Helps readers find-quickly and easily-what they need for their specific situations
Customer Reviews:
Building a coalition? Read this book first.......2007-06-24
In 2004 a group of 100+ nonprofit, business, and government entities in Rhode Island began collaborating on one goal: to get thousands of new affordable housing units publicly funded and built. It was a long shot at best. Yet, in 2006, the HousingWorks RI (HWRI) coalition could claim a major victory when voters overwhelmingly approved a $50 million bond for affordable housing. A post-game analysis of the HWRI success story discovered that, by accident or design, the coalition, in building itself, had followed every best practice set out in Mr. Chrislip's practical, balanced, authoritative Fieldbook. If you're attempting to move mountains using a civic coalition, skip the trial-and-error phase and read this book before you start.
The best book on collaboration.......2002-12-10
This book will be the standard for all other books about collaboration to measure themselves. Mr. Chrislip is among the best facilitators of collaborative processes anywhere. The author is also a skilled teacher and is able to convey both his knowledge and lessons of experience in this book. Clearly written, this book is well balanced between intellectual knowledge and practical experience. A step-by-step pathway is presented as well as specific examples of successful collaborations. Anyone interested or involved in collaboration in the public or private sector will benefit from this book. Facilitators of collaborative efforts will find themselves pulling this book off the shelf often as a useful guide and reference.
Book Description
Driven by rapidly changing business environments and increasingly demanding consumers, many organizations are searching for new ways to achieve and retain a competitive advantage via customer intimacy and CRM. In this context, new strategic frameworks and cooperation with everybody along the whole value chain are needed to allow managers to deal with the changes in shopping patterns of consumers. This book presents a new strategic framework that has been tested successfully with various global companies. New management concepts such as Collaborative Forecasting and Replenishment, CRM, Category Management, and Mass Customization are integrated into one holistic approach with a view to jointly develop customer bonding and loyalty. Experts from companies like McKinsey, Procter&Gamble, Accenture, and AC Nielsen, as well as authors from renowned academic institutions, offer valuable insights on how to redesign organizations for the future.
Customer Reviews:
A must read!!!.......2004-02-27
Read this book if you wish to know how collaboration based partnership concepts like CPFR, ECR, CCRM etc will rule management approaches. This is the way forward....
Harvard Editors Are Taking CRM To a New Level.......2003-11-04
Great Book, great value. It really seems Harvard is catching up with Wharton, Kellog and other marketing champions in the academic area. This book is outstanding; it links theory and business life nicely - the case studies do their work...You can read about the newest developments in the CRM field (mass customization, collaborative customer relationship management and category management, VMI and CPFR) and you understand how to boost your business. Just do the things the other companies displayed in the book did...
I really recommend this book!
Book Description
Mining Group Gold is a book on leadership. It explores the process of managing people and ideas to achieve a high level of results in a complex, turbulent global economy. This book is a practical, easy to use guide to building and maintaining collaboration within and across teams.
Includes:
- Five steps for planning and conducting a successful group session
- Suggestions for dealing with feelings and emotions, as well as conflict and confusion, during a session
Options for enhancing the productivity of the middle of a meeting
Customer Reviews:
Golden Ideas for Mining Gold from Your Groups.......2006-10-23
This is really as much a book about effective leadership and management as it is about group facilitation. Solidly grounded in the author's experience at Xerox, it teaches everything needed to make your group sessions far more effective than it currently is. It also includes guidesheets, tables and surveys that you will find useful in planning, facilitating and evaluating your sessions.
Mining Group Gold.......2001-09-05
I read Tom Kayser's book in the early 1990's when it was originally written for Xerox. The new edition is a fine adaptation. The book has been immensely helpful to me as a facilitator. It gives great instructions to a new and experienced group leader.
Mr. Kayser understands group dynamics. By reading and more importantly, following his "recipes", you will find that meetings are both more efficient and effective.
Treasure Trove of Productivity.......1999-07-01
One of the most valuable lessons I learned in my brief time as a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center was that meetings need not be unending wastes of times. When I first noticed this and asked how it was possible that so much always seemed to get done, no mater who was involved, I was given a copy of the Tom Kayser book "Mining Group Gold".
What a wonderful and unexpected surprise reading it was! Although concrete steps are given to guide people into getting the most out of working together and, more important, thinking together, its basic value comes from the way it enables folks to remain themselves - only do a better job of it.
Since leaving Xerox three years ago to be a consultant for Microsoft, General Electric and Sun Microsystems, I've given numerous copies to new cohorts so as to make life easier and the flow of work more efficient for all.
Tap the Mother Lode of Collaborative Cranial Creativity.......1999-06-04
Thomas A. Kayser has set forth a systematic means for gaining the maximum benefit from meetings.
Starting with John Kenneth Gailbraith's infamous attribilious amphigory: "Meetings are vital to those who want to make sure nothing happens" Kayser leads the reader through the labyrinth of traditional meeting quagmires and enables everyone to profit from combining their brain power optimally.
In practical, no-nonsense terms, nothing is left to chance. Those who practice the lessons will reap the immediate and continued rewards from the old axiom of time being money!
most important book about making teams effective available.......1999-01-06
I have used what I learned by reading Mining Group Gold in a wide variety of consulting and operational settings over the past three years: with multi-functional teams in a medium sized data communications high technology company and a start-up software development company, with the board of directors of a subsidized housing agency, with teachers and administrators at a primary school, with groups of principals responsible for implementing new curriculum in their schools, and with senior administrators at a leading geriatric care facility.
I speak from experience, then, in stating that Mining Group Gold is straight-forward, intuitively sound technology which can have profound effect on the style of facilitators in carrying out their difficult roles, and on ALL members of a team, a work group, (or even a board of directors!) to increase their sense of ownership, and their commitment to outcomes.
It's an easy read, and I recommend it as the best available resource in my experience for creating and continually improving meeting effectiveness.
Amazon.com
If you discovered this book--or anything else Amazon.com's technology suggested based on your expressed preferences and past actions on the site--you've seen how so-called recommender technology can point you toward products you are most likely to appreciate. Word of Mouse, by John Riedl and Joseph Konstan, provides excellent advice on using such systems to personalize business offerings and improve their chances of acceptance by a demanding public. Riedl and Konstan, who helped invent the software involved and now work on its integration with companies like Best Buy and J.C. Penney, present eight principles to guide 21st-century enterprises in gathering and employing the kind of knowledge small merchants used in years past to suggest appropriate purchases to specific customers. Citing real corporate examples to illustrate correct and incorrect ways to use such data, the authors show how to harness the information customers provide with "every click and comment" in order to "gain their trust and keep their business." After an overview of the technology, they detail rules like Demonstrate Product Expertise (explaining, for example, how Wine.com helps customers make informed decisions and Godiva.com makes online chocolate shopping more enjoyable) and Watch What I Do (explaining how customer actions have been effectively interpreted by Google, which ranks its search results accordingly, and by PHOAKS, which subsequently began screening ads from newsgroup postings). A concluding chapter on future scenarios reinforces the importance of the book's message. --Howard Rothman
Book Description
If you discovered this book--or anything else Amazon.com's technology suggested based on your expressed preferences and past actions on the site--you've seen how so-called recommender technology can point you toward products you are most likely to appreciate. Word of Mouse, by John Riedl and Joseph Konstan, provides excellent advice on using such systems to personalize business offerings and improve their chances of acceptance by a demanding public. Riedl and Konstan, who helped invent the software involved and now work on its integration with companies like Best Buy and J.C. Penney, present eight principles to guide 21st-century enterprises in gathering and employing the kind of knowledge small merchants used in years past to suggest appropriate purchases to specific customers. Citing real corporate examples to illustrate correct and incorrect ways to use such data, the authors show how to harness the information customers provide with "every click and comment" in order to "gain their trust and keep their business." After an overview of the technology, they detail rules like Demonstrate Product Expertise (explaining, for example, how Wine.com helps customers make informed decisions and Godiva.com makes online chocolate shopping more enjoyable) and Watch What I Do (explaining how customer actions have been effectively interpreted by Google, which ranks its search results accordingly, and by PHOAKS, which subsequently began screening ads from newsgroup postings). A concluding chapter on future scenarios reinforces the importance of the book's message. --Howard Rothman
Download Description
Dot coms will come and dot coms will go, but one thing is for sure: technology and the Internet have forever changed the way we communicate and do business. Two computer scientists from Minnesota are at the vanguard of the revolution. Their creation is collaborative filtering, and it's turning out to be an incredibly subtle and effective tool for every company that uses it. To test CF, John Riedl and Joseph Konstan built two online companies: GroupLens and MovieLens. These Internet sites allowed users to customize their preferences for movies and news. The results were astounding: MovieLens could recommend a movie with 90% accuracy, almost insuring that the recommendation would prove enjoyable. And the potential application for other companies is amazing-anyone from Land's End to Clinique can use CF to build customer profiles and sell products, goods, and services to consumers. The authors analyze dozens of brick and mortar and Internet companies including Kraft, Zagat, Expedia, and Wine.com, examining what these companies are doing right-and what they're doing wrong. They then map out a broad range of strategies that any company can employ to raise revenue and customer loyalty and satisfaction. WORD OF MOUSE will be the first book to bring collaborative filtering to the business community.
Book Description
Collaboration is often viewed as a one-time or project-oriented activity. An increasing challenge is to help organizations incorporate collaborative values and practices in their everyday ways of working. In Creating a Culture of Collaboration, an international group of practitioners and researchers–from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and the United States–provide proven approaches to creating a culture of collaboration within and among groups, organizations, communities, and societies.
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- Success through suppliers
- A Masterpiece
- Highly Recomended!
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Collaborative Advantage: Winning through Extended Enterprise Supplier Networks
Jeffrey H. Dyer
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Women and Men Communicating: Challenges and Changes
ASIN: 0195130685 |
Book Description
Why has Chrysler been twice as profitable as GM and Ford during the 1990s even though it is a much smaller company with plants that are less efficient than Ford's? Why does Toyota continue to have substantial productivity and quality advantages long after knowledge of the Toyota Production System has diffused to competitors? The answer, according to Jeff Dyer, is that Toyota and Chrysler have been the first in their industry to recognize that the fundamental unit of competition has changed--from the individual firm to the extended enterprise. In this book Dyer demonstrates the power of collaborative advantage, arguing that, in the future, competitive advantage will increasingly be created by teams of companies, rather than by the single firm. Managers who do not recognize this development--regardless of their industry--are in danger of adopting the wrong strategies for their firms. Dyer draws on eight years of study of the automotive industry, including a wealth of data from interviews with over 200 executives and surveys of over 500 suppliers, as he offers detailed case studies of Toyota and Chrysler to show managers how to create collaborative advantage with their supplier networks. Dyer demonstrates how to build trust in the extended enterprise, how to exploit and manage knowledge (describing how Toyota manages knowledge across organizational boundaries), and how to create advantages through dedicated asset investments. In turn, these processes generate stunning performance advantages and an identity for the extended enterprise. To be successful in future years, executives will have to convert their corporations into fully integrated, extended enterprises. In Collaborative Advantage, Jeff Dyer shows them how.
Customer Reviews:
Success through suppliers.......2003-01-17
The pursuit of knowledge that gives us an understanding of factors that determine success in the market place has always considered "the firm" as the unit of analysis. This has been the case with microeconomics, game theory, competitive strategy and many such specialized areas of research. Cartels that manipulate supply and prices are perhaps an exception to this rule. If, instead of considering the firm as the unit, we consider a group of firms teaming together to collectively provide value to the customer and succeed as a unique identity as a unit of analysis, the methodology to understand competition would undergo a paradigm shift. This book is precisely about this concept as applicable to the automobile industry.
In the early half of the last century it was possible to go to the countryside for a picnic in a Ford Model T car, disassemble and reassemble it with a simple wrench and drive back home in the evening. Today we need computers to diagnose even a simple problem under the hood of cars tailor made to suit individual needs. Given the increase in complexity, explosion of technology and customer preferences, it is impossible for a single firm to ever think of manufacturing even half the components. (River Rouge will be remembered in history as the most ambitious plan of an automotive giant to make all parts of the automobile - including steel and timber from within the company. At best a fairy tale for kids of the twenty first century!).
This book is the summary of an excellent research study of the automobile industry in the 1990's with focus on Toyota and Chrysler. These companies have significantly different "governance structure" (the proportion of parts made in-house, procured from partner firms, and from arms'-length suppliers) from their competitors- GM and Ford. The firms that have a higher proportion of parts that are bought from partner suppliers have a clear edge over competitors that use arm's-length suppliers for the same parts. Extensive data has been collected, analyzed and tested to substantiate the statements made in the text.
Three characteristics that distinguish between partner suppliers from arm's length suppliers- Dedicated asset investments, Knowledge sharing routines and Inter-firm trust form the virtuous triangle that make these partnerships succeed. The results of such partnerships show clearly in tangible terms - Higher profitability per vehicle, better quality, faster time to market, and more new models for customers; the key parameters that enable Toyota and Chrysler to drive at top speed. "It 's not the big that eat the small but it's the fast that eat the slow".
Taking lessons from Toyota, Chrysler adopts concrete programs to consolidate its suppliers, integrate and partner with them to deliver higher value at lower cost to the customer.
Though this research is restricted to the automobile industry, the fundamental principles of "extended enterprise" can be extended across industries.
Highly recommended for all managers and a must read for those working in procurement processes. Next time your supplier drops in, think of this book and start a new relationship.
A Masterpiece.......2001-04-07
Having followed Dyer's other research, I think that this is a theoretically elegant piece of work. He builds further on his pieces in SMJ (with Singh from Wharton) and AMR and illustrates the concepts of relationship-based assets in firm networks. The running exemplar has he uses (Toyota) illustrates his theoretical arguments quite elonquently. The book also highlights the limitations of his concept of collaborative advantage, and his closing chapter illustrates how cultural differences (here with Benz) can keep this strategy from becoming reality. This book is not for folks looking for cut-out recipies. This book is a MUST for researchers and managers who like to think instead of searching for cookbooks! The concluding chapter is a gem because it highlights our gaps in knowledge. This is an excellent book, and having read Dyer's other works, it's high quality comes as very little surprise. Buy, own, read, reread, and profusely highlight your own copy! VERY highly recommended.
Highly Recomended!.......2001-03-23
Jeffrey Dyer, an accomplished scholar and management teacher, has developed a cogent and sophisticated theory of extended enterprise management based on a wealth of empirical data from the history of Toyota in Japan and from his six-year study of Chrysler Corp. before its merger with Daimler-Benz. Beyond being a detailed and rigorous case study of the automobile manufacturing industry, Dyer's book presents an extremely valuable model for vertical integration. His model can be applied to other complex product industries, though he is honest about the limits of its applicability. This book provides a clear, effective blueprint for achieving value-chain collaboration. We [...] recommend it to consultants, executives in complex product industries and leaders in firms that supply components or materials. If you always suspected you were part of a greater whole, now you can be sure.
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Collaborative Networked Organizations: A research agenda for emerging business models
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 1402078234 |
Book Description
The emerging paradigm of collaborative networked organizations (CNOs), or simply collaborative networks, represents a dynamic and multidisciplinary research and development area for which a number of research results are available from many international and national projects. A large number of practical application experiments and pilot cases also provide evidence on what works and what still remains as a challenge for CNOs. The fast evolution of information and communication technologies and in particular the so-called Internet technologies, also represents an important motivator for the emergence of new forms of collaboration. There is, however, an urgent need to start more consolidated and holistic research strategies to support proper developments in this area.
This book includes a comprehensive set of recommendations from the multi-disciplines involved in CNOs, towards the establishment of a research agenda for emerging collaborative networks. These recommendations are the result of a 30-month initiative, the THINK
creative project, involving more than 250 experts and visionaries from academia, research, and industry.
Collaborative Networked Organizations provides valuable elements for research strategy planners, decision-makers at research funding organizations, group leaders in research institutions, and heads of research departments in companies interested in research and innovative development activities in the area of e-business and collaborative networks. Furthermore, the book can also provide valuable direction to PhD advisors and PhD students to focus their research themes.
Customer Reviews:
Keeping cool in the demanding e-development world.......2006-10-24
If you're about to start a new software development project, it's worth reading this book first. It will help you make some sense of today's demands on you that software development should be fast and iterative while meeting ever-changing requirements. James Highsmith offers and explains concepts like "adaptive" and "emergent" and explains what to do with them in real life.
It's not a complete how-to book, though. While it has a lot of detail, be prepared to read it and discuss with your co-workers to figure out what part of the ideas you may be able to apply on your upcoming project.
"Rock climbing, Joel ! Rock climbing !".......2003-05-02
The quote is from Mystery Science Theater 3000, and is used to identify a movie scene so repetitious that it seems like torture. But it could also apply to this book. I've lost count of how many times Highsmith has padded his text with rock climbing metaphors. It's annoying and distracting and it adds only fluff. I've developed the practice of skipping the paragraph whenever Highsmith starts another inane mountaineering passage.
There is some meat in this book, but you've got to nibble around a whole lot of loess to get it.
Leadership and collaboration.......2003-03-31
"Adaptive Software Development" is a light, human-powered methodology for development of complex software systems. Unlike Extreme Programming, Adaptive Software Development is less disciplined and does not mandate individual techniques like On-Site Customer, Pair Programming or Automated Tests. It rather encourages adaptation, which depends on leadership and collaboration.
One of the vital components of Adaptive Software Development is clearly articulated Project Mission, Shared Vision and Clear Focus, and it is the responsibility of the whole team to create the mission and use it on a day-to-day basis as an alignment tool to keep the common direction.
I would also highly recommend "Agile Software Development" by Alistair Cockburn in addition to this book.
MustRead.......2003-03-16
Compelling case for Adaptive Software Development (ASD), an approach enabling successful completion of complex software development projects. Draws on the theory of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Explains using judicious analogies with mountain climbing. Assembles ideas from the author's own extensive experience and readings. Describes in some detail the ideas of other authors that have influenced ASD. Excellent annotated bibliography allows the reader to pursue further study in any of a number of different directions.
It's hard to express just how good this book is. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're interested in the currents of thought on software development variously labeled "extreme" or "agile," then I believe you will find Adaptive Software Development to be very near to their sources.
The author distinguishes a "complex" project from one that is merely "complicated." As one might well imagine, he would classify a project to develop the avionics software for the NASA space shuttle as complicated--but not complex: its goal is well defined and attainable by applying the stable laws of Newtonian physics. Development of an internet-based product for the consumer marketplace on the other hand is complex because one might expect almost anything to change during the course of such a project: target technology, competitive offerings, financing, marketing strategy, etc.
Complexity arises from moving fast in a continually changing environment.
Adaptive Software Development comprises
(1) Adaptive Conceptual Model--the theoretical foundation,
(2) Adaptive Development Model--a software development lifecycle for complex projects, and
(3) Adaptive Management Model--principles for managing complex projects.
(1) The Adaptive Conceptual Model proposes that a software development organization is a complex adaptive system like a marketplace or a flock of birds. According to the theory, CASs composed of independent agents acting for themselves without centralized control can under proper circumstances develop "emergent" capabilities exceeding the mere sum of the capabilities of the individual agents.
It is further proposed that only emergent capabilities are powerful enough to tame complexity. Software development organizations aspiring to do so must create the proper circumstances for the emergence of superior capabilities. The Development Model and the Management Model show the way.
(2) The Adaptive Development Model has three phases: Speculate, Collaborate, Learn. A typical project is expected to cycle through the phases several times. The output of each successive cycle converges on the final product of the project.
The beginning of each cycle is called "speculation" in preference to "planning" to reject the command-and-control philosophy that stifles emergence. ASD establishes a general direction, hypothesizes a product with a set of components, then puts the developers to work. Tasks are not specified in the ASD project plan--only the components to be completed by the end of the cycle.
Collaboration is the phase where development occurs. Under conditions of "diversity, rich relationships, unfettered information flow, and good leadership (p. 45)" collaboration can be the crucible of emergent capability. To foster this emergence, the project leader must keep the team "poised at the edge of chaos," imposing just enough rigor on the collaboration to keep it from spinning out of control. To impose any more rigor would stifle emergence. Borrowing from Ralph Stacey, Mr. Highsmith cites five dimensions for measuring how closely a project team approaches chaos. The goal is to structure collaboration so that it has just enough--but never too much--of each of the following:
1. Information Flow
2. Diversity
3. Rich Connectivity
4. Contained Anxiety
5. Power Differential.
Mr. Highsmith observes that adaptation, not optimization, is the key to success in a complex ecosystem. Software developers adapt by learning. ASD ends every cycle with specific collaborative learning activities including customer focus groups, technical reviews, post-mortems, etc. The adaptations resulting from the learning phase keep the output of subsequent cycles converging on a successful product.
(3) ASD gives to the project leader responsibility for establishing the conditions under which superior capabilities emerge from the collaboration of team members. This responsibility entails "the ability to help teams to understand the project's mission, to stand back and let the group struggle with mistakes, to encourage learning, to balance the need for flexibility and rigor, and to force decisions onto the group (pp. 209-210)."
To balance successfully between flexibility and rigor--poised at the edge of chaos--managers of complex projects must attend primarily to two structural elements: workstate and network.
ASD manages workSTATE in preference to workFLOW. Instead of monitoring the completion of tasks, the project leader tracks the completion of components. Tasks are not necessarily prescribed. Team members decide for themselves how to build the components. To scale up to large projects, workstate management defines explicit milestones for each component describing its degree of completion. Progress is tracked against these milestones.
The emergence of superior capability through collaboration depends on the communication network of the collaborators. For smaller, collocated teams with sufficient interpersonal skills, it will emerge informally. For larger teams, ASD prescribes a conscious effort to build it and to maintain it. The remote nodes of a virtual team are all too likely to fall into a state of insufficient interaction.
The collaboration network should provide team members just a little more information than they need, stopping just short of overload. Information clutter must be avoided. Content must not be provided without context (author, revision date, approval status, for example). The formal properties of the collaboration network must be identified and tuned to the needs of the complex project. A "collaboration service layer" of tools (mostly web-based) and practices must be installed. A new role, collaboration facilitator, extending the role of JAD facilitator, should be created to tend the collaboration network.
Is a software development organization really a complex adaptive system? No matter. Mr. Highsmith has ably used the theory of complex adaptive systems as a powerful metaphor for unifying many existing ideas about managing complex software development and for generating new ones--with at least as much validity as older theories have been applied in the past. Stimulating and refreshing. A must-read by any standard.
Solid theory behind the Agile movement.......2002-02-06
Highsmith postulates: "If the core of our belief system about managing organizations is rooted in the old science of deterministic Newtonian physics and survival-of-the-fittest Darwinian biology, then only a new science such as complex adaptive systems with an equally powerful philosophy and scientific foundation provides the credibility necessary for a major management cultural evolution."
He then persuasively uses the science and language of complex adaptive system theory to provide new conceptual models to guide complex software development projects. His presentation is refreshingly well thought out, synthesizing much of the best ideas in science and business management in the past decade to software development.
Highsmith succeeds is providing a theoretical basis for the Agile methodologies that are sprouting up everywhere (XP being the best known).
If you are looking for specific best practices of software development, look elsewhere. But if you want to understand the true nature of software development as well as principles in harnessing change as a competitive advantage, you will not find a better book. I couldn't recommend it any more strongly.
Book Description
With this innovative book, readers will discover how to effectively implement change initiatives by gaining a better understanding of both the behavioral and operational aspects of an organization. The new second edition continues to show them how, through Action-Learning Teams, they can accomplish tangible business objectives while creating superior workforce development within their organizations. New material integrated throughout the book will help them facilitate these teams in a virtual environment. It also clearly shows them how to design and deploy significant organizational initiatives and change processes.
Customer Reviews:
Putting the Crowbar Where it Counts.......2006-08-07
This book is great! The authors did a fantastic job. I'm going to be buying a few more...
There have been a lot of books published concerning teams and how to form them over the past decade, but this book, Leading Organizations from the Inside Out, goes a few steps further by providing specific tools and processes on how to create and utilize Action-Learning Teams (ALTs). These ALTs (as the book calls them) are teams formed to address important persistent problems or organizational challenges that a company may face. ALTs are based on "learning characterized by reflection in action"; or simply stated, they are internal teams chartered to focus and hone down a specific problem or process gap and then fix it. ALTs can do what most of us rarely do in our day-to-day efforts at work. They can helicopter above the canopy of the company's forest and get a clear picture by looking from the outside in as to what's wrong and what corrective actions will work. Whereas management may have a hunch as to the problem, the ALT deftly puts a finger on it. In our, quick time-to-market, immediate gratification world the ALT capability is a potent tool.
The book starts off slow so you have to be patient, but once you get past Chapter One, this book contains a great nest of resources. It has several effective tools (with some bonus tools in the Supplement) which any manager or team leader can use, and it connects the reader to further research and information. It has the right amount of effective information to create and run an Action-Learning Team. And good news! The Clue Train Manifesto stopped here since later chapters include how to execute an ALT from cyberspace and how to further knowledge worker development.
From my 19 years of personal experience in the corporate world participating on ALT-like teams, sponsoring ALT-like teams, and just being in the company population receiving the benefits of an ALT-like team, I can tell you that they are by far the fastest and most effective way to achieving a "break through" on difficult, persistent problems which a company may face. Especially in a marketplace where world competition is becoming exceedingly tough........ Action-Learning Teams might just make a difference between success and failure.
Real World Application.......2006-03-17
My name is Chris Gibbs (Chairman/CEO) of Diversified Investments & Development, LLC. of Knoxville, Tennessee. I consider myself a lifelong learner, as I am currently finishing a dissertation in relation to requirements for a Doctorate in Leadership from the University of Phoenix. I hold degrees in Finance, Masters of Business Administration, Masters in Banking, and Doctoral work in Economics from Lincoln Memorial University, East Tennessee State University, Louisiana State University, and Middle Tennessee State University, respectively.
My organization is involved in the food, lodging, and land development businesses. We had certain re-structuring goals to limit our involvement in day to day operations in the food and lodging businesses by using outside management and increase our land development inventory. Within only months of completing training with Bruce LaRue (one of the books Authors) and Richard Schuttler (Executive Coach and Consultant www.orgtroubleshooter.org) certain key organizational goals were reached early. With the material from this book and organizational training programs, my organization is thriving at a new profitability level, as well as employee and organizational value added systems continue to improve for all stakeholders.
Specific book comments:
1. How did you find out about the book? Through research in the area of Leading Organizations, I was attracted to this books content. Bruce LaRue, PhD is a colleague of Richard Schuttler, PhD, which is a professional Executive Coach that has consulted with me over the past couple of years. When I mentioned the book to Rich, he immediately reached out to Bruce and we entered into an agreement to utilize this book along with extensive works of Rich to transform my organization into a model of success that utilized its existing team and strengths. I will never forget the comment Rich made to me one day about the well known "corporate box," if you are thinking about thinking outside the box, you are still in the box. Therefore this book and training programs like Rich and Bruce present will allow the "Leader of the Future" to not confine their thought process to any box or obstacle."
2. The initial reading of the book presents the four basics to ALT (Action Learning Teams) and allows one to understand in the early reading of where their organization is today and what it will take to advance to a higher level of effectiveness and performance in the future.
3. A great suggestion is for the leader to play the role as coach and not BOSS. This is where Rich and Bruce developed the BUCKET concept that allowed everyone to assume responsibilities and each other member know who is responsible for what task within the organization. This supports the concept in the book on encouraging team members to focus on self improvement as they are accountable to the other team members in making sure their individual bucket is managed properly to benefit the overall organization. "This is like an old fire line where everyone is passing the buckets of water to put out a fire. If one person drops their bucket the fire can spread out of control. Therefore, proper management of the individual buckets maintains proper fire management without a fire ever arising, "Proactive Management." ALT's will make a difference if you understand how to make them work effectively.
4. An organizational leader and ALT "Coach" must truly commit to the Belief Model presented within the book. The advantage I had from the book material was the actual training program developed by Rich and Bruce, where I had to commit to making this reality before I could ever expect positive results. If the Coach cannot commit to taking a Belief to Potential to Action to Results than I question this leader's ability to be the Coach required for an effective ALT. I actually included all internal and external affiliate team leaders in the training process to make sure all areas and entities that affect my businesses were well informed of my organizations strategic plan and goals.
5. The PIP was completed at the end of the training and we found by our proactive implementation of this text material and consulting program that we were well on our way to achieving an organizational structure and performance level 1 year ahead of schedule.
6. Chapter 4 on Deployment should be arranged on a Cork Board in the Coaches office to read each morning, as a "Daily Devotional." Coaches/Leaders to often forget that by keeping there own skills focused and sharp, spill over to the actions and result of the ALT members.
7. The "Value Network" concept truly supported my personal philosophy of not deleting the most important life source of all organizations "PROFIT." An excellent Coach/Leader will be more effective with ALT teams and the process of strategic planning by honestly admitting we must make a profit, therefore their actions that support the material within this text will be more reality driven and not viewed as corporate fluff to keep morale at a moderate level of acceptance. Honesty is the first step in leading a successful organization.
8. Closing Comments: As we know and the book points out in Table format, today's business "Demands" are different from years past. This book is an excellent training tool for organizations at various levels including infancy, transitional businesses experiencing sales growth that could lead to dysfunctional performance without proper planning, and successful businesses that need to maintain and deal with everyday tumultuous situations. "A must read book for the true lifelong learner and concerned leader of the future." Also, follow-up with training to really experience the change and improvements you can experience through ALT implementation.
A little slow in coming but Great condition........2005-10-03
It must have been a hard book to find. Once I finally received it it was in great condtion. I have no complaints. I took off one star because it took so long.
A guidebook for team leaders.......2005-08-07
LaRue, Childs, and Larson provide an easy to read, less than 200 page book, that skillfully weaves Action Learning Teams (ALT) into knowledge management, creating knowledge based action learning teams. This is truly a hands-on guidebook with real world examples that clearly describe the stages and processes of implementing organizational change using ALTs. ALTs can shorten the time needed to effectively implement change initiatives in an organization by helping the practitioner understand both the behavioral and operational aspects of organizational change. ALTs will help ensure that the knowledge of the team is translated into action that makes a real difference for an organization.
The forward by Marshall Goldsmith prepares the reader for what is in store by asking the question; "Who are knowledge workers", and how does one tell them what to do when they may know more than their manager does. The process of Action Learning Teams taps into that knowledge to take the organization to the next level. This book has been adopted as part of the curriculum at the University of Phoenix in their Doctorate of Management second year leadership class. Don't let that concern you though if you don't think that is the level you are looking for, as the book is easy to read and follow. Major General Robert Ivany, recently retired President of the U.S. Army War College also provides a chapter that describes how Action Learning Teams played a vital role in fundamentally transforming the U.S. Army. Experiences from other organizations provide real world examples that can be immediately put to use.
The book integrates both behavioral and operational dimensions of team development within four key phases of the change process: Awareness, Design, Deployment, and Integration. I have already used many of these concepts in my work on a Change Management team government organization. I even gave a copy of the book to my boss.
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What Business Really Wants from IT: A Collaborative Guide for Business Directors and CIOs (Computer Weekly Professional)
Terry White
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CIO Survival Guide: The Roles and Responsibilities of the Chief Information Officer
ASIN: 0750660961 |
Book Description
Business expectations of their IT departments are simple: Deliver IT without fuss, get involved in achieving business results, and provide leadership. But while business emphasis is on business results and leadership, IT is focused on the technology.
How to get your IT Department to Add Real Value to Business presents a practical framework that defines the roles and activities for the CIO to meet business expectations. It introduces a new approach to IT in large organizations, which shifts the focus from day to day technological operations to three critical areas of performance for IT: IT management, business results and information leadership.
The concepts are simple and elegant but the implementation is increasingly demanding. However, these changes are essential if in-house IT functions are to survive and prosper in organizations.
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*CIOs will benefit from a radically changed perspective on how they can gain real alignment and add real value to their business
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