- Hardcover: 140 pages
- Publisher: Davies-Black Publishing; 1 edition (31 May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0891061991
- ISBN-13: 978-0891061991
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 16 x 1.9 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,212,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
When we join an organization, we're immediately slotted into a hierarchy based on a rank-based system of "leaders" and "followers." We then make false assumptions about our place in these hierarchies that divide our efforts, limit our growth opportunities, and rob us of meaningful, dignified work. These assumptions are what Jeffrey Nielsen calls the "myth of leadership." In this manifesto, Nielsen calls for an end to "rank-based" organizational structures, which foster secrecy and miscommunication, and steal the joy from work, while breeding corruption and abuse of power. Nielsen's new model is the "peer-based" organization, which uses rotating peer leadership councils and cross-functional task forces to manage the organization's work. These new entities are better suited to make decisions based on the organization's competencies and customer needs, rather than on static functional groups or other artificial divisions. His experience with dozens of organizations showed that while workers are universally motivated to make their organizations profitable, artificial barriers consistently prevented them from reaching their potential. Real-world examples from contemporary peer-based organizations help make his point for creating leaderless organizations.
About the Author
Jeffrey S. Nielsen is an internationally recognized consultant whose firm, Intellectual Capital Development, helps individuals act strategically and think like business owners. Previously, he worked with the Franklin Covey Company and Right Management Consultants, an international outplacement and consulting firm.
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12 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
A Must Read For Organizational Consultants!
6 May 2004
Format:Hardcover
This book presents some profound ideas with world changing implications, and does it in an easy to read style that completely moved me! I will never view "leaders" or "leadership" as I once did. After reading this book, I have found myself suddenly challenging anyone who glibly used the word "leadership" to promote their agendas. The author's argument that we create a dualistic and unhealthy world whenever we uncritically accept our own leadership over others or their own over us, has completely changed my approach to organizational consulting. His suggestion as well that we do less soft skills training and more hard skills like decision-making and strategic thinking makes sense. I also appreciated his advice to trust more in the tacit wisdom of our own employees over the expertise of outside consultants.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
One of the Most Insightful Books Ive Read in a Long Time
6 May 2004
Format:Hardcover
I found that the book's portrayal of most business organizations as rank-based resonated with my own experience. The author's careful analysis of our assumptions regarding leaders and followers - that he calls the myth of leadership - was truly profound. Other writers have challenged hierarchy and command and control leadership, but no one has struck at the root of the problem as deftly and provocatively as this book does. I liked the three parts of the book, discussing first the context of leadership, second the history of organizational types, and then the strategies for creating peer-based organizations. I found the idea of organizational attractors - modeled on chaos theory - very interesting. I wish the author had said even more about the parallels of attractors in natural systems, like strange attractors, and organizational attractors like the Big Chief and Hierarchical organization. All in all, one of the most insightful books I've read in a long time.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Wow, I Wish I'd Read This in Business School!
18 May 2004
Format:Hardcover
I predict that before long everyone will be talking about organizational management and design in terms of rank and peer. The book does a wonderful job comparing and contrasting these two basic types of thinking and relating. It reminds me of the pioneering work of Douglas McGregor and theory x and y, but this book goes deeper into the very nature of leadership as inherently rank-based. Excellent!
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