Category: Systems

I like all of these writers for a variety of reasons. The full bibliography gives details on these recommended ones and others.

The ones I would recommend the most include:

Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus, Leaders, The Strategies for Taking Charge presents four key principles every manager should know: Attention Through Vision, Meaning Through Communication, Trust Through Positioning, and The Deployment of Self.

Collins, Jim, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t
If there was any way to apply this rigorous assessment to the government or non-profit sector then we could get some valuable insights. The six (6) key insights in this book already have something to guide all of us.

[then came]

Collins, Jim, Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer Jim Collins, November 2005 A monograph to accompany “Good to Great”

Cross, Jay, Informal Learning – Rediscovering the natural pathways that inspire innovation and performance = The premise – People learn how to do their jobs informally – talking, observing others, trial-and-error, and simply working with people in the know. Formal training and workshops account for only 10% to 20% of what people learn at work. Learning is that which enables you to participate successfully in life, at work, and in the groups that matter to you. Informal learning is the unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way people learn to do their jobs.

Lloyd Dobyns & Clare Crawford-Mason, Thinking About Quality – Progress, Wisdom, and the Deming Philosophy = A great book on systems. It’s biggest insight, among many, is that it explains clearly that the structure of systems, rather than the individual occupants of positions, create most problems.

Napoleon Hill & W. Clement Stone, Success through a Positive Mental Attitude = A classic, not on management, on life.

Kotter, John P., Leading Change = In Leading Change, John Kotter identifies an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm’s agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future.

Moxley, Russ S., Leadership & Spirit – Breathing new vitality and energy into individuals and organizations = This is a really beautiful and thought provoking book

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Leadership Bibliography sans Strengthfinders materials which are in a separate list.

Prepared by Gerry La Londe-Berg

1
Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus
Leaders, The Strategies for Taking Charge
Harper & Row Publishers, NY, 1985

My first all time favorite. This is now tied with a couple others….

In this illuminating study of corporate America’s most critical issue — leadership — world-renowned leadership guru Warren Bennis and his co-author Burt Nanus reveal the four key principles every manager should know: Attention Through Vision, Meaning Through Communication, Trust Through Positioning, and The Deployment of Self.

In this age of “process”, with downsizing and restructuring affecting many workplaces, companies have fallen trap to lack of communication and distrust, and vision and leadership are needed more than ever before. The wisdom and insight in Leaders addresses this need. It is an indispensable source of guidance all readers will appreciate, whether they’re running a small department or in charge of an entire corporation.

2
Bennis, Warren
Managing the Dream – Reflections on Leadership and Change
Perseus Publishing, Cambridge, Mass., 2000
By Max More on Amazon = The venerable leadership master, Warren Bennis, puts his life’s work in perspective in this very personal collection. Bennis’s work on leadership remains highly relevant in the new economy. His view is that this is an era “in which the very pace of change is accelerating with each new day”, and that “change is the only constant”. His most durable advice to leaders is to stay nimble, but this book — part meditation, part how-to manual — goes much deeper than these quotes can convey.

3
Kenneth Blanchard & Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Ethical Management
William Morrow & Company,1988

Always a top priority to think about.

4
Peter Block
The Empowered Manager, positive Political Skills At Work
Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 1987

Another view on effectiveness

5
Collins, Jim
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t
New York: Harper Business, 2001.

Based on a five-year research project, Good to Great answers the question: “Can a good company become a great company, and, if so, how?” True to the rigorous research methodology and invigorating teaching style of Jim Collins, Good to Great teaches how even the dowdiest of companies can make the leap to outperform market leaders the likes of Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck

I heard Jim Collins speak on the Charlie Rose TV interview program. If there was any way to apply this rigorous assessment to the government or non-profit sector then we could get some valuable insights. The six (6) key insights in this book already have something to guide all of us.
[then came]

6
Collins, Jim
Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer
Jim Collins, November 2005

A monograph to accompany “Good to Great”
Short excerpts from the monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer. The full monograph can be obtained from many local bookstores and major online booksellers. (In addition, you might like to visit the Lecture Hall section of this Web site, where you can find audio excerpts from the monograph.)

7
Jay Conger et al
Charismatic Leadership, The Elusive Factor in Organizational Effectiveness
Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 1988

A scholastic treatment of an under studied attribute

8
Robert Cooper & Ayman Sawaf
Executive EQ, Emotional Intelligence In Leadership and Organizations
A Perigee Book, The Berkley Publishing Group, New York, NY, 1997

Emotional Intelligence is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power. In ” and acumen of emotions as a source of human energy, information, connection, and influence.

A Tibetan Elder said, “Two things no one can take away: First, what I value and believe – what I feel, beneath everything else, is true in my heart, even when my mind can’t prove it or explain it. And second, short of killing me, they could not take away how I express who I am on the path to my destiny. These are the things that make me real and give me hope.”

The Tibetan Elder said, “In Tibet we call it authentic presence. It means literally “Field of power”. When we live from here, from the inside, we can talk openly and honestly with each other, and say the things we deeply feel, even when it’s hard to say them. We hold ourselves, and each other, accountable to our best effort in all things. We search for our calling, for the path we are born to take. Every person has this, and can face hardships and problems but not live inside them. This is a very difficult thing to do, but we can do it, we can set them aside. They do not go away, but we must not miss the chance to keep learning from whatever is here now.”

Emotional Intelligence requires and activating energy that enlivens what we feel and value. We express this in many ways, such as being open, honest, of integrity, courageous, and creative – committing ourselves to transforming even the most daunting circumstances into something meaningful, and valuable, as we shape a new future.
By and large, what we are searching for in business and in life isn’t out there, in the latest trends and technology; it’s in here, inside ourselves. It has been there all along, but we have not valued it, or respected it, or used it as brilliantly as we are capable of. At its essence, a meaningful and successful life requires being attuned to what is on the inside, beneath the mental analysis, the appearances and control, beneath the rhetoric and skin. In the human heart.

The hallmarks of EQ – to learn, and teach, through feelings linked to reasoning instead of abstract ideas and analysis, relationship instead of rote, authenticity instead of reaction, deep discernment instead of habit, and through essence instead of surface.

What are your life stories? What is your sense of personal calling, your deepest feelings about the reason you are alive? What makes you real and worth knowing?
There is more in human life, and work, than our rigid time-worn theories allow. There’s more depth and wisdom in what we feel, in how the heart holds an image of our unique potential, our destiny, and calls us to it.

9
Cross, Jay
Informal Learning – Rediscovering the natural pathways that inspire innovation and performance
Pfeiffer, A Wiley Imprint, John Wiley and Sons, San Francisco, 2007

By the author = Informal Learning begins with a discussion of how the passage of time is accelerating. The 21st century will see the experience of 20,000 old 20th century years. That said, I’m hardly surprised to find this book on Amazon, eight months before it will be published. (I’m still editing the copy.)

As long as you’re here, I’ll share what the book is going to be about. People learn how to do their jobs informally – talking, observing others, trial-and-error, and simply working with people in the know. Formal training and workshops account for only 10% to 20% of what people learn at work. Most corporations over-invest in formal training while neglecting more natural, simple ways to learn.

Learning is that which enables you to participate successfully in life, at work, and in the groups that matter to you. Informal learning is the unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way people learn to do their jobs.

Learning is adaptation. Taking advantage of the double meaning of the word network, to learn is to optimize the quality of one’s networks.

Executives don’t want learning; they want execution. They want performance. Informal learning is a profit strategy. Companies are using informal learning to:

* Improve knowledge worker productivity 20% – 30%
* Increase sales by Google-izing product knowledge
* Generate fresh ideas and increase innovation
* Transform an organization from disaster to record profits
* Reduce stress, absenteeism, and healthcare costs
* Invest development resources for maximum impact impact
* Increase professionalism and professional growth
* Cut costs and improve responsiveness with self-service learning

Training is something that’s pushed on you; learning is something you choose to do. Many a knowledge worker will tell you, “I love to learn but I hate to be trained.” Knowledge workers thrive when given the freedom to decide how they will do what they’re asked to do. They rise or fall to meet expectations.

Informal Learning is about challenging workers (and executives) to be all they can be.
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10 Things I Like About This Book, December 16, 2006 BY William Veltrop on Amazon
First, a bit of context: I’m a seasoned (30+ years) practitioner in the field of leadership development, organizational learning, design and change. I’ve come to see that the work of transforming our organizations to new levels of consciousness, effectiveness and sustainability rests on our skill as practitioners and leaders in achieving a breakthrough an organization’s capacity to learn how to learn–to be responsive to ever-increasing challenges and ever-increasing rates of change.

I’ve long been aware of the high cost and relative ineffectiveness of conventional “butts-in-seats” approaches to individual and organizational learning. The accelerating emergence of relevant learning strategies, methods, technologies and tools over the past decade has been encouraging–necessary but not sufficient. Jay Cross’ wonderfully crafted Informal Learning constitutes a major breakthrough for all who care about transforming the organizations they serve.

10 THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THIS BOOK —

1. It does a magnificent job of explaining how we actually learn. It turns much “conventional wisdom” on its head. It provides us a cornucopia of innovative ideas for how to stimulate a culture of learning and innovation throughout an organization.

2. It’s clear, clean and creatively written/formatted. I was pulled into and through the book by Jay’s open, straight-talking, conversational style. His use of a variety of illustrations and juicy sidebar tidbits kept luring me to go just a bit further. The accessibility of information is superb.

3. It’s alive. It’s up-to-the minute and it anticipates a future where organizations are becoming increasingly alive and conscious because they’ve mastered the art of encouraging and nurturing informal learning.

4. Jay has distilled hard-earned wisdom from a rich collection of experts and pioneers–transformation-minded innovators and practitioner-theorists who I deeply respect–infinite players such as John Seely Brown, Etienne Wenger, David Cooperrider, Juanita Brown, David Sibbet, Verna Allee, Bruce Cryer and George Leonard.

5. Informal Learning is extraordinarily comprehensive and discerning. Jay has cast a wide net and presented us with only that which is value-adding. He has separated the wheat from the chaff.

6. It’s an out-of-the-box paradigm-shifting book. He shakes up our traditional ways of thinking about learning, training and education in organizations. Informal Learning provides a variety of cures for “hardening of the categories.”

7. It challenges and supports HR and Training departments to multiply their effectiveness in promoting and sustaining a vibrant informal learning culture. It provides pragmatic guidance in creative ways of weaving the work of people development throughout the fabric of an organization’s operations.

8. It both challenges all organizational leaders to take direct responsibility for creating and maintaining an environment–a “learnscape”–where informal learning will naturally take root and flourish. It then provides a plethora of ideas for how to make that a reality.

9. I can easily visualize a number of generative ways of planting this book in organizations–ways that will cause relevant ideas to germinate, take root, grow and spread.

10. Best of all, Jay has built a strong case for treating an organization’s approach to learning as a potential core business strategy. As we move into an era of ever-increasing change, an organization’s capacity to learn and to innovate will become increasingly crucial to it’s sustainability.

So — Thank you, Jay Cross! Your book is a great piece of work–a major contribution to the world of organizations, leadership development, organizational design, learning and change. Leaders and practitioners everywhere will gain much by accessing and experimenting with the many ideas and insights you have provided us in this book.

10
Damasio, Antonio R
Descartes’ Error – Emotion, Reason, and the human brain
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, NY, 1994

One of the more often quoted scholars in writings about the new research on human thought.

11
Deci, Edward L. with Richard Flaste
Why We Do What We Do – The dynamics of personal autonomy
G.P. Putnam’s Sns, NY 1995

Edward L. Deci (University of Rochester) in his text, Why We Do What We Do: The Dynamics of Personal Autonomy (1995) explores the heart of the all important internal motivation that really supports long-lasting behavior?
Take a moment to consider the conditions that go into your own motivation. When are you motivated to do something and why? Now consider the effects on your own motivation when you are asked to do something by someone in authority. What qualities need to be present to illicit a motivated and/or interested response from you? How is this situation similar to what workers face?
Deci writes that allowing for personal autonomy can play a key role in developing internal motivation. Having a sense of personal autonomy, or self-determination, means that a person feels that their behavior is self-chosen and not imposed by an external power. Research has shown that people have an internal need (much like the needs of the body) for this sense of personal autonomy. http://www.personal.psu.edu/scs15/idweb/motivation.htm

12
Lloyd Dobbins & Clare Crawford-Mason
Thinking About Quality – Progress, Wisdom, and the Deming Philosophy
Times Books, Random House, New York, NY 1994

A great book on systems. It’s biggest insight, among many, is that it explains clearly that the structure of systems, rather than the individual occupants of positions, create most problems. Therefore, managers must redesign what they have done before they blame it on someone else. Better yet, they must free people to succeed, because people truly want to succeed. (see also Deming’s 14 points)

13
Fisher, Roger and Daniel Shapiro
Beyond Reason – Using Emotions as you negotiate
Viking – the Penguin Group, NY, 2005

Emotions matter. In Beyond Reason, you will discover how to use emotions to turn a disagreement – big or small, professional or personal – into an opportunity for mutual gain.
Practical advice. Beyond Reason offers straightforward, powerful advice for dealing with emotions in even your toughest negotiations, whether with a difficult colleague or your angry spouse.
Five keys to unlock the power of emotions. You will discover five “core concerns” that lie at the heart of most emotional challenges. And more importantly, you will learn how to address these concerns to improve your relationships and get the results you want. The advice builds on previous work of the Harvard Negotiation Project, the group that brought you the groundbreaking Getting to YES. World-renowned negotiator Roger Fisher teams with psychologist Daniel Shapiro, an expert on the emotional dimension of negotiation, to bring you this indispensable bestseller.

http://www.beyond-reason.net/about/index.html

14
Gladwell, Malcolm
Blink – The power of thinking without thinking
Little Brown and Company, NY, 2005

From Amazon = Gladwell’s conclusion, after studying how people make instant decisions in a wide range of fields from psychology to police work, is that we can make better instant judgments by training our mind and senses to focus on the most relevant facts—and that less input (as long as it’s the right input) is better than more. But if one sets aside Gladwell’s dazzle, some questions and apparent inconsistencies emerge.

15
Daniel Goleman
Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence (Paperback)
Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass. 2002

Business leaders who maintain that emotions are best kept out of the work environment do so at their organization’s peril. Bestselling author Daniel Goleman’s theories on emotional intelligence (EI) have radically altered common understanding of what “being smart” entails, and in Primal Leadership, he and his coauthors present the case for cultivating emotionally intelligent leaders. Since the actions of the leader apparently account for up to 70 percent of employees’ perception of the climate of their organization, Goleman and his team emphasize the importance of developing what they term “resonant leadership.” Focusing on the four domains of emotional intelligence–self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management–they explore what contributes to and detracts from resonant leadership, and how the development of these four EI competencies spawns different leadership styles.

16
Daniel Goleman
Working With Emotional Intelligence
Bantam Books, NY, October 1998

Business leaders and outstanding performers are not defined by their IQs or even their job skills, but by their “emotional intelligence”: a set of competencies that distinguishes how people manage feelings, interact, and communicate. Analyses done by dozens of experts in 500 corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations worldwide conclude that emotional intelligence is the barometer of excellence on virtually any job. This book explains what emotional intelligence is and why it counts more than IQ or expertise for excelling on the job. It details 12 personal competencies based on self-mastery (such as accurate self-assessment, self-control, initiative, and optimism) and 13 key relationship skills (such as service orientation, developing others, conflict management, and building bonds). Goleman includes many examples and anecdotes–from Fortune 500 companies to a nonprofit preschool–that show how these competencies lead to or thwart success.

17
Greenleaf, Robert K.
Servant Leadership – A journey into the Nature of legitimate power and greatness, 25th anniversary edition
Paulist Press, NY, 1977

Servant-leadership emphasizes the leader’s role as steward of the resources (human, financial and otherwise) provided by the organization. It encourages leaders to serve others while staying focused on achieving results in line with the organization’s values and integrity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servant_leadership

18
Harari, Oren
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell
McGraw-Hill, NY, 2002

From Amazon = The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell is the first in-depth exploration of Colin Powell’s goal-driven approach to leadership. Whether you are currently a business leader or one who aspires to leadership, it provides a blueprint for inspiring anyone¬¬ including yourself ¬¬to achieve extraordinary levels of performance. “This book is about leadership ¬¬the kind of practical, mission- and people-based leadership that Colin Powell has practiced, and which throughout his career has translated into performance excellence and competitive success.

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Colin Powell’s principles of leadership described in the book include the following:
• Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
• The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
• Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.
• Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
• Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.
• You don’t know what you can get away with until you try.
• Keep looking below surface appearances. Don’t shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.
• Organization doesn’t really accomplish anything. Plans don’t accomplish anything, either. Theories of management don’t much matter. Endeavors succeed or fall because of the people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.
• Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
• Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
• Fit no stereotypes. Don’t chase the latest management fads. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team’s mission.
• Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
• Powell’s Rules for Picking People: Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically, a capacity to anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.
• Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
• Part I: Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired. Part II: “Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.
• The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
• Have fun in your command. Don’t always run at a breakneck pace. Take leave when you’ve earned it: Spend time with your families. Corollary: surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
• Command is lonely.
http://www.thepracticeofleadership.net/2006/07/18/157/

19
Paul Hersey & Ken Blanchard
Management of Organizational Behavior, Utilizing Human Resources, 6th Edition
Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1993

Ken Blanchard, before the “One Minute Manager” fame.

20
Napoleon Hill & W. Clement Stone
Success through a Positive Mental Attitude
Pocket Books, New York, NY, 1960.1977

A classic, not on management, on life.

21
Kotter, John P.
Leading Change
Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass. 1996

In Leading Change, John Kotter examines the efforts of more than 100 companies to remake themselves into better competitors. He identifies the most common mistakes leaders and managers make in attempting to create change and offers an eight-step process to overcome the obstacles and carry out the firm’s agenda: establishing a greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating the change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. This highly personal book reveals what John Kotter has seen, heard, experienced, and concluded in 25 years of working with companies to create lasting transformation.

22
Kouzes, James M. & Barry Z. Posner
Leadership, the Challenge, 4th edition
Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA , August 2007

This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and 20 years in print. It is the gold standard for research-based leadership, and the premier resource on becoming a leader. This new edition, with streamlined text, more international and business examples, and a graphic redesign, is more readable and accessible to business readers than ever before, and will prove to be the best edition yet.

23
Lewis, Thomas, Fari Amini, & Richard Lannon
A General Theory of Love
Vintage Books, a diviiosn of Random House, NY, 2000, paperback

There are insights to be had here about our clients while the current state of neuroscience is presented in a very artistically sensitive way.

Rob Lightner on Amazon = A General Theory of Love, by San Francisco psychiatrists Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini, and Richard Lannon, is a powerfully humanistic look at the natural history of our deepest feelings, and why a simple hug is often more important than a portfolio full of stock options. Their grasp of neural science is topnotch, but the book is more about humans as social animals and how we relate to others–for once, the brain plays second fiddle to the heart.
Though some of their social analysis is less than fully thought out — surely e-mail isn’t a truly unique form of communication, as they suggest — the work as a whole is strong and merits attention. Science, it turns out, does have much to say about our messy feelings and relationships. While much of it could be filed under “common sense,” it’s nice to know that common sense is replicable. Hard-science types will probably be exasperated with the constant shifts between data and appeals to emotional truths, but the rest of us will see in A General Theory of Love a new synthesis of research and poetry.

24
Mark McCormack
What They don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School
Bantam Books, Toronto, Canada 1984

Good Cross training from the business way of thinking.

25
Lynne Joy McFarland, Larry Senn & John Childress
21st Century Leadership, Dialogues with 100 Top Leaders
The Leadership Press, New York, NY 1994

There are a lot of these survey books. They ask how the top people do stuff. Interesting reading and some occasional insights.

26
Moxley, Russ S.
Leadership & Spirit – Breathing new vitality and energy into individuals and organizations
Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Company, San Francisco, 2000

This is a really beautiful and thought provoking book. It talks about purpose, commitment and fulfillment. The Center for Creative Leadership is on the Web. They produce some of the best material, which has validity and reliability, concerning large organizational effectiveness.
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In a world where individuals too often feel spent and uninspired on the job, leadership that fails to incorporate the invigorating power of spirit is nothing short of incomplete. Leadership & Spirit gives all of us the perspective and guidance we need to invest ourselves, our fellow workers, and our entire organizations with an essential sense of purpose, commitment, and fulfillment.

27
Shulman, Lawrence
Interactional Supervision
NASW Press, Washington D.C. 1993

Interactional Supervision offers practical strategies for formal and informal supervision and helps human services supervisors develop skills for working with staff individually and in groups. Shulman’s real-life strategies identify and explain management skills needed in every phase of supervisory work. Based on his extensive research, Shulman presents solutions to problems that supervisors face on a day-to-day basis.

28
Stephanie Winston
The Organized Executive
Warner Books, New York, NY 1994

Nuts and bolts on how to be organized. I’m sure there’s more since then, but this is what I have.