- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (10 Oct 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0230019919
- ISBN-13: 978-0230019911
- Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.6 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 693,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
'Bring together vast experience in managing organizational change, intelligent and critical reflection on how it works, thorough engagement with some exciting new perspectives on organizations, and a belief in the centrality of everyday conversation in organizations, and you will see why I'm excited by Chris Rodgers' s new book.' - David Sims,, Professor of Organizational Behaviour, Associate Dean and Director, Centre for Leadership, Learning and Change, Cass Business School
'Chris Rodgers has that rare quality, a deep and sympathetic understanding of human and organisational behaviour combined with an engineer's analytical nature. His personal insights from rapidly changing organisations have combined with these qualities to produce a book that I would recommend to any leader.' - Andy Duff, Group Chief Executive RWEnpower.
'This book puts structure around what I have been doing intuitively for the past 25 years. It legitimises the informal, conversational style that has served me so well throughout my career. Most importantly, it offers much needed insights into the mystery of why this seemingly disorganised way of managing can have such a powerful impact on organisational change and performance.' - Lord Tunnicliffe, CBE, Chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, past Managing Director of London Underground and Chairman of UK Atomic Energy Authority.
'High performance leadership requires a healthy mix of vision, challenge and support. Chris Rodgers's book offers an exciting new vision of organisational dynamics that highlights the powerful role played by everyday conversations in making change happen. It challenges many of the taken-for-granted assumptions about the leadership of change, and provides practical support in the form of a number of clear frameworks that our consultants and clients have found extremely useful.' - Adrian Moorhouse, MBE, Olympic Gold Medallist and Managing Director of Lane4 Management Group.
'Chris Rodgers's ideas provide for a much richer understanding of why and how change really happens, and more importantly how it can best be managed. I would strongly advocate all managers, not just those with Change in their job titles, to invest in understanding these ideas if they want to give themselves a much better chance of landing long term, sustainable improvements in their businesses.' - Guy Eccles, Board Director of Human Resources, Screwfix Direct, and former HR Director, B&Q
'I found this book very readable. It has the rare merit of being theoretically robust and of great practical value. I would recommend it to all managers whose experience tells them that much of the conventional wisdoms of management do not resonate with their lived reality, but have yet to find a writer who can articulate an alternative perspective, offering practical help which is accessible without being simplistic.' - Bill Critchley, Organisation Consultant and Director of the Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting.
'Informal coalitions will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners involved in understanding why change does, or does not, happen in organizations...In sum Informal coalitions is worth reading for insights into how organizational change can be encouraged.' - Undala Alam, International Affairs
'This is a really sensible guide for anyone interested in organisational development...I would recommend it highly to anyone looking to better understand the dynamics of organisational interaction...' - Terry Gibson, Organization and People
'Chris Rodgers has that rare quality, a deep and sympathetic understanding of human and organisational behaviour combined with an engineer's analytical nature. His personal insights from rapidly changing organisations have combined with these qualities to produce a book that I would recommend to any leader.' - Andy Duff, Group Chief Executive RWEnpower.
'This book puts structure around what I have been doing intuitively for the past 25 years. It legitimises the informal, conversational style that has served me so well throughout my career. Most importantly, it offers much needed insights into the mystery of why this seemingly disorganised way of managing can have such a powerful impact on organisational change and performance.' - Lord Tunnicliffe, CBE, Chairman of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, past Managing Director of London Underground and Chairman of UK Atomic Energy Authority.
'High performance leadership requires a healthy mix of vision, challenge and support. Chris Rodgers's book offers an exciting new vision of organisational dynamics that highlights the powerful role played by everyday conversations in making change happen. It challenges many of the taken-for-granted assumptions about the leadership of change, and provides practical support in the form of a number of clear frameworks that our consultants and clients have found extremely useful.' - Adrian Moorhouse, MBE, Olympic Gold Medallist and Managing Director of Lane4 Management Group.
'Chris Rodgers's ideas provide for a much richer understanding of why and how change really happens, and more importantly how it can best be managed. I would strongly advocate all managers, not just those with Change in their job titles, to invest in understanding these ideas if they want to give themselves a much better chance of landing long term, sustainable improvements in their businesses.' - Guy Eccles, Board Director of Human Resources, Screwfix Direct, and former HR Director, B&Q
'I found this book very readable. It has the rare merit of being theoretically robust and of great practical value. I would recommend it to all managers whose experience tells them that much of the conventional wisdoms of management do not resonate with their lived reality, but have yet to find a writer who can articulate an alternative perspective, offering practical help which is accessible without being simplistic.' - Bill Critchley, Organisation Consultant and Director of the Ashridge Masters in Organisation Consulting.
'Informal coalitions will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners involved in understanding why change does, or does not, happen in organizations...In sum Informal coalitions is worth reading for insights into how organizational change can be encouraged.' - Undala Alam, International Affairs
'This is a really sensible guide for anyone interested in organisational development...I would recommend it highly to anyone looking to better understand the dynamics of organisational interaction...' - Terry Gibson, Organization and People
Product Description
Around two-thirds of all change efforts fail to deliver the planned results. Informal Coalitions reveals that, by ignoring the hidden, messy and informal aspects of real-life organizations, formal change programmes inevitably contain the seeds of their own downfall. This challenging new book shows how change arises instead from informal interactions, joint sense making and political accommodations made by people who are trying to make a difference in the complex, uncertain and ambiguous conditions of everyday organizational life.
Uniquely, Informal Coalitions places everyday talk and role-modelling interactions at the forefront of an alternative change-leadership agenda. It also introduces a number of practical approaches to help line managers and organizational specialists to deliver this agenda more successfully. Along the way, the book sets out new, thought- provoking perspectives on critical aspects of organizational change and performance. These include leadership communication, cultural change, power and politics, coalition building, paradox and ambiguity, and organizational vision. This is essential reading for organizational practitioners at all levels, as well as for those who are interested in exploring the underlying dynamics of change.
Uniquely, Informal Coalitions places everyday talk and role-modelling interactions at the forefront of an alternative change-leadership agenda. It also introduces a number of practical approaches to help line managers and organizational specialists to deliver this agenda more successfully. Along the way, the book sets out new, thought- provoking perspectives on critical aspects of organizational change and performance. These include leadership communication, cultural change, power and politics, coalition building, paradox and ambiguity, and organizational vision. This is essential reading for organizational practitioners at all levels, as well as for those who are interested in exploring the underlying dynamics of change.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book describes the organisations that I know - full of people trying to get things done but constantly tripping over the hidden and messy forces that seem to get in the way. Other people might refer to these forces as the shadow side of organisations but Chris legitimises them. For example, he sees `acting politically' as a central element of effective leadership. Rather than shying away from power and politics he looks at how we can harness them to create positive change. He examines the psycho-social elements of culture showing how defensiveness, resistance and the need to survive infuse most organisational acts. Basing his insights on chaos theory, he shows how building relationships and generating conversations are the central ingredients for building trust, shifting mind sets and promoting change. Chris' book is empowering precisely because it looks at the negative elements of organisational life as inevitable but not insurmountable. He does not preach; he does not bemoan; but nor does he deny the reality of organisations. Instead, with great insight and depth of understanding he shows how we can enact positive and creative futures simply by building informal coalitions.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like the paradoxes of change that form much of its subject matter, this book is both accessible and intellectually challenging at the same time. It starts by laying out a way of understanding how change happens in organisations from a rational and a-rational perspective, and provides practical help for managers and consultants alike, on how to deal with both aspects. It does not shy away from the shadow-side of organisational life - politics, conflict, confusion, but asks you to embrace it instead. I particularly enjoyed the chapter 'acting politically' having been told all my life that 'being political' was bad!
I find myself coming back to it regularly to find clues about how to work with the messy, informal side of change. There are plenty of practical ways of doing so, including guidance on building effective coalitions!
I find myself coming back to it regularly to find clues about how to work with the messy, informal side of change. There are plenty of practical ways of doing so, including guidance on building effective coalitions!
Format:Hardcover
Anyone who has had experience on the inside when an organisation really transforms itself will immediately recognise Chris Rodgers brilliant and unique analysis. Too many developers shy away from organisational poltics, perhaps believing they are too morally superior to get their hands dirty, perhaps believing that understanding how the organisation 'ought' to be organised is enough. It isn't and Rodgers' book explains why, and why a large majority of Change Programmes fail.
The truth is that all organisations are inherently political, because there will always be competition for scarce resources between people who will exercise all forms of power at their disposal, including political power. Understanding the political processes within organisations and how they can harnessed by Change Agents through the creation of Informal Coalitions is essential for anyone who wishes to make a difference in any organisation. Rodgers' book offers us a new paradigm in organisation theory.
The truth is that all organisations are inherently political, because there will always be competition for scarce resources between people who will exercise all forms of power at their disposal, including political power. Understanding the political processes within organisations and how they can harnessed by Change Agents through the creation of Informal Coalitions is essential for anyone who wishes to make a difference in any organisation. Rodgers' book offers us a new paradigm in organisation theory.
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