Making Sense of Change Management - Esther Cameron & Mike Green

A Complete Guide to the Models, Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change
The world we live in continues to change at an intense rate. 
The rate of change and discovery outpaces our individual ability to keep up with it. 
The organizations we work in or rely on to meet our needs and wants are also changing dramatically, in terms of their strategies, their structures,their systems, their boundaries and of course their expectations of their staff and their managers. 
Written for students and professionals alike, Making Sense of Change Management is the classic text in the field. 
It is aimed at readers who want to understand why change happens, how it happens and what needs to be done to make change a welcome concept rather than a dreaded one. 
It offers insights into the many frameworks, models and ways of approaching change and helps the reader apply the right approach to each unique situation.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.17 out of 5 (6 Ratings, 0 Reviews)

My Rating:  4 out of 5 
My Comments: Quite a comprehensive & useful guide for change management professionals. Nice explanation of the theories underpinning change management.  


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Management 3.0 by Jurgen Appelo

Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders

In many organizations, management is the biggest obstacle to successful Agile development. 

Unfortunately, reliable guidance on Agile management has been scarce indeed. Now, leading Agile manager Jurgen Appelo fills that gap, introducing a realistic approach to leading, managing, and growing your Agile team or organization.

Writing for current managers and developers moving into management, Appelo shares insights that are grounded in modern complex systems theory, reflecting the intense complexity of modern software development. 

 Appelo’s Management 3.0 model recognizes that today’s organizations are living, networked systems; and that management is primarily about people and relationships.

 Management 3.0 doesn’t offer mere checklists or prescriptions to follow slavishly; rather, it deepens your understanding of how organizations and Agile teams work and gives you tools to solve your own problems. 

Drawing on his extensive experience as an Agile manager, the author identifies the most important practices of Agile management and helps you improve each of them.

Coverage includes

 • Getting beyond “Management 1.0” control and “Management 2.0” fads

• Understanding how complexity affects your organization

• Keeping your people active, creative, innovative, and motivated

• Giving teams the care and authority they need to grow on their own

• Defining boundaries so teams can succeed in alignment with business goals

• Sowing the seeds for a culture of software craftsmanship

• Crafting an organizational network that promotes success

• Implementing continuous improvement that actually works

Thoroughly pragmatic–and never trendy–Jurgen Appelo’s Management 3.0 helps you bring greater agility to any software organization, team, or project.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 4.12 out of 5 (771 Ratings, 61 Reviews)

My Rating:  4 out of 5.  

Buying Options 
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Emotionomics - Dan Hill

Leveraging Emotions for Business Success

For far too long, emotions have been ignored in favor of rationality and efficiency.  

Breakthroughs in brain science have revealed that people are primarily emotional decision-makers.  

Many companies have not yet accepted that fact, ignoring emotion in favor of rationality and efficiency.  

Even fewer have acted on it.

 

Emotionomics looks at emotions in terms of business opportunities, both in the marketplace and in the workplace. 

In today's highly competitive marketplace where many products look alike, a product's emotional benefit can make the difference.  

Moreover, a company with an emotionally engaged workforce will undoubtedly achieve competitive advantage.

 

Dan Hill's book draws on insights gathered through facial coding, the single best viable means of measuring and managing the emotional response of customers and employees. 

It shows how to leverage emotions for business success in branding, product design, advertising, sales, customer satisfaction, leadership, and employee management.

 

Emotions matter, and this book will help readers not only step closer to customers and employees, but also to step ahead of competitors.

 [Book Description Source: www.amazon.com]

Table of Contents
 

Part One: Why emotions matter
The new mental model - Overview, Science: the meaning of a three-part brain,Psychology: balancing blind instinct with growth,Economics: plugging emotions into the equation  

The science of facial coding- Overview,The challenge: when words along fail us,Origins and scope: why and how facial coding works, Deliverables: facial coding in practice  

Emotions and motivations- Overview, Contextualizing emotions: how feelings fuel behaviour, Motivations: what spurs us on,The Emotionomics Matrix: introducing a strategic model  

 

Part Two: Marketplace applications Branding - Overview, Reflected beliefs: keep consumers’ values in view,Belonging: where status and security meet,Telling a story: selling familiarity and comfort, Conclusion  

Offer design, packaging and usability- Overview, Winning superiority: nurturing a ‘wow’, Sensory payoff: the way to the heart,Functional fulfilment: joy not frustration,Conclusion Advertising- Overview, Being absorbing: what stopping power entails,The invisible line: why knowing the target market matters,Reassurance: defusing skepticism,Conclusion  

Sales - Overview, Commitment: adopting a relationship model, Unity: staying in step with the prospect, Interwoven rewards: creating a ‘we’ mentality, Conclusion  

Retail and service- Overview, Respectfulness: enabling efficiency, Engagement: bringing back delight, Reassurance: proving oneself right, Conclusion  

 

Part Three: Workplace applications Leadership - Overview, The greater good: why character matters, Clear vision: forward thinking and feeling, Cohesive culture: bringing everyone along, Conclusion  

Employee management - Overview Compatibility: identifying what works Reciprocating trust: avoid disconnects Mission critical: inspiring a questing mentality Conclusion

Goodreads Rating - 3.48 out of 5 (40 Ratings, 3 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
 

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What Works for GE May Not Work For You - Lawrence Solow and Brenda Fake

Using Human System Dynamics to Build a Culture of Process Improvement
This book provides new tools for managing and sustaining process improvement in today’s complex non-linear environments and helps readers apply new, relevant theory to their own management practices. 

With more than 50 combined years of change management and process improvement consulting experience, the authors offer valuable practical insights for creating dynamic organizational change. The first section of the book describes the key bodies of knowledge and process improvement processes (Lean, Six Sigma, and Human Systems Dynamics) used throughout the text. 
The next two sections focus on the case story of TryinHard Marine. 
The authors first highlight the dynamics of a typical linear process improvement implementation. 
They then present ways to combat a range of complex, non-linear, and emergent organizational issues as they arise during the implementation of a Six Sigma initiative. 
The last part explains how to assess readiness to begin a process improvement initiative, select consultants and internal "Belt" candidates, and choose the appropriate tools for projects. The authors also introduce additional tools and concepts to enable adaptive action at all levels of an organization.
This book provides useful information for thinking and behaving in adaptive ways that can be applied to any organization. 
By using the concepts, models, and tools presented, readers can improve their own business improvement processes.

 [Source: www.amazon.com ]

Goodreads Rating - 3.0 out of 5 (2 Ratings; 0 Reviews)

My Review:
Being a process improvement professional for so many years has taught me that you cannot ignore the human element in any process improvement initiative. 
Nor can you take a cookie cutter approach of installing a methodology, model or framework without adapting it  to the needs of your own organization.
This book is a very good introduction on how to take into account the complexity of human interactions in an organizational level process improvement effort. 
Though the example given in this book is about Six Sigma the concepts are equally applicable for any process improvement initiative.  
Be it Agile, CMMI, Lean or any other flavor of the day.
A must read for all process improvement professionals !


Links:

• Book website
• Human System Dynamics Institute 

Buying Options 

Readers in India

 
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Buy the Kindle book version
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Readers in Other Countries 
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The Handbook of Global Outsourcing and Offshoring - Ilan Oshri, Julia Kotlarsky and Leslie P. Willcocks

The global outsourcing market for IT and business services exceeded $485 billion in 2011 and is set to grow at 8-10% per annum until 2015.
Of this, $65 billion was offshore outsourcing where some estimates suggest an annual growth rate of 15-20% over the next five years.
Furthermore, over 50 % of the Fortune Global 500 had offshored IT and business process activities through captive centers, representing $ 9 billion of business.
The expansion of outsourcing and offshoring and the emergence of new sourcing models are challenging existing management practices.
 It has become increasingly important to understand the phenomena, not least as a basis for suggesting what directions it will take, its impacts, how it has been conducted, and how its management can be better facilitated.

This book offers a broad perspective on various issues relating to the sourcing of IT and business processes and services in a company, national and global context. 
The authors examine both the client's and the vendor's involvement in sourcing relationships by putting the emphasis on the capabilities that each side should develop prior to entering a relationship but also that they should develop as a result of their interactions with each other.
 [Source: Inside Front Cover of the book ]


Goodreads Rating - 3.0 out of 5 (2 Ratings; 0 Reviews)

My Review:
A pretty useful book for organizations that are looking for outsourcing IT and business processes. It will guide them in getting the fundamentals of outsourcing right. Has some good case studies. Sort of dry read though.

Links:

• Preview of the Book  

Buying Options 

Readers in India

 
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Buy the Kindle book version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 

Readers in Other Countries 
Buy from Amazon.com

Buy the Kindlle book  version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 

From Complexity to Simplicity by Simon Collinson & Melvin Jay

Unleash Your Organization's Potential
Complexity is one of the biggest challenges facing modern business. 
It is slowing companies down, costing them over 10% of their profits and harming employee morale.
Yet very few people are offering practical advice on how to solve this problem.

From Complexity to Simplicity will equip you and your business with the understanding, tools and inspiration you need to identify and eradicate harmful complexity from your company or organisation. 
Based on cutting-edge research, it takes you through real business case-studies and offers a practical 'how to' approach to tackling this growing problem. 

• What is complexity? What is simplicity? 
• The true financial costs of complexity
• The impact of complexity on managers,employees and different parts of the business
• How to change the behaviors that create business complexity
• How to identify where complexity is hurting you most
• Clear guidance on how to remove harmful complexity from processes, organization design, strategy, product and service portfolios
• How to reduce the everyday complexity of work life

From Complexity to Simplicity will show you how to start your own simplicity revolution and achieve business success. 
[Source: As per the description on the book cover]

Goodreads Rating - 3.75 out of 5 ( 4 Ratings; 1 Review)

My Comments:
The first two chapters of this book explore the causes and consequences of complexity and provide guidelines to diagnose complexity and to develop a generic simplification strategy.
The subsequent six chapters are dealing with how to simplify -
 i) People Complexity
ii) Organization
iii) Strategy
iv) Processes
v) Product and Services
vi) Everyday work
The appendix of the book has three case studies about complexity in the Pharmaceutical , Banking and Insurance sectors.

A useful book to understand and deal with complexities in our working life.
 

Links:
Visit  http://www.simplicity-consulting.com/ for more details on simplifying the complexity.

Buying Options 

Readers in India

 
Buy from Amazon.in  
Buy the Kindle book version
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 

Readers in Other Countries 
Buy from Amazon.com

Buy the Kindlle book 
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 

When Teams Collide - Richard D. Lewis

International teams are now a reality in multinational organizations. In this book, Richard D. Lewis, an internationally known cross-cultural consultant and trainer provides guidelines on how to successfully assemble, manage and strengthen international teams.
This is an an useful guidebook for those working on international teams.
Buy the Kindle book version.
(Anybody can read Kindle books—even without a Kindle device—with the FREE Kindle app for smartphones and tablets.) 
Read my summary and listing of key takeaways from this book in my professional blog.

Organisation Culture - Getting it Right

Author:         Naomi Stanford 
Published:   2010
Publisher:    Profile Books Ltd.
Paperback:  288 pages
This book on corporate culture is intended for managers and business people who are struggling to: 
a) Understand the culture of their organization
b) Get a grip on why it matters 
c) Get their culture right for their business strategy 
d) Avoid the common mistakes of "culture change" 
e) Keep their culture from getting stuck
This book provides a very common-sense, practical, realistic and pragmatic approach towards understanding and working with organization culture. An excellent and enlightening read. Highly recommend it as "the first book one should read about Organization Culture" ! 
Read more about this book in my business blog.
  

The Professional - Defining the New Standard of Excellence at Work

Author:         Subroto Bagchi 
Published:   2011
Publisher:    Penguin Books India
Hardcover:  256 pages
 
Who is a true professional ? 
The author a well known business leader in Indian IT industry, redefines "professionalism" in this book. 

 A book which every professional should read and benchmark themselves against the yardstick laid out by Subroto Bagchi. 

Read more about this book in my professional blog.

Goodreads Rating : 3.86 out of 5 (14 ratings)

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Original Edition)

Author: Patrick Lencioni

Published: 2008

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Paperback: 240 pages

This book is a must read for those executives who wants to bring about team leadership culture in their organization and also highly recommended for Agile Coaches, ScrumMasters and Scrum Team members .

It has been published as a manga (comic book) edition too. In fact I read the manga edition first and summarized it in one of my previous blog post.

I then got hold of this original book hoping to gather more insights and details about the five dysfunctions of a team. However it proved to be an unnecessary exercise since the manga edition seems to have done a great job of bringing out all the key points of this book.

Read my blog post on the manga edition of this book.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Manga Edition)

Author: Patrick Lencioni

Illustrator: Kensuke Okabayashi

Published: 2008

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Pte Ltd.

Paperback: 174 pages

A must read for those executives who wants to bring about team leadership culture  in their organization. Also highly recommended for Agile Coaches, ScrumMasters and Scrum Team members since Agile highly values  teamwork.

Read more about this book in my Professional Blog.

Individuals and Interactions: An Agile Guide

Authors:      Ken Howard and Barry Rogers

Published:   2011

Publisher:    Addison-Wesley Professional

Paperback: 240 pages

Buy from Flipkart  

"Individual and Interactions over Processes and Tools", thus begins the Agile Manifesto. It is obvious that the authors of the Agile Manifesto considered "Individual and Interactions" of  foremost importance for  any Agile implementation. Ironically even after ten years, the Agile literature is flooded with books on "Processes and Tools" but hardly any  on individual behaviors and team interactions in context of  Agile projects. Therefore this book is a very welcome addition to the Agile literature.

This book is in two parts. 

Part I - This part  introduces  and discuss the concepts of  - Individual Behavior, Team Dynamics, Communication, Collaboration, Team Behavior, Change and Motivators. These concepts are well illustrated through numerous examples from Agile context.

The authors  recommend  assessment of  the behavioral profile of each individual through  the  DISC (Dominator, Influencer, Supporter, Critical Thinker) framework and sharing the findings with everyone in the team. This they say will lead to better understanding and appreciation of an individual's behavior  and thereby promote teamwork and collaboration. A  typical DISC test is provided in this book. I took this assessment and found the results pretty much in synch with my behavioral pattern !

The chapter on Communication addresses the Agile Principle - The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. All the key aspects to keep in mind during face-to-face conversation - Empathy, Cultural Awareness, Language (both verbal and body language) - are dealt with. Guidelines to communicate with different behavioral profiles are also provided in this book.

Yet another Agile Principle - Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done - is also addressed. The chapter on Motivators identifies and discusses  six key workplace motivators -  Theoretical, Utilitarian/ Economic, Aesthetic,  Social,  Individualistic/Political,  Traditional/ Regulatory.  

Motivation strategies appropriate to each of these motivators  are also suggested.

Part II  - This part gives detailed guidelines  and instructions on on how to conduct Team Dynamics workshop. It suggests various exercises for the participants which will  enable them to become aware and internalize all the concepts introduced in Part I . Some examples of exercises -  Communication Origami ( for Communication), Bridge Building ( for Team Dynamics), Moon Survival ( for Collaboration). 

People issues are the most challenging ones in any agile project. This book is an excellent guide for Team members, ScrumMasters, Product Owners, Management, Consultants, Trainers to understand these issues and  successfully address them. A Must-Read !

Links:

• Table of Contents
• Sample Chapters - Chapter 2 Behavior and Individuals , Chapter 4 Communication
• Interview with the Authors
• Free and Quick Online DISC Test -  This is different from the one in the book. Much shorter and may not be as accurate.

[Please feel free to leave comment or bookmark/share this summary]

The 60 Second Leader

Author:         Phil Dourado
Published:     2007
Publisher:     Wiley India Pvt. Ltd.
Paperback:    180 pages
Buy from Flipkart



Is it possible to compile quotes, concepts, references on leadership in a book without making it look like a dictionary or an encyclopedia ? Yes it is and that's what the author Phil Dourado a leadership consultant has precisely done.
He has dived into  oceans of books, theories and courses on leadership to extract 30 pearls of leadership wisdom and offers them to the readers in a very concise (less than 200 pages) book.


The book is divided into five sections, each having a chapter dedicated to one essential element of leadership.

1. Personal (Self) Leadership: 
• Failure, Intuition, Decision, Connection, Luck, Optimism.
2. Leading the Organization:   
• Strategy, Competition, Action, Execution, Management, Change.
3. Leading People:
• Questions, Attention, Stories, Motivation, Engagement, Targets.
4. Distributed Leadership: 
• Innovation, Culture, Leading from the middle, Customers, Frontline leadership.                                                     
5. Great Leadership:
• Ego, Humility, Fear, Love, Presence, Legacy 

Each chapter contains the gist of  the views of several leaders (mostly business leaders) regarding  the element discussed, recommendations for further reading and an appropriate leadership story. 

Most of the chapters also have a precise definitions of useful  concepts like - The Tripping Point, Thin Slicing, OODA Loops, Network Leadership,  System Dynamics,  Epiphany, The Attention Economy,  MBSA (Management by Storying Around), The Law of Great Expectations, Goodhart's Law, The 360 Degree Leader, Transformational Leadership, Presencing etc.

If you are too busy to read everything you need to read on leadership, this is the ONE BOOK which you should read !

To get a feel of what lies in store for you between the covers of this book, you can visit the following link maintained by the author at his website (www.phildourado.com):  Sample extracts from The 60 Second Leader  

I borrowed this book from a library but I intend to buy it at the earliest (at less than  Rs 200/- (about $4) it is a  real steal !) so that I can have a handy leadership advisor whom I can consult from time to time.