The difference between successful organizations is not between the business and the social sector, the
difference is between good organizations and great ones.
Customer Reviews:
Super Social.......2007-10-22
In my own research on high performance I have found that there is indeed such a thing as a Superperforming nonprofit. The pattern is the same here as well - robust process wed to robust culture. The volunteer and fundraising nature of nonprofits seems to render culture and process a special case, but it does not seem so different to me then the PXC phenomenon in a profit-seeking enterprise. In fact, I have run across incredibly enlightened and spiritual for-profits, and astonishingly evil (yes that's right, and you know who you are) and destructive nonprofits, some even faith-based! The simple truth is still the simple truth - - - look to the tip top of the organization and there you will learn what kind of organization you are dealing with. BTW, this is a great 'monograph' Jim Collins is most definitely a "level 5" thought leader.
also read Superperformance
Thought-provoking for non-profits.......2007-09-06
A friend mentioned Good to Great in a sermon and I thought it might be a worthwhile read for me as the executive director of a non-profit association facing the challenge of how take the organization to the next level.
I found the book fascinating and will share it with my Board of Directors as a roadmap for how we will move our organization from good to great.
The monograph provides a great overview of the concepts developed in the book and is of a very manageable length.
I would strongly recommend it to leaders of non-profits as a basis for a conversation about their organization making the great leap forward.
A must read for anyone in a leadership position.......2007-09-05
This is a great companion for Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't for anyone that works in the social sector. As an assistant principal in a large, suburban high school, this book helped to bring into focus the principles reviewed in Good to Great.
Great Principles make for Great Outcomes.......2007-09-04
The social sector does not need to be more business like; it needs to implement more great business principles tailored for the social entities economic engine - so says Collins in this 35 page, add-on for a future "Good to Great" update. In addition to tailoring some of the Great principles
* Define Great by calibrating success without business (monetary) metrics
* Lead thru a blend of personal humility and professional will to get things done within a diffuse power structure
* Get high quality people with a personal commitment to the cause on-board the bus
* Find the intersection of the social entity's Passion, Best at, and its Resource Engine
* Build brand recognition
to the specifics of the social entity, Collins suggests that the leadership principle of managing within a diffuse power structure is something for the business sector to learn; as business executives do not have the same concentration of pure executive power they once enjoyed.
All in, a useful bit of thinking for those in a not-for-profit enterprise, as well as for business leaders who like to look at organizational effectiveness from different perspectives. Dennis DeWilde, author of The Performance Connection
Good to GREAT.......2007-08-10
Jim Collins is always spot on. The insights he presents are presented with such clarity and ease of reading that I look forward to anything he does. I use it as a key part of the extensive Strategic Visioning work I do. While I enjoy all of his work, being in the social service sector, I can personally and professionally validate this offering with enthusiasm.
Book Description
In just the last few years, traditional collaboration—in a meeting room, a conference call, even a convention center—has been superseded by collaborations on an astronomical scale.
Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.
A brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand competitiveness in the twenty-first century.
Based on a $9 million research project led by bestselling author Don Tapscott, Wikinomics shows how masses of people can participate in the economy like never before. They are creating TV news stories, sequencing the human genome, remixing their favorite music, designing software, finding a cure for disease, editing school texts, inventing new cosmetics, or even building motorcycles. You'll read about:
• Rob McEwen, the Goldcorp, Inc. CEO who used open source tactics and an online competition to save his company and breathe new life into an old-fashioned industry.
• Flickr, Second Life, YouTube, and other thriving online communities that transcend social networking to pioneer a new form of collaborative production.
• Mature companies like Procter & Gamble that cultivate nimble, trust-based relationships with external collaborators to form vibrant business ecosystems.
An important look into the future, Wikinomics will be your road map for doing business in the twenty-first century.
Customer Reviews:
The Mass Collaboration Gold Mine.......2007-10-19
This book hammers home a 21st century no-brainer. "It's all based on a principle the new generation of Web start-ups learned from the open source software community: There are always more smart people outside your enterprise boundaries than there are inside."
While it has mixed reviews ("made me feel alternately like Christopher Columbus and Grandpa Simpson"), it's an important addition to your organization's resource library.
Tapscot and Williams deliver fascinating case studies of companies that have opened up their internal secrets/data to the world so "mass collaboration" can help them solve big problems. Procter & Gamble did it and so did a failing Toronto-based gold-mining firm. In 2000, Goldcorp, Inc. ran a contest, the "Goldcorp Challenge," with $575,000 in prize money--and posted all of the mine's proprietary data on the web. The request: help us find more gold. The result: "More than 1,000 virtual prospectors from 50 countries got busy crunching the data."
Mass collaboration from the most unlikely sources and disciplines targeted new mother lodes on their 55,000-acre property. It worked: $100 invested in the company in 1993 was worth more than $3,000 in 2006.
There's a core value here (a biblical one) for faith-based organizations and churches: it's all kingdom work. It's time to open up and work together versus holding your ministry close to the vest. (It's not your ministry anyway!)
Read this book and then ask your team these questions: 1) What's our biggest challenge in the next 12 months? 2) Would mass collaboration help us solve it? 3) Do we operate as if the smartest people are INSIDE our organization or OUTSIDE our organization? Why?
Future Shock 2.0.......2007-10-14
Reading this 2006 book made me feel alternately like Christopher Columbus and Grandpa Simpson. Co-authors Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams define a near-term future of breathtaking wonder and innovation, yet I came away finding their best-case scenario hard to swallow.
"Wikinomics" describes existing business models in various industries, from which it extrapolates their ongoing development as part of a larger revolution of revolutionary openness, "on par with the Italian renaissance or the rise of Athenian democracy," the authors write. "Mass collaboration across borders, disciplines, and cultures is at once economical and enjoyable."
Like a lot of other posted reviewers here, I found "Wikinomics" too gushy and jargony, throwing up random-sounding words like "ideagoras" and "prosumers" as if their very existence connoted concreteness of often-fuzzy notions. The book's airy dismissal of copyright law and the protection of intellectual property rights as old thinking annoyed me immensely. And the notion of a future of non-hierarchal business enterprises strikes me as a terribly naive misreading of the most important aspect of the equation: the human element.
But give Tapscott and Williams points for presenting their case for futurism in a way that often feels quite compelling. They start with perhaps the best such example, by presenting the case of a Canadian mining company that, stymied in their search for gold, opened their records up to the outside world through online file sharing, soliciting ideas about where in their vast mine network they should dig for rich veins. The resulting influx of new thinking catapulted Goldcorp from a $100 million company to one worth $9 billion.
Tapscott and Williams take the success of Goldcorp and look for other industries where similar ideas have been practiced with similar results. With some, like this website, the fruits of innovation are immediate and obvious. With others, like old-guard conglomerate Procter & Gamble, success has been nearly as profound in more subtle ways.
The authors score some points, but also spout a lot of obvious Panglossian hyperbole. Wikipedia is as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica (better check that with John Seigenthaler). The youth-oriented website TakingITGlobal is like a new United Nations in embryonic form.
But their viewpoint has obvious value, too, and applicability in the world around us, even beyond the net world from which "Wikinomics" springs. Looking at the reinvention of BestBuy through its acquisition of Geek Squad, or how the workplace itself is changing shape to adapt to faster-moving, less-centralized structuring, is "Wikinomics" at its most challenging, and best reading.
I didn't put down this book convinced I saw the future, let alone a good future. But I did feel myself thinking differently about life and work than when I first picked "Wikinomics" up. Maybe that's the point.
Great Book to Read.......2007-10-02
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything
As I refresh my professional career for the second decade of the 21st Century, I decided ro read this book, and I was not wrong. This is a most read book for everyone that's looking to stay relevant in the digital economy and the disrupting collaboration paradign. I highly recommeded.
Good, but not critical enough and scores high on the buzzword-meter.......2007-09-12
The book gives a quick tour of the new collaborative ways in which people aggregate and process information. It points out that collaboration can also be applied to produce new 'stuff', outside of software and even applying to manufacturing. It makes for interesting reading for people who a) know something about open source and want to know about its business implications and b) managers who don't know about open source/collaboration but would like to.
It is, imho, less interesting for those who want in-depth answers to the real thorny _business_ problems around open-source. I.e. How to make money at it, if you want to. It hints at important questions such as rewarding the community at large, not losing the family jewels as you open up, etc. Unfortunately, it never quite gets down to specific recommendations beyond "you have to find the right mix of proprietary vs. open source IP".
Not to criticize it overmuch. Wikinomics often jars your thinking with insightful nuggets. For example, it cites Goldcorp as the example of a mining company which opened up its secret prospection data to outsiders. Wikinomics, probably rightly, uses that as a counter-intuitive example of enlisting external help for a type of company that never shares that kind of data. Hmmm, why not share? If the prospection data applies to land on which only your company can operate, isn't that a pretty safe gamble? I don't know, really, but the point is that the anecdote makes you think of things differently. Same with IBM's success at getting a new OS (Linux)almost for free, while gathering goodwill from the community and genuinely collaborating. How far Big Blue's embarrassing anti-trust proceedings seem now...
Less helpful is Wikinomics' recurring use of cherry-picked anecdotes by sector, rather than a broad analysis of various businesses. First of all, it rarely compares its chosen 'smart companies' to their competitors. Yes, BMW is opening up. Does that make their cars any better? How is their stock doing? vs. Toyota? How is their reliability? How innovative are their cars?
Red Hat is a huge success story in Linux, but its dominance also highlights the relative failure of other Linux vendors. No explanation is given for that - network effects? first mover?
I would have welcomed some case studies of failures for big corporations in opening up. What caused those failures? What can be learned from them?
Google is also cited as a big example of openness. That is only partially true and could have served to highlight the necessary(?) split between proprietary information and public openness. Google opens up its APIs and the search is certainly free. I am a big fan myself. However, they have not chosen to release much code back to the community (cf. MapReduce) , mostly by sidestepping the GPL because they don't distribute their software. Their choice, and probably motivated by good business logic. Apple also walks a fine line between leveraging open source and keeping its business very much a secret.
This is just the kind of case studies Wikinomics could sink its teeth into, but it spends way too much time gushing over all the boundless possibilities of collaboration.
Conclusion: a good eye-opener but take it with a grain of salt. Note that my perspective is that of a developer interested in open source _and_ business profits.
An interesting read........2007-09-04
I liked this book, and it opened my eyes to many other "community-driven" technologies/companies. While I thought a lot of the ideas were very "common sense", it was well written, and had some great anecdotes. I recommend this book for anyone interested in social networking, building communities, etc.
Book Description
In the years following the publication of Patrick Lencioni’s best-seller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, fans have been clamoring for more information on how to implement the ideas outlined in the book. In Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni offers more specific, practical guidance for overcoming the Five Dysfunctions—using tools, exercises, assessments, and real-world examples. He examines questions that all teams must ask themselves: Are we really a team? How are we currently performing? Are we prepared to invest the time and energy required to be a great team? Written concisely and to the point, this guide gives leaders, line managers, and consultants alike the tools they need to get their teams up and running quickly and effectively.
Download Description
"In the years following the publication of Patrick Lencioni’s best-seller The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, fans have been clamoring for more information on how to implement the ideas outlined in the book. In Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Lencioni offers more specific, practical guidance for overcoming the Five Dysfunctions—using tools, exercises, assessments, and real-world examples. He examines questions that all teams must ask themselves: Are we really a team? How are we currently performing? Are we prepared to invest the time and energy required to be a great team? Written concisely and to the point, this guide gives leaders, line managers, and consultants alike the tools they need to get their teams up and running quickly and effectively. "
Customer Reviews:
managementtrainer.......2007-09-24
This field guide is execellent. It is practical and helpful. Improving teamwork is difficult, to say the least, especially for highly dysfunctional teams. Patrick Lencioni's book is essential to working through these challenges.
Easy to use and very helpful.......2007-08-13
This field guide is extremely useful for working with teams - from dysfunctional teams to those that are running smoothly. The exercises are practical and get to the heart of team dysfunctions.
I am a pastor who also works in the corporate world. I will use the ideas and exercises in this book with teams in the office and in the church.
Outstanding Complement to The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.......2007-07-21
Teamwork really is the one sustainable advantage that a group or company can have. Patrick Lencioni has put together a prescriptive method of bringing a group of people together to form a team. He walks through a step by step approach of breaking down the levels of teamwork in a narrative format in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable which really builds the case for why you would want to follow this method. In this book, he all but builds your team for you. It'll be imperative that you can foster the right levels of communication and potentially have someone with you to help as you rebuild your team; however, this method does give critical insight into how groups of people become a team.
Great toolkit and field guide.......2007-07-05
This is a very useful book that has lots of gold nuggets for team training facilitators. Well worth the money and then some.
Guy Plano, Texas
got it for work.......2007-06-27
Leaders are using it in team development and finding it helpful. Good as an HR Professional to guide the manager in how to develop the team.
Book Description
In Leading Change, John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm's agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.
Customer Reviews:
Effectively Managing Change.......2007-08-17
In this book, Kotter methodically and carefully explains his eight-step process for creating major change in business organizations. He notes that the rate of organisational change has been increasing in recent years. The rapid and continual innovation in technology is driving changes to organisational systems and processes. There are also increased expectations of employees as they move more freely between organisations.
Kotter highlights the critical importance of leadership in any change programme. Strong, sustained leadership is crucial to changing deeply rooted corporate cultures and successfully implementing the change process.
John Kotter describes a helpful eight step model for understanding and managing change. Each stage acknowledges a key principle identified by Kotter relating to people's response and approach to change, in which people see, feel and then change.
In spite of the importance and permanence of organisational change, most change initiatives fail to deliver the expected organisational benefits. This book should help those involved in the change process to avoid the pitfalls and follow the eight steps that are explained in detail in the book.
Anyone planning or implementing a change programme will find the book useful, helpful and handy. The author presents the subject in a simple, concise, and easy to follow format.
Wow - thoughtful AND useful.......2007-06-28
Kotter's book is a roadmap of how to introduce a culture change effectively into an organization. Similar to "Good to Great" (Jim Collins), the book is much better organized and thorough.
Amazing!!.......2007-06-26
Have no further words to describe how increrable John Kotter brings in a easy way a subject so complex and important now-a-days. Indeed, it is recommend for all leaders who wants to take right decisions during turbulent times.
Still the definitive work on Change.......2007-06-13
I have been working in the change arena for the last 15 years and Kotter's book on Leading Change is still the definitive work. Based on his seminal 1994 HBR article "Leading Change: Why Transformations efforts fail" this is the best down-to-earth guide for both consultants and managers leading change. It has good practical examples and straightforward arguments - no psychological mumbo jumbo.
Envision, introduce, sustain change. or die........2007-05-09
Kotter gives us here a valuable handbook on how to visualize, introduce, and sustain change in an organization. Here are a few quotes:
"Handling new initiatives quickly is not an essential component of success in relatively stable or cartel-like environments. The problem for us today is that stability is no longer the norm. And most experts agree that over the next few decades the business environment will become only more volatile."
"Useful change tends to be associated with a multistep process that creates power and motivation sufficient to overwhelm all the sources of inertia."
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
Built To Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning.
But what about companies that are not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness? Are there those that convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? If so, what are the distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
Over five years,
Jim Collins and his research team have analyzed the histories of 28 companies, discovering why some companies make the leap and others don't. The findings include:
- Level 5 Leadership: A surprising style, required for greatness.
- The Hedgehog Concept: Finding your three circles, to transcend the curse of competence.
- A Culture of Discipline: The alchemy of great results.
- Technology Accelerators: How good-to-great companies think differently about technology.
- The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Why those who do frequent restructuring fail to make the leap.
Customer Reviews:
Jim Collins is a Level 5 Thought Leader.......2007-10-23
I can confirm many of the ideas in this book from my own research on Superperformance. There is a consistent pattern that underlies high performing companies of every stripe. It is interesting to note that many of the companies lauded in GOOD TO GREAT and BUILT TO LAST are no longer shining so bright. Succession planning should focus on sustaining the 'way of being' not the CEO.
also read Superperformance
Great.......2007-10-20
Two things I love about this book.
1. It is bang on in terms of the things that matter to a tech startup
2. It is short - half the book is methodology
Thorough analysis with actionable recommendations.......2007-10-20
This book was recommended to me by someone I respect so I didn't do much research before ordering. At first the easy reading style gave me the impression that it had little substance. However, after getting into the book I realized that there was a great deal of substantive research backing up the recommendations. Some of the reviews have indicated a concern that the rules may have changed since the research was conducted. I too had reservations that his research might be a bit dated. However after further reflection and observation of current organizations I would have to firmly disagree. Mr. Collins and his research team have uncovered timeless recommendations that I plan to put into action in my organization. Moreover, my company was listed as one of the "Comparison Companies" not considered "Great" during the time periods analyzed. Fortunately, a lot has changed since the analysis period in the book. We merged with a better company which resulted in a much stronger leadership team and more effective corporate culture.
From Good to Great to Best.......2007-10-19
This well researched book provides the principles to enable good companies to become great. The "first who, then what" concept contradicts the old "What first (Vision, mission, guiding principles, tactics, etc)". Having read Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self, I am convinced that there is an additional step required to experience organizational optimization - execution based on Optimal Thinking by individuals, teams, departments and the entire organization. When we choose, attract and retain the best, we stop settling for second best (which could be great). I recommend both books.
Greatness Revealed.......2007-10-19
As I was reading this book, I thought numerous times of how wonderful it would be if I was working at a company that was trying to transform itself from good to great. The reality, however, is that most people don't work at great companies. Instead, most of us work at mediocre companies fighting to stay alive in today's competitive business world, unsure as to the one thing the business could do better than anyone else.
This book is thoroughly researched and thought provoking. The ideas are timeless and, if followed, I am convinced that the results would speak for themselves. The eleven or so companies used as model companies in the book that changed from good to great are still thriving today, six years after the book was published, and the employees engaged in the work love it, I am sure. And who wouldn't? Working with a company determined to be successful would be exciting, if not challenging. I only wish I could bring up some of the practices described in detail in this book to those leaders of my current company. Until changes are made, its greatness will forever be on hold.
Book Description
John Wood discovered his passion, his greatest success, and his life's work--not at business school or leading Microsoft's charge into Asia in the 1990s--but on a soul-searching trip to the Himalayas. Wood felt trapped between an all-consuming career and a desire to do something lasting and significant. Stressed from the demands of his job, he took a vacation trekking in Nepal because a friend had told him, "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore."
See how John Wood came to start Room to Read and write Leaving Microsoft to Change the World in this video clip: high bandwidth or low bandwidth |
Instead of being the antidote to the rat race, that trip convinced John Wood to divert the boundless energy he was devoting to Microsoft into a cause that desperately needed to be addressed. While visiting a remote Nepalese school, Wood learned that the students had few books in their library. When he offered to run a book drive to provide the school with books, his idea was met with polite skepticism. After all, no matter how well-intentioned, why would a successful software executive take valuable time out of his life and gather books for an impoverished school?
But John Wood did return to that school and with thousands of books bundled on the back of a yak. And at that moment, Wood made the decision to walk away from Microsoft and create Room to Read-an organization that has donated more than 1.2 million books, established more than 2,600 libraries and 200 schools, and sent 1,700 girls to school on scholarship-ultimately touching the lives of 875,000 children with the lifelong gift of education.
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World chronicles John Wood's struggle to find a meaningful outlet for his managerial talents and entrepreneurial zeal. For every high-achiever who has ever wondered what life might be like giving back, Wood offers a vivid, emotional, and absorbing tale of how to take the lessons learned at a hard-charging company like Microsoft and apply them to one of the world's most pressing problems: the lack of basic literacy.
Book Description
John Wood discovered his passion, his greatest success, and his life's work—not at business school or leading Microsoft's charge into Asia in the 1990s—but on a soul-searching trip to the Himalayas. Wood felt trapped between an all-consuming career and a desire to do something lasting and significant. Stressed from the demands of his job, he took a vacation trekking in Nepal because a friend had told him, "If you get high enough in the mountains, you can't hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you anymore."
Instead of being the antidote to the rat race, that trip convinced John Wood to divert the boundless energy he was devoting to Microsoft into a cause that desperately needed to be addressed. While visiting a remote Nepalese school, Wood learned that the students had few books in their library. When he offered to run a book drive to provide the school with books, his idea was met with polite skepticism. After all, no matter how well-intentioned, why would a successful software executive take valuable time out of his life and gather books for an impoverished school?
But John Wood did return to that school and with thousands of books bundled on the back of a yak. And at that moment, Wood made the decision to walk away from Microsoft and create Room to Read—an organization that has donated more than 1.2 million books, established more than 2,600 libraries and 200 schools, and sent 1,700 girls to school on scholarship—ultimately touching the lives of 875,000 children with the lifelong gift of education.
Leaving Microsoft to Change the World chronicles John Wood's struggle to find a meaningful outlet for his managerial talents and entrepreneurial zeal. For every high-achiever who has ever wondered what life might be like giving back, Wood offers a vivid, emotional, and absorbing tale of how to take the lessons learned at a hard-charging company like Microsoft and apply them to one of the world's most pressing problems: the lack of basic literacy.
Customer Reviews:
John Wood, you inspire me!.......2007-09-07
Reading about John Wood's motivations and personal sacrifices, I found myself re-engergized for the volunteer work I do. This book is not just for business people, but for anyone who wants to make a difference in this crazy, beautiful world we live in. Providing children with books whether on a global scale or locally is one of the best gifts (and investments) a person can make. Bravo John! And thanks for making your adventures accessible to the rest of us.
Life Altering Book.......2007-08-21
I managed to finish this book on a flu episode with a fever that lasted two days. It was a great companion at that horrible time.
Now, i read a lot of books. And over time, i got to quickly notice good books from bad books. And ever more, i get to know great books from "books you buy to balance your shelf" books. I try to buy only good books and strive to get all the great ones. This is one of the great ones.
When first browsing through Amazon(yes, i am a very loyal customer), i noticed the title. And being the geek that i am, i wondered what it would talk about(you have to admit, MS and changing the world do not mix easily). I was afraid it would turn out to be a lame book as many books which carry a similar title are. So i took a gamble and i bought it.
It talks about the story of a man(John Wood, marketing executive working at Microsoft) who took a "no-computers" vacation to Nepal. And this vacation changed his life. He describes his life in detail. The details are typical of a modern young successful man working in a high-tech firm. Basically his life consisted of work, work, work and an almost non-existent social life(or any other kind of life for that matter). He thought he was happy this way, we all do, until we stop and take a good look at what we have accomplished.
In Nepal, he noticed that even though some provinces had schools, there were no books and no libraries. So he started out with a little project of collecting a few books for one particular school in Nepal. This all started with a promise to return to Nepal with books. And the whole idea avalanched into one of the most successful projects. An organization that builds schools/libraries and provides books and scholarships for young girls.
I don't want to give out too many details. The beauty of this story is in the events that took place and their chronological order. So i don't want to spoil it. However, i will talk about why i liked this book so much.
John saw the kids in Nepal. He saw that they were trying to learn, but with very poor resources. He also understood that education is the most important gift that you can bestow on a child. Especially girls, since these girls will grow up with this education in mind and carry this belief over to their children and families. "You educate a girl, you educate an entire generation."
After John returned from Nepal, he tried to get back to his old lifestyle. But he could not. How could he? Everything he will do now will seem so empty. How can he go on working knowing that there are children in the world that are not getting the opportunities that we take for granted. He felt so empty. And even if, according to our standard, he is very successful....his life felt meaningless in light of this issue. Everything he accomplished looked so insignificant.
What is truly remarkable though, is that he ran his organization in the same way he would run a normal business. So unlike the other charities around, he never asked people for money out of pity. So instead of showing children with sad faces and sick people like all charities do, he showed the schools he built and the books that he got and the children making use of all of this. It is his belief that contributers do not give money to charity because they don't know where their money is going. They never see results.
I also believe that any book you read must alter your life in some sense. This book did just that. I learned that you shouldn't listen to all the nay-sayers. I learned that for every 1 idea you come up with, there will be a 100 people telling you how it won't work. I also learned to never give up.
If i would only take away one thing from this book, it would be my current favorite quote(which according to the book is an old Chinese quote)
Those who say it cannot be done should not criticize those who are doing it.
This books is highly recommended with 5/5 stars.
great inspiration along with fantastic advice for those who want to change the world.......2007-08-20
Wood brings a fresh, business-like perspective to the often stale world of not-for-profits. His personal journey from career success, to existential angst, to leaving the rat race to change the world is a true inspiration.
Giving back by giving effectively.......2007-07-06
There are plenty of books about one individual's accomplishments in the march to change the world. This book is different because--along with his passion for education and libraries--John Wood brings a model for transforming that passion into sustainable organizations on the ground. If you are actively involved in a nonprofit organization, you will enjoy John's down to earth advice about focusing on results, fundraising, and having fun while you're doing the hard work.
going from corporate executive to do gooder champion.......2007-06-05
This is a good book to understand risk that is inspired by passion. this guy had everything to lose and so much to gain and he did it. Kudos to him and kudos for a well written book.
Book Description
"The Human Side of Organizations" delivers complete, up-to-date, practical information on how people behave in organizations presented in a readable, easy to understand form. The vital information can be used to understand managers, peers or workers. If you work, you need this information to thrive and survive.
FOCUS BOXES/Reality Checks - Bring the work world as it really is into every chapter./Question of Ethics - Presents ethical questions related to the particular chapters' material./A Global Glance - A look at an international aspect of a chapters' concepts./FYI - A new focus box for the 9e./Presents useful hints readers can apply in their daily lives.
Anyone who wishes to better understand managers, peers, or workers can benefit from this book as it covers the vital skills needed to survive and thrive in an organization.
Customer Reviews:
Good Service.......2007-02-24
Received Book in about 2 weeks after purchase. Book was in excellent condition. Good Service.
Exceeded Expectations.......2005-09-30
My textbook came sooner than expected and it was in great condition! The savings were unbelievable and I actually recommended using this seller to everyone in my class.
Book Description
From the most trusted voice on transition, a revised edition of the classic practical guide to dealing with the human side of organizational change.
The business world is a place of constant change, with stories of corporate mergers, layoffs, bankruptcy, and restructuring hitting the news every day. Yet as veteran consultant William Bridges maintains, the situational changes are not as difficult for companies to make as the psychological transitions. In the best-selling Managing Transitions, Bridges provides a clear understanding of what change does to employees and what employees in transition can do to an organization.
Directed at managers and employees in today's corporations, Bridges shows how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change. Managing Transitions addresses the fact that it is people who have to carry out the change. When the book was originally published a decade ago, Bridges was the first to provide any real sense of the emotional impact of change and what can be done to keep it from disrupting the entire organization. With new information and commentary on layoffs, corporate suspicion, and the increasing tumult in the business world, Managing Transitions remains the definitive guide to dealing with change.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book.......2007-10-17
Change and transition are an important issue in our professional lives, going trough the book allowed me to realize the diferent stages and process involved and there for be in a better position the next challenge.
the use of examples en refrences is very well managed, language is easy
High rating for a textbook, but it deserves it........2007-08-11
I have had several textbooks in Management between an Undergraduate, Graduate and Business itself. This was no different in that I expected the same old stuff, but was very pleasantly surprised at the authors candor about our perceptions of business practices. It didn't mince words on several tactics used by management and explained why so much doesn't work. It got my attention and I continued my reading with far more interest. There really isn't anything more complimentary I can say than I intend to sell all other books to new students, excect this one which I will hang on to and reference.
great results from this book.......2007-07-06
This is a wonderful book. If you deal with people who need to change how they do their work you must read this book.
great, short, valuable.......2007-07-04
This is a great book for all people who deal with people that are dealing with change. I have found this book useful when being a change agent for a company, or just for management in my own company. Part of the value of this book is it describes the emotional aspect of change. People are not always (usually) logical. Emotions play a large part. Knowing how to deal with the emotional aspect of change is essential. This book gives you great insights in this area.
Managing Transitions by William Bridges.......2007-05-13
This book is great! I was/am dealing with some pretty significant transitions -- the sudden death of my 21 year-old daughter, and a major division re-org at an S&P 500 company. Several months earlier, my VP had mentioned the book and suggested that all of his direct reports to read it. I did and it really hit home.
The author does an excellent job of describing the emotional and organizational impact of change and the mechanics of the process we use to get through it. We use the same basic process to deal with all change -- personal and professional -- and it has been very helpful to understand how it works. There is also a section in the book about the life cycle of an organization and that was illuminating. The book provided some tools to help me make critical decisions.
I bought six copies of the book and have given them out to friends and co-workers.
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