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Leading Change
John P Kotter Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0875847471 |
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
Wow - thoughtful AND useful.......2007-06-28
Amazing!!.......2007-06-26
Still the definitive work on Change.......2007-06-13
Envision, introduce, sustain change. or die........2007-05-09
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The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
Jeffrey Pfeffer , and Robert I. Sutton Manufacturer: Harvard Business School Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1578511240 |
Amazon.com
Every year, companies spend billions of dollars on training programs and management consultants, searching for ways to improve. But it's mostly all talk and no action, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, authors of The Knowing-Doing Gap. "Did you ever wonder why so much education and training, management consultation, organizational research and so many books and articles produce so few changes in actual management practice?" ask Stanford University professors Pfeffer and Sutton. "We wondered, too, and so we embarked on a quest to explore one of the great mysteries in organizational management: why knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge." The authors describe the most common obstacles to action---such as fear and inertia---and profile successful companies that overcome them.Among the companies that Pfeffer and Sutton say do it right: General Electric, the Men's Wearhouse, SAS Institute, Southwest Airlines, Toyota, and British Petroleum. The book, based on four years of research, is broken into chapters with titles such as "When Talk Substitutes for Action," "When Fear Prevents Acting on Knowledge," "When Internal Competition Turns Friends into Enemies," and "Turning Knowledge into Action." Each chapter contains tips on what to do and what to avoid, and provides examples of how a lethargic company culture can be transformed. The Knowing-Doing Gap is a useful how-to guide for managers looking to make changes. Yet, as Pfeffer and Sutton point out, it takes more than reading their book or discussing their recommendations. It takes action. --Dan Ring
Book Description
The market for business knowledge is booming, as companies looking to improve their performance pour billions of dollars into training programs, consultants, and executive education. Why, then, are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results.Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear-firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place.
The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.
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Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.Customer Reviews:
This book Is The Best of The Best!.......2007-07-26
Effectiveness, honesty, simplicity.......2006-10-24
Overcoming Inertia - Uniting New Knowledge with Action.......2005-11-08
Packed with Knowledge!.......2005-06-20
Knowledge alone is a watseful Investment .......2004-10-10
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How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas
David Bornstein Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0195138058 |
Book Description
What business entrepreneurs are to the economy, social entrepreneurs are to social change. They are, writes David Bornstein, the driven, creative individuals who question the status quo, exploit new opportunities, refuse to give up--and remake the world for the better. How to Change the World tells the fascinating stories of these remarkable individuals--many in the United States, others in countries from Brazil to Hungary--providing an In Search of Excellence for the nonprofit sector. In America, one man, J.B. Schramm, has helped thousands of low-income high school students get into college. In South Africa, one woman, Veronica Khosa, developed a home-based care model for AIDS patients that changed government health policy. In Brazil, Fabio Rosa helped bring electricity to hundreds of thousands of remote rural residents. Another American, James Grant, is credited with saving 25 million lives by leading and 'marketing' a global campaign for immunization. Yet another, Bill Drayton, created a pioneering foundation, Ashoka, that has funded and supported these social entrepreneurs and over a thousand like them, leveraging the power of their ideas across the globe. These extraordinary stories highlight a massive transformation that is going largely unreported by the media: Around the world, the fastest-growing segment of society is the nonprofit sector, as millions of ordinary people--social entrepreneurs--are increasingly stepping in to solve the problems where governments and bureaucracies have failed. How to Change the World shows, as its title suggests, that with determination and innovation, even a single person can make a surprising difference. For anyone seeking to make a positive mark on the world, this will be both an inspiring read and an invaluable handbook.Customer Reviews:
great read on the subject of social entrepreneurs.......2007-02-20
A historical and biographical account of social entrepreneurial heros and heroines.......2006-03-02
Feel better about the world.......2006-02-25
A few good people . . ........2005-09-21
Not a "how to" but "how they did" change the world........2005-09-19
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The Consultant's Quick Start Guide: An Action Plan for Your First Year in Business
Elaine Biech Manufacturer: Pfeiffer ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0787956678 |
Book Description
Your complete blueprint for starting out in the consulting world!Consulting can be a most rewarding career--but being good at consulting is not always enough to keep your business profitable. The Consultant's Quick Start Guide offers a practical approach to setting up a consulting business. Throughout the guide, Elaine Biech--author of the best-selling The Business of Consulting--shares both her own secrets as well as those of numerous other successful consultants. With a focus on the business side of consulting, Biech takes you through a painless, fill-in-the-blanks, step-by-step process for setting up your consulting firm.
The book includes information on how to:
Learn the skills you need to be a successful consultant with this indispensable guide!
Customer Reviews:
I can't believe I paid for this "book".......2007-10-22
Simple - Bordering Simplistic.......2005-11-07
Waste of Time and Money.......2004-09-23
Relatively worthless.......2004-06-25
You could find better..........2003-07-02
This book is definately good at one thing: it makes you think about some important issues of starting your own practice, and it has lots of assignments that I think may be useful. That earns it two stars.
However, what makes this book less useful than, say, "getting started in consulting" (A. Weiss), is the fact that there is no emphasis on creating value for your customer(and setting your fees based upon that value). What Biech is saying is actually that you should divide what you think you should earn in a year by the days you expect to work etc. So whether you help a client gain $50000 or $500000 added value should make no difference on your paycheck... Being value- oriented would help you wether we're talking about gaining clients, getting your fair pay or establishing business relationships. This book hardly touches the issue, even though it's important in so many areas of the business.
What I'm saying boils down to this: There being so many better books on the subject, I see no reason to buy this one. I did, and I'd rather have spent my money on something else.
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Make Success Measurable!: A Mindbook-Workbook for Setting Goals and Taking Action
Douglas K. Smith Manufacturer: Wiley ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0471295590 |
Book Description
"Performance begins with focusing on outcomes instead of activities. In my experience, most people in most organizations most of the time do the reverse. They concentrate their efforts on the pursuit of activities instead of outcomes. As a result, they rarely set or achieve performance results that matter."Customer Reviews:
The Bottom Line of Success.......2002-08-12
Learn How to be SMART.......2000-10-05
Make Success Measurable is filled with practical techniques. Even more, it is a workbook, providing opportunities to apply new concepts to real work. Whether you want to be able to create more focus within your own work unit, be able to demonstrate tangible results to your manager, prioritize your own work by aligning your day to day activities with the most important initiatives, or coach customers who are seeking your expertise in developing performance measures, this book can help.
As a result of reading this book and trying the exercises, you should be able to:
1) Convert new visions, strategies, and directions into achievable outcome-based goals that can better yourself and others in your organization.
2) Set goals that are specific, measurable, aggressive, achievable, relevant, and time bound. (SMART Goals)
3) Set goals that matter to those expecting a return on their funding dollars.
4) Set goals that matter to you personally in terms of opportunities, rewards, and skills.
5) Choose from a variety of management disciplines to achieve your goals.
6) Set goals that matter to customers who want speed, quality, and prompt service.
Ten Management Principles for Leading Change.......2000-06-05
Douglas K. Smith organizes his book in four parts. In the first part (Chapters 1-4), he provides the background, concepts, tools, techniques, and frameworks you need to set specific outcome-based goals that matter to successfully navigate today's most pressing performance challenges. In the second part (Chapters 5-7), he focuses on helping you align and coordinate goals throughout your organization. In the third part (Chapters 8-10), he describes the management disciplines you need to achieve your goals and how to make choices among them. In the fourth part (Chapter 11), he concludes the book with a step-by-step design for building an outcomes management system in your organization.
In this context, in Chapter 10, he reviews the management disciplines you must understand in order to succeed in the face of change, and introduces the critical distinction between decision-diven change and behavior-driven change, and describes how to manage each successfully. Hence, he argues that most change efforts fall far short of their potential. Usually that's because leaders fail to address the deep behavioral changes they are seeking. And thus, he lists the following ten management principles as the heart of any successful change effort:
1. Keep performance results the primary objective of behavior and skill change.
2. Continually increase the number of individuals taking responsibility for their own change.
3. Make sure that each person always knows why his or her performance and change matters to the purpose and results of the whole organization.
4. Put people in a position to learn by doing and provide them with the information and support they need just in time to perform.
5. Embrace improvisation as the best path to both performance and change.
6. Use team performance to drive change whenever demanded.
7. Concentrate organizational designs on the work that people do, not on the decision-making authority they have.
8. Create and focus energy and meaningful language because these are the scarcest resources during periods of change.
9. Stimulate and sustain behavior-driven change by harmonizing initiatives throughout the organization.
10. Practice leadership based on the courage to live the change you wish to bring about.
Finally, he argues that if you expect others to change their behavior, you have to change yours. It's as simple and as hard as that.
I strongly recommend.
A useful and practical book........1999-11-27
I found the book incredibly helpful in preparing realistic plans that set you up for success. I have used it extensively to help me design major projects and I am well on my way toward measurable success on those goals.
Read this book and apply its lessons.......1999-03-04
I would compare Make Success Measurable very favorably to the Kaplan and Norton book on The Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard tends to be vague and anecdotal on the subject of how to set measurable goals, and it is hard to finish. In contrast, Smith packs his book with original analysis and specific recommendations on topics like "Vertical versus Horizontal Management Disciplines" and "Injecting Creative and Personal Tension into Goals". The Balanced Scorecard presents a four way cause and effect chain from employees through process improvements, customers, and shareholders. Make Success Measurable presents a three way performance cycle as including employees who provide value to customers who provide rewards to shareholders...who provide rewards to employees and so on. The "process" piece doesn't appear in Smith's analysis, because focusing on process measures doesn't necessarily help anyone. In fact, it is a trap that can lead to meaningless work. Smith encourages us to focus on "outcomes" - measures that matter directly to employees, customers, and shareholders. This brings us quickly to reality and hopefully to consensus with our colleagues. Get real. Get this book.
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Knowledge for Action
Chris Argyris Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 1555425194 |
Book Description
Must reading for academics and executives alike. Leading business scholar Chris Argyris helps readers understand why individuals and organizations are unable to learn from their action, then presents the steps that must be taken to change.
Customer Reviews:
Another attempt for racionality behind human behavior.......2000-12-11
The one book to read on ending office politices.......1997-07-01
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Getting to Maybe: How the World Is Changed
Frances Westley , Brenda Zimmerman , and Michael Patton Manufacturer: Random House Canada ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0679314431 Release Date: 2006-09-05 |
Book Description
A practical, inspirational, revolutionary guide to social innovationCustomer Reviews:
250 pages of wisdom.......2007-09-02
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Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan That Really Works
Leonard Goodstein , Timothy Nolan , and J. William Pfeiffer Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0070240205 |
Book Description
Written by three top consultants and trainers, Applied Strategic Planning shows managers and CEOs a clear, totally effective way to identify and implement strategic objectives.
Applied Strategic Planning surpasses other strategic planning models in many key areas, including:
Goodstein, Nolan, and Pfeiffer take managers through all phases of the strategic planning process, including:
Containing charts, diagrams, and checklists along with illuminating examples from the authors, extensive consulting experience, and even cartoons that convey important points, Applied Strategic Planning lets managers at the helm navigate expertly through today's unpredictable business climate.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Strategic Planning Book.......2006-08-01
I had to buy this book for a class.......2006-03-02
Applied Strategic Planning by Leonard D Goodstein, Timothy M.......2005-05-19
Very good, plus..........2003-06-24
A sea of knowledge, one centimeter deep.......2000-08-25
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From Business Strategy to IT Action: Right Decisions for a Better Bottom Line
Robert J. Benson , Tom Bugnitz , and Bill Walton Manufacturer: Wiley ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0471491918 |
Book Description
From Business Strategy to IT Action gives companies of all sizes the tools to effectively link IT to business strategy and produce effective, actionable strategies for bottom-line results. The authors present CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and IT managers with a powerful and accessible resource packed with such useful material as:Download Description
From Business Strategy to IT Action gives companies of all sizes the tools to effectively link IT to business strategy and produce effective, actionable strategies for bottom-line results. The authors present CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and IT managers with a powerful and accessible resource packed with such useful material as:Customer Reviews:
Great book!.......2005-09-30
From Business Stratey to IT Action.......2004-04-10
Bottom Line --> Results.......2004-03-17
One of the best books on the subject!.......2004-03-17
What I most like about this book is the highly focused, clearly defined approach to transforming strategy into action. In fact, 'action' is the main characteristic of this book, both in writing pace and in the results you can achieve if you follow the map the authors provide. Chapter 1 leads you through defining your goals that links the strategy to your bottom line. This establishes the methodology that you'll follow through the rest of the book.
Each subsequent chapter is a milestone in the process of transforming strategy into action. What I like is the consistent format, which starts with "Ask the Right Questions", then listing steps, ending with a summary. More importantly, the bottom line remains the focus of this book from start to finish. This keeps the reader's attention on the goals, business issues and costs.
The topics covered in each step represent best practices that should be present in any organization that is mature enough to undertake a business-IT alignment. For example, portfolio management, prioritization techniques, and aligning to a value chain are addressed, In addition, the challenges faced by both business and IT are uncovered, with advice on how to meet them during the process. Finally, the book sets forth the transformation process in a well ordered sequence that will get you from inception to meeting all objectives if followed. The chapters on scoring and measurement are invaluable.
One topic that makes this book exceptionally valuable is the introduction of the Business Value Maturity Model™. This model, in my opinion, is the missing link in the quest for Business-IT alignment initiatives, and one that I hope gets wider dissemination than in this book. Other aspects of the book that I especially like include the excellent use of graphs and diagrams, and the absence of empty claims and theory. The material is clear, actionable and realistic. Think of this book as both a compass and blueprint. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough, particularly to organizations that are struggling with business-IT alignment.
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Leading in a Culture of Change Personal Action Guide and Workbook
Michael Fullan Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0787969699 |
Book Description
Leading in a Culture of Change: Personal Action Guide and Workbook is an essential companion to Michael Fullan's bestselling book, Leading in a Culture of Change. This practical guide is designed to help leaders in all sectors (corporate, education, public, and nonprofit) manage and drive productive change within their organizations.The workbook is filled with illustrative case examples, exercises, and resources that you can use with individuals or groups. It will help you (and any change agent) integrate the five core competencies—attending to a broader moral purpose, keeping on top of the change process, cultivating relationships, sharing knowledge, and setting a vision and context for creating coherence in organizations—and empower you to deal with the issues of complex change.
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