Favorite Books and Articles

Change Management

Bridges, William.  Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change.  Addison-Wesley, 1991.

Comments: The classic book on navigating the process of letting go of the old and attaching to the new.

Connor, Daryl.  Managing at the Speed of Change: How Resilient Managers Succeed and Prosper Where Others Fail. Villard Books, 1993.

Comments: As a psychologist, Connor has spent his professional life studying what differentiates changes that “take” from those that don’t.  This book concisely captures his findings: the stages of adaptation for changes perceived as positive and negative, the roles that it takes to launch and sustain organizational change, and differences between more-resilient people and organizations and less resilient ones.

Kotter, John.  Leading Change.  Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

Comments: Explains Kotter’s extensively researched, eight-phase process for leading change (Establish urgency. Create a guiding coalition. Develop vision and strategy. Communicate the change vision. Empower broad-based action. Generate short-term wins. Consolidate gains. Anchor new approaches in the culture.) What leaders need to do to make change successful.

Noer, David.  Healing the Wounds: Overcoming the Trauma of Layoffs and Revitalizing Downsized Organizations.  Jossey-Bass, 1993.

Comments:  Compassionately explains “survivor’s syndrome” and explains how to disengage from the organizational co-dependency that makes people feel victimized by change.

Senge, Peter; Roberts, Charlotte; et al. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization.  Currency Doubleday, 1994.

Comments: Explains key learning organization concepts and models in understandable terms and useful interventions.  Examples: advocacy vs. inquiry, the “Ladder of Inference,” unpacking a conversation’s undiscussibles through Argyris’ Left- and Right-Hand Column exercise, systems thinking, scenario planning, and more!

Diagnosis

Mink, Oscar and Barbara; Downes, Barbara; Owen, Keith. Open Organizations: A Model for Effectiveness, Renewal, and Intelligent Change. Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Comments:  Provides an excellent 3x3 diagnostic matrix (3 levels: organization, group and individual. 3 essential purposes: unity, internal responsiveness and external responsiveness). Chock-full of models, “how tos,” and interventions.  An all-in-one tool kit.

Nadler, David.  Feedback and Organizational Development: Using Data-Based Methods. Addison-Wesley, 1977.

Comments:  The classic book on how to get clients to own and follow through on diagnosis.

Redding, John C. and Catalanello, Ralph F.  Strategic Readiness: The Making of the Learning Organization.  Jossey-Bass, 1994.

Comments: How to cultivate action learning teams so that organizational change and adaptation grows from the inside, instead of being super-imposed by “experts” from the outside.  How to create organizations that think holographically, not mechanistically.

Robinson, Dana Gaines and James C.  Performance Consulting.  Berrett-Koehler, 1995.

Comments: Shows how to define the target (desired performance) the actual (current performance) for both the larger system and the client’s immediate unit.  Shows how to sort causes into those within and beyond the client’s control.  A good framework for gathering and interpreting information, but avoid using it in an expert-driven, doctor-to-patient way.

Weisbord, Marvin.  Organizational Diagnosis: A Workbook of Theory and Practice. Addison-Wesley, 1991.

Comments:  The classic “6-box” Diagnostic Model (purposes, structure, relationships, rewards, leadership, coordination, and outside environment).

Strategy and Purpose

Hamel, Gary and Prahalad, C.K.  Competing for the Future. Harvard Business School Press, 1994.

Comments: The classic book on selecting and cultivating the core competencies of the organization.

Hogg, C. Davis.  Team-Based Strategic Planning. AMACOM, 1994.

Comments:  Provides a step-by-step process for guiding leadership teams through strategic planning in 5 phases: Where are we now? (internal and external assessment) Where do we want to be? (mission, vision and objectives) How will we get there? (strategies and programs) Who must do what? (responsibilities and accountability) How are we doing? (on-going review and adaptation).

Mintzberg, Henry, Ahlstrand, Bruce, and Lampel, Joseph.  Strategy Safari. The Free Press, 1998.

Comments: My all-time-favorite book on strategy formation.  It compares different approaches to strategy formation.  It shows how strategy formation can take very different paths from the rigorously analytical (the Planning School) to the creative and emergent (the Entrepreneurial School).  Don’t lead a strategic planning retreat until you’ve read this book – it will help you to integrate the kaleidoscope of perspectives that it takes to create robust and resilient futures.

Nolan, Timothy M., Goodstein, Leonard D. and Pfeiffer, J. William.  Applied Strategic Planning: The Consultant’s Kit.  Pfeiffer & Co. 1992.

Comments:  I’m usually disappointed by “all-in-one” intervention kits; this is the exception.  It’s very understandable, provides useful models and assignments, and “hand-holds” the consultant through a sound strategic planning process.

Van Der Heijden, Kees.  Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation.  John Wiley & Sons, 1996.

Comments:  Leaders who have generated a range of options for possible futures can respond more flexibly and creatively to the unexpected than those who have focused on carefully engineering a single favorite plan.  This book demonstrates that the greatest value of planning is in the collective learning process, not in the plan.

Culture

Argyris, Chris and Schon, Donald.  Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method, and Practice.  Addison-Wesley, 1996.

Comments: Chris Argyris has done the deepest and most long-standing thinking about uncovering differences between the “the talk” and “the walk.”  In this book he explains the difference between Model 1

operating assumptions and behaviors (those which focus on saving face) and Model 2 operating assumptions and behaviors (those which focus on straight talk and joint learning).  Argyris explains how to surface undiscussables. This is a “must read” but not an easy read.

Kotter, John P. and Heskett, James L.  Corporate Culture and Performance.  The Free Press, 1992.

Comments: Compelling research on the impact of culture on organizational performance.  Differentiates cultures that support performance (they’re strong and adaptive) from those that undermine performance (they’re either mushy or rigid and non-adaptive).  Shows leadership’s role in creating a sense of urgency, helping the organization to understand the big picture (its multiple interests – customer, employees, shareholders, etc.) and staying the course over time.

Schein, Edgar.  The Corporate Culture Survival Guide.  Jossey-Bass, 1999.

Comments: The most recent book from the “Godfather” of research on corporate culture.  This volume explains what culture is (behaviors, values and shared assumptions), why it matters, how to tell how functional is, and how to adapt it. 

Harrison, Roger.  Diagnosing Organizational Culture: Trainer’s Manual.  Pfeiffer & Co. 1993.

Harrision, Roger and Stokes, Herb.  Diagnosing Organizational Culture.  Pfeiffer & Co. 1992.

Comments:  An instrument and facilitator’s guide with a great 4-quadrant model of cultural archetypes (the Power culture, the Role or bureaucracy culture, the Achievement culture, and the Support culture).  The archetypes are helpful for becoming aware of the upsides and downsides of each archetype, but like any archetypal model (MBTI, DISC, etc.) beware of the tendency to caricature and oversimplify complex interconnected dynamics.

Structure

Galbraith, Jay R.  Designing Organizations.  Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Comments: An easy-to-read book (unusually easy-to-read for Galbraith) on how to reach greater congruence among strategy, structure, processes, people and rewards.  Galbraith is a leading organizational design guru. 

Hupp, Toni; Polak, Craig; Westgaard, Odin.  Designing Work Groups, Jobs, and Work Flow.  Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Comments: Okay, I’m biased, this is my book.  While many books on organizational design explain how to redesign the macro structure of an organization, they’re sketchy on how to redesign work at the micro, work-group level.  This book explains, step-by-step how to redesign work processes, how to reconfigure work groups, and how to create jobs that create a sense of ownership and initiative.

Mohrman, Susan A.; Cohen, Susan; Mohrman, Allan M.  Designing and Leading Team-Based Organizations: A Workbook for Organizational Self-design.  Jossey-Bass, 1997.

Comments:  The best, most-practical, easy-to-follow workbook on when and how to shift to a team-based organizational design.

Morgan, Gareth.  Images of Organization.  Sage, 1986.

Comments: Like “Strategy Safari,” this book compares different lenses for understanding its subject. Don’t start down the path of organizational redesign until you’ve read it.  However, it’s not an “easy read.” In 1998, Morgan came out with an “Executive Edition” of this book – it may be easier going than the original.

Extended Bibliography

Planning

Ackoff, Russell.  Creating the Corporate Future.  John Wiley & Sons, 1981.

Adizes, Ichak.  Corporate Lifecycles.  Prentice Hall, 1988.

Brandt, Steven.  Entrepreneuring: Ten Commandments for Building a Growth Company.  Mentor: New American Library, 1982.

Churchill, Neil and Lewis, Virginia.  The Five Stages of Small Business Growth,  in the May-June, 1983 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Hamel, Gary and Prahalad, C.K.  Competing for the Future. Harvard Business School Press, 1994.

Hogg, C. Davis.  Team-Based Strategic Planning. AMACOM, 1994.

Miller, Lawrence.  Barbarians to Bureaucrats: Corporate Life Cycle Strategies.  Fawcett Columbine, 1989.

Mintzberg, Henry, Ahlstrand, Bruce, and Lampel, Joseph.  Strategy Safari. The Free Press, 1998.

Perry, Lee; Stott, Randall; and Smallwood, W. Norman.  Real-Time Strategy.  John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Porter, Michael. Competitive Advantage.  The Free Press, 1985.

Porter Michael. Competitive Strategy.  The Free Press, 1980.

Ringland, Gill. Scenario Planning: Managing for the Future. John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Schwartz, Peter. The Long View. Doubleday Currency, 1991.

Tyebjee, Tyzoon, Bruno, Albert, and McIntyre, Shelby.  Growing Ventures Can Anticipate Marketing Stages in the January-February, 1983 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Van Der Heijden, Kees.  Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation.  John Wiley & Sons, 1996.

Wall, Stephen and Wall, Shannon. The New Strategists: Creating Leaders at All Levels. The Free Press, 1995.  

Organizational Design or Realignment

Ackoff, Russell.  The Democratic Corporation.  Oxford University Press, 1994.

Fisher, Kimball and Mareen. The Distributed Mind: Achieving High Performance Through the Collective Intelligence of Knowledge Work Teams.  AMACOM, 1998.

Galbraith, Jay R.  Designing Organizations.  Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Galbraith, Jay R. Organization Design.  Addison-Wesley, 1977.

Galbraith, Jay R.; Lawler, Edward E. and Associates. Organizing for the Future.  Jossey-Bass, 1993.

Hanna, David P. Designing Organizations for High Performance.    Addison-Wesley, 1988.

Hammer, Michael and Champy, James. Reengineering the Corporation.  Harper Business, 1993.

Hupp, Toni; Polak, Craig; Westgaard, Odin.  Designing Work Groups, Jobs, and Work Flow.  Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Keidel, Robert W.  Seeing Organizational Patterns.  Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1995.

Lawler, Edward E.  From the Ground Up. Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Lawler, Edward E. The Ultimate Advantage.  Jossey Bass, 1992. 

Lipnack, Jessica and Stamps, Jeffery. Virtual Teams.  John Wiley & Sons, 1997.

Lytle, William O. Designing a High-Performance Organization.  Block Petrella Weisbord, 1998.

Lytle, William O. Socio-Technical Systems Analysis and Design Guide for Linear Work.  Block Petrella Weisbord, 1991.

Lytle, William O. Socio-Technical Systems Analysis and Design Guide for Non-Linear Work.  Block Petrella Weisbord, 1991.

McIntosh-Fletcher, Donna.  Teaming by Design. Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996.

McLagan, Patricia and Nel, Christo.  The Age of Participation.  Berrett-Koehler, 1995.

Meyers, Carol.  Improving Whole Systems: A Guidebook.  Block Petrella Weisbord, 1992.

Miller, Lawrence M.  Design for Total Quality: A Workbook for Socio-Technical Design.  Miller Consulting Group, 1991.

Mintzberg, Henry.  Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations.  Prentice Hall, 1993.

Mohrman, Susan A. and Cummings, Thomas G. Self-Designing Organizations.  Addison-Wesley, 1989.

Mohrman, Susan A.; Cohen, Susan; Mohrman, Allan M.  Designing Team-Based Organizations.  Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Morgan, Gareth.  Images of Organization.  Sage, 1986.

Morgan, Gareth.  Imaginization.  Sage, 1993.

Nadler, David, Gerstein, Marc, Shaw, Robert and associates.  Organizational Architecture.  Jossey Bass, 1992.

Nadler, David and Tushman, Michael. Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture.  Oxford University Press, 1997.

Nadler, David and Tushman, Michael.  Strategic Organizational Design: Concepts, Tools, & Processes.  Harper Collins, 1988.

Pasmore, William.  Creating Strategic Change: Designing the Flexible, High-Performing Organization. John Wiley & Sons, 1994.

Pasmore, William.  Designing Effective Organizations: The Sociotechnical Systems Perspective.  John Wiley & Sons, 1988.

Rummler, Geary A. and Brache, Alan P.  Improving Performance.  Jossey Bass, 1990.

Shonk, James.  Team-Based Organizations.  Business One Irwin, 1992.

Tomasko, Robert.  Rethinking the Corporation. AMACOM, 1993.

Process Design and Improvement

Case, John.  Open-Book Management.  Harper Business, 1995.

Case John. The Open-Book Experience.  Addison Wesley, 1998.

Chang, Richard Y. Continuous Process Improvement, the October 1992 issue of Info-Line (by the American Society of Training and Development) .

Crego, Edwin T. (Jr.) and Schiffrin.  Customer-Centered Reengineering.  Irwin Professional Publishing, 1995.

Davenport, Thomas.  Process Innovation.  Harvard Business School Press, 1993.

Edosomwan, Johnson A. Organizational Transformation and Process Reengineering.  St. Lucie Press, 1996.

Goal/QPC. The Memory Jogger: A Pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous Improvement.  Goal/QPC, 1988.

Hammer, Michael and Champy, James. Reengineering the Corporation.  Harper Business, 1993.

Harbour, Jerry L. Improving Work Processes, in the February 1993 issue of Performance and Instruction.

Harbour, Jerry L. Cycle Time Reduction. Quality Resources, 1996.

Harbour, Jerry L. The Process Reengineering Workbook. Quality Resources, 1994.

Harrington, H. James.  Business Process Improvement.  McGraw Hill, 1991.

Harrington, H. James; Esseling, Erik; and Van Nimwegen, Harm. Business Process Improvement Workbook.  McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Hupp, Toni; Polak, Craig; Westgaard, Odin.  Designing Work Groups, Jobs, and Work Flow.  Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Ivanic, Cathy and Bado, Jim.  Open-Book Management: Getting Started.  Crisp Publications, 1997.

Lowenthal, Jeffrey.  Reengineering the Organization.  ASQC Quality Press, 1994.

Lynch, Richard and Cross, Kelvin.  Measure Up!  Yardsticks for Continuous Improvement.  Blackwell Business, 1991.

Maganelli, Raymond and Klein, Mark.  The Reengineering Handbook. AMACOM, 1994.

Miller, Lawrence M.  Design for Total Quality: A Workbook for Socio-Technical Design.  Miller Consulting Group, 1991.

Miller, Lawrence M. and Howard, Jennifer  Managing Quality Through Teams.   Miller Consulting Group, 1991.

Pasmore, William.  Designing Effective Organizations: The Sociotechnical Systems Perspective.  John Wiley & Sons, 1988.

Roberts, Lon.  Process Reengineering.  ASQC Quality Press, 1994.

Robson, George.  Continuous Process Improvement: Simplifying Work Flow Systems.  The Free Press, 1991.

Rummler, Geary A. and Brache, Alan P.  Improving Performance.  Jossey Bass, 1990.

Rummler, Geary A. and Brache, Alan P.  Managing the White Space, in the January 1991 issue of Training.

Rush, Gary R. Facilitated Business Engineering.  MG Rush Systems, 1996.

Schuster, John; Carpenter, Jill and Kane, Patricia.  The Open-Book Management Field Book.  John Wiley & Sons,  1998.

Schuster, John; Carpenter, Jill and Kane, Patricia.  The Power of Open-Book Management.  John Wiley & Sons,  1996.

Stack, Jack.  The Great Game of Business. Doubleday, 1992.

Large-Scale Forums

Axelrod, Richard.  Terms of Engagement.  Berrett-Koehler, 2000.

The Axelrod Group.  The Conference Model.  The Axelrod Group, 1994.

Bunker, Barbara and Alban, Billie. Large Group Interventions.  Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997.

Dannemiller Tyson Associates. Real-Time Strategic Change. Dannemiller Tyson Associates, Inc. 1994.

Emery, Merrelyn (editor).  Participative Design for Participative Democracy.  Center for Continuing Education, Australian National University, 1993.

Emery, Merrelyn and Purser, Ronald. The Search Conference. Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.

Fisher, Kimball and Mareen. The Distributed Mind: Achieving High Performance Through the Collective Intelligence of Knowledge Work Teams.  AMACOM, 1998.

Holman, Peggy and Devane, Tom eds. The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future.  Berrett-Koehler, 1999.

Jacobs, Robert. Real-Time Strategic Change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1994.

Pasmore, William; Fitz, Alan; and Frank, Gary. Fast Cycle Full Participation Work Systems Design.  Pasmore, Fitz & Frank, 1993.

Sullivan, Kristine; Giacobassi, Jane; Miner, Louise; Sullivan, Roland; Symons, Janet; Turner, Tim; Weiser, Kaylene; Wing, Linda; Wrede, Erik.  The Essential Handbook.  Sullivan Publishing Group, 1996.

Weisbord, Marvin.  Discovering Common Ground. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1992.