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Leading Change

5 stars (Great Business Manual!) - This book is a great business manual for executives at all levels. Another book I really enjoyed to read was "The Wal-Mart Way". It was very insightful and had many good ideas for bulding a strong company. 5 stars (Solid Principles for Growth) - I was a little concerned when I started reading this title, wondering if it would apply to churches as well as corporations. I was not disappointed. Kotter's ideas here are valid for any organization that is in the change process. The author's eight steps are nuggets of truth that will help pastors as well as CEOs. I recommend this book highly for pastors of growing, changing congregations. 5 stars (Packed with Knowledge!) - The picture on the cover of John P. Kotter's book tells it all: a group of penguins are shuffling their feet nervously on an icy precipice, while one brave bird leaps for the water below. The question is, which penguin are you? In too many organizations, executives shy away from the precipice, while someone lower down in the pecking order jumps in to test the landing conditions. Kotter says managers and leaders are quite different. A manager, he explains, is trained to think in a linear, one-two-three, risk-limiting way. Transformational change, however, can only be attained when true leaders push forward on several fronts at once - eight of them to be exact. Every successful change initiative begins with a coalition of leaders who create a sense of urgency. Kotter's book stems from a 1995 Harvard Business Review article titled, " Leading Change : Why Transformation Efforts Fail." It will probably sound hauntingly familiar to managers who have watched change initiatives begin in the front courtyard with a marching band and end a few months later, ushered out the back door like a diner who can't pay the tab. If you want to know why your last change initiative fizzled, we say read this book. Better yet, study it to ensure that your next leap of faith is a flying succe...
Harvard Business School Press :: Structural Adjustment :: Strategic planning :: Organizational change :: Organization Development :: Leadership In Business :: Leadership :: Industrial organizatio :: Leading Change

 

Managing Transitions- Making the Most of Change

4 stars (Start-ups and Managing Transitions) - The focus of the venture capital community is on the change a new disruptive company intends to bring to the world, and little, if any, attention is paid to the changes and transitions that the company, as it moves from concept development to full commercialization, will have to negotiate to achieve its vision. "Transition Management" provides an excellent `how to' book for young, fragile companies as they negotiate the never ending changes and transitions that they will be forced to make. As author William Bridges points out, change is situational and transition is psychological. "People are the ones who have to embrace new situations and carry out the corresponding changes. The psychological shifts that accompany the situational shifts can be difficult for people and must be managed to have everyone on board." Change and transition management is crucial to focus, execution, and organizational productivity. Those of us experienced in start-up management know first hand the changes that we will have to manage - some expected, some unexpected. But few of us have been schooled in the management of the transition that accompanies change. Generally, decisions to create change are made and implemented whether the people are on board or not. A spirit of "they will have to just accept them" is the operative mantra. But, as Bridges points out so well, we can do much to ease these transitions and keep our employees "on-board and involved." It is self-defeating to try to overcome people's resistance to change without addressing the threat that change poses to their world. For successful change to take place, people must have a purpose, a mental picture, a plan for, and a part to play in change. In short, successful change takes place only when everyone is actively involved. Key changes that create transitions that must be managed in a start-up include, but are not limited to: *The addition of new functions. *The addition/r...
Perseus Books Group :: Business and Management :: Structural Adjustment :: Organizational change :: Organization Theory :: Management - General :: Management :: Industrial management :: E :: Managing Transitions- Making the Most of Change

 

The Dance of Change- The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations

4 stars (Ponderous) - While I enjoyed this work and read it from cover to cover, it did begin to seem like too much of good thing. Some of the organization information seemed dated and some of the people who are offering advice are probably no longer held with such high regard in their former organizations. In any case, I would recommed it to anyone who is doing graduate or post-graduate work in organization and management or just wants some insight into how organizations really work. 5 stars (Great book to look at change from different lenses) - This book is touted as a "resource" to the Fifth Discipline, but my view is that it could itself stand on its own steam as a handbook for change management. With articles contributed by a variety of authors, the book looks at the challenges of triggering, initiating, aligning and sustaining change and the various diverse ways to confront and solve those challenges. The challenges that the book identifies are the challenges of: Orientation, Generating Profound Change, Not Enough Time, No Help, Not Relevant, Walking the Talk, Fear & Anxiety, Assessment & Measurement, True Believers and Non-believers, Governance, Diffusion, Strategy & Purpose. The book is choc-a-block with tools, explanation of jargon and references to other resources. An orientation to Systems Thinking and looking at organizations as complex systems would help in clarifying the book more. Hence it is desirable to read "the fifth discipline" before you read it. However, the delightful nature of this book ensures that you can flip open any page, read a little bit and keep it back, and feel refreshed and not thirst for more. For people who look at organizations as communities, as networks and as human systems in addition to just being an economic entity this book will delight and scare. For others, this book will act as a provoking way to look at change and organizations in search of equilibrium. 3 stars (Retread) - Senge et al have done some wonderful work...
Currency :: Business & Economics & Management :: Structural Adjustment :: Organizational learning :: Organizational change :: Management - General :: Entrepreneurship :: Busi :: The Dance of Change- The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations