"The way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Deep inside, we sense that more is possible. We long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose. In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time, in the past, when humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness, it has achieved extraordinary breakthroughs in collaboration. A new shift in consciousness is currently underway. Could it help us invent a more soulful and purposeful way to run our businesses and nonprofits, schools and hospitals? A few pioneers have already cracked the code and they show us, in practical detail, how it can be done. Leaders, founders, coaches, and consultants will find this work a joyful handbook, full of insights, examples, and inspiring stories."--Page [4] of cover.
“This is the management book of the year. Clear, powerful and urgent, it's a must read for anyone who cares about where they work and how they work.” —Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing “This book is a breath of fresh air. Read it now, and make sure your boss does too.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg When fast-scaling startups and global organizations get stuck, they call Aaron Dignan. In this book, he reveals his proven approach for eliminating red tape, dissolving bureaucracy, and doing the best work of your life. He’s found that nearly everyone, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, points to the same frustrations: lack of trust, bottlenecks in decision making, siloed functions and teams, meeting and email overload, tiresome budgeting, short-term thinking, and more. Is there any hope for a solution? Haven’t countless business gurus promised the answer, yet changed almost nothing about the way we work? That’s because we fail to recognize that organizations aren’t machines to be predicted and controlled. They’re complex human systems full of potential waiting to be released. Dignan says you can’t fix a team, department, or organization by tinkering around the edges. Over the years, he has helped his clients completely reinvent their operating systems—the fundamental principles and practices that shape their culture—with extraordinary success. Imagine a bank that abandoned traditional budgeting, only to outperform its competition for decades. An appliance manufacturer that divided itself into 2,000 autonomous teams, resulting not in chaos but rapid growth. A healthcare provider with an HQ of just 50 people supporting over 14,000 people in the field—that is named the “best place to work” year after year. And even a team that saved $3 million per year by cancelling one monthly meeting. Their stories may sound improbable, but in Brave New Work you’ll learn exactly how they and other organizations are inventing a smarter, healthier, and more effective way to work. Not through top down mandates, but through a groundswell of autonomy, trust, and transparency. Whether you lead a team of ten or ten thousand, improving your operating system is the single most powerful thing you can do. The only question is, are you ready?
“Examples from all over the world make it fun to read…convincingly demonstrate[s] the power of incorporating frontline thinking into your organization.” —Marshall Goldsmith, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Triggers Too many organizations overlook, or even suppress, their single most powerful source of growth and innovation—and it’s right under their noses. The frontline employees who interact directly with your customers, make your products, and provide your services have unparalleled insights into where problems exist and what improvements and new offerings would have the most impact. In this follow-up to their bestseller Ideas Are Free, Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder show how to align every part of an organization around generating and implementing employee ideas and offer dozens of examples of what a tremendous competitive advantage this can offer—not just for revenue but for worker retention. Their advice enables leaders to build organizations capable of implementing twenty, fifty, or even a hundred ideas per employee per year. Citing organizations from around the world, they explain what’s needed to put together a management team that embraces grassroots ideas and describe the strategies, policies, and practices that enable them. They detail exactly how high-performing idea processes work and how to design one for your organization. There’s pressure today to do more with less. But cutting wages and benefits and pushing people to work harder with fewer resources can go only so far. Ironically, the best solution resides with the very people who’ve been bearing the brunt of these measures. With this book, you can unleash a constant stream of great ideas that will strengthen every facet of your organization.
Holacracy is a revolutionary management system that redefines management and turns everyone into a leader. Holacracy distributes authority and decision-making throughout an organization, and defines people not by hierarchy and titles, but by roles. Holacracy creates organizations that are fast, agile, and that succeed by pursuing their purpose, not following a dated and artificial plan. This isn't anarchy – it's quite the opposite. When you start to follow Holacracy, you learn to create new structures and ways of making decisions that empower the people who know the most about the work you do: your frontline colleagues. Some of the many champions of Holacracy include Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos (author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Delivering Happiness), Evan Williams (co-founder of Blogger, Twitter, and Medium), and David Allen.
* Our summary is short, simple and pragmatic. It allows you to have the essential ideas of a big book in less than 30 minutes. By reading this summary, you will learn how a new conception of the company makes it possible to reconcile work with the deepest aspirations of each individual. You will also learn that : each advance in the history of mankind has been accompanied by a certain conception of management; the majority of employees have no interest other than financial interest in their jobs; a new business model is in the process of reconciling salaried work with the aspirations of individuals; the company is becoming a living organism, responsive to all internal and external signals from the market and society; this model is based on the autonomy of teams and the conviction that each employee must be fully himself/herself in order to bring added value to the company. There is a consensus that a company can only succeed if it is led by a hierarchy that decides its strategy and organizes its operations. But this model is running out of steam: work is no longer perceived as fulfilling and the current model of growth and over-consumption is depleting the planet's resources. A new organizational model is emerging that is more fulfilling, more productive and more harmonious. It is based on the collective intelligence and accomplishment of each individual through his or her work. *Buy now the summary of this book for the modest price of a cup of coffee!
MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION THEORY Management and Organization Theory offers a summary and analysis of the 40 most popular, researched, and applied management and organization theories. This important resource includes key instruments used to measure variables in each theory and examines pertinent questions about the theory: strengths and weaknesses, practical applications, and the seminal articles published on each theory. "This is a remarkable book. Jeffrey Miles clearly explains and synthesizes 40 major theories of management and organization in an easily accessible and engaging style. Well researched, comprehensive in its coverage, thorough, balanced, and fair in its analyses of theories, the book is destined to be a major authoritative reference in the field. It is one of the most readable, informative, and useful books I have read. I strongly recommend it." Shaker A. Zahra, department chair, Robert E. Buuck Chair, and professor, Strategic Management and Organizations Department, University of Minnesota "This book provides a terrific advantage to any student or manager seeking to grasp the fundamental concepts that explain organizations and the behavior of people within them." Richard L. Daft, author, The Executive and the Elephant: A Leader's Guide to Building Inner Excellence; and the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Professor of Management, Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University "An easy-to-read summary of some of the most critical theories in the field of management theories that have implications not just for scholars, but for practicing managers as well." Jay Barney, professor of management and human resources, and Chase Chair for Excellence in Corporate Strategy, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University
The pressure on CEOs and other leaders to create results, while balancing an increasing diversity of opposing demands, is reaching oppressive levels. Leaders sense a breakdown to our existing approaches to business. The framework that was used to guide their efforts and create successful outcomes no longer produce the same results. The Living Organization® delivers a new model that transforms the best of what worked before and expands it to deliver new life and growth for organizations. First and foremost, The Living Organization deepens our understanding of how any living organization creates the results it desires. Norman Wolfe draws on decades of experience both leading and consulting with organizations, large and small, to unravel the mystery of creating results Based on scientific, philosophical and spiritual truths, The Living Organization model explores how three distinct yet highly interdependent fields of energy influence and determine what results will and will not be created. Beyond just a new theory, Norman Wolfe provides practical tools for aligning and focusing the organization on strategy execution. Building on decades of learning about organization effectiveness and execution management, The Living Organization expands our frameworks for allocating resources and making decisions that will reap the desired results. Most organizations fail because they focus only on activities and reduce organizations to simple machines of production. But machines are, by their very nature, soulless and everything the machine paradigm touches turns soulless and lifeless. By contrast, The Living Organization brings life to an organization's activity. It is energized by relationships and brings meaning and purpose to activities. The Living Organization is a creative force and is in harmony with its environment,growing and developing as it contributes to and enhances all members of its ecosystem. "Like all living systems, organizations create by transforming energy. The magic of companies like Apple, Whole Foods, Harley Davidson, Nordstrom," Wolfe writes,"lies in their ability to harness the three energy fields of manifestation whether done consciously or unconsciously." The Living Organization presents the foundation of a new business model that provides a more detailed map to navigate the complex business world of this century. This evolutionary perspective is afresh way to understand how organizations develop, grow and evolve. It will challenge the way you think and interact. The guiding principles and theories can direct the largest of corporations or the entrepreneurial startup in getting the results they want. Deeply personal, brimming with compelling stories from real-life challenges, and packed with powerful insights, tools, and practices, this book is a potent resource for aspiring, emerging, and seasoned business leaders alike. Or anyone interested in creating the results they desire.
A Radical New Model for Unleashing Your Company’s Potential In most organizations nearly everyone is doing a second job no one is paying them for—namely, covering their weaknesses, trying to look their best, and managing other people’s impressions of them. There may be no greater waste of a company’s resources. The ultimate cost: neither the organization nor its people are able to realize their full potential. What if a company did everything in its power to create a culture in which everyone—not just select “high potentials”—could overcome their own internal barriers to change and use errors and vulnerabilities as prime opportunities for personal and company growth? Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey (and their collaborators) have found and studied such companies—Deliberately Developmental Organizations. A DDO is organized around the simple but radical conviction that organizations will best prosper when they are more deeply aligned with people’s strongest motive, which is to grow. This means going beyond consigning “people development” to high-potential programs, executive coaching, or once-a-year off-sites. It means fashioning an organizational culture in which support of people’s development is woven into the daily fabric of working life and the company’s regular operations, daily routines, and conversations. An Everyone Culture dives deep into the worlds of three leading companies that embody this breakthrough approach. It reveals the design principles, concrete practices, and underlying science at the heart of DDOs—from their disciplined approach to giving feedback, to how they use meetings, to the distinctive way that managers and leaders define their roles. The authors then show readers how to build this developmental culture in their own organizations. This book demonstrates a whole new way of being at work. It suggests that the culture you create is your strategy—and that the key to success is developing everyone.
