by Tom
Brown
This is a dark time for management. Our best thinkers are now witch doctors, dealing in voodoo hoodoo, targets to be lampooned in cartoons. Polls inside companies and communities show plunging regard for leadership. (Or is it a gut-grabbing hunger for more and better managerial leadership?)
With about 1,600 books out on business and organizational topics, finding this year's "Top 10" was no easy task. Dark times? Read these 10 "best" and decide.
1. Leading Change by John P. Kotter (Harvard Business School Press). Kotter has been a calm, clear voice of wisdom about leadership for years. When speaking, his tone is rational, his demeanor no-nonsense. His six prior best-sellers demonstrate that this professor from Harvard's B-School always has the research to back up his assertions. This thinker does his homework.
But Leading Change is special. In a new, neck-out style of writing, he rails against the "waste and anguish" of many organizational change efforts. Then he crisply describes an eight-stage process that doesn't smack of some "quick fix." He talks of real change.
2. Corporation on a Tightrope by Beverly Goldberg and John G. Sifonis (Oxford University Press). Here's a strong case for concurrent corporate excellence in governance, technology and leadership; Goldberg and Sifonis thus define the 21st-century standards for managerial performance. Elevating.
3. A Simpler Way by Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers (Berrett-Koehler). The authors share a profound dissatisfaction with the organizational status quo: We must emulate the simplicity of nature to rebuild our organizations and people. Stunning photographs. Gnomic.
4. Aiming Higher by David Bollier for The Business Enterprise Trust (AMACOM). No book has ever argued better that business should be more, much more, than just exchanging goods and services for money. The examples and studies show you can aim higher and succeed. Uplifting.
5. Redefining Corporate Soul by Allan Cox, with Julie Liesse (Irwin Professional Publishing). Given one of the most difficult business subjects, Cox takes "soul" and makes it easy to understand, appreciate and apply. In today's arid corporate world, drink heartily from this book. Refreshing.
6. Value Migration by Adrian J. Slywotzky (Harvard Business School Press). This book forcefully studies how companies can be blind to new products or services threatening their very existence. Slywotzky wants you to be alert, to change and to grow. Expanding.
7. Co-opetition by Adam M. Bran-denburger and Barry J. Nalebuff (Currency Doubleday). If business is a game, the basic rules of being in business are under revision, argue the authors. Competition and cooperation will merge, creating a better business environment for all. Unifying.
8. America's Best by Theodore B. Kinni (John Wiley & Sons). IndustryWeek's John Sheridan started the magazine's "Best Plants" awards in 1990; Kinni has distilled the wisdom of 62 winning manufacturing management teams into a blockbuster seminar-in-print. Revelatory.
9. Synchronicity by Joseph Jaworski (Berrett-Koehler). There's no other book like it: Gripping life stories punctuate a how-to on managing toward "predictable miracles" by exploring your "cubic centimeters of chance." What a wake-up call! Spellbinding.
10. The Last Word on Power by Tracy Goss (Currency Doubleday). She observes, significantly, that no great change can happen in the organizational world unless its leaders personally change. Transformation starts with the letter "you." Courageous.
* "Special Innothink Award" to Teaching the New Basic Skills by Richard J. Murnane and Frank Levy (Free Press). In our emerging economy, it's our children who must learn to thrive in new ways. So, what did they learn in school today? Not enough and not the right stuff. Yes!
© 1996 Management General. All rights reserved. To contact Tom Brown, e-mail mgeneral@gte.net or write P.O. Box 23680, Louisville, KY 40223. Please leave voice-mail messages at (502) 566-6652 or, to call direct, (502) 245-4550. Fax (502) 244-9090.