Creating A Lean Culture: Tools To Sustain Lean Conversions

Creating A Lean Culture: Tools To Sustain Lean Conversions
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Great reference on real lean

Book has quite an impact on new lean leaders

Clearly shows you why something so simple is so hard to do

New Lean Leader's Review

Managing in a Lean Organisation

Creating A Lean Culture: Tools To Sustain Lean Conversions
David Mann
Manufacturer: Productivity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Toyota Way Fieldbook

The Toyota Way

Andy & Me: Crisis And Transformation On The Lean Journey

Lean Thinking : Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road

ASIN: 1563273225

Book Description

Lean production has been proven unbeatable in organizing production operations, yet the majority of attempts to implement lean end in disappointing results. The critical factor so often overlooked is that lean implementation requires day-to-day, hour-by-hour management practices and skills that leaders in conventional batch-and-queue environments are neither familiar nor comfortable with.

Creating a Lean Culture helps lean leaders succeed in their personal batch-to-lean transformation. It provides a practical guide to implementing the missing links needed to sustain a lean implementation. Mann provides critical guidance on developing and using the key elements of a lean management system, including: leader standard work, visual controls, daily accountability processes, maintaining a process focus, managing key HR issues, and much more. In addition, a questionnaire is included to help assess current management practices and monitor progress.

Highlights: Distinguishes the much-discussed, abstract concept of "lean culture" from the concrete, implementable practices of lean management. Describes and illustrates 4 key principles of lean management: leader standard work; visual controls; daily accountability process, and discipline. Shows how visual controls bring process focus to life, tie in lean's requirement for highly disciplined execution, and make leaders' new jobs far easier to explain, model and evaluate. Moves beyond models and theories of lean management to show how to implement the daily practices that are the key to implementing and sustaining a lean transformation. Lots of case examples, figures and photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Great reference on real lean.......2007-10-05

This book fills an essential gap between Liker's Toyota Way and the many books on Lean Tools.

We intentionally didn't begin our lean transformation in our large service orgnization until we had this book because we saw the folly in trying to implement a bunch of lean tools without the necessary management system.

We have visited some Tier 1 Toyota suppliers and Kaizen really means continuous improvement not a succession of week-long projects that many big-time consultants and organizations focus on.

This book is our defacto lean transformation handbook and I am glad to see that it has become a standard reference for at least two MBA programs in the area.

Book has quite an impact on new lean leaders.......2007-06-19

This is a fantastic book, one of the small number of "core" lean books that I recommend to people. I've used the book with many healthcare clients who are new to lean. They have loved the book so much that they have read it three times, learning something new each time, and learning something different at each stage of their lean learning journey. The most frequent comment I hear is that the book means one thing to them before they start but it means even more to them after they have "struggled" with a lean environment on their own, revisiting the book and its concepts helps immensely.

Mann's book helps make concrete the vague notion of a "lean culture" and spells out steps leaders can take to start moving in that direction. The book doesn't promise quick fixes, nor should it, but it puts you on the right path to developing your people, your leaders, and your problem solving skills. Kudos to David Mann for a very practical, actionable guide for lean leaders or those of us who strive to become lean leaders.

Clearly shows you why something so simple is so hard to do.......2007-04-11

I've been doing Lean since 2000 (Six Sigma earlier, 1997) and have been applying general Toyota methods with what I'd consider a very good amount of success. The problem has been, how do you convey the necessity of the Toyota Lean method as a complete "business system" as opposed to JIT and "tools" thinking for busy, batch-thinking individuals? This book fills the gaping void.

Pro:
-Straight forward principles, complete and thorough
-Appear to be true to the Toyota principles as I have seen demonstrated by ex-Toyota executives/leaders turned consultants
-Drives to the heart of lean as a business system, with many elements that I've personally tried or seen work well
-A Shingo Prize winner... impressive
-Avoids excessive Japanese terminology (not an issue for me, but sometimes an issue for others)

Con:
-I think that the power of IT applications is somewhat understated, and pitfalls of using or attempting to use IT-related systems not well described. Would like to see a better description of pitfalls and issues more specifically. Until then, think of IT as you would if you were automating a process... it had better be high volume and well understood/mature.

Bottom Line: I think this a must-have text, and it is excellently written and laid out... plus it's to the point reinforced with numerous short case study examples. I'd recommend pairing this book with "The Toyota Way" (read that first to pave the way for this book). Also consider "The Toyota Way Fieldbook" as the ideal 3rd text to study. A word of caution, these books require a whole new way of thinking and commitment.

New Lean Leader's Review.......2007-04-01

Good easy to follow book. Interesting sections of different leader's responsibilities and the amount of time they should spend on standard work relative to their position. Also, intersting ideas on how to collect and follow up on worker's improvement ideas.

Managing in a Lean Organisation.......2007-03-08

There are many books on the principles of lean, how to map value streams, 5S and so on. I am not aware of any other books devoted to how managers should behave in the lean environment. This book concentrates on the management "process" and recommends a number of key behaviours for lean leaders:
1) Leader standard work - i.e. standard tasks, notably walking the work area and reviewing performance on the "gemba", as a regular activity;
2) Visual controls - linking cell and value stream visual management with strategy;
3) Daily accountability meetings.

It is fairly straightforward to understand, and it is a short book (less than 200 pages) but it makes its points well and its clear focus highlights the importance of these simple activities and behaviours for managers to reinforce and sustain the lean philosophy. I particularly like the chapter on people and participation. The book could have an easier style but overall I recommend it for all managers moving towards lean. Without managers displaying the lean culture in their actions, the transformation will not hold.

Organizational Culture and Leadership (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)

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How to get leadership in proper alignment with organizational development
Organizational Culture and Leadership
Great Service
Really a lesson about organization culture
An educational experience

Organizational Culture and Leadership (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)
Edgar H. Schein
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)
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ASIN: 0787975974

Book Description

In this third edition of his classic book, Edgar Schein shows how to transform the abstract concept of culture into a practical tool that managers and students can use to understand the dynamics of organizations and change. Organizational pioneer Schein updates his influential understanding of culture--what it is, how it is created, how it evolves, and how it can be changed. Focusing on today's business realities, Schein draws on a wide range of contemporary research to redefine culture, offers new information on the topic of occupational cultures, and demonstrates the crucial role leaders play in successfully applying the principles of culture to achieve organizational goals. He also tackles the complex question of how an existing culture can be changed--one of the toughest challenges of leadership. The result is a vital resource for understanding and practicing organizational effectiveness.

Customer Reviews:

How to get leadership in proper alignment with organizational development .......2007-07-11

I first read Organizational Culture and Leadership more than a decade ago and recently re-read it after reading Organizational Development, edited by Joan V. Gallos and to which Edgar H. Schein provided the Foreword ("Observations on the State of Organization Development") and to which he contributed two articles, "Facilitate Process Interventions: Task Processes in Groups" and "So How Can You Assess Your Corporate Culture?" As Schein notes in the Foreword, the core of organization development (OD) has a number of elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness." I know of no one who has made more and more valuable contributions to the field of OD than has Schein. He is OD's pre-eminent knowledge leader.

He organizes the material in Organizational Culture and Leadership within three Parts:

Organizational Culture and Leadership Defined

Excerpt: "When one brings culture to the level of an organization and even down to groups within the organization, one can see clearly how culture is created, embedded, evolved, and ultimately manipulated, and, at the same time, how culture constrains, stabilizes, and provides structure and meaning to the group members. These dynamic processes of culture creation and management are the essence of leadership and make one realize that leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin...Leadership [must possess the ability and willingness] to step outside the culture that created the leader and start evolutionary change processes that are more adaptive. This ability to perceive the limitations of one's own culture and to evolve the culture adaptively is the essence and ultimate challenge of leadership." (Page 2)

Comment: I am again reminded of James O'Toole's apt characterization of a common barrier to change, "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." This is precisely what Jack Welch encountered after he Reginald Jones selected him to be the next CEO of GE. Jones urged him to "blow up" the organization. Schein's point is that although a culture may define leadership, there are situations in which a CEO must re-define the terms and conditions of the leadership needed if the culture itself is to be transformed, as was GE's and as was IBM's after Lou Gerstner became its CEO.

The Dimensions of Culture

Excerpt: "If culture consists of shared basic assumptions, we still need to specify: assumptions about what? The concept of organizational or occupational cultures reflects the ultimate problems that every group faces: dealing with its external environment...Culture is pervasive and ultimately embraces everything that a group is concerned about and must deal with. Beyond these external and internal problems, cultural assumptions reflect deeper issues about the nature of truth, time, space, human nature, and human relationships." (Page 85)

Comment: Here again, Schein stresses the importance of determining with meticulous care what a given culture's shared assumptions are, and then subjecting each to rigorous scrutiny. One of several reasons why so many organizations struggle (with mixed results) to deal with their external environment is the fact that their perspective is limited, if not myopic. Whatever organizational development these organizations achieve is by nature internal only and therefore self-limiting. Henry Chesbrough has much of value to say about open business business models, those that "create value by leveraging many more ideas, due to their inclusion of a variety of external concepts. Open models can also enable greater value capture, by using a key asset, resource, or position not only in the company's own business model but also in other companies businesses."

The Leadership Role in Culture Building, Embedding, and Evolving

Excerpt: "To fully understand the relationship of leadership to culture, we also have to take a developmental view of organizational growth. [Schein covers] the role of leadership in beginning the formation of an organizational culture in Chapter Twelve...[He then describes in Chapter Fifteen] ten different mechanisms or processes that cause cultures to change, and [points out] the role that leaders can and should play in using these processes to skew cultural evolution to their purposes. All of these are natural processes that should be distinguished from what [he calls] managed change, the process by which leaders set out to solve specific organizational problems that may or may not involve cultural elements." (Pages 223-224)

Comment: In the aforementioned Foreword to Organizational Development, Schein suggests that process "is as important as content, and sometimes more important." When identifying and then discussing ten culture change mechanisms in Chapter Fifteen, the focus is indeed on process and Schein notes that the role of the leader in "managing" culture differs at different stages of organizational evolution. For example, during an organization's Founding and Early Growth stage, the main cultural thrust comes from the founders and their assumptions. Hence the appropriateness of incremental change through general and specific evolution, insight, and promotion of "hybrids" within the given culture. Midlife and Maturity/Decline require different culture change mechanisms. Obviously, each stage also has different leadership requirements.

I provide these brief excerpts as well as comments of my own to assist those who read this review to gain at least a sense of the nature and extent of Schein's coverage of an admittedly complicated, indeed formidable challenge: how to get leadership in proper alignment with organizational development to achieve and then sustain an appropriate environment by taking into full account elements that include "a concern with process, a focus on change, and an implicit as well as explicit concern for organizational effectiveness."

What Edgar H. Schein offers is a brilliant achievement.

Organizational Culture and Leadership.......2007-03-19

A must read for every serious manager. If I had a better understanding of culture when I started my career, some 35 years ago, it would have made a significnt difference in my assumptions about the careers of the people I had responsible for.

Great Service.......2006-08-15

I am very pleased with the service provided by Amazon.com. The book arrived in excellent condition, very well packed, and shipped promptly. Great communication and shipping updates. Definitely recommend and will use again!

Really a lesson about organization culture.......2006-08-13

For every manager who wants to improve his organization it's a mast

An educational experience.......2006-02-20

For novices to org. culture, this book takes you on a thorough journey into the corners of what constitutes an organization's culture. My favorite take-away is that Schein made an abstract concept much more concrete. He creates a nice framework to view org. culture, gives examples continuously and provides many nuggets of knowledge. Plenty of useful references are given as well.
Perhaps because of my specific research, I unfortunately found myself with sporadic tabs through the book to catch the aforementioned nuggets. My unfulfilled hope was to find a more meaningful figure in which to place all the various interactions and cultural process (but perhaps that's for us other researchers to do). More up-to-date examples would also be useful.
In the end, a great read and even better reference book (but you'll have to do the organizing).

The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems

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The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
A Book We All Must Have
Utterly Phenomenal: *The* Book for Living Life to the Fullest
Great Refrence to Systemes Chamge

The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems
Peggy Holman , Tom Devane , and Steven Cady
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Handbook of Large Group Methods: Creating Systemic Change in Organizations and Communities (Jossey-Bass Business & Management)
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Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: The First in a Series of AI Workbooks for Leaders of Change
Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change

ASIN: 1576753794

Book Description

Originators and practitioners of such change methods as Future Search, Real Time Strategic Change, Gemba Kaizen, and Open Space Technology outline the distinctive aspects of their approaches, detail roles and responsibilities, share stories illustrating their use, and answer frequently asked questions. A comparative chart allows readers to evaluate the methods to find the one that seems best for them.

Customer Reviews:

The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems.......2007-09-06

A good support text for the change agent, consultant or practitioner. Over 60 different types of interventions with clear descrition for when and how to implement.
The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems

A Book We All Must Have.......2007-02-22

We have been waiting for that book for a long time. Peggy Holman's Change Handbook is now available in its second edition. Since its first edition in 1999, it has increased in volume and in significance. Holman and her co-authors describe 61 collaborative methods that can be applied for working with large groups in private corporations, the public sector and for the development of democratic institutions. The book provides more than a thesaurus and an encyclopedia of change - it contains probably more than 90% of the current world knowledge on whole systems change applications. Beside the well-known methods and frameworks such as Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry, etc. there are a lot of new methods that I have never heard of. Unfortunately, there is no article on Worldwork and the Process Oriented Psychology Framework. Next Edition, please?

The Change Handbook is very well organized, methods are categorized and there are good hints for when to apply the different methodologies. It is a must for Change Practitioners. If you are keen on The Standard Reference, you need to buy The Change Handbook.

Utterly Phenomenal: *The* Book for Living Life to the Fullest.......2007-01-28

I could spend the rest of my life trying to learn, use, and share each of the methods in this book, and never finish. When it was first published in 1999, it was before its time. Now, in 2006, this is a book made for our times, when Burning Man is now Green Man, Al Gore is a rock star, and even the greediest Wall Street CEO is starting to realize the party is over and we have to get real, real fast.

I have been an admirer of Free/Open Source Software (F/OSS) and a champion of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), and have gradually learned about other "opens" that are coming to the fore: Open Spectrum, Open Access, Open Culture, Open Innovation, and of course George Soros' Open Society. From this book I now add Open Circle, to complement the Open Space concept I learned recently in Seattle's Town Hall while listening to Paul Hawken talk about the World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility.

I have to confess that this book is over-whelming, and I can barely scratch the surface. This is more of a book where you should read one author, one segment, each night, and fall asleep thinking about how to implement that one small section, how to embrace someone else and engage them with that one method.

Having three teen-agers, all three of whom have completely rejected the prison/child care format and the rote learning objectives of the current school system (even as good as it is in Fairfax County) I will go so far as to say that this book, combined with serious games/games for change, is a complete one-to-one substitute for our current educational process.

Everything in here is what we *should* have learned in school, what we *should* be practicing in fulfilling our civic duty (what we *actually* do is described in "The Cheating Culture," "Confessional of an Economic Hit-Man," and "Rogue Nation").

I am moving quickly and heavily into the intersection of Collective Intelligence (see my reviews of "The Tao of Democracy," "Smart Mobs," "Wisdom of the Crowds," or my longer list; and Natural Capitalism with its "true cost" meme. See my reviews of Paul Hawken et al, "Ecology of Commerce" and "Natural Capitalism," of the varied books by Herman Daly, and soon, my reviews of "The Great Turning," the "Omnivore's Dilemma," and others. For a broader sense of the possibilities, check out "Earth Intelligence Network" online.

I still have the 1970's operating manual for spaceship earth someplace in my lower library. This book is the manual for spaceship earth for our children and those of us recommiting ourselves to the joy of learning and changing in our later years. It's not over until *we* decide its over.

Great Refrence to Systemes Chamge.......2007-01-11

The Change Handbook: The Definitive Resource on Today's Best Methods for Engaging Whole Systems by Tom Devane, Steven Cady, and Peggy Holman (Berrett-Koehler Publishers) is the most comprehensive guide available to methods of organization and community change. It's designed for quick and easy access to information about high leverage change from today's foremost practitioners. This new edition is updated to describe more than 43 additional change methods and includes new chapters on selecting a method, mixing and matching methods, and responsibilities of the people involved, conditions for success, and more. This tremendously expanded second edition--400 pages longer, nearly twice the length of the first edition--will undoubtedly become the definitive resource in this rapidly expanding area.
This book offers practical insights and how to affect systems in positive ways to make them do the things we wish them to do and to mitigate the harm caused by some systems. Anyone who is interested in social change and personal change at any level will find the practical suggestions for intervention in this book to be positively enlightening.
In 1999, the first edition of The Change Handbook provided a snapshot of a nascent field that broke barriers by engaging "whole systems" of people from organizations and communities in creating their own future. In the last seven years, the field has exploded. In this completely revised and updated second edition, lead authors Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady profile sixty-one change methods--up from eighteen in the first edition. Nineteen of these methods are explored in depth, with case studies, answers to frequently asked questions, and details on the roles and responsibilities of the people involved, conditions for success, and more. This tremendously expanded second edition--400 pages longer, nearly twice the length of the first edition--will undoubtedly become the definitive resource in this rapidly expanding area.
Simply put I can not find enough superlatives for the utility of this volume when it comes to explaining the practical steps necessary in systems change. The book is so comprehensive that many of the chapters could actually be books themselves. What is useful here is that one finds the boiled down essential information in one place. By offering potpourri of possible strategies group facilitators and therapists do not become overly committed to only a few strategies, but can find new ways to do old things better and with less effort and ways to evaluate old efforts that may have been well-intentioned but the intervention was misdirected. The book is a wonderful reference to the important evolving field of systems analysis and change. You overlook this volume at your peril.

Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness

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It's all about the Experience
Great Motivation
Anyone would benefit from this read
A useful take on leadership
Pick this one up

Leading for Growth: How Umpqua Bank Got Cool and Created a Culture of Greatness
Raymond P. Davis , and Alan Shrader
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0787986070

Book Description

How any business leader can create an atmosphere of competitiveness for exceptional growth

When Ray Davis took over the local 40-person South Umpqua Bank in 1994, many people in the industry poked fun at his insistence that employees answer the phone with a cheery "World's Greatest Bank." Eleven years, $7 billion in assets, and 128 branches (or " bank stores" in Umpqua lingo) later, the moniker seems quite apt. Other banks scratched their heads when Davis sent his tellers to Ritz-Carlton to learn customer service and were intrigued when he hired a cutting-edge design firm to completely re-think retail layout. Now, with a top design award under their belt, a name change (there never was a North Umpqua bank), and a completely new definition of the banking business, Umpqua has become the darling of the entrepreneurial press and a growth powerhouse. The New York Times calls Umpqua " Starbucks with tellers."

Ray Davis (Portland, OR), named by U.S. Banker as one of the 25 most influential people in the financial industry in 2005, is President and CEO of Umpqua Holdings Corporation. Alan Shrader (Moraga, CA) is an experienced writer and editor of business books.

Customer Reviews:

It's all about the Experience.......2007-09-16

Leading for Growth offers a tremendous insite into paying attention to the detials of the associates, the customers and the investors. A wonderful guide to taking the "ordinary" and turning into the extra-ordinary. Step by step instructions on how to be different and staying focused on creating an experience for the customers.

Great Motivation.......2007-07-23

An outstanding, upbeat read! It was full of ideas for keeping things fresh, stimulating and customer focused emphasizing a teamwork environment but with individual employee responsibility and accountability. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anyone would benefit from this read.......2007-05-24

From the front lines to the corner office of virtually any kind of business, this practical and engaging read has something to offer!

It is written in an engaging style that pulls the reader through very quickly. The insight is unique and practical -- the bank's success speaks volumes for this "unreasonable" approach to managing and maintaining a thriving business.

A useful take on leadership.......2007-05-02

Leading for Growth is a quick read that reveals the leadership strategies that Ray Davis used to drive relentless growth at his company. Davis shows why many companies stagnate because they fail to realize what business they are really in! He details specific strategies all companies can use to create a thriving culture of growth in their organizations. And he offers leaders everywhere sage advice on building winning teams, leading change, and other critical requirements for growth. I found it very interesting and motivational. It shows that there are simple strategies every leader can use to propel growth. As Davis says, building a company "ain't rocket science."

Pick this one up.......2007-05-01

This is a highly recommended read to anyone who is the leader of an organization (not just bankers). Ray's positive enthusiasm really shines through and helps open the reader's eyes to new, innovative ways of growing a business.

You're in Charge--Now What?: The 8 Point Plan

Average customer rating:

Czarnecki's "You're In Charge..What Now?" Better for non-CEOs
Very Helpful in Starting Off on the Right Foot
Good Guide
Written only for CEOs
Useful handbook for the new leader

You're in Charge--Now What?: The 8 Point Plan
Thomas J. Neff , and James M. Citrin
Manufacturer: Crown Business
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels
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Sink or Swim!: New Job. New Boss. 12 Weeks to Get It Right.

ASIN: 1400048656
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Book Description

Getting a new job or a big promotion is like building a house: You need to get the foundation right for both. With a job, the quick-drying cement is how well you do in your first hundred days, since they establish the foundation for long-term momentum and great performance.

Tom Neff and Jim Citrin are two of the world’s leading experts on leadership and career success. As key figures at Spencer Stuart (hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the number one brand name in executive search), they must understand the criteria for success when they recruit top executives for new leadership positions.

Through compelling, first-hand stories you will hear from people such as Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, on how his career has been a series of successive first hundred days. Larry Summers, president of Harvard University, talks candidly about what he could have done differently in his early days to avoid dissipating goodwill among the diverse constituencies important for his future success. Gary Kusin of Kinko’s shares the specifics of the hundred-day action plan he crafted for himself before he started his new job. Paul Pressler of Gap Inc. shows how he developed a general strategic agenda that established fundamental principles and goals, waiting to prepare a more detailed strategic plan until later in his tenure.

Tom Neff and Jim Citrin’s actionable eight-point plan will be the foundation for your success—whether you are moving to a new organization or being promoted—showing how to:

• Prepare yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally from the time you accept until the time you begin
• Manage others’ expectations of you—bosses, colleagues, and subordinates
• Shape and build the team that will work with you
• Learn the lay of the land and find out how things “really work around here”
• Communicate your story effectively to people inside and outside the organization
• Avoid the top ten traps that confront every new leader, such as disrespecting your predecessor, misreading the true sources of power in the organization, or succumbing to the “savior syndrome”

When you start a new job you are in what AOL’s Jon Miller calls a “temporary state of incompetence,” faced with having to do the most when you know the least. But with the eight-point plan of You’re in Charge—Now What? you’ll understand and be able to take action on the patterns that will build your success.

Also available as an eBook

Customer Reviews:

Czarnecki's "You're In Charge..What Now?" Better for non-CEOs.......2007-06-17

When I saw the "Recommended for You" email, I thought Gerald Czarnecki had come out with a sequel. Instead, I find a not as elegant knock-off.

Czarnecki offers a much better, more digestible plan for those who are newly appointed in positions of management. His "Seven Essential Steps for Work Leader Success" are useful and proven techniques for those who need it the most: the everyday people in an organization who get the job done, not the Stanford-grad CEOs who have already spent years in management and academia learning the ropes. I have recommended his book to friends in just about every industry, from IT to the military. I, myself, found Czarnecki's book extremely useful as a new senior non-commissioned officer in dealing with people who became my subordinates overnight. Unfortunately, this book did not address that sort of issue.

This book isn't a terrible book by any means, and perhaps for a CEO or high-level manager it is something good. As I am neither, I didn't find it appealing. It's essentially the same information you can find elsewhere, and as a previous reviewer pointed out, the tips and techniques are more for those already in the boardroom. Go back to Czarnecki's original if you are a new manager, especially one who was promoted from within, or looking for a gift for the grad or newly promoted.
You're In Charge...What Now?

Very Helpful in Starting Off on the Right Foot.......2007-06-04

My executive coach recommended this book and she was right. It is very well organized with lots of examples on how to get started as the new leader in a large organization. Suitable for small but oriented towards large business of all types. Did not provide Government examples but was still very helpful. I read the book cover to cover and made lots of notes. Try to read at least 3 weeks before reporting. I am three weeks into a Government IT job with a staff of 650 and $100M in budget and all the signs are there that this book was helpful for accelerating my early take-off.

Good Guide.......2007-05-01

I bought You're in Charge... on Amazon.com. I am interested in the leadership process, how to approach new roles, some of the pitfalls, etc and thought this was a good book on the subject. I do believe that the best place to get leadership ideas and tips is from Michael Watkins' The First 90 days, but I think Thomas Neff and James Citrin provide aspiring leaders with a worthwhile book.

The best feature, although sometimes over done are the real life examples of CEO's who took the reigns, and what they did. Whether it was a turnaround situation, or continuing a legacy of success, there are some standard approaches that each of these leaders used. The premise of the book is that there are 8 steps to the new leadership process -

1. Prepare yourself before taking over
2. Align expectations (internally, externally)
3. Build a management team you can rely on
4. Build a strategy (Which includes just refining the old one)
5. Transform the culture to aling it with your expectations
6. Manage up and where influence lies (Board, boss, whoever has more power... and also manage those who have institutional influence.)
7. Communicate your vision, your steps in the process, strategy
8. Avoid common pitfalls.

Nothing really earth shattering here, but certainly good advice. The focus of the book are the steps every leader should take within the first 100 days of your tenure.

One of the more interesting parts of the book goes back to the CEO's and what they did. Since this was published in 2005, some of the CEO's haven't turned out to be the captains fo industry that they are potrayed to be (At least from a market perception perspective.). You read about Paul Pressler and Bob Nardelli and what they did in their first 100 days. Needless to say, as time passed, their reputations are somewhat tarnished now. There are others referenced as well that haven't been treated very kindly by the marketplace.

Anyhow, there is no harm in picking this up, although like I referenced before, I think there are other leadership books out there that I more worthwhile. You're in Charge tends to get a bit over done, but if you can overlook that, there are some worthwhile tips to pick up.

Written only for CEOs.......2007-01-09

If you are a brand new CEO and need to know how to run your organization, buy this book. If you are at any lower level, this book is not meant for you.

The authors state directly from the beginning that they focus more on CEOs than most other positions but the lessons learned are applicable to anyone. This is not true. The author focus too much on the role of a CEO. The examples and suggestions are unique to that role. In one section the book describes how to find your management blind spots such as research and development, marketing, etc. If you are a software development manager in a large firm, your knowledge of marketing or R&D will most likely do little for your career. Yet this book highlights that as areas you should improve.

Another example on how the book focuses too much on CEO is displayed in the how-to-work-with-your-boss chapter. They entire chapter discusses how you should interact with the board of directors! This is a complely different relationship than what 99.9% of workers engage in. The relationship you have with your boss is possibly the most important relationship in your career. To focus this chapter on working with the board makes it absolutely useless to anyone who is not an officer or anyone that does not work for a private firm.

Useful handbook for the new leader.......2006-01-09

The immediate task for CEOs who land a dream job is making sure it doesn't turn into a nightmare. Authors Thomas J. Neff and James M. Citrin provide a marvelous "executive how-to kit" that draws on their extensive management and consulting experience. They explain everything you need to know about getting off to an excellent start now that you're ensconced in the corner office. While the book is targeted to CEOs, it applies to anyone stepping up to a higher level of leadership. Taking over a new role often means enduring what AOL's Jon Miller describes as a "temporary state of incompetence." Even if your promotion becomes a trial by fire, we believe this book will help you direct the flames and propel your organization to new heights of achievement.

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants

Average customer rating:

Great book to use to facilitate team discussion
How Effective of a team player are you?
The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player
Misleading?
not so surprising

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player: Becoming the Kind of Person Every Team Wants
John C. Maxwell
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower Your Team
The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
25 Ways to Win with People: How to Make Others Feel Like a Million Bucks
Attitude 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know

ASIN: 0785288813

Amazon.com

The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player is another in a long line of titles by John Maxwell aimed at helping people attain their personal and leadership potential in the workplace. The book is organized into short chapters, each devoted to one of the 17 qualities that Maxwell deems essential to a successful and harmonious workplace, qualities such as competence, discipline, adaptability, commitment, selflessness, and preparedness. Maxwell's prose reads like a series of sermons, peppered with inspirational stories and quotes from personalities as diverse as Vince Lombardi ("The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender") and Henry Ford ("Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success"). The book is for Maxwell fans and anyone looking for a sensible and formulaic approach to improving their lot, both at work and in life. --Harry C. Edwards

Book Description

Where can a person go to learn how to become a better team player? Your choices are definitely limited. John C. Maxwell takes the pain out of knowing what makes a team tick. If you want to have a better team, you have to develop better players. Great team players, like great teams, are formed from the inside out.

The qualities Maxwell teaches quickly take you to the heart of teamwork. Anybody can understand them and apply them -- whether at home, on the job, at church, or on the ball field. If you learn the 17 essential qualities of a team player, you can become the kind of person every team wants. If everyone on your team does it, there will be no holding you back.

Customer Reviews:

Great book to use to facilitate team discussion.......2007-02-19

I used the 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player as a book to use for team discussions affirming or confirming how the team would operate. The chapters are a quick read and the qualities described supporting a successful and harmonious workplace cover most required behaviors of a good team member.

While John Maxwell's material is mostly from non-profit experiences, the stories and quotes are relevant and applicable to corporate America just as much as in the non-profit settings. In some cases my team offered criticisms of the examples, but even in those cases the opportunity to have the team discuss and agree on the essential attributes of teamwork was a success I would not have achieved without the support of the book. I have not used the websites referred to in the book.

How Effective of a team player are you?.......2007-02-02

Oh this is a wonderful study. We are going through leadership training in our church and our homework lol is to read this book. It is very good material. My husband and I enjoy it so much we go back and reread the chapter we've done read.

The 17 Essential Qualities Of A Team Player .......2006-11-06

This book is very well written. It should be required reading in Organizational Behavior and other Management courses.

Misleading?.......2005-11-04

Many books and subjects taught should have a disclaimer stating that the information you are absorbing may not apply to the real world.

The only way I see the information in this book working is in a small company on its' way up. Im not saying that the information within is alltogether baseless, however, there are more than a few times while reading where I wondered what would be my fate if I had someone with a secretive agenda within my group of subordinates and I began to let down my guard just enough for them to knife me in the back? This book never suggests looking out for oneself. Dont get me wrong, trust is good, but you cannot allowed yourself to be disarmed by it.

Is the book worthy? ABSOLUTELY. All I am saying is that it should be taken with a grain of salt and not blindly adhered to.

not so surprising .......2005-04-26

nothing new , a lot of generalities, i am a bit deceived by the book ...

Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment: Developing Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills

Average customer rating:

Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment: Developing Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills
Mary L. Connerley , and Paul B. (Bodholdt) Pedersen
Manufacturer: Sage Publications, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Global Leadership: The Next Generation
Cultural Intelligence: People Skills for Global Business
Reinventing Organization Development
Facilitating Organization Change: Lessons from Complexity Science
Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work

ASIN: 0761988602

Book Description

“This is a well-written book. Quite simple and precise . . . The authors should be commended. This book deals with leadership from a very contemporary perspective that reflects the importance of multiculturalism.”
–Guo-Ming Chen, University of Rhode Island

No matter how culturally different the person or group, there will be common-ground similarities and no matter how similar the person or group, there will be significant differences. Culture influences our thoughts, words, and actions in ways that are often unrecognized, leading to misunderstandings. Each misunderstanding can become very expensive, both in terms of missed opportunities and less effective business outcomes. Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment provides leaders with the tools necessary to effectively interact with all individuals.

Although much of the research related to multiculturalism has focused on expatriates and international assignments, Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment also focuses on leaders in domestic organizations, as they can benefit from developing their own multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Effective leaders can shape the culture of their organization to be accepting of individuals from all races, ethnicities, religions, and genders with a minimum of misunderstandings.

Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment is well grounded in solid research, but written in an easy-to-comprehend style that:

Provides a “culture centered” leadership perspective allowing organizational leaders the opportunity to attend to the influence of culture
Helps the reader find examples of how multicultural awareness can make their leadership task easier
Promotes an organizational culture that is more satisfying to both individuals and their leaders by embracing and celebrating differences.

Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment is an ideal supplemental text for undergraduate- or graduate-level international management, leadership, or diversity-related courses taught in the business curriculum. It could also be used in leadership courses taught in education and communication departments.

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework (Addison-Wesley Series on Organization Development)

Average customer rating:

Useful.Practical.
Interesting Model
Great book, plus...
The most helpful book...
A remarkable tool

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework (Addison-Wesley Series on Organization Development)
Kim S. Cameron , and Robert E. Quinn
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Organizational Culture and Leadership (The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)
Diagnosing Organizational Culture Instrument
The Corporate Culture Survival Guide
Corporate Culture and Performance
Strategic Organizational Change, Second Edition

ASIN: 0201338718

Download Description

Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture provides a framework, a sense-making tool, a set of systematic steps, and a methodology for helping managers and their organizations carefully analyze and alter their fundamental culture. Authors, Cameron and Quinn focus on the methods and mechanisms that are available to help managers and change agents transform the most fundamental elements of their organizations. The authors also provide instruments to help individuals guide the change process at the most basic level culture. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture offers a systematic strategy for internal or external change agents to facilitate foundational change that in turn makes it possible to support and supplement other kinds of change initiatives.

Customer Reviews:

Useful.Practical........2006-11-06

Help in good manner to diagnose culture in organization. Have developed based on their approach a light software application.Very useful. Help to develop competency models based on cultural approach.

Interesting Model.......2004-03-04

The model presented is an interesting and for the most part effective one. For an alternative model see O'Reilly, Chatman and Caldwell's OCP Method and in particular the commercially available web tools from ThinkShed (www.thinkshed.com) that leverage the method.

Whichever method you use, culture change is ultimately about the application of a consistent approach...my personal preference is the OCP because of the availability of robust web based tools that enable one to penetrate the organization to a much deeper level than is otherwise possible with a paper based model or an interview based model. This can be important if you are wanting to get at deeply rooted and/or problematic sub-cultures.

Smith

Great book, plus..........2003-06-23

This is a great book. In addition, I recommend "Strategic Organizational Change" by Michael Beitler.

The most helpful book..........2003-06-23

This is the most helpful book available on organizational culture. Their OCAI instrument (for diagnosing organizational culture) alone is worth more than the price of the book. I use Cameron & Quinn's material with every one of my clients.

Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"

A remarkable tool.......2003-02-21

The authors provide a great model for understanding and diagnosing organizations. Their cultural quandrant methodology also provides a common language for people within an organization to talk about what they have and what they want. I recommend this for everyone who wants to understand their own organization. Their instrument (OCAI) is both easy to understand and easy to use.

Lessons Learned: Shaping Relationships and the Culture of the Workplace

Average customer rating:

Sail into effective leadership with this book!

Lessons Learned: Shaping Relationships and the Culture of the Workplace
Roland S. Barth
Manufacturer: Corwin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

The Moral Imperative of School Leadership
Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit, New & Revised
Leading in a Culture of Change
Standards-Based Leadership: A Case Study Book for the Assistant Principalship
Improving Schools from Within: Teachers, Parents, and Principals Can Make the Difference (Jossey-Bass Education Series)

ASIN: 0761938435

Book Description

"Roland S. Barth's warm and wise book deserves to be kept close at hand. Witty, entertaining, instructive, and poignant, Barth's stories will get you thinking, and the 'working rules' salted throughout the book will help you navigate the deceptive shoals and powerful tides we all have to deal with at work."
Lee G. Bolman, Marion Bloch/Missouri Chair in Leadership
University of Missouri-Kansas City
Author of Leading With Soul and Reframing the Path to School Leadership

Lessons Learned is an insightful, funny, moving look at commonalties between life at sea and life in the schoolhouse. More than any other Barth book, this one exposes Roland for what he really is—an avid sailor, loyal friend, life-long learner, and compassionate leader."
Milli Pierce, Director
The Principals’ Center, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"This charming, humorous, and wise book teaches important lessons about relationships at work and at play. Once again, Barth has written a useful and invaluable book for teachers and principals alike."
Thomas J. Sergiovanni, Lillian Radford Professor of Education
Trinity University
Author of The Lifeworld of Leadership

"Barth's Lessons Learned is a powerful guide for defining the types of interpersonal relationships needed to bring about success."
Karen M. Dyer, Manager
Education Sector, Center for Creative Leadership
Author of The Intuitive Principal

In Lessons Learned , Roland S. Barth shares his often whimsical, but always thoughtful, reflections on relationships at sea and in the workplace. Drawing on his 40 years of experience on deck and in the schoolhouse, Barth shows us that these two worlds have more in common than we might expect—and that there is much to be learned about getting along with one another from both.

Our day-to-day exchanges with others are central to how we experience and perform in the workplace. Everyone wants to be a member of a high-performing team, be an effective leader, and work in an enlightened and empowering culture. Barth’s seemingly simple stories of interactions among colleagues and companions provide rich, humorous, and often poignant insights into the subtlety and complexity of human relationships that shape teams and leaders. The resulting "rules" provide a practical and delightfully conversational guide to cultivating and fortifying working relationships.

Some lessons learned are obvious, others less so. Most of all, Barth provides a backdrop that invites us to reflect on our own stories so that we may better understand our own "lessons learned."

Customer Reviews:

Sail into effective leadership with this book!.......2003-08-21

This book is a must read for all educational or business leaders. Barth's wit and stories make this book an enjoyable quick read. Personable and telling, his timeless wisdom and experience combine to create a book you'll want to consult time and again.

In an age when educational success is measured solely by "high-stakes testing", Roland Barth helps leaders keep centered on what really matters-people. Written primarily for educational leaders, business leaders will find this book helpful too.

This is a book about transforming and maintaining a nurturing and productive workplace, be it the classroom or boardroom. Much of the hype in leadership literature today hinges on acquiring new strategies or adopting new methodology. Lessons Learned is different. The advice offered to leaders in this book is practical and unchanging-focusing on developing quality relationships in the workplace.

Book Description

Culture, Leadership, and Organizations reports the results of a ten-year research program, the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) research program. GLOBE is a long-term program designed to conceptualize, operationalize, test, and validate a cross-level integrated theory of the relationship between culture and societal, organizational, and leadership effectiveness. A team of 160 scholars worked together since 1994 to study societal culture, organizational culture, and attributes of effective leadership in 62 cultures. Culture, Leadership, and Organizations: The GLOBE Study of 62 Societies reports the findings of the first two phases of GLOBE. The book is primarily based on the results of the survey of over 17,000 middle managers in three industries: banking, food processing, and telecommunications, as well as archival measures of country economic prosperity and the physical and psychological well-being of the cultures studied.

GLOBE has several distinguishing features. First, it is truly a cross-cultural research program. The constructs were defined, conceptualized, and operationalized by the multicultural team of researchers. Second, the industries were selected through a polling of the country investigators, and the instruments were designed with the full participation of the researchers representing the different cultures. Finally, the data in each country were collected by investigators who were either natives of the cultures studied or had extensive knowledge and experience in that culture.

A unique feature of this book is that while it is an edited book and many experts have written the different chapters, unlike other edited books, it is a fully integrated, seamless, and cohesive book covering the many aspects of the theory underpinning the GLOBE.

Customer Reviews:

Culture, Leadership and organizations: The Globe Study of 62 societies.......2007-01-18

Though this book is rather expensive, it is worth the price. It gives a very good overview of both societal and organizational cultures in the 62 countries described. It helps understanding the challenges of multicultural teams. In combination with books written by Trompenaars and Hofstede a good insight can be developed in the backgrounds of behaviour and attitude of people in organizations with a multi cultural composition.

Worth it. Even thought it is a hefty price.......2005-07-19

This book will displace Hofstede's seminal work on culture because it provides the most up do date survey data on cultural values of countries. It is also a very useful leadership reference book. A bit on the expensive side, but then you are buying the Rolls Royce of culture books. To supplement this book regarding leadership in general a couple of leadership reference books would be useful (e.g., "Handbook of Leadership" by Bernard Bass--very complete, or more compact versions like "Leadership in Organizations" by Yukl or "The nature of Leadership" by Antonakis).

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