Product Description
Terms of Engagement introduces a new method for changing organizations based on four essential principles: Widening the Circle of Involvement, Connecting People to Each Other and Ideas, Creating Communities for Action, and Embracing Democratic Principles. This method enables leaders to create the energetic, flexible, responsive organizations necessary to thrive and prosper in the contemporary business world. Included are examples from British Airways, Hewlett-Packar… More >>
Terms of Engagement: Changing the Way We Change Organizations
Tags: british airways, business world, Change, Changing, changing organizations, contemporary business, democratic principles, Engagement, Organizations, Terms, terms of engagement
#1 by Rosemarie Barbeau on May 3, 2010 - 2:56 am
In this book, Dick Axelrod takes a provocative look at how change management consulting is often done in organizations today, how it frequently misses the mark and why. Best of all, he lays out a specific approach to enabling organizational change that is both powerful in it’s impact and profoundly democratic in spirit.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Anonymous on May 3, 2010 - 4:32 am
It’s very seldom I find a professional development book I can’t put down. Terms of Engagement is such a book. Dick’s straightforward analysis of why change efforts fall short makes clear the reasoning behind his innovative recommendations. The theory is sound; the stories bring it to life. The how-to’s provide clear direction for implementing his ideas. Each principle, example and suggestion made me eager for more.
Having been privileged to work closely with Dick over the years, I have come to appreciate his keen perception and creative, collaborative solutions. He brings all of his wisdom and compassion to this writing. I believe anyone dealing with organizational change–from within the organzation or as an external consultant–will recognize familiar situations, pitfalls and opportunities, and find new ideas to spark their efforts in this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by Anonymous on May 3, 2010 - 4:40 am
It’s very seldom I find a professional development book I can’t put down. Terms of Engagement is such a book. Dick’s straightforward analysis of why change efforts fall short makes clear the reasoning behind his innovative recommendations. The theory is sound; the stories bring it to life. The how-to’s provide clear direction for implementing his ideas. Each principle, example and suggestion made me eager for more.
Having been privileged to work closely with Dick over the years, I have come to appreciate his keen perception and creative, collaborative solutions. He brings all of his wisdom and compassion to this writing. I believe anyone dealing with organizational change–from within the organzation or as an external consultant–will recognize familiar situations, pitfalls and opportunities, and find new ideas to spark their efforts in this book.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Robert Morris on May 3, 2010 - 5:30 am
In his Foreword, Axelrod asserts that his “is the first book to challenge the widely accepted change management paradigm. It provides leaders at all levels of the organization — all those who initiate, design,, and implement change — with a set of principles for bringing about change in a turbulent world. It is not a methodology, nor is it a set of techniques; rather, it is a set of principles that everyone can fall back on when faced with new and different situations.” In Part One, Axelrod identifies the problems with the current change management paradigm. In effect, he demythologizes conventional thinking on this subject. In Part Two, he examines four principles for producing an engaged organization, devoting a separate chapter to each. It is important to keep in mind that the nature and extent of production (or results) will be determined almost entirely by the nature and extent of engagement throughout an organization.
In Part Three, Axelrod shares his insights and suggestions which will assist his reader during the “Getting Started” phase of the process. Also, Axelrod discusses what he calls the “minefields” on the “road to [organization-wide] engagement.” He concludes with a brief, especially valuable analysis of “eight specific issues the engagement paradigm can help you tackle, including the introduction of new technology, the increase in mergers, acquisitions, and alliances, and growing dissociation from communities.”
If you are now involved in any of this or are about to become involved, I recommend this book highly. Carefully select those strategies which are most appropriate to your own organization’s needs and interests. Axelrod can then help you to chart or to reformulate a proper course to implement those strategies.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Midwest Book Review on May 3, 2010 - 7:04 am
Organizational change advocate Richard Axelrod challenges the commonly accepted change management paradigm in Terms Of Engagement: Changing The Way We Change Organizations. Axelrod draws upon his research, experience, and expertise to offer a practical and effective approaches he calls the “engagement paradigm”, a system that will provide corporate leaders with a practical, principle-based strategy for creating successful change outcomes. Implementing the engagement paradigm will result in employees and managers grasping the big picture and align around a common purpose; fully distribute accountability; quickly identify performance gaps and thereby improving both productivity and customer satisfaction; spark creativity as employees, suppliers, and customers contribute their best ideas; create capacity for future changes to meet future challenges in the highly competitive and rapidly globalizing economies.
Rating: 5 / 5