Book Description
Senge's best-selling The Fifth Discipline led Business Week to dub him the "new guru" of the corporate world; here he offers executives a step-by-step guide to building "learning organizations" of their own.
Customer Reviews:
Tools for creating a Learning Culture.......2006-09-11
Peter M Serge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
To quote the first few paragraphs at beginning of book:
Among the tribes of northen Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me bring me into existence.
This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people."
"I bow in honor and reverence that place within you where to the Universe resides, when you are in that place within you, and I am in that place within me, there is One." ~namaste
The five disciplines are at the CORE of a Learning Organization
1) Personal Mastery: expand your personal capacity and ability
2) Mental Models: see how our internal pictures of the world shape action and decision
3) Shared Vision: group commitment
4) Team Learning: group ability is greater than the sum of individual talents
5) System Thinking:
"When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage." --A. T. Ariyaratne (Speech made at International Community Leadership Summit, Winrock, Arkansas, March 1983. This quote paraphrases and expands upon a well-known statement made by Mahatma Gandhi in his book Satyagraha in South Africa, 1982, 1979, Canon, Me.: Greenleaf books)
"An [organization] is not a machine but a living organism." --Ikujiro Nonaka /****
Fundamentals of epistemology: what is knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and what constitutes learning.
understanding is achieved after internalization.
Without experience, we cannot truly understand.
Internalization: transformation from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.
Innovation is a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain knowledge.
What is your belief? A belief about images of the world - you may call it a mental model - is a very subjective thing
information is the flow of a message, while knowledge is created by accumulating information. Thus, information is a necessary medium or material for eliciting and constructing knowledge.
The second difference is that information is something passive. When we switch on a TV set, information comes regardless of my commitment. But knowledge comes from my belief, so it's more proactive.
And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences.
This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation - that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge) [...].
[...]
Three Guiding Ideas
1) The Whole. When you are pointing a finger at the problems, notice how many fingers are pointing back at you. If you fixed the symptoms and ignore the root causes, the problems have not gone away. Another way to look at this is treat the person, not the disease. Of course treat the disease if the patient is dying, but know that the patient will get sick again because the "root causes" are stil there.
2) Community. The self is "a point of view." "The essence of being a person is being in a relationship [with] other people." You will not believe this, but each person before you is there for a reason. The reason this person is there at this moment is for you to learn something about yourself. If you ignore the person, do not ignore or forget the lesson.
3) Language. The map is not the territory. We cannot contain every bit of information that comes to us in the world, so we have to create a "map of the territory" and then refer to the map for our information. By changing a person's map, we change their reality. Language is the map, not the reality.
enlightening concepts about leadership.......2005-10-26
It seems to me that The Fifth Discipline (the previous publication of the series) is more attacting to me. The second book can be more precise and concise in content. Generally speaking I still like these two books as a foreign reader.
The Fifth Discipline.......2003-02-08
This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.
The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.
Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.
This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.
A follow up to the legend.......2003-01-27
The Fieldbook attempts at making the esoteric concepts of the fifth discipline more down to earth and contains a treasure trove of strategies, tools, methods and explanations on how to make the learning organization into a reality.
Thus people who have read The fifth discipline will gain the most from this book. It's a must read for people who want to make their organizations transition into a 'learning organization'
A second dose of Inspiration..........2002-02-09
Senge's second serving of the Learning Organization is filled with practical tips and real-life examples from companies and organizations that have embraced the teachings of the Learning Organization successfully.
The Book is a collaboration of several writers who do a superb job of unraveling the web that is the learning organization. At times, it may seem to the reader that the book is a labyrinth of disjointed concepts and ideas. However, if you have read `The Fifth Discipline' you will find no problems following the concepts introduced. In fact, you will even understand why the writers have chosen to introduce them in that fashion. If you have not read "The Fifth Discipline', do not despair, it will take a little longer to get `the whole picture'.
The Book is divided into 8 main sections:
1) Getting Started addresses the basic concepts and ideas of the Learning Organization.
2) Systems Thinking (the fifth discipline) - Many people have argued that Senge should have delegated the fifth discipline until the end, however, without Systems Thinking, your vision is disjointed and incomplete.
3) Personal Mastery covers the area of individual development and learning. The chapters here are among the most valuable in the area of self-growth and self-improvement.
4) Mental Models - These are the pictures that you have in your head which represent reality.
5) Shared Vision - You've seen the whole picture, you've developed and you understand how you see the world. Now you need to find a common cause with the rest of the people in your organization, something that you all work for.
6) Team Learning - As you work with other people in teams or groups, you need to pass the stuff that you have learnt and the wisdom you've acquired to others. At this stage, the learning is no longer that of the individual, but the group.
7) Arenas of Practice - (Self explanatory)
8) Frontiers - Where do we go from here.
If you are interested in development, learning, growth, leadership, gaining a competitive edge whether at an organizational or personal level, then this book is for you. In fact, I'd venture to say that this is book is for everyone.
Book Description
When people in an organization or community get together and work for change, the result can be powerful. But managing group dynamics is often difficult. This unique guide showcases 18 tried-and-true methods for facilitating change in a group situation, each explained by an expert who developed or elaborated the method. The book explains what each method is rather than how to do it, with extensive suggestions for further reading.
Customer Reviews:
Too general.......2002-07-13
The book provides general information about different organizational intervention methods. Since most of the writers in this book provide only introductory information and market their method in a similar way, you can't really see much difference between them. If you want to learn how to work with any of those techniques, I suggest you buy the book that focuses on your area of interest.
a good survey of change tools.......2002-02-03
This book is ok - I do this kind of work for a living so there was nothing new in it for me and I returned it - but for those needing an intro to change approaches/techniques this is a good start. My problem with books like this is that they tell you the tools and the how tos to some extent but the real value in engaging in change efforts is knowing when/where the alligator in the swamp is going to pop up and bite you. They don't lay out any lessons learned or things to watch out for so for the unsuspecting they may engage in a change effort and have it fail due to poor delivery etc.
A good place to start for doing large scale interventions.......2001-06-29
When you want to change a company and you do this top-down, using a cascade system in which higher levels of your organisation change the lower levels, you are in for a long change process. For instance, specialists will tell you it can take 7 years before you really change a company's culture. No wonder people like Art Kleiner (co-author of "The Dance of Change") will warn you that up to 70% of your change efforts will fail. The solution comes from taking a more systemic approach, involving as much people of the organisation at once as possible. These kinds of large scale interventions often do wonders if the management is willing to work in a more participative manner. Some methods are more directed to specific change goals, whether it is to set a new direction for your organisation or redefining working relationships (re-organising the buisiness); other methods are more adaptable.
This book will help you find your way in the world of large scale interventions. The 18 proven group methods each have a chapter, written by originators and/or foremost practitioners. Each method-chapter includes a case, the explanation of the methodology, the conditions to success, the theoretical basis, etc. In the back of the book you'll find a table describing all 18 methods (explaining how many people can be involved, how lang the change process takes, how it impacts the organisation, etc.). Once you have found which method fits your situation, you'll find references to more specific books explaining a particular method. Another book painting the big picture as well is Barbara Bunker's "Large Scale Interventions".
I recommend the book as a place to start, if you are prepared to treat your organisation as having more EQ than each of the individuals.
Patrick E.C. Merlevede -- co-author of 7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence
I also submitted a "listmania" list entitled "Systemic Large Group Interventions" in which you'll find more references on this topic.
Insightful!.......2001-05-09
This handbook of change is a must-have for any executive, simply as a primer in the language spoken by consultants. Read this book and become instantly familiar with the latest, most successful, and even the trendiest theories of change management. The editors have evaluated 18 leading change methods, as applied and tested by some of the largest corporations in the United States. They group the change methods by functional categories, making it easier for readers to go directly to the method that applies to their particular problem. Another bonus: The leading practitioners in the field write the change method chapters, bringing a unique depth of perspective. The editors also have written several excellent chapters on the nature of change. An extraordinary comparative matrix - worth the price of the book by itself - is included in the "Afterword." We [...] recommend this book to executives, managers, change agents, human resources professionals and students.
A Resource Treasuretrove.......2000-02-23
Holman and Devane have created an amazing resource for anyone interested in helping to shape the future of our organizations and communities. 18 proven group methods each have their own chapter written by originators and/or foremost practitioners.
The editors have done an excellent job of sheparding each chapter so that the story is alive, honoring the uniqueness and history. And, also, consistent information is presented, allowing comparison among the methods. The comparative matrix is a powerful tool for picking methods appropraite to a particular context.
Reading each chapter is like having a conversation with an expert; it is a quick and most effective way of understanding the method. Then, to dig deeper, the book provides a comprehenhsive list of resources for each method.
There is a synergy between the methods that makes this book more powerful than 18 separate books (and very much more accessible). And Holman's and Devane's editing and opening and closing chapters weave all into a beautiful tapestry. If you care about creating the future, this book provides help.
Book Description
Written and field-tested by practicing consultants, The Consultant’s Tool Kit will save consultants both time and money-as it makes their work with clients much more effective. Each tool or activity is designed to solve a common consulting problem. Reproducible worksheets, exercises, and questionnaires are easily downloaded from the web and customized by consultants to fit the exact needs of each client—and help them effectively implement the solutions.
This collection of field-tested tools, customizable questionnaires, and techniques for working with clients provides crucial problem-solving help in areas such as:
• Managing and leading change
• Organizational initiatives
• Assessing team and organizational functioning
• Improving relationships between departments and business units
• Creative problem-solving techniques
Mel Silberman, Ph.D., (Princeton, NJ) is a best-selling author and editor. A professor of adult and organization development at Temple University, he is the author of Active Training.
Download Description
Written and field-tested by practicing consultants, The Consultant's Tool Kit will save consultants both time and money-as it makes their work with clients much more effective. Each tool or activity is designed to solve a common consulting problem. Reproducible worksheets, exercises, and questionnaires are easily downloaded from the web and customized by consultants to fit the exact needs of each client¿and help them effectively implement the solutions.
Customer Reviews:
A Solution Seeking A Problem?.......2007-09-08
A good book with some solid approaches to consulting that many have found to be useful.
The only downside, if you can call it that, is that quite a number of the solutions may not work well in a good number of real-world consulting assignments.
Overall not a bad read and worth further investigation if you're looking for something to lead you step-by-step through solving certain client problems.
Worth the Price.......2007-02-19
Part of my consulting practice is to create and facilitate group learning for various situations. I enjoy leafing through this book to both remind myself of tools, techniques and concepts I have explored in the past, and also to expand my options to incorporate new material into the mix. It is a bit like hanging out with a bunch of other consultants for a day to share ideas.
Valuable Book.......2006-07-17
This is a wonderful book that combines the expertise of a wide range of experts in the consulting field. Due to the different styles of the authors, the reader is bound to find several that really address their concerns.
The book is a useful toolkit as it has templates that one can easily adapt to meet their needs. Most of the common consulting problems are addressed. Among the readily useable tools are the various exercises, questionnaires and reproducible worksheets and techniques for working with clients, among others, which make this a very user friendly book that makes life easier for a consultant, particularly those like me that are relatively new to the profession.
This is a well written book that is easy to follow and understand and that should be a valuable tool to both the seasoned professional and the novice. It is certainly a very valuable reference book that can be used as a checklist when delivering services.
Awesome for Actionable Purchase.......2006-02-19
This book led me to synergist my P2P bottom-line best practices, to synergize both inside and outside the box, to leverage a value-added, results-driven mindset for their B2B core competencies in which their historical trends have led me to conclude that by doubling or even tripling their efforts of efficiency on the office front, it will yield a new entity of massive synergistic proportions.
A Good Thought Jogger.......2005-03-30
Silberman has brought together 45 different tools to help the consultant carry out a variety of projects. The book is probably due for a new edition, but many of the tools are as relevant now as they were when the book was published.
Because the book's scope is broad, it's best used as a way to frame your thinking on how to solve a problem, or to suggest a summary approach to a client issue. It's a good reference to be sure you're not leaving things out that you should think about, rather than a comprehensive guide to engagement problem-solving.
This is an ambitious book with lots of great ideas.
Michael McLaughlin, coauthor with Jay Conrad Levinson of Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants.
Book Description
Since it was first published in 1995,
Practicing Organization Development has become a classic in change management. Now completely revised and updated, editors Rothwell and Sullivan, leaders in the field of OD, and numerous expert practitioners, walk you through each episode of change facilitation.
Youll find exhibits, activities, instruments, and case studies. You'll get help applying each phase of a popular emerging change making model. And youll find include applied research and insights from a wide variety of well-known OD practitioners and academicians. Included in this comprehensive resource are an instructor's guide, ever expanding materials on the Web, and a companion CD-ROM with PowerPoint slides and supplemental materials.
Practicing Organization Development is packed with useful, current, proven direction on applying OD principles in the real world -- order your copy today!
Download Description
"Since it was first published in 1995, Practicing Organization Development has become a classic in change management. In this completely revised and updated second edition, expert authors walk you through each episode of change facilitation.
The second edition is enhanced with exhibits, activities, instruments, and case studies. This indispensable guide will help apply each phase of a popular emerging change making model. The editors, themselves leaders in the field of OD, include applied research and insights from a wide variety of well-known practitioners and academicians. A comprehensive resource, included is an instructor's guide, ever expanding materials on the Web, PowerPoint slides and supplemental materials on the companion CD-ROM. "
Customer Reviews:
Too Academic.......2006-07-29
This book is much too academic. Can somebody recommend an organizational change book written by a practitioner? This book is designed for undergraduate students.
Professional 'Keeper'.......2003-03-17
This 'Guide' book is one of four used in a Human Resource Development course that I took in a masters program. The content is the type that will be referred to over and over again in the course of an HRDV career. Some principles should not change, and the ones in this book are rich. A copy is staying in my personal library.
Solid definitions and foundation for understanding OD.......2001-08-04
I love this book! It is a must-have for all practitioners, beginners, or anyone who wants to place solid definitions of all elements associated with organization development.
Excelente.......1999-02-17
Es nuestro libro de texto en la materia de Desarrollo Organizacional de la Maestría de Gestión de la Calidad en el Centro de Excelencia de la Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, México. Por motivo de traducción su lectura no es tan rápida como desearamos por lo que me interesa saber cuando tendrán una edición en español. Gracias. Ana Luisa Mejía.
The essestial skills needed to do change management today.......1997-06-16
This book has become a best seller in the change managment and organization development arena. It is used as a text book by many universities. At the last OD network meeting, 4 graduate programs in OD identified this as the favorite of students.
It is practical, easy to read and is very useful for anyone doing consulting.
Dick Beckhard who coined the phrase Organization Development says it is the best book on change since his Addision-Wesley Series on OD
Amazon.com
You've got a hot idea for a new dot-com, and you're itching to join the folks who regularly show up on CNBC and at the Lexus dealerships in Silicon Valley. But you also know your odds of big-time success are about as long as Bill Gates's position in MSFT. What do you do? John Nesheim, an adjunct professor at Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, who has personally structured over $300 million in new-venture deals, lays out the step-by-step skinny in High Tech Startup. Incorporating some two dozen case studies spanning the technology spectrum, he presents info specific to this industry that will help you get from concept to IPO. It begins with a 14-phase schedule itemizing time requirements, necessary assistance, typical participants, major costs, main risks, and desired results for each step. It then details all the critical stages (i.e., forming the company, preparing the business plan, assembling the team, dealing with venture capitalists and other funding sources). Nesheim focuses on practical strategies that should certainly improve your chances, but don't start prepping for that on-air interview with Mark Haines just yet: Only six out of 1 million high-tech ideas, he notes, ever become successful companies that go public. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
The phenomenal success of the initial public offerings (IPOs) of many new internet companies obscures the fact that fewer than six out of 1 million business plans submitted to venture capital firms will ever reach the IPO stage. Many fail, according to start-up expert John Nesheim, because the entrepreneurs did not have access to the invaluable lessons that come from studying the real-world venture experiences of successful companies. Now they do.
This revised and updated edition of Nesheim's underground Silicon Valley bestseller incorporates twenty-three case studies of successful start-ups, including tables of wealth showing how much money founders and investors realized from each venture. Acclaimed by entrepreneurs the world over, this practical handbook is filled with hard-to-find information and guidance covering every key phase of a start-up, from idea to IPO: how to create a winning business plan, how to value the firm, how venture capitalists work, how they make their money, where to find alternative sources of funding, how to select a good lawyer, and how to protect intellectual property. Nesheim aims to improve the odds of success for first-time high-tech entrepreneurs, and offers an insider's perspective from firsthand experience on one of the toughest challenges they face -- convincing venture capitalists or investment banks to provide financing.
This complete, classic reference tool is essential reading for first-time high-tech entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs already involved in a start-up who want to increase their chances of success to rise to the top.
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Make no mistake: even with all their potential for meteoric success, high tech ventures are synonymous with high risk. Fewer than one out of every 47,000 Internet business plans submitted to venture capital firms ever reach the initial public offering (IPO) stage. Many fail because the entrepreneurs did not have access to the invaluable lessons that come from studying the real-world venture experiences of successful companies.
Now they do. The book C-Cube Microsystems President Bill O'Meara calls "a must read for all high tech entrepreneurs" has all the hard-to-find information that start-ups need to rise to the top. High Tech Start Up presents a classic, step-by-step strategy for making a solid plan and securing multi-round financing. Author John Nesheim -- a premier start-up veteran, having single-handedly structured over $300 million in new venture deals -- provides more than twenty-three case studies that reveal how readers can modify their strategies to fit their particular objectives.
Customer Reviews:
Great book for entrepreneurs considering a start-up!.......2007-09-06
Book gives a good overview of the process, timeline, and who is involved. Great insight into what venture capitalists look for, equity ownership and dilution, and how to select key advisors (i.e., attorney, banker) on the start-up team. It is an eye-opener to help you know what to expect in terms of how long it will take to get established and the likelihood of being bought out or reaching IPO. Definitely recommend.
A course on entrepreneurship .......2007-05-15
The book is slightly dated and was published at the height of the tech bubble, but don't let that detract you from picking it up - `High Tech Startup' has volumes of invaluable advice. John Nesheim covers the entire lifespan of a startup: from finding an attorney to start the company, to picking an investment banker to do an IPO. Of course, the scope of the work also limits the amount of information, but it gives you enough to find what you're missing and to continue your research. The case studies and suggestions from seasoned CEO's were especially useful - experience is cheapest second hand, and there is plenty of it in this book. `High Tech Startup' is a business course I should have taken years ago (and most school don't offer), highly recommended.
Full of information.......2007-03-23
I enjoyed this book, in face I have taken a lot of the information and put it into our business plan for a new start up. Though the information is dated it still holds... At the end of the day, business is business.
We are using it as our bible, and I will come back in a few months and tell you how our efforts go.
JB Glossinger
Get Out of Neutral: Manifest the Life Experience You Desire
O verwhelming Info.......2007-01-13
The book is so informative, it so hard to stop reading when the book is fun and full of ah ha and hmm. The author give a precise info on how the start-up company can obtain VC funding. Most of the reviewer are right about their comment on this book, it should be the bible of start-up company.
Start Up Business Bible.......2006-01-30
I lead the technology center for an up and coming online payment services company. To say that High Tech Start Up has been very helpful in our growth is truly an understatement. My boss lugs around his copy of the book and constantly quotes from it, calling it his bible. The book has guided him in positioning the company in the market accordingly and has helped him in making informed decisions. I would recommend the book to anyone wanting to carve a niche in the high tech industry.
Book Description
"Kaagan's book provides a growth focused tool kit that is unique in its presentation. A must-have for the professional library of the novice trainer or the experienced staff developer, it gives the 'now what' piece to enhance dialogue in school-specific learning situations, curriculum design sessions, or system-wide strategic planning."
Marti Richardson, President
National Staff Development Council
Energize and enhance your next staff development workshop with reflective exercises!
In this invaluable and unique resource, leadership and organizational development expert Stephen S. Kaagan presents a unique guide for educators who enjoy challenging themselves and who hunger for new ideas and a fresh perspective of staff development. It promotes individual and collective learning of all participants as they undertake formal staff development while enhancing the success and performance of the entire educational system.
The 30 reflective exercises have been designed to meet the specific needs of educators and include:
- Fostering effective change
- Developing leadership skills
- Identifying and capitalizing on staff assets
- Gaining and using new perspectives
Each of the 30 exercises is described in rich, full detail, including detailed instructions on process, appropriate group size, and contextual cues for best use. Questions for reflection help users explore the "what," the "so what," and the "now what" of issues raised in the exercises. By incorporating reflective exercise into staff development, facilitators and participants will have the opportunity to engage deeply with new ideas and make connections between theory and practice.
30 Reflective Staff Development Exercises for Educators allows staff developers, principals, teacher leaders, and anyone else involved in staff development to improve their contributions in a variety of forums, including formal staff development, school staff meetings, curriculum planning sessions, and school improvement team meetings.
Customer Reviews:
Get the teachers thinking.......2007-09-11
This is not a book of ice breakers or social games, but true reflective activities to do with your staff or educational group. Very useful and practical.
Book Description
Large Group Interventions are methods used to gather a whole system together to discuss and take action on the target agenda. That agenda varies from future plans, products, and services, to redesigning work, to discussion of troubling issues and problems. The Handbook of Large Group Methods takes the next step in demonstrating through a series of cases how Large Group Methods are currently being used to address twenty-first-century challenges in organizations and communities today, including:
- Working with widely dispersed organizations, and the problem of involvement and participation
- Working with organizations facing a serious business crisis
- Working with organizations in polarized and politicized environments
- Working in community settings with diverse interest groups
- Working at the global level and adapting these methods for cross-cultural use
- Embedding and sustaining new patterns of working together in organizations and communities
Customer Reviews:
The Handbook of Large Group Methods.......2007-09-12
Trust Alban and Bunker to use their social science prowess and rich professional experiences to create an eminently pragmatic handbook for leaders of systems change. To their credit, the entire construction of the book also employs the very principles espoused by the contributors: inclusion of stakeholders, engagement of multiple perspectives, search for common ground, transparency, and appreciation for diversity. After soliciting cases from around the world, the authors organized them into helpful categories of interventions around "six challenges for the 21st century" and added their views on the issues created by those challenges. These chapter inputs are perfect executive summaries for clients who are mired in these dilemmas daily and are looking for solutions and they will help introduce the large group engagement methods the consultant is offering. Also invaluable is the authors' matrix of each case that delineates the organizational sector, the situation addressed, and the methods used--truly makes the text handy.
Although the book stands on its own merits for the sophisticated organization consultant, reading their previous Large Group Interventions (Jossey Bass, 1997) would give the appropriate context for the creative adaptations of the original methods that their latest book so well describes. The Handbook has not only added new methods (Appreciative Inquiry Summit, World Café and AmericaSpeaks) but, more importantly, it describes combinations of traditional methods along with new twists which are thoroughly described. Appropriately, there is a greater reliance on engagement principles for a change process instead of previously prescribed recipes for events in their prior book.
The consultant contributors have been generous with details, for the most part, so that seasoned organization development consultants will feel comfortable employing these tested methods of engagement. On the other hand, there also could also be a warning sticker that reads: "Don't Try This Alone in your Ballroom!" because much of the success comes with years of experience working with diverse groups and learning what doesn't work. Partnering with such experts is the wisest way to dive into whole system change.
As a trainer of large group principles, I particularly appreciated the enhancement tools this handbook describes--Polarity Mapping (B. Johnson), Gestalt therapy, coaching theory, using professional actors for storytelling, graphic facilitation and more. I look forward to the 2017 iteration Bunker and Alban offer to keep us on our toes!
Elizabeth K. Olson
Preferred Futures, Inc.
Carlotta Tyler, OD Consultant and Executive Coach.......2007-03-18
This Handbook is a valuable, broad scope look at public and private sector systems currently engaged in change iniatitives around the world. Relatively free of jargon and untried theories, these field-tested case studies will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers from organization leaders and HR professionals to business school students. I came away with some important new ideas for my work and avoided a few pitfalls after reading the book.
An excellent combination of practice, theory and new ideas.......2007-02-03
Through the many cases presented, Barbara and Billie were able to present to the reader how the different Large Group Methods actually can be applied, and, specially, how they form part of a larger roadmap for systemic change. Interesting also how all cases have a reflections session, which is very usefull in giving actual or to-be practitioners concrete tips for implementation.
The combination of cases with theory about the methods and innovative ideas (for example, on the use of Technologies and Graphic facilitation)resulted in a superior learning experience and complements very well their first book ("Large Group Interventions: Engaging the Whole System for Rapid Change").
Last but not least, I was happy to note how there was a shift in attention from method to challenges that organizations or communities are facing - so a focus on impact and change. A book worth reading for those that are facing or will face large scale changes.
Substantive and Provocative.......2007-01-16
In the complex, interconnected, global environment that most organizations work in daily, it is no longer possible for a few people "at the top" of the organization to have all the knowledge, expertise, and perspective needed for its success. At NovaLearning, we have used large group methods with colleges and universities for about fifteen years. I have constantly seen how institutions become better -- more focused, more strategic, but also more humane -- as they incorporate ideas and insight from across the system into their operation. When Bunker and Alban's earlier book was published, I was delighted because it captured well the range of large group approaches that had developed by 1996. This new handbook goes much further.
These are substantive case studies exceptionally well framed by Bunker and Alban's insight and experience. The diverse case study authors are generous in sharing at a level of specificity that makes real learning from their experiences possible. Each chapter is organized around the presenting challenge, the context and methodology (and why chosen), a detailed description of what actually happened, and perhaps most importantly, a set of reflections and insights that give the reader the chance to share in the authors' learning. I also found valuable the examples of how the innovative use of communication technologies can provide new opportunities as well as sometimes create unexpected limitations. I strongly recommend The Handbook of Large Group Methods to consultants who use or want to use large group methods. Individual chapters will also be important and provocative for corporate, academic, social, and political leaders and change agents.
How These Methods Actually Work In Practice.......2007-01-08
The strength of this book lies in the fact that it not only provides methodologies and resources for creating change in organizations in the 21st century; but also identifies how these methodologies actually work in practice.
A series of case studies ranges from addressing business issues at American Airlines and the BBC to managing change in organizations in Mexico and Indonesia. The reader is taken on a journey by those individuals who were responsible for implementing large group methodologies in their respective organizations.
By reading about these success stories and the methodologies they employ, you will be able to develop a plan for you own organization that will ensure a higher level of success that would otherwise be possible.
Walter Willigan, President, Willigan Consulting LLC
Book Description
"At last we have a comprehensive book that teaches us about the practice of coaching and the principalship! There are skills, strategies, tools, and stories of practicing leaders that can help a prospective leader grow and learn in this engagingly written book. This is clearly a must read for principals-new and experienced-and those who coach them."
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Ann Lieberman, Senior Scholar Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
"One of the few books on education in the last decade that has the touch of genius,
Blended Coaching
gives principals the inspiration they need to shift from administrator to school leader, from cop to coach, from boss to mentor. It provides proven strategies, skills that can be practically and immediately applied to positively impact every teacher and student in America."
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Robert Hargrove, Author, Masterful Coaching
"Bloom, Castagna, Moir, and Warren have achieved new heights in our profession by building upon the best knowledge in coaching and systems change, and constructing blended leadership coaching founded on substantive research in cognition, linguistics, emotional intelligence, and cultural competency.
Blended Coaching
gives expression to a coaching conceptual framework erected with skills, tools, and vibrant examples."
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Linda Lambert, Professor Emeritus
California State University, Hayward
Support new and veteran principals through coaching-based professional development!
Research shows conclusively that principals and other school leaders are essential to school improvement, and that these individuals benefit from the intensive, contextualized support that a coach or mentor can provide. But how does a coach support a school leader in mastering the professional and emotional challenges of school leadership for a meaningful and positive impact on students?
This book, grounded in research and theory, provides readers with practical skills and strategies for leadership coaching explicitly tied to the needs of principals and other school leaders. It makes sense of the often contradictory literature on coaching by promoting a new approach, that of "Blended Coaching." This model-based on more than 15 years of fieldwork at the renowned New Teacher Center, University of California, Santa Cruz-recognizes that effective coaches move between facilitative and instructional approaches in their practice, and has made a meaningful difference in dozens of school districts nationwide.
Designed for individuals and institutions charged with improving principal retention, teacher satisfaction, and student achievement, this indispensable resource features:
- Real-life examples to enforce key concepts
- Reflective prompts to enhance assimilation
- Insightful exercises for coaches, principals, and colleagues
- Comprehensive resources, including worksheets, sample forms, and assessments
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
I must confess I do not have psychological background. From my humble point of view, all books like this, look at "the good and rational background" of people. They have the premise that all the staff is doing their best but "strange forces" makes them not to get the optimum for the organization. So, the goal is overcoming those refraining forces. I do believe that behavior of people is headed for their own rational interest which is not always the best for the company. In adition, we are looking for rationality in behavior which is only part of the truth. Is not envy, jealousy, narrow-minded, stuborness and so on, part of human being behavior?. without them, we only have part of the great picture and so, remedies will not work properly. Apart from that, the book is well organized and explains clearly the models the author is working with and the methodology used. Premises are strong and goals interested which lead to good results (provided human being were not as they are).
The one book to read on ending office politices.......1997-07-01
Argyris cuts to the heart of why organizations go wrong with a combination of passion and precision. Several authors who have written about effective teams and organizations such as Peter Senge and Gerald (Jerry) Weinberg regard Argyris's work quite highly, and rightly so. While other authors talk about and round the problems and issues, Argyris creates models which show not just what people do, but how they think. Other books in the field of Organizational Design that I have looked at appear dry as dust next to Argris.
Readers should be cautioned, however, that Argyris is a academic and researcher -- reading his books requires work, but work well worth the effort.
- Cortlandt Wilson, Software Consultan
Average customer rating:
- It is what it is...and provides solid material
- A Very Useful Process Improvement Reference
- Process Improvement Classic Reference
- Buisness process improvment work book
- Not bad, could be better
|
Business Process Improvement Workbook: Documentation, Analysis, Design, and Management of Business Process Improvement
H. James Harrington ,
K. C. Esseling , and
Van Nimwegen
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
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Binding: Hardcover
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Business Process Improvement: The Breakthrough Strategy for Total Quality, Productivity, and Competitiveness
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Accessories:
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Philips Nino 319 Windows Organizer
ASIN: 0070267790 |
Book Description
This long-awaited companion and update to H. James Harrington's best-selling Business Process Improvement is a hands-on implementation guide. It focuses on upgrading information distribution paths to optimize the many processes with which they come in contact. Filled with lists, charts, and appendices, this workbook tells how to document a company's processes, analyze current effectiveness, design new processes, use system enablers, and much more.
Customer Reviews:
It is what it is...and provides solid material.......2007-03-13
I agree with other reviewers who question the designation "workbook." Actually, what we have here is a book which suggests the work which each reader must complete -- individually and in collaboration with others -- with regard to the documentation, analysis, design, and management of business process improvement. It provides no head-snapping revelations, nor do its co-authors claim to offer any. Obviously, it is important to improve performance continuously by improving various processes during which tasks are completed. It is also important to measure only what matters. Finally, all organizations (regardless of size or nature) must develop leaders at all levels and within all areas who drive change initiatives to achieve these objectives. Harrington, Esseling, and van Nimwegen offer a comprehensive, cohesive, and cost-effective methodology. Once having identified the "what," they focus on "how."
As the authors explain, Business Process Improvement (BPI) consists of four different approaches designed to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptability of administrative processes: Fast Analysis Solution Technique (FAST), process benchmarking, process redesign, and process reengineering. They recommend a six-phase process that leads to the implementation of the best-value future-state solution: Organization, Documentation, Analysis, Design, Implementation, and Management. They then focus on each approach and each phase, suggesting similarities and differences between and among them.
I would have rated this book even higher had the presentation of the material been more "reader-friendly." By the time I reached Chapter 5 on page 167, the monotonous tone of the narrative to that point made it difficult for me to sustain my concentration. I always appreciate the provision of checklists, for example, because they organize and summarize key points, and, because they facilitate (indeed expedite) review of them later. To repeat, the material is solid. The authors obviously know what they are talking about. Their observations are based on real-world situations. Their suggestions are sensible. That said, this reader (at least) had to work much too hard to locate, absorb, and then digest the authors' core concepts.
No doubt other readers will find the material more accessible. My guess (only a guess) is that many of those who do will be C-level executives in larger organizations who already know much more about BPI than I do. I wish them and their associates well, hoping they can effectively apply -- and then have their organization benefit substantially from -- what Harrington, Esseling, and van Nimwegen offer.
A Very Useful Process Improvement Reference.......2006-09-19
I agree with the other reviewers, as I first purchased this book assuming that it was a "workbook" with working examples. It wasn't this type of workbook, but is a very valuable resource for the process-improvement minded. It could have utilized more illustrations - I suggest creating your own diagrams as you read through this book. This is the approach I took whilst reading the book and was very satisfied with the results.
Documentation, a very important subject that is often overlooked and/or underutilized, is explained very well in this book, describing the level of detail required to support a successful process improvement initiative. The Appendix XI - guidelines for designing forms and documents is fantastic and I recommend it for anyone considering facilitating process improvement workshops.
The organization chapter on organizing a process improvement team is very good - managers and especially companies wanting to accelerate their process improvement successes could benefit from this instruction.
The Defining Improvement Opportunities chapter was also very informative, linking the need for standardization with IT, administration and operations.
And lastly, don't discount one of the authors - H James Harrington. He is one of the best business writers in the business for topics ranging from process improvement, project management, customer service or even human resources. Don't miss a chance to read anything he has written.
I would disagree that this book is dry - it is well written and researched and if it had contained a few more illustrations, I would have given this book a 5-star rating.
Process Improvement Classic Reference.......2006-05-31
This book serves as a powerful reference on process improvement.
The author, H.J. Harrington, is wise. We can learn a lot from him. He's got great experience from the firm, Ernst and Young.
The book provides a deep, well-structured and methodical glimpse into the practice of process improvement.
Although there are many books on the subject (older and newer) this book is foundational. It blends TQM and Industrial engineering concepts. At some degree it is a "deep dive" into the Six Sigma method's Business Process Architecture (BPA) tool.
This book is a great reference for consultants, line managers, business process managers/owners and business analysts as well as anyone wanting a thorough understanding of Process Improvement.
Reading it and applying the practices described within may save companies money. It can build career enhancing compentencies in those that adopt/practice what they have learned.
For the relatively low price you can have access to the mind of a sage.
Buisness process improvment work book.......2006-03-08
Provide an excellent overview of BPM and provide good examples.
Not bad, could be better.......2002-07-19
I'll agree with users who feel this book is dry, dry, dry. I also have some issues with the design of the book. There were concepts that I found confusing until I drew my own flow charts -such aids could certainly have been included in the book. There were too many bulleted lists that probably should have been numbered for easier reference and ranking. Where this book shines is on the mechanics on BPI; how to organize the project and the teams (although a good project manager should know how to do this), the sequence of steps to go through, and how to organize all the collected information.
What is missing from this book, in my opinion, is discussion on Risk Management and Change Management. You can document processes and manuals and forms until you're blue in the face, but in the end, you'll have to get human beings to buy into the difficult task of changing processes to reach the future state, and there is little discussion of this.
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