Authors: John P. Kotter.
Hardcover, 128 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2008-09-03
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Most organizational change initiatives fail spectacularly (at worst) or deliver lukewarm results (at best). In his international bestseller Leading Change, John Kotter revealed why change is so hard, and provided an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations. The book became the change bible for managers worldwide.

Now, in Urgency, Kotter shines the spotlight on the crucial first step in his framework: creating a sense of urgency by getting people to actually see and feel the need for change.

Why focus on urgency? Without it, any change effort is doomed. Kotter reveals the insidious nature of complacency in all its forms and guises.

In this exciting new book, Kotter explains:

How to go beyond "the business case" for change to overcome the fear and anger that can suppress urgency

Ways to ensure that your actions and behaviors -- not just your words -- communicate the need for change

How to keep fanning the flames of urgency even after your transformation effort has scored some early successes

Written in Kotter's signature no-nonsense style, this concise and authoritative guide helps you set the stage for leading a successful transformation in your company....

Authors: Michael Watkins.
Hardcover, 208 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2003-09-18
Edition: 1

Reviews :

    Whether challenged with taking on a startup, turning a business around, or inheriting a high-performing unit, a new leader's success or failure is determined within the first 90 days on the job. In this hands-on guide, Michael Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions, offers proven strategies for moving successfully into a new role at any point in one's career. "The First 90 Days" provides a framework for transition acceleration that will help leaders diagnose their situations, craft winning transition strategies, and take charge quickly. Practical examples illustrate how to learn about new organizations, build teams, create coalitions, secure early wins, and lay the foundation for longer-term success. In addition, Watkins provides strategies for avoiding the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, and shows how individuals can protect themselves-emotionally as well as professionally-during what is often an intense and vulnerable period.Concise and actionable, this is the survival guide no new leader should be without. 'Few companies develop a systematic 'on-boarding' process for their new leaders, even though this is a critical function with major organizational implications. Michael Watkins' "The First 90 Days" provides a powerful framework and strategies that will enable new leaders to take charge quickly. It is an invaluable tool for that most vulnerable time-the transition' - Goli Darabi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Leadership & Succession Management, Fidelity Investments.'Every job - private - or public-sector, civilian or military - has its breakeven point, and everyone can accelerate their learning. Read this book at least twice: once before your next transition - before getting caught up in the whirl and blur of new faces, names, acronyms, and issues; then read it again after you've settled in, and consider how to accelerate transitions for your next new boss and for those who come to work for you' - Colonel Eli Alford, U.S. Army.'Watkins provides an excellent road map, telling us what all new leaders need to know and do to accelerate their learning and success in a new role. "The First 90 Days" should be incorporated into every company's leadership development strategy, so that anyone making a transition in an organization can get up to speed quicker and smarter' - Suzanne M. Danielle, Director of Global Leadership Development, Aventis. 'Michael Watkins has nailed a huge corporate problem and provided the solution in one fell swoop. The pressure on new leaders to hit the ground running has never been greater, and the likelihood and cost of failure is escalating. Watkins' timing with The First 90 Days is impeccable' - Gordon Curtis, Principal, Curtis Consulting.'"The First 90 Days" is a must-read for entrepreneurs. Anyone who's been the CEO of a start-up or early-stage company knows that you go through many 90-day leadership transitions in the course of a company's formative years. In this groundbreaking book, Michael Watkins provides crucial insights, as well as a toolkit of techniques, to enable you to accelerate through these transitions successfully' - Mike Kinkead, President and CEO, time BLASTER Corporation, serial entrepreneur, and Cofounder and Trustee, Massachusetts Software Council....

Authors: John P. Kotter.
Hardcover, 187 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 1996-01-15
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    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....

Authors: Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Jeff Cox.
Paperback, 384 pages
Publisher: North River Press
Publication Date: 2004-07
Edition: 3

Reviews :

    A fully dramatized version of the practical guide to business in fictional form offers an ensemble cast, accompanied by sound effects and music, that reveals how businesses can enhance productivity and provide personal fulfillment. Book available....

Authors: John P. Kotter. Dan S. Cohen.
Hardcover, 190 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2002-08-01
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    John Kotter's international bestseller "Leading Change", struck a powerful chord with legions of managers everywhere. It acknowledged the cynicism, pain, and fear they faced in implementing large-scale change - but also armed them with an eight-step plan of action for leaping boldly forward in a turbulent world. Now, Kotter and coauthor Dan S. Cohen delve deeper into the subject of change to get to the heart of how change actually happens. Through compelling, real-life stories from people in the trenches, in all kinds of organizations, the authors attack the fundamental problem that underlies every major transformation: How do you go beyond simply getting your message across to truly changing people's behavior?Based on interviews within over 100 organizations in the midst of large-scale change, "The Heart of Change" delivers the simple yet provocative answer to this question, forever altering the way organizations and individuals approach change. While most companies believe change happens by making people think differently, Kotter and Cohen say the key lies in making them feel differently. They introduce a new dynamic - "see-feel-change" - that fuels action by showing people potent reasons for change that spark their emotions. Organized around the revolutionary eight-step change process introduced in "Leading Change", this story-driven book shows how the best change leaders use not just reports or analysis, but gloves, video cameras, airplanes, office design, and other concrete elements to impel people toward positive action.The authors reveal how this appeal to the heart-over the mind - motivates people to overcome even daunting obstacles to change and produce breathtaking results. For individuals in every walk of life and companies in every stage of change, this compact, no-nonsense book captures the heart - and the how - of successful change. John P. Kotter, world-renowned expert on leadership at the Harvard Business School, is the author of many books, including the award-winning, best-selling" Leading Change". Dan S. Cohen is a Principal with Deloitte Consulting LLC....

    The Heart of Change is the follow-up to John Kotter's enormously popular book Leading Change, in which he outlines a framework for implementing change that sidesteps many of the pitfalls common to organizations looking to turn themselves around. The essence of Kotter's message is this: the reason so many change initiatives fail is that they rely too much on "data gathering, analysis, report writing, and presentations" instead of a more creative approach aimed at grabbing the "feelings that motivate useful action." In The Heart of Change, Kotter, with the help of Dan Cohen, a partner at Deloitte Consulting, shows how his eight-step approach has worked at over 100 organizations. In just about every case, change happened because the players were led to "see" and "feel" the change. In one example, a sales representative underscores a sense of urgency to change a manufacturing process by showing a videotaped interview with an unhappy customer; in another, a purchasing manager makes his point to senior management about corporate waste by displaying on the company's boardroom table the 424 different kinds of gloves that the company had procured through different vendors at vastly different prices. Well written and loaded with real-life examples and practical advice, The Heart of Change towers over other change-management titles. Managers and employees at organizations both big and small will find much to draw from. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards ...

Authors: William Bridges.
Paperback, 144 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Publication Date: 2003-05
Edition: 2nd

Reviews :

    ...

Authors: Lee G. Bolman. Terrence E. Deal.
Paperback, 544 pages
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Publication Date: 2008-08-18
Edition: 4

Reviews :

    First published in 1984, Lee Bolman and Terrence Deals best-selling book has become a classic in the field. Its four-frame model examines organizations as factories, families, jungles, and theaters or temples:

• The Structural Frame: how to organize and structure groups and teams to get results
• The Human Resource Frame: how to tailor organizations to satisfy human needs, improve human resource management, and build positive interpersonal and group dynamics
• The Political Frame: how to cope with power and conflict, build coalitions, hone political skills, and deal with internal and external politics
• The Symbolic Frame: how to shape a culture that gives purpose and meaning to work, stage organizational drama for internal and external audiences, and build team spirit through ritual, ceremony, and story

This new edition is filled with new case examples such as Hurricane Katrina and profiles of great leaders such as Mother Theresa, Thomas Keller, and others. In addition, the book updates the "Organizational Theory's Greatest Hits" text boxes throughout, and increases geographic, cultural and gender diversity in examples and text. It also features an enhanced online teacher's guide with a new test bank, as well as updated PowerPoint slides, teaching ideas and experiential activities, and links to resources....

    At a time when managers everywhere are seeking strong but sensible ways to reorient their companies for the coming millennium, a new edition of Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, by Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal, reintroduces the bestselling authors' clear and insightful approach to "big picture" management. Updated examples add to those previously drawn from business, education, health care, and the public sector to help today's leaders prepare more creatively for tomorrow's needs....

Authors: Judy Estrin.
Hardcover, 272 pages
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Publication Date: 2008-08-13
Edition: 1

Reviews :

   

Does innovation come about by luck or hard work? Is it a flash of inspiration or the result of careful management? Are innovators born or taught? In Closing the Innovation Gap, Judith Estrin provides the answers to these and other questions critical to our future. A technology pioneer and business leader, Estrin describes what will be required to reignite the spark of innovation in business, education, and government--ensuring our long-term success in the global economy.

Innovation does not occur in a vacuum. It grows from the interplay of three drivers of creative change--research, development, and application. Estrin calls this dynamic the “Innovation Ecosystem,” explaining how these communities work together to create sustainable innovation.

Closing the Innovation Gap covers:

• America's role as the primary driver of global innovation after World War II--explaining what worked, the subsequent decline, and how to regain traction
• The fundamentals required to nurture innovation, including five simple but important values for transforming your organization into a force for productive change
• How you can ensure that your business benefits from a thriving “Innovation Ecosystem”
• Examples from both established companies, start-ups, and research labs that illustrate the power of innovation in providing a decisive business advantage and foundation for growth

Leaders in business and public service “must think beyond short-term financial results and understand the impact of globalization and an accelerated pace of change on future economic growth,” says Estrin. With Closing the Innovation Gap as your guide, business leaders will gain key insights into identifying their needs, asking the right questions, testing new ideas, and successfully leading their organization to the frontiers of twenty-first-century innovation.

...

Authors: Dan S. Cohen.
Paperback, 160 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press
Publication Date: 2005-11-09


Reviews :

    The practical implementation guide to John Kotter's revolutionary 8-step change process and the "See-Feel-Change" approach as introduced in "Leading Change" and "The Heart of Change". John Kotter's change bible "Leading Change" has sold nearly 490,000 copies since publication in 1996 and "The Heart of Change", co-written with Dan Cohen, has sold nearly 125,000 copies. Now, Dan Cohen delivers a highly practical, hands-on complement to both of these books in "The Heart of Change Field Guide". Filled with practical tools, checklists and advice, this book will guide leaders and managers step-by-step through real change programs within their organisations....

Authors: Tom Kelley. Jonathan Littman. Tom Peters. Tom Peters.
Hardcover, 320 pages
Publisher: Doubleday Business
Publication Date: 2001-01-16


Reviews :

    IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation.

There isn't a business in America that doesn't want to be more creative in its thinking, products, and processes. At many companies, being first with a concept and first to market are critical just to survive. In The Art of Innovation, Tom Kelley, general manager of the Silicon Valley based design firm IDEO, takes readers behind the scenes of this wildly imaginative and energized company to reveal the strategies and secrets it uses to turn out hit after hit.

IDEO doesn't buy into the myth of the lone genius working away in isolation, waiting for great ideas to strike. Kelley believes everyone can be creative, and the goal at his firm is to tap into that wellspring of creativity in order to make innovation a way of life. How does it do that? IDEO fosters an atmosphere conducive to freely expressing ideas, breaking the rules, and freeing people to design their own work environments. IDEO's focus on teamwork generates countless breakthroughs, fueled by the constant give-and-take among people ready to share ideas and reap the benefits of the group process. IDEO has created an intense, quick-turnaround, brainstorm-and-build process dubbed "the Deep Dive."

In entertaining anecdotes, Kelley illustrates some of his firm's own successes (and joyful failures), as well as pioneering efforts at other leading companies. The book reveals how teams research and immerse themselves in every possible aspect of a new product or service, examining it from the perspective of clients, consumers, and other critical audiences.

Kelley takes the reader through the IDEO problem-solving method:

> Carefully observing the behavior or "anthropology" of the people who will be using a product or service

> Brainstorming with high-energy sessions focused on tangible results

> Quickly prototyping ideas and designs at every step of the way

> Cross-pollinating to find solutions from other fields

> Taking risks, and failing your way to success

> Building a "Greenhouse" for innovation

IDEO has won more awards in the last ten years than any other firm of its kind, and a full half-hour Nightline presentation of its creative process received one of the show's highest ratings. The Art of Innovation will provide business leaders with the insights and tools they need to make their companies the leading-edge, top-rated stars of their industries....

    IDEO, the world's leading design firm, is the brain trust that's behind some of the more brilliant innovations of the past 20 years--from the Apple mouse, the Polaroid i-Zone instant camera, and the Palm V to the "fat" toothbrush for kids and a self-sealing water bottle for dirt bikers. Not surprisingly, companies all over the world have long wondered what they could learn from IDEO, to come up with better ideas for their own products, services, and operations. In this terrific book from IDEO general manager Tom Kelley (brother of founder David Kelley), IDEO finally delivers--but thankfully not in the step-by-step, flow-chart-filled "process speak" of most how-you-can-do-what-we-do business books. Sure, there are some good bulleted lists to be found here--such as the secrets of successful brainstorming, the qualities of "hot teams," and, toward the end, 10 key ingredients for "How to Create Great Products and Services," including "One Click Is Better Than Two" (the simpler, the better) and "Goof Proof" (no bugs).

But The Art of Innovation really teaches indirectly (not to mention enlightens and entertains) by telling great stories--mainly, of how the best ideas for creating or improving products or processes come not from laboriously organized focus groups, but from keen observations of how regular people work and play on a daily basis. On nearly every page, we learn the backstories of some now-well-established consumer goods, from recent inventions like the Palm Pilot and the in-car beverage holder to things we nearly take for granted--like Ivory soap (created when a P&G worker went to lunch without turning off his soap mixer, and returned to discover his batch overwhipped into 99.44 percent buoyancy) and Kleenex, which transcended its original purpose as a cosmetics remover when people started using the soft paper to wipe and blow their noses. Best of all, Kelley opens wide the doors to IDEO's vibrant, sometimes wacky office environment, and takes us on a vivid tour of how staffers tackle a design challenge: they start not with their ideas of what a new product should offer, but with the existing gaps of need, convenience, and pleasure with which people live on a daily basis, and that IDEO should fill. (Hence, a one-piece children's fishing rod that spares fathers the embarrassment of not knowing how to teach their kids to fish, or Crest toothpaste tubes that don't "gunk up" at the mouth.)

Granted, some of their ideas--like the crucial process of "prototyping," or incorporating dummy drafts of the actual product into the planning, to work out bugs as you go--lend themselves more easily to the making of actual things than to the more common organizational challenge of streamlining services or operations. But, if this big book of bright ideas doesn't get you thinking of how to build a better mousetrap for everything from your whole business process to your personal filing system, you probably deserve to be stuck with the mousetrap you already have. --Timothy Murphy...