Organization

What I was left with after reading this book is that virtually any problem can be solved through communication -- both speaking and listening. Given the kinds of problems we are facing today, Communicate or Die should be required reading for anyone in a position of leadership. We live in a world where everyone has so much to say, but how much of what is said and written is truly productive and makes a difference? And who is listening? Read this book.

So simple it's radical! In easy but elegant prose, Dr. Zweifel maps out an effective practice to re-engage the often forgotten but most fundamental of all human tools: communication. His timely and practical advice on active listening and effective speaking can benefit everyone no matter what the endeavor. From personal relationships, dealing with a boss, or leading a multinational corporation, this book is a must for any citizen of the modern world.

We purchased 165 copies of this book as our Holiday gift for clients (family and firends get them also!)at the end of 2003. We have been meeting with most of these clients since then and many more have read and are working with the listening skills in this book. More so than most books we have purchased for them to read in hte past! It is a quick read with practical recommendations on improving skills coupled with stories of why speaking, and more importantly, great listening skills are cirtical for leaders ... leaders in business, community leaders and in leaders in familes ... actually for effective leadership in each of our own lives. It applies to everyone!
Suzanne Frindt

Excellent book for the OD professional and the manager alike. In his usual very effective style, Dr. Jones' "lessons" are very readable, practical, and understandable, with just the right mix of humor, metaphors and stories. His use of actual experiences serve to effectively demonstrate the "real-life" usefulness and value of the techniques he describes. Every organization experiences dysfunction, to one degree or another, and can, therefore, benefit from the guidance Dr. Jones provides in this book.

As Executive Director of VMRC, Inc., a large social service agency, I was frustrated by a variety of dysfunctional behaviors in the organization. Several years ago I recruited Tom Jones to consult with us in establishing self-directed work teams. In the course of this undertaking, we provided all employees with a copy of Tom's first book and are now giving each new hire a copy of "If It's Broken, You Can Fix It." This book provides a wealth of practical suggestions for dealing with dysfunction in the workplace. Tom draws both from the work of others, like William Bridges and Edward Lawler, and from his own extensive experience. It is a valuable resource for experienced managers and also for entry-level professional employees. The style is direct, non-academic, and remarkably free of jargon. "If It's Broken..." is also organized in a way that lends itself to browsing--a valuable feature of any work intended for busy professionals.

During my long working career I have partcipated in numerous courses, got advice from the best consultants and read lots of complicated theories. This is the first book that gives clear and practical advice to identify and solve the problems of an dysfunctional organization. I recommend Jones's book warmly to everyone who is interested in improving the quality of the activity of his organization.

The information in this book is incrediable. It is very clearly written, and introduces you to a system of management that anyone can understand and apply. I have been able to take a one-person home-based business to a very successful 20-person business. The principles in this book enabled me to effectively organize my business so that I can get the maximum amount of production out of the minimum amount of resources. There are a lot of books and tapes avaialble on business know-how and management skills. A lot of it is interesting and it is easy to get lost in. What I liked about this book is that it introduces you to a system of administration and management that is nothing if not simple, immediately applicable, and soundly based on logic, common sense and evidently natural law. I highly recommend it to anyone.

I've read dozens of business management books and for the most part, they are complex or give advice that can only be applied in very, very specific situations. "Speaking from Experience" contained tools that are applicable to virtually any size business and can be used by everyone on board. It's nice to see a book that can be USED and that will help businesses move up the line

My husband uses the management techniques in his business. They make a lot of sense and help him to put order into his daily work.

With lots of illustrations, the ideas presented in the book are easy to understand.

i was rather stunned to see the names of rick warren and brian mclaren on the same book cover. however, after reading the book it made perfect sense. this book does not point fingers or bash modernity or postmodernity - but allows a healthy discussion from both perspectives of what direction the emerging church is moving. i love that this book FINALLY goes beyond all the chatter about culture and postmodern theory and gives some helpful examples (but not a model) of what we in church leadership should try to do. i own virtually every book out there on postmodernism and the church, and this by far has been the most practical in giving helpful direction of stimuating ideas for our local context. i will be giving a copy to my staff as well as key volunteers.

In Emerging Church, Dan Kimball clearly explains the changes that have taken place in the current culture and shows how the church can respond to these changes to reach postmoderns. Without hesitation, I recommend this book to you. Dan's humble, unassuming spirit emerges in the content, the writing style and in that he invited other thinkers to interact with the book in the margins. Most of the time they agree with him or add additional insight, but other times they disagree with what he writes. (I found the margin notes helpful and stimulating.)

My prayer is that God will use the information in this book to help churches around the world reach the emerging culture.

I have read through this book, but I weekly go to it and review for new ideas. It has become an essential resource for my ministry

As with other readers here I had never heard of the Diplomatic Security Service. My assumption was that it was going to be another militarized "me too" anti terrorist group looking to reinvent the wheel by doing jobs that groups like Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 are supposed to handle. I also assumed that the Secret Service was the agency responsible for protecting all diplomats (not just the President).

My assumptions were largely -- and I must say somewhat refreshingly -- proven wrong. Yes, the DSS has a tactical side and even a sub group within it to handle the more dangerous situations but basically the DSS does the heavy lifting when it comes to protecting American diplomats and embassies abroad from terrorism and other crime. This is certainly a job that has become much more dangerous in the last 10 or 15 years.

While the book is well written and tells the story of some very dedicated and admirable people I found it a bit slow in places. It almost has to be I guess since most of what these folks do is tiring, monotonous and oftentimes thankless work. Much of the credit for what they do gets shamelessly stolen by the other, more prominent (and spotlight hungry) agencies. I found this to be a sad commentary on the way government works.

If you're looking for a book about the hunt for the bastards who brought down the WTC in NY on 9-11 then you may be disappointed. This book deals with the work that led up to that event including the first terrorist bombing at the WTC in 1993.

The thing I was most struck by was just how clearly the terrorists had been telegraphing their intentions and how arrogantly blind our government was to what the DSS (and others) were practically screaming at them even though terrorist attacks kept getting worse and people kept dying.

This book will give you a look into what takes to make all of those diplomatic visits we see on the news happen without incident and how the rest of the world views the US. It reassuring to know that there are groups like the DSS out there but it is also frightening to learn of just how incompetent and out of touch our government can be.

What makes this book so unique is the fact that it was a work in progress long before 9-11. It appears as if the author had been writing the story of the one federal law enforcement agency to take al-Qaeda seriously for years before the horrific attacks of September 11. The book is not a finger-pointing I told you so look at 9-11, but rather a beautifully-constructed profile of the Diplomatic Security Service and its global war against terrorists. The DSS are heroes--and it is about time people learned about what they did. I hope that the author is working on a sequel. I'll bet, after reading this book, that DSS, will be in the forefront of bringing bin Laden and his lieutenants to justice.

Extraordinary page-turner...I would like to register my demand that a sequel be written immediately about the Diplomatic Security Service! The people of DSS are clearly heroes who do not get the credit that they so richly deserve for their incredible valor and sacrifice.

Who knew making huge leaps in achievement could be this easy -- and this fun? The 2000 Percent Solution gives you a simple process for overcoming mind blocks (the book calls them "stalls") and achieving fantastic results. The book gives funny and vivid examples (my favorite is the apes in the cage)which make the book an enjoyable read instead of just another dry essay on management. You'll be kicking yourself because you haven't recognized many of the self-imposed obstacles to progress that the authors describe. I had to read the book more than once to grasp some of the ideas in the second part and I'm sure that I will read it again to get more of the fine points. The best part of the book is that the authors give you this great concept but then they also give you a process to enable you to act on that concept. You'll actually find yourself acting differently instead of just filing the book and then proceeding with business as usual. Read this book and you'll start looking at the world in a whole new light. Suddenly the unattainable seems just around the corner!

In February of 1998, I attended a group work session where we used the process described in this exciting new book to identify where we thought our companies were potentially "stalled." A wide variety of businesses were represented at the session yet each participant could easily identify with common problems or "stalls" we all faced. The ideas generated for me at this meeting were outstanding. And, in fact, the strategy our company followed in 1998 was very much in step with the ideas and action steps created using this process. In 1998 our company successfully completed a Dutch auction that brought back over ten million shares at 65% of today's price; we successfully divested ourselves of a non-core business; we reduced our cost of capital; we completed a major acquisition; and our earnings increased dramatically.

The key message throughout The 2000 Percent Solution is to get rid of your bad habits and embrace change. The book helps suggest how to identify problems that are preventing success. Continual growth and success depends on continual improvement. The 2000 Percent Solution will help you accomplish this. Read it!

The nautre of organizational behavior (really individual behavior within the constraints imposed by organizational culture) is to seek incrementalist changes at the margins. Rarely do the well-entrenched want to leave those trenches to risk what they have in the fluidity of the uncretain. This is natural, since safety is something innately sought by most organisms most of the time. Short-term safety can be a good predictor of impending decline and death, as the old adage says: "Whom the Gods Would Destroy, They First Give 40 Years of Success."
The authors propose that aiming for incremental, marginalist change is a "stall," a way of refusing to face or accept the need for real change. (Sometimes, the need for change can be misread or mismeasured, with New Coke being an example they give.) The authors offer a number of vingettes designed to illustrate "stallbuster" tactics that will impel the desired-for change. These vingettes are bite-sized case studies of how real-world organizations approached (or failed to approach) problems, and the results of their actions. These are compared, in terms of implicit values, with the formal values each company had adopted. The actioning of these values provides insight into where disconnects between policy and performance occur, with McDonalds' response to the infamous hot-coffee lawsuit and Odwalla's in dealing with food-poisoning problems being one example. Each company's colture at least partly pre-determines the range of responses that their leaders can imagine, with a corresponding range of predictable results.
In the tradition of Dr. Kurt Lewin ("Field Theory in the Social Sciences") the authors propose that breaking through stall-tactics requires more than a circumstantial, piecemeal approach: unfreezing organizational behavior ("stallbusters") and shifting focus to enable lock-in (for however short- or long-term fluid circumstances dictate)of more adaptive actions. This is a key to breaking out of the prepare-to-win-the-last war mentality, as well as the incrementalist mindset that curses mature firms in the cash-cow stage of growth, before radical change to survive drastic environmental shifts carries a Phyrric price for survival.
Measurement is an area of continuing focus: What we measure becomes how we measure success. Rejecting or supplanting traditional measurement concepts may be necessary so as to allow truly pertinent data to be collected. (One anecdote deals with a company priding itself on a 1% error rate for each process - without anyone recognizing that errors are cumulative, resulting in 80% of its' customers experiencing some form of product failure.) Time is one of the things that Mitchell, Coles and Metz believe has to be measured - especially in the more-nebulous disciplines, like financial analysis, where productivity has been more difficult to quantify. If outputs are hard to measure, them time spent on various tasks can show how much of a workday was productive, even if unquantifiable.
This work is not a by-the-numbers, how-to workbook with checklists. It should not be read that way. It is rather more Aesop-like, in that it uses stories to illuminate a few key points, which are them discussed in terms of broader application. Read as intended, this book can help to exercise the imagination of leaders who want to leave corporate Darwinism behind for radical mutation in a world loosed from its' fixed reference points by technological breakthroughs, geopolitical flux, demographic shifts, and culture-shock: In other words, the search for a 2,000 percent solution.
-Lloyd A. Conway

Bridging the gap between text and context, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook offers everyone a deep and refreshing look at what work can be and should be. The authors ground their stories, examples, exercises in five conceptual touchstones--personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking. And these disciplines accurately reveal three core tasks in leadership: looking at self, developing others, and seeing the larger picture in order to chart a meaningful course. Stories enliven the ideas while examples and exercises offer practical models to use in any organization. Generous side margins, different colored ink, and graphic icons are visual treats as well as immediate graphic guides. And the narrative references to related issues make reading the book more intuitive, more interesting.

In fact, these physical details model the whole point of the book--that learning is essential for sustainable growth, for organizational and personal development.

This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.

Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.

This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.

The Fieldbook attempts at making the esoteric concepts of the fifth discipline more down to earth and contains a treasure trove of strategies, tools, methods and explanations on how to make the learning organization into a reality.

Thus people who have read The fifth discipline will gain the most from this book. It's a must read for people who want to make their organizations transition into a 'learning organization'

If you are like most people, you are a victim of "stalled" thinking about how to make knowledge transfer work better in your organization. As the authors point out, many people believe things that will not work in practice, such as "build it and they will come" from a technology resource sharing perspective that all one needs to do is have the resource available. Unlike the theory about knowledge management, Davenport and Prusak have investigated many organizations to learn what does and does not work. Unlike some books that are no more than a few case histories strung together, the authors concisely use examples to examplify the key points of what they have learned. In their parlance, this book is full of "knowledge" rather than just "information" or "data." They are also astute observers, and notice things that many might miss. A key example of their astuteness is the observation that those who are expected to share must be given some meaningful incentive to do so. In these days of downsizing, rightsizing, etc., those with knowledge often see that knowledge as a security blanket for an economic livelihood. You have to provide some incentive to share that matches or exceeds the incentive to hoard knowledge. You need to read and understand the lessons of this book if you want to get further along in using the knowledge that is available (both in and outside of your company) to achieve greater results. A terrific book on the related subject of how to create new knowledge and use that knowledge to then create much greater results is "The 2,000 Percent Solution."

I must say that I really enjoyed this well rounded overview of Knowledge Management. The layout/structure of the information is great. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to explore the realm of Knowledge Management (KM) and is new to the thought and theories behind it. The authors date the book by offering only two technology solutions (Notes and Web Applications) as KM technology solutions however this doesn't distract from the basics and value that should be placed on KM in organizations.

Great for any reader interested in KM.

This book is a must read for Christians in general, but most importantly for Catholic lay people like myself. Before entering into the heart of his work, Dr. Hahn presents a Biblical perspective on the presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist that every Catholic should read and understand. But the most significant contribution of this book is the way in which it exposes the relationship between St. John's Revelation and the Church's celebration of the Liturgy. While Hahn claims that these truths have been held by the Church since the beginning of Christianity, almost all of this information was new to me as a cradle Catholic. This book has truly transformed the way in which I approach every Mass. With the possible exception of some poorly chosen subtitles, The Lamb's Supper is nothing less than 5 stars!

I'd like to respond to the critic from Drexel Hill. I'm no dogmatic theologian, but I don't need a doctorate to see that the reviewer is wrong -- VERY wrong. Though it's been months since I read the book, I had no trouble finding ample evidence. Several times, Hahn makes the statement the reviewer says he "fails to mention." And he uses, almost verbatim, the language the reviewer uses! Consider this from page 150: "The Mass is the 'once for all,' perfect sacrifice of Calvary, which is presented on heaven's altar for all eternity. . . . There is only one sacrifice; it is perpetual and eternal, and so it needs never be repeated. Yet the Mass is our participation in that one sacrifice and in the eternal life of the Trinity in heaven, where the Lamb stands eternally 'as if slain.'" And this from page 28: "It was the Eucharist: the re-presentation of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the sacramental meal where Christians consumed Jesus' body and blood." And this from page 36: "Justin . . . explained that the Passover sacrifice and the Temple sacrifices were mere foreshadowings of the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ and its re-presentation in the liturgy." Moreover, chapter 2 is pretty much devoted to the very idea that the reviewer says is absent! I'm amazed that a fellow Pennsylvanian would post such a petty and irresponsible review. Perhaps the reviewer should have a dogmatic theologian read his literary ruminations before he races to the Web.

Do you find Mass boring, blase, dull? Then this is THE book for you! Dr. Hahn has written a wonderful, inspiring book that will open your eyes to all the beauty and power of the Eucharist.

1. Synopsis:

Corbin's foresee that by 2010 great leaders must be at what she calls level 2 leaders, and in order to operate at this level these leaders must: Orchestrate a 360 degrees worldview, Order the chaos, blend multiple organizational, engage the whole person, and ignite innovation.

Orchestrate a 360 degree worldview includes two steps:1. Gather organizational intelligence by overcoming worldwide trends that occurs during periods of opportunity (or windows) and foresee the outcome (or issues); and 2. Understand the dyna-forces (interesting concept) created by these worldwide trends that originate systematic change. These dyna-forces are: globalization, marketization, informatization and democratization.

In order to overcome chaos, level 2 leaders need to figure out the root cause of the chaos (changes in speed, changes in rules or changes in structure), be aware of the new century organization models and be prepared for the role of the 21st century leader (level 2).

Level 2 leaders need to foresee the blending of multiple organization models during the next Century, foresee the driving of the 21st Century worker and be aware of the present blending of organizations and the strategies applied to blend those organizations.

Level 2 leaders will need to engage the 21st Century worker as a whole person and not by his/her skills and ignite innovation at any cost.

Corbin foresees a hermaphrodite workplace (androgynous) where man (FINALLY) will learn soft skill (typically considered feminine) by engaging in a spiritual search.

Final Comment:

This last statement along with numerous stereotypes, sexist and deeply Christian religious remarks, casts big doubts about the seriousness of the book. What a shame!

Carolyn Corbin intertwined her future predictions of the 21st Century with leader/worker development to become a viable workforce in the future she predicted. While not outside the realm of common sense, her predictions are still eerily thought-provoking.

This book outlined the five steps to becoming a leader in the 21st Century. In Step One, she discussed assessing one's own leadership effectiveness and compared that to what skills will be needed for the future. She summarized major world changes into four "dynaforces" of the 21st Century...globalization, marketization, informatization, and democratization. Step Two was order the chaos. Many futures books discuss how to adapt to change or how to go with the flow...so I was exceedingly curious what exactly she proposed to "order" this. She thoroughly explained the future factors that will lead to change and chaos, and the more we understand these factors we can pro-actively work to diffuse as many chaotic factors as possible. Step Three provided many examples of blending multiple organizational models of profit, non-profit, government, religious, higher education, and more. She shows the limitless possibilities of applying successful models from organizations that have already dealt with issues to different types of organizations that will be confronting similar issues in the future. Steps Four and Five have to do with the individual-engaging employees on all levels of their person and providing a workforce that fosters their innovation.

She illuminates the skills we can develop today to prepare for tomorrow. Whether intentional or not, her description of the future makes one re-examine everything you think about current leadership training and how it does not adequately prepare employees for what is to come.

Carolyn Corbin's: Great Leaders see the Future First: Taking Your Organization to the Top in Five Revolutionary Steps, balances practical how-tos (in just about every paragraph) with great stories. Her bottom line: if you don't change from being what she calls a Level 1 leader (reactionary, always busy, focus on gathering & analyzing information, sacrifice innovation to pursue continuous improvement) you will be obsolete by 2010! To survive you must be moving to Corbin's Level 2 (strategizing, focusing on the whole person, leading at warp speed, improve through innovation).

Most of the book covers a quick way for moving from a level 1 to a level 2 leader by applying the following 5 steps:

1) Orchestrate a 360 degree worldview (use strategies to be "tossed" high in the air to see 5, 10, 25 years into the future)

2) Order the chaos (by controlling it)

3) Use a blend multiple organizational models (like for-profits, nonprofits, universities, military, religious institutions - because one will not longer do)

4) Engage the whole person (meet employee's physical and spiritual needs like day care, elder care, and providing work-place Chaplains)

5) Ignite innovation (via creativity, remove inhibitors, add humor)

You might think that 214 pages would go fast. But the book had an uncanny ability of slowing me down as I focused on my own style of leadership, my own organization's shortcomings. Every page is packed with something to move the reader from Level 1 to Level 2. For example, in the chapter 6 on "The Role of the 21st Century Leader" ideas included crafting an organizational mission statement in 10 (5 is preferable) key words, really listen to workers and act on their requests, understand other cultures, and move from a 20th century leader to a 21st century leader by changing from being:

boss --> coach
authoritarian --> participatory
tough --> tough and tender
informs --> listens
status from position --> status from working harder

Late in the book Corbin asks the reader to spend time going through two self-assessment exercise: 1) exploring your soul and 2) assessing your preferences and core competencies. My only critique of the work is the lack of more of these kinds of reflective exercises earlier in the book.

Although Great Leaders may not be as holistic as Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People which deals more deeply with all aspects of one's personal, business and professional life, I do recommend it for any leader who influences the future of their organization. I recommended it to two of our Human Resources personnel after they gave a "How to Managing Our Institution's Way" seminar.

Dave Harmeyer
Pepperdine University doctoral student (Ed.D. Educational Technology)