can't evaluate another's performance, who can and can't make decisions, etc. If you've worked in one hierarchy, you pretty much can move from organization to organization and quickly grasp the nuances of the culture. Why? Because you understand, experientially, the sea of implicit agreements.

You buy into, if not invent, these implicit agreements, and then live by them whether you like it or not. It's your own doing. So you might then consider Levine's Principle #3, "We never learned the essential elements of an effective agreement." I believe people clamor for control because they lack the learned power of agreement-making. It's much easier to just boss folks around. But it's far more powerful and rewarding to make what Levine calls "agreements for results." That's a lot of what TeamWisdom (a term from my work) is about.

So what do you do? You learn the essential elements of an effective agreement, then put them to use. Repeat. Improve. Repeat. Improve. Levine shows you how.

Just as he did in his first book, Levine gives us the foundation first and the practice second. He starts with the Basic Law of Agreement ("Collaboration is established in language by making implicit and explicit agreements"), then offers ten principles, and then ten elements of effective agreements. Elements include things like roles, time and value, measures of satisfaction, etc. Later in the book, he uses these ten elements to fashion templates and illustrate agreements for different situations (like employment agreements, sales agreements, performance appraisal agreements, feedback agreements, and many more).

The strength of this book is in combining his original concepts with his applications. For instance Levine identifies the difference between agreements for protecting your interests and agreements for results. The first is what you hire lawyers to do in writing contracts; he knows,
Levine practiced law for years. He shows you how to make agreements for results and protect your interests. Levine also provides application after application after application. More than half the book is devoted to templates for agreements for results in organizations, associations, communities, families, cultures, marriages, and more. Be sure to practice the new Levine U MBA -- managing by agreement. You'll also want to read his section on training your lawyer how to make agreements for results.

The Book of Agreement makes a terrific companion to "Teamwork Is An Individual Skill: Getting Your Work Done When Sharing Responsibility"

It's all about the agreements.......2003-03-31

As a conflict mediator, I have found The Book of Agreement by Stewart Levine to be extremely insightful for me personally and particularly helpful in working with my clients. His book will help us all create effective relationships in our lives. A must read.

The Book of Agreement: An Inspiring Gift!.......2003-03-26

The Book of Agreement is profoundly simple yet extremely useful in its application to many varieties of situations/relationships requiring dependable and reliable solutions toward fullfilling significant goals.
Stewart Levine's capacity to provide a means by which conflicts can be resolved, not only allows the reader the ability to do so for him/herself, but it also provides great insight into understanding (which is a wonderful gift).

The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (World Trade Organization Legal Texts)

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WTO Uruguay Round Legal Texts

The Legal Texts: The Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (World Trade Organization Legal Texts)
World Trade Organization
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Law and Policy of the World Trade Organization: Text, Cases and Materials
The World Trade Organization: Law, Practice, and Policy
The World Trading System - 2nd Edition: Law and Policy of International Economic Relations
The Regulation of International Trade

ASIN: 0521785804

Book Description

The agreements negotiated in the Uruguay Round, which form the legal framework of the World Trade Organization, will govern world trade into the twenty-first century. This volume covers both the original and the updated General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the Agreement on Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, the new procedures for dispute settlement, and the legal framework for the World Trade Organization. This is the definitive reference for all practicing and academic trade lawyers, an essential holding for all international law libraries, and a vital source book for students, economists, and political scientists.

Customer Reviews:

WTO Uruguay Round Legal Texts.......2003-09-04

The WTO Legal Texts, copublished by the WTO and Cambridge University Press, is a essential reference for anyone working on WTO issues. Although the WTO agreements are available to the public on the WTO website, as well as the worldtradelaw.net website, most scholars and practitioners will want a compact volume to carry and to underline. Cambridge U. Press has put a sturdy binding on the paperback volume. The one flaw in the volume is that it omits the plurilateral agreements, such as the Agreement on Government Procurement. It would also be helpful in a future edition to improve the usability of the Table of Contents.

Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond

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Create Desired Outcomes

Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond
Deepak Malhotra , and Max Bazerman
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Shaping the Game: The New Leader's Guide to Effective Negotiating
3-d Negotiation: Powerful Tools to Change the Game in Your Most Important Deals
Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making
The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas
The Future of Management

ASIN: 055380488X
Release Date: 2007-09-25

Book Description

From two leaders in executive education at Harvard Business School, here are the mental habits and proven strategies you need to achieve outstanding results in any negotiation.

Whether you’ve “seen it all” or are just starting out, Negotiation Genius will dramatically improve your negotiating skills and confidence. Drawing on decades of behavioral research plus the experience of thousands of business clients, the authors take the mystery out of preparing for and executing negotiations—whether they involve multimillion-dollar deals or improving your next salary offer.

What sets negotiation geniuses apart? They are the men and women who know how to:

•Identify negotiation opportunities where others see no room for discussion

•Discover the truth even when the other side wants to conceal it

•Negotiate successfully from a position of weakness

•Defuse threats, ultimatums, lies, and other hardball tactics

•Overcome resistance and “sell” proposals using proven influence tactics

•Negotiate ethically and create trusting relationships—along with great deals

•Recognize when the best move is to walk away

•And much, much more

This book gets “down and dirty.” It gives you detailed strategies—including talking points—that work in the real world even when the other side is hostile, unethical, or more powerful. When you finish it, you will already have an action plan for your next negotiation. You will know what to do and why. You will also begin building your own reputation as a negotiation genius.

Customer Reviews:

Create Desired Outcomes.......2007-09-29

Good negotiators are methodical, so it's not surprising that this book takes a methodical approach. For example, it's laid out in three parts that are naturally sequential. Each part consists of chapters in progressive order. This structure helps the reader absorb the material rapidly. Not everyone is comfortable with a methodical approach or a structured way of thinking. But unstructured thinking and haphazard approaches put a very low ceiling on performance in negotiation and in many other disciplines. The book itself exudes the methodical approach and structured thinking that are key to good negotiating. The authors obviously take their own medicine.

You may have read a new book in which the author claims to have the insight everyone else is missing and then contradicts what came before. Diet books are notorious for that. Fortunately, Negotiation Genius builds on the existing body of knowledge. Having read other books on the topic of negotiation, I was pleased to find that this book is consistent with the established literature while also providing new insight.

Three things I found especially helpful were in Part III, "Negotiating in the Real World." There were:

Chapter 9: Confronting Lies and Deceptions. Many of the strategies espoused in negotiation books, seminars, and courses work well if the other party is negotiating in good faith and trying to work with you. But even small, unintended deceptions (they believe it, even if it isn't true) can easily undermine otherwise brilliant strategies. A good negotiator doesn't use any particular strategy in isolation. A negotiation genius goes a step further, by using strategies specifically targeted at uncovering lies and deceptions, then using other strategies to overcome them with the best outcome in mind. This book provides those strategies.

Chapter 11: Negotiating from a Position of Weakness. We've all had to negotiate from a position of weakness. Situations include such things as negotiating a salary, dealing with the IRS for a reduction in the amount of unpaid taxes they erroneously claim you owe, trying to get help getting another flight when yours is cancelled at the last moment, or solving a problem with a customer who seems to hold all the cards while being unreasonable. You can probably add to this list, with very little effort. So, what do you do in these situations? If you have nothing really to offer the other party, you can't do a quid pro quo or do any kind of bartering. If you have nothing to offer, how can you motivate the other party to help you get what you want? The answers to these, and related questions, are in this chapter.

Chapter 12: When Negotiations Get Ugly: Dealing with Irrationality, Distrust, Anger, Threats, and Ego. Things can get out of hand, simply because someone assumes an insult you didn't make or misreads your intentions. People look at things through their own lenses, based on their situation, their culture, their experience. Negative emotions can cause both sides to engage in mutual destruction. A case history that illustrates how close we can come is the Cuban Missile Crisis. This book uses that case history to explain several strategies for defusing a situation and getting things back on track.

As mentioned earlier, this book consists of three parts.

Part I: The Negotiator's Toolkit consists of three chapters. Here, we learn about claiming and creating value. The authors give the reader several proven tools for obtaining the information needed for claiming and creating value. They call those tools, collectively, "investigative negotiation."

Part II: The Psychology of Negotiation also consists of three chapters. The essence of Part II is that we are all human beings. We make mistakes, and we have our biases. But the biases are systematic and predictable. The authors draw from the latest research to provide the reader with tools to help avoid biases. They also provide tools to help the reader identify biases of the other side, and actually use those to advantage.

Part III: Negotiating in the Real World makes up almost half of the book. It consists of eight chapters, and I've already covered three of them. The other five that I didn't cover are all worth reading and absorbing. Actually, all eight are worth studying and implementing, using the book as an ongoing coach.

As noted earlier, Negotiation Genius is consistent with the established literature. What I didn't note then, and will note now, is it's consistent with more than just the established negotiation literature. The basic tenet of the book is that if you work to overcome your ignorance, you will be able to work from an informed position and therein lies your real power. The details of how and why to do that, along with some things not to do, are what you will gain from reading this book. The authors assert that going beyond simply reading it will give you the best value for your book purchase. Conscientiously study and apply the principles in an ever-increasing circle of what you consider negotiable, and you will not only reap huge personal rewards but also enrich others. After reading this book, I am inclined to agree with them.

Be sure to read Getting Past No, Getting to Yes, and The Power of a Positive No, as well.

How to Negotiate: The Fast Route to Getting the Results You Want (Hamlyn Self Help S.)

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How to Negotiate: The Fast Route to Getting the Results You Want (Hamlyn Self Help S.)
Ann Jackman
Manufacturer: Hamlyn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0600610217

Negotiating contract more than handshake: be prepared to get results from your service agreement. (Small Business): An article from: San Diego Business Journal

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Negotiating contract more than handshake: be prepared to get results from your service agreement. (Small Business): An article from: San Diego Business Journal
David Shepard
Manufacturer: CBJ, L.P.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000920GU8
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from San Diego Business Journal, published by CBJ, L.P. on February 7, 1994. The length of the article is 1033 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Negotiating contract more than handshake: be prepared to get results from your service agreement. (Small Business)
Author: David Shepard
Publication: San Diego Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 7, 1994
Publisher: CBJ, L.P.
Volume: v15 Issue: n6 Page: p7A(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Negotiating for Business Results
Judith E. Fisher
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Managing Conflict at Work (Ami How-To)

ASIN: 0786301147

Book Description

no description

Negotiating for Results: How to Achieve the Best Outcome for Both Parties

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Negotiating for Results: How to Achieve the Best Outcome for Both Parties
Kandy Kidd
Manufacturer: Brendon Hill Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

The New Negotiating Edge: The Behavioral Approach for Results and Relationships (People Skills for Professional Series)

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New approach means "as opposed to the usual approach"....
Very disappointing !

The New Negotiating Edge: The Behavioral Approach for Results and Relationships (People Skills for Professional Series)
Gavin Kennedy
Manufacturer: Nicholas Brealey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1857882008

Book Description

From the bestselling author on negotiation, The New Negotiating Edge is not about what people ought to do, rationally or otherwise. It is about how people really behave and what you can do about it.

Customer Reviews:

New approach means "as opposed to the usual approach"...........2003-11-25

Gavin Kennedy teaches the Negotiation module within the Heriot-Watt University MBA program (Edinburgh Business School), which is available on-campus and by distance learning. Having taken his module via distance learning, I can say that this book covers much of the same material thus making it available to those who do not have access to the Negotiation module.

His "new approach" is opposed to the usual negotiation stance whereby we try to "win" at negotiation by "beating" the other side, and we must learn "tactics" to prepare ourselves better to win.

I like Gavin's approach much better: he teaches that a principled approach is the only way for both sides to get what they want, and that it will go farther to maintaining the relationship for future negotiation. Negotiation is just one of several modes of conduct within relationships; there is also force, coercion, persuasion, influencing, etc., but not all of these modes will do when both sides are of equal status and want to maintain a good relationship.

For example, Gavin teaches that one should never give up something (some point, issue, item) without getting something in return. In order to do such, you must know what the issues are, what priority you place on each, and on what points you think the other side may be willing to concede. Then, you can trade one of your lower priority negotiables for one that is higher priority for you. Maybe this idea is self-evident for others, but it wasn't for me, and I have since used this in all of my negotiations, especially contractual and job responsibilities.

I recommend this highly to those who feel that you have been cheated in too many negotiating situations. I give it only 4 stars, however, as I feel that he could have included a chapter summarising some of the other negotiation teachings out there.

Very disappointing !.......2001-03-05

"The new negotiating egdge", a title that was for me a promise for new ideas, new concept, new material and... just a rehash of what's has been said already (with other words). Disappointing !

Practical Business Negotiating: Mastering the win/win method for better negotiating results / Donald B. Sparks

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Practical Business Negotiating: Mastering the win/win method for better negotiating results / Donald B. Sparks
Donald B Sparks
Manufacturer: D. Armstrong Co., Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0918464285

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