Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An easy-to-read romp through issues of change management., 3 Nov 2000
This book was supplied to me as part of my MBA module on Managing Change and it has proved to be an easy-to-read book that covers the topic from a variety of angles. It provides insights into issues of transformation, building visions, why change fails, and much more. Although it is primarily written with the business sector in mind, many of the insights it gives are equally relevant to the UK public sector.The authors are drawn from both academia and professional business and it is well worth reading.
|
|
|
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good for source material, 14 Dec 2001
I was disappointed by this book. HBP books usually live up to my expectations.I was looking for the practical aspects of change and how change actors tackled the problems they faced. This book has the flavour of a compilation of Harvard Business Review Case Stories. Nevertheless, it is a good quality book, with plenty of material to feed into 'thought leadership' sessions.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Adapt or Perish, 18 Jun 2007
This is one in a series of several dozen volumes that comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business School Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. Each volume has been carefully edited. Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section that usually includes suggestions of other sources that some readers may wish to explore.
In this volume, the reader is provided with eight articles whose authors provide a variety of perspectives on how to strengthen an organization by making necessary changes while minimizing fear, frustration, and resistance. All of the articles first appeared in the HBR from January-February, 1992, to May-June, 1997; some but remarkably little of the material is dated. Here are some of the important business issues to which the contributors direct their (and our) attention:
Which seem to be the most common mistakes made by executives? ("Leading Change" John P. Kotter)
Comment: Kotter identifies eight and suggests how to avoid or repair them.
How to avoid a vague and fuzzy vision concept? ("Building Your Company's Vision," James C. Collins and Jerry I Porras)
Comment: Collins and Porras offer a framework that has two principal parts: core ideology and envisioned future. It was in this article that they introduced their concept of the "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" (BHAG).
How to focus only on what is most important? ("Managing Change: The Art of Balancing," Jeanie Daniel Duck)
Comment: When managing change, "the challenge is to innovate mental work, not to replicate physical work. The goal is to teach [everyone involved] how to think strategically, recognize patterns, and anticipate problems and opportunities before they occur."
Why is context so important to beneficial reinvention? ("The Reinvention Roller Coaster: Risking the Present for a Powerful Future," Tracy Goss, Richard Pascale, and Anthony Athos)
Comment: The authors assert that reinvention is not changing what is, but creating what isn't. They explain the importance of assembling a critical mass of key stakeholders, completing an organizational audit, creating urgency while discussing the "undiscussable," harnessing contention, and effectively engineering organizational breakdowns [i.e. what Joseph Schumpeter characterizes as "creative destruction].
What can be learned from the experiences of troubled companies that have fallen victim to "a syndrome with four discernible stages"? ("Changing the Mind of the Corporation," Roger Martin)
Comment: Martin explains what the syndrome is, and, how to avoid or escape from it.
How to accommodate the fact that employees and those who supervise them see change differently? ("Why Do Employees Resist Change?," Paul Strebel)
Comment: Strebel explains what "personal compacts" are, and, how they can they help to reduce resistance to change initiatives.
What to do when an organization seems to be on "death's door"? ("Reshaping an Industry: Lockheed Martin's Survival Story," Norman R. Augustine)
Comment: Augustine offers various "sometimes painful" lessons he learned about best practices when attempting to restructure an endangered organization. He served as chairman and CEO of Martin Marietta for eight years until it became part of Lockheed Martin where he also served as chairman and CEO.
What do results-driven improvement programs involve? ("Successful Change Programs Begin with Results," Robert H. Schaefer and Harvey A. Thomson)
Comment: Early in this article, Schaefer and Thomson observe that most improvement efforts "have as much impact on company performance as a rain dance has on the weather." Then on page 195, they provide an especially informative graphic by which to compare and contrast activity-centered programs with results-driven programs. They then
Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out other volumes in the Harvard Business Review Paperback Series, especially HBR on Leading Through Change and HBR on Becoming a High Performance Manager. Also, James O'Toole's Leading Change, Enterprise Architecture As Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson, Ram Charan's Know-How, Richard Ogle's Smart World, and Seeing What's Next co-authored by Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, and Erik A. Roth.
|
|
|
|