Category: Books
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Book Review: Bad Samaritans
Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations, Poor Policies And The Threat To The Developing World by Ha-Joon Chang is a well researched and beautifully written book. The author convincingly offers new ways of seeing the world affairs and how they can become fairer and more prosperous. I highly recommend this book!
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Peter Block on freedom
…perhaps the real task of leadership is to confront people with their freedom.…freedom is what creates accountability. Freedom is not an escape from accountability……our willingness to care for the well-being of the whole occurs when we are confronted with our freedom, and when we choose to accept and act on that freedom.—Peter Block 1 Notes:1.…
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Book Review: Changing Conversations in Organizations
Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change by Patricia Shaw is based on the assumption that “conversation itself is the key process through which forms of organizing are dynamically sustained and changed” (p. 10). Patricia Shaw describes and illustrates “conversation as a process of communicative action” (p. 11). She explores at how we…
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Dee Hock on rules
Countless times over the years I have asked diverse groups of people to reflect very carefully on their work within organizations and to make a simple balance sheet. How much time, energy, and ingenuity did they spend obeying senseless rules and procedures that had little to do with the results they were expected to achieve?…
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Book Review: Team of Teams
Teams of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Stanley McChrystal, with Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell, is a book about the restructuring of the Joint Special Operations Task Force from the ground up. The book is built upon the authors ”personal experiences”, together with their ”reviews” of ”published studies”…
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Book Review: First Steps to Seeing
First Steps to Seeing: A Path Towards Living Attentively is Emma Kidd’s first book. Emma Kidd “left the fashion industry to investigate alternative ways of thinking about and doing business” (p. 11). What she didn’t expect was that her explorations would take her right back to the very foundation for her previous work as designer…
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Dialogic Organization Development
Here is an academic text book on the field of Dialogic Organizational Development. The book is a mix of perspectives from academics and practitioners. The text is integrated such that the chapters flow one to the next.
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Preview: The Age of Thrivability
Here is a preview of Michelle Holliday’s forthcoming book The Age of Thrivability. Michelle Holliday’s work centers around “thrivability” and a view of organizations as living systems. She brings people together and helps them discover ways they can serve life more powerfully through their work. What if we made it our primary intention to enable…
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Book Review: The Human Experiment
The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2 by Jane Poynter is a story about how she struggled to survive in Biosphere 2 together with seven other people. It’s a story of never-ending hunger, extremely low oxygen levels, and conflicts between the crew members. It’s a story where “the work ethic and…
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Holacracy vs. Sociocracy
I have written book reviews of Brian Robertson’s new book on Holacracy and Gerard Endenburg’s first book on Sociocracy. Robertson’s book was published in 2015. Endenburg’s book was originally published in Dutch in 1981. The first English translation was published in 1988, and the Eburon edition, which I have reviewed, in 1998. Here’s my comparison…