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Designing the Purposeful Organization: How to Inspire Business Performance Beyond Boundaries
Globalization, competition and recession have created an overwhelming pressure on organizations to deliver growth. This has often resulted in tough performance targets being pushed down the line. Hard-hitting management may deliver short-term results but in the longer term key people burn out or leave, and business performance falls back. Designing the Purposeful Organization explains how to implement a more enlightened and authentic leadership style that aligns people's strengths to the delivery of a compelling future.
Designing the Purposeful Organization draws on a unique framework that helps leaders manage the eight elements essential for high purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success and talent. It moves beyond the boundaries of transactional performance (pay me X and I'll deliver Y) to a purpose-centred performance that releases talent, creativity and engagement. It features case studies from Google, Whole Foods Market, the NHS and the London 2012 Olympics and is ideal for practitioners in organization development, senior HR managers and business leaders. This book demonstrates how business performance can be inspired beyond boundaries by aligning people to a compelling purpose.
Designing the Purposeful Organization draws on a unique framework that helps leaders manage the eight elements essential for high purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success and talent. It moves beyond the boundaries of transactional performance (pay me X and I'll deliver Y) to a purpose-centred performance that releases talent, creativity and engagement. It features case studies from Google, Whole Foods Market, the NHS and the London 2012 Olympics and is ideal for practitioners in organization development, senior HR managers and business leaders. This book demonstrates how business performance can be inspired beyond boundaries by aligning people to a compelling purpose.
256 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 14, 2015
The answer to the question is not as straightforward as you might imagine, yet the central message is! How do we get a company to function well and keep focussed on its key purposes? Yet the author sets out to show how a more “enlightened and authentic” leadership approach can give short-term and more importantly long-term benefits for the company and its key resources - its employees.
Probably everybody understands the downside of short-termism yet all-too-many still keep the blinkers on and think "just for now", no matter what fine words they might utter about their longer-term strategies. The secret sauce, claims the author, is a eight-element framework - purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success and talent – that if implemented has the potential to give limitless benefits to an organisation’s performance and thus its ability to deliver. Does it work? Well that is not for this review to determine, although it did deliver a fair few “light bulb-moments” as well as a lot of nods of agreement along the way.
Things have changed but have we really kept up with the changes? As the author notes: “We live in a very different world to the one we inherited from our parents and grandparents. Take stock for a moment to consider how we can travel almost anywhere in the world in less than a day. We've even been to the moon and sent unmanned rockets far off into space to explore other planets. We can communicate 24/7 with people from all over the world in an instant. The goods we buy come from a truly international marketplace. Modern medicine has learnt how to cure many of the diseases that used to kill us and even to replace those parts of our bodies that no longer work. It seems we are capable of solving almost any problem we encounter. We're learning all the time about how best to organize ourselves to do it and the workplace is where most of this plays out. This workplace has become increasingly global and increasingly complex.” Think about this, think about a typical company and its operations and if you don’t get the point well, re-read the foregoing (as well as ensuring that you do buy the book!).
Many companies have thought that they were too invincible and established to fail. A bad, arrogant mistake to make. Changes in society and technology have sent many companies to the graveyard, yet corporate arrogance and bad leadership has claimed a fair few scalps too! The company never stops evolving: it has to keep learning, reacting to and making change. Well it should never stop evolving but sometimes the machine gets jammed up despite the motor still going through the motions, for now…
This won’t be a book for everyone, despite its important messages. It takes a fair bit of focus and concentration yet when you “get it” you will see its potential power for what it is. Although, as with many problems, realising there is a possible problem and seeking help for it before it is too late is often the hardest part!
Designing the Purposeful Organization: How to Inspire Business Performance Beyond Boundaries, written by Clive Wilson and published by Kogan Page. ISBN 9780749472207, 256 pages. YYYY
Probably everybody understands the downside of short-termism yet all-too-many still keep the blinkers on and think "just for now", no matter what fine words they might utter about their longer-term strategies. The secret sauce, claims the author, is a eight-element framework - purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success and talent – that if implemented has the potential to give limitless benefits to an organisation’s performance and thus its ability to deliver. Does it work? Well that is not for this review to determine, although it did deliver a fair few “light bulb-moments” as well as a lot of nods of agreement along the way.
Things have changed but have we really kept up with the changes? As the author notes: “We live in a very different world to the one we inherited from our parents and grandparents. Take stock for a moment to consider how we can travel almost anywhere in the world in less than a day. We've even been to the moon and sent unmanned rockets far off into space to explore other planets. We can communicate 24/7 with people from all over the world in an instant. The goods we buy come from a truly international marketplace. Modern medicine has learnt how to cure many of the diseases that used to kill us and even to replace those parts of our bodies that no longer work. It seems we are capable of solving almost any problem we encounter. We're learning all the time about how best to organize ourselves to do it and the workplace is where most of this plays out. This workplace has become increasingly global and increasingly complex.” Think about this, think about a typical company and its operations and if you don’t get the point well, re-read the foregoing (as well as ensuring that you do buy the book!).
Many companies have thought that they were too invincible and established to fail. A bad, arrogant mistake to make. Changes in society and technology have sent many companies to the graveyard, yet corporate arrogance and bad leadership has claimed a fair few scalps too! The company never stops evolving: it has to keep learning, reacting to and making change. Well it should never stop evolving but sometimes the machine gets jammed up despite the motor still going through the motions, for now…
This won’t be a book for everyone, despite its important messages. It takes a fair bit of focus and concentration yet when you “get it” you will see its potential power for what it is. Although, as with many problems, realising there is a possible problem and seeking help for it before it is too late is often the hardest part!
Designing the Purposeful Organization: How to Inspire Business Performance Beyond Boundaries, written by Clive Wilson and published by Kogan Page. ISBN 9780749472207, 256 pages. YYYY
January 20, 2016
This title explains how to implement a more enlightened and authentic leadership style that aligns people's strengths to the delivery of a compelling future. It draws on a unique framework that helps leaders manage the eight elements essential for high performance: purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success and talent. It moves beyond the boundaries of transactional performance (pay me X and I'll deliver Y) to a purpose-centred performance that releases talent, creativity and engagement. It features case studies from Google, Whole Foods Market, the NHS and the London 2012 Olympics and is ideal for practitioners in organization development, senior HR managers and business leaders.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews