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Leadership Books The Collaborative Work Systems Field book by Jill Nemiro, Laurie Broedling, Michael M. Beyerlein (Editor), Craig McGee (Editor), and Gerald Klein (Editor), San Francisco: Pfeiffer, 2003. The Collaborative Work Systems Field book is a comprehensive reference that offers practitioners a resource for dealing with the challenges of designing and implementing collaborative work systems in value chains, organizational networks, partnerships with stakeholders, web-based teams, cross-functional teams, strategic alliances, and team-based organizations.
Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1997. The secrets of collective genius are demonstrated in this study of Great Groups. These groups range form not-for-profit organizations, such as Black Mountain College, to for profit organizations, like Disney, to a military project organization - The Manhattan Project. This study of seven groups takes the reader into the characteristics of a great a leader as well as a great group.
Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald Heifetz, Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994 Leadership does not have easy answers in our current world
of rapid change - be it in business, politics, or educational
institutions. This author approaches the subject with
sound theory and practical procedures. The leader identifies and
maintains the focus on the adaptive challenge for the organization, while
actively working to manages the stress all face in such a challenge.
The leader participates, as well as leads, in creating the holding
environment that allows such dynamic efforts to succeed. This is an
excellent book and every leader should consider Ronald Heifetz's
perspective. On Becoming a Servant Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf, Edited by Don M. Frick and Larry C. Speaks, San Francisco: Jossey - Bass, 1996. Robert Greenleaf (1904- 1990) had quite an impact on understanding effective leadership with his work at AT&T. His idea was that the leader is a servant to others. This book of his essays and lectures open the reader to the heart of Greenleaf's convictions, his guiding suggestions, and his vision. TopStewardship: Choosing Service over Self-interest by Peter Block, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1992 & 1996. This is a book that brings different responses from different people. The author writes, "Stewardship is to hold something in trust for another." Peter Block is talking about the leader's responsibility to the organization and the larger community, a society, a nation, and a globe. Thus, the leader is entrusted with the people and the organization;s purpose for the benefit of all - not just the leader. Recently we heard someone say that the corporate sense of community service does not work and will not be the focus of the future. Let us hope that this statement is lost in the wind. TopThe Wisdom of Teams by Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith Teams at the Top: Unleashing the Potential of Both Teams and Individual Leaders by Jon R. Katzenbach, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998. These are primer books on teams in the modern organization. Teams truly have become a buzzword in our organizational culture. Unfortunately when something becomes a buzzword it begins to lose something. The work of Katzenbach and Smith has been effective in sending a message about the wisdom of teams. Even Katzenbach has expressed doubt at times about whether teams at the top would work, but being attentive to his work he has learned that the top teams can work. There is a resistance at the top to be in an effective and authentic team as it threatens control, power, and even the personal idea of status. These tow works challenge us to consider that in such a changing world the individual is not enough. The "we" is radically needed. TopSynchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996. Joseph Jaworski shares his journey beginning as an attorney in Houston, TX to MIT Center for Organizational Learning. In between he founded the American Leadership Forum, served as head of Global Scenario Planning for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies in London and is founder and chairman of the Center for Generative Leadership. Jaworski shares the "inner journey" involved in his outward journey. This is an inspirational guide to the most essential leadership capacity for collectively shaping our future. He writes and illustrates that leadership capacity is about the release of human possibilities through enabling others to break free of limits imposed by the organization and/or by one's self. TopBooks on Communication TopThe Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue by Deborah Tannen, New York: Random House, 1998. That's Not What I Meant: How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships by Deborah Tannen, New York: William Morrow, 1986. You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen, New York: William Morrow, 1990. A Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. effectively points out to us that we can be quite counterproductive in our conversations. Her book You Just Don't Understand was a bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list for four years. Her newest book, The Argument Culture truly addresses what we all experience in our current society. Oppositional Positions are encouraged and valued in our culture as the best way to get anything done, such as debate for new ideas, cover the news by finding spokespersons who represent the differing extremes; settle disputes by litigation, begin an essay by opposing someone, and demonstrate that you are a thinker through criticism and attack. We all have experienced aspects of this. It creates alienation, lowers creative thinking, and leads to lose-lose situations. TopGetting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981. Getting Past No: Negotiating Your Way from Confrontation to Cooperation by William Ury New York, Bantam Books, 1991. These books go together as they present to the reader the key essentials in conflict resolution and negotiation. As they would say, we sit on this side of the table and the issue, or problem, or conflict is on the other side of the table. We become stuck in the "No!" when we sit facing each other making each other the problem. TopOn Dialogue by David Bohm, London: Routledge, 1996. Lee Nichol edits this edition and the foreword is helpful in grasping the significance of this book. David Bohm, a physicist, is considered to be one of the greatest thinkers of our time. This book is one of the conceptual foundations for contemporary writing on dialogue. It is a resource we can turn to over and over again when seriously considering the difference between discussion and dialogue within an organization and relationships facing complexity - such as the global market and our expanding world views. Top
We have to Talk: Healing Dialogues Between Women and Men
by Samuel Shem and Janet Surrey, New York, New York: Basic Books, 1998 Books on the Learning Organization TopLearning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow's Workplace edited by Sarita Chawla & John Reniesch, Portland, Oregon: Productivity Press, 1994 As we work to develop cultures of learning, which has been captured in the phrase, The Learning Organization, we find it is not as easy as it sounds. This book is a valuable resource of thirty-two articles by current contributors to this effort, such as Peter Senge, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Charles Handy. Titles such as, Why Smart Organizations Don't Learn, have material that addresses what we experience as we attempt to inspire and motivate the development of such a dynamic organizational culture. TopThe Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994. This is a book referred to often in current writings for it is considered a milestone in building the foundation for the learning organization and the development of an alternative to authoritarian hierarchy. We recommend this book as a basic theoretical "bible" to solid conceptualization of what is required for the organization of the 21st Century. This book is readable, and one you'll want to refer back to again and again. TopThe Profit Zone by Adrian J. Slywotzky, David J, Morrison, and Bob Andelman, New York, New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001. The Profit Zone looks at how profit happens in today's customer-driven economy. The authors demonstrate why market share often leads to a "no-profit zone" and identify 22 profit models that have helped dozens of companies consistently make money. It includes in-depth looks at companies that have successfully redesigned their business to increase their profit, such as Disney, GE, Microsoft, Intel, and Charles Schwab. These innovators look first at their customers' needs and how they could profit from fulfilling them. After countless examples, the book gives a handbook for managers to apply the ideas to their own companies and enter the profit zone. TopBooks on Change & Change Management TopChampions of Change: How CEOs and Their Companies Are Mastering the Kills of Radical Change. by David A. Nadler, San Francisco: Josey-Bass Publishers, 1998. An excellent book which not only addresses the essential role of the CEO and leaders at the top in ensuring the effectiveness of the change process, this book truly spells out what a change process involves. It can be most contributory to internal change leaders to understand what to expect and how to plan and implement successful change. TopThe Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail by Clayton M. Christensen, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1997 Here is a challenge! This is a tightly written book dealing with a highly complex issue. the premise is that great companies can fail because they do everything right. How radical an idea for we have always been told that id we do it right we will succeed - we will be okay! Not necessarily so, says the author, and goes on to demonstrate how disruptive innovations can truly be ignored because we are so attuned to our customers who want us to keep focused on what we are delivering them. As we said, this is a challenging book - while focusing on the customer is essential for short-term success, longer-term success may require a different managerial approach. You might want to give it a try and see what you think. TopBooks on Organization Design TopThe Horizontal Organization: What the Organization of the Future Looks Like and How It Delivers Value to Customers by Frank Ostroff, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Frank Ostroff is considered the key developer of the horizontal organization. The horizontal organization contrasts the more machine type hierarchical organization, which was one of the keys to the Industrial Revolution. This publication is an excellent inside view of the theory and the practice, including information about the effect of such an organization on the customer. The presentation of how Ford Motor Company's Customer Service Division transformed itself is most impressive, as well as the transformation of OSHA. The move from a more bureaucratic enforcer of regulations to a productive problem solving and collaborative organization created quite a different outcome for OSHA. We strongly recommend this book for the horizontal organization has greater promise for the future than our previously cherished hierarchical structures. TopBooks on Diversity TopWhy So Slow: The Advancement of Women by Virginia Valian, Boston: MIT Press. 1998 This books looks at issues related to the slowness of women's advancement in organizations. Virginia Valian examines what she calls "gender schema" or our underlying assumptions about gender differences and their implication. She looks at how even small differences in behaviors and perceptions tend to accumulate advantages for men and disadvantages for women. She then looks at the consequences of gender schema as those relate to professional life. Books on Social Capital and Connectedness Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. Once we bowled in leagues, usually after work -- but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolizes a significant social change that Robert Putnam has identified in this brilliant volume, Bowling Alone, which The Economist hailed as "a prodigious achievement." Top |
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