Ingenious, carefully researched, and impressively detailed; both a hands-on workbook and a leadership guide.
A Fulbright scholar and business consultant offers a broadly applicable strategy for implementing organizational change.
Rather than theorizing about organizational leadership, this debut guide delves into the operational specifics of how a leader can influence change. The book is separated into two distinct parts. In Part 1, Tkaczyk introduces a framework for what he terms “an alternative strategy for leading positive organizational change.” The framework consists of three phases, “Energize, Redesign, and Gel (ERG),” each of which is further discussed and explored throughout the volume. The author builds a firm foundation for his framework by citing research-based examples and appending extensive references to each of the three chapters in the first part. While the writing style borders on the scholarly, the manual includes two particularly helpful sections, a “Lead-in” to stimulate interest in the chapter and “Summary propositions,” a bulleted segment that recaps the main takeaways. The content strongly reinforces the ERG framework, concluding with the third chapter that focuses on organization development consulting. Here, Tkaczyk precisely describes the global market, providing a statistical overview of consulting in specific countries and regions. Perhaps more intriguing is the comprehensive case study of a Middle Eastern insurance company in which the author discusses how “positive strategic transformation” was achieved via the ERG strategy. Tkaczyk takes pains to describe actions the company took that were related to each of the three phases, but he notes that they should be viewed in the context of a “dynamic continuous and concurrent process.” The case itself is invaluable in illustrating the application of the ERG method.
Part 2 of the book is a unique “ToolBox” divided into three “WorkBoxes,” one for each of the three phases. Ten highly useful interactive tools, drawn from the author’s knowledge of projects from around the world, are included in each WorkBox. For example, the Energize WorkBox begins with the “ERG organizational change scorecard,” a tool designed to assess leadership performance. An especially creative tool in this WorkBox centers on crafting a story about an organization that mirrors a neuron and “F.I.R.E.S. (Fresh, Informative, Related, Energizing/Evangelical, Strategic).” In the Redesign WorkBox are several imaginative tools, such as the “Innovation booster,” a matrix of numerous terms associated with the categories “Benefits,” “Needs,” “Positive feelings,” and “Action.” Tkaczyk includes pertinent questions to guide an organizational leader in the use of this tool. The Gel WorkBox is the culmination of the volume; here readers will find a tool that helps in developing reward strategies for employee teams as well as one to encourage “continuing executive development.” As a whole, the all-inclusive ToolBox is the equivalent of a consultant in a box. It is likely that the exceptional value of the 30 tools generously shared by the author in Part 2 will far exceed the cost of the manual. As Tkaczyk accurately observes, his framework appears to be a “straightforward, effective, action-oriented, designerly, collaborative approach” to “organizational renewal.”
Ingenious, carefully researched, and impressively detailed; both a hands-on workbook and a leadership guide.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-367-90347-3
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Routledge
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
IN THE NEWS
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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