Customer Reviews

Beyond Change Management: Advanced Strategies for Today's Transformational Leaders

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Every now and then, a book comes along that begs to be read. Beyond Change Management and its companion piece, The Change Leader's Roadmap, are two such books. In an easy to read style, the authors, Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman-Anderson, have wonderfully elucidated the key principles of organizational transformation. Every leader of an organization seeking to transform the context, culture, and quality of their organization need to be familiar with these principles.

Based on my 20 years of experience helping organizations transform, I know first hand that the process of transforming and organization, large or small, is fraught with pitfalls, twists, and turns. Without a roadmap, such an endeaver is often destined to fail. The authors, through these companion pieces of work, provide such a roadmap. Equally as important, they clearly describe the principles of action and thought that underlie this roadmap. All too often, authors give the "how-tos" of change, but do not give ample focus on the mindset needed to effectively lead such a change. Here, in these companion pieces, the authors do both. For this alone, the book is worthy of applause.

And yet, the authors of this book do more. The level of detail provided by these books match the complexity of the change process. Rather than reduce the process to a nifty little model, they have clarified a way of thinking that is complex enough to mirror the difficult challenge of transformation. By providing a clear, intelligent framework of thinking, and map for transformation, the authors have provided a gift to leaders and facilitators, that if followed, will be a crucial support for action. I highly recommend these books.

Rarely are leadership books so practical. Beyond Change Management is chucked full of ideas that you can put to use immediately. Linda and Dean get to the heart of what it takes to make real change happen. They're masters at offering easy to grasp solutions for busy leaders. In this rich book are a million dollars worth of consulting ideas!

Implementing transformational change in an organization can be a daunting task. Current statistics indicate that nearly 70% of all change efforts fail. This book introduces the concept of conscious transformation as a proactive approach to transformational change, and its main focus is building change leadership competency. Sections of the book discuss the leader's mindset as a leverage point for change and challenge a leader to examine their fundamental assumptions about reality. There are also a number of tools that can help build a leader's capacity to successfully lead transformational change. Finally the authors outline in detail their Change Process Model, listing specific activities to undertake as an organization moves through transformational change. This is a particularly valuable book in combination with the authors' subsequent book, The Change Leader's Roadmap.

This book was a great find in 2001 and is a gem now. I saw Linda Ackerman Andersen present at a National Change Management conference that year and she was excellent. Her presentation and this book (as well as its prequel), were some of the first books published for the Change Management Practitioner. In my opinion, the beginning of this millenium was the time when the writing in the Change Management field became less about theory and much more about "how to do it".

I recommend this book to intermediate practitioners who have been a part of a change implementation team and to advanced practitioners who were too busy then to read a new perspective. The reader will need some exposure and experience in facilitating organizational dynamics to optimize their understanding. Good resource.

Every now and then, a book comes along that begs to be read. Beyond Change Management and its companion piece, The Change Leader's Handbook, are two such books. In an easy to read style, the authors, Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman-Anderson, have wonderfully elucidated the key principles of organizational transformation. Every leader of an organization seeking to transform the context, culture, and quality of their organization need to be familiar with these principles.

Based on my 20 years of experience helping organizations transform, I know first hand that the process of transforming and organization, large or small, is fraught with pitfalls, twists, and turns. Without a roadmap, such an endeaver is often destined to fail. The authors, through these companion pieces of work, provide such a roadmap. Equally as important, they clearly describe the principles of action and thought that underlie this roadmap. All too often, authors give the "how-tos" of change, but do not give ample focus on the mindset needed to effectively lead such a change. Here, in these companion pieces, the authors do both. For this alone, the book is worthy of applause.

And yet, the authors of this book do more. The level of detail provided by these books match the complexity of the change process. Rather than reduce the process to a nifty little model, they have clarified a way of thinking that is complex enough to mirror the difficult challenge of transformation. By providing a clear, intelligent framework of thinking, and map for transformation, the authors have provided a gift to leaders and facilitators, that if followed, will be a crucial support for action. I highly recommend these books.

As a practioner in the organization development field for several years, I have worked on a number of organizational change initiatives. This book is both clearly written and masterfully integrates all of the people, process and content components necessary for successful change. It offers both brilliant theoretical insights, as well as practical applications. It is obvious that the authors have "been there and done it" and they generously share their insights. This is a tremendous contribution to the field and should "raise the bar" for anyone responsible for major change. I strongly recommend it as the change management book to have on your bookshelf.

I've been studying the ground-breaking work of these authors throughout my entire career. My expectations were high . . . and they were met in spades. This is no "airplane" read, it's The Real Thing, a comprehensive field guide for planning & executing transformational change. Packed with Case Study references, Application Tools, powerful Consulting Questions - -everything you need to go about the real work of implementing change. Thank You Ackerman / Anderson !!!

Linda and Dean have upgraded their fabulous set of books on change leadership! Most change efforts in organizations fail because most of the strategies and models for guiding this very challenging work are flat-out inadequate. Linda and Dean have combined the most thorough manual for guiding change ever written, and they have also delved more deeply than anyone else into the intangible "inner game" aspects of change more fully than anyone else. If you are an executive that wants to implement change successfully, or guide change as a consultant, these are the books you must have.

I was interested to hear that Ken Wilber, a respected visionary and Integral theorist, gave the author of this book high praise for bringing an Integral understanding the the practice of business. In reading the book, it made sense -- this book is on the leading edge of describing how leaders can bring more of themselves to the broad context of their business life.

I recently read the Second Edition of this book (first published in 2001) and the Second Edition of The Change Leader's Roadmap (also first published in 2001) and commend Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman Anderson on a brilliant explanation of how to achieve breakthrough results through what they characterize as "change conscious leadership." My only criticism, and it is a significant one, is that neither volume addresses an essential component of organizational transformation: performance measure. For that, those in need of guidance are encouraged to read Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measure: Rethinking the Way We measure and Drive Organizational Success, published by ANACOM (2007). If possible, the Andersons suggest that Beyond Change Management be read first, then The Change Leader's Roadmap.

In this volume, they introduce and explain what they characterize as a "multidimensional, process approach" when designing and implementing change processes that attend to both internal and external dynamics at individual, relationship, team, and organizational levels. This is precisely the same approach that is recommended in Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution by its co-authors, Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

The Andersons duly acknowledge their gratitude to Ken Wilber's ground work at the Integral Institute, observing that they "can also describe their work as `integral' as defined by Wilber. Regardless of what we call it, the principle of mastery lies at the heart of it; you must attend to all the dynamics of play to succeed. Most change efforts fail because the leaders neglect critical [i.e. critically important] dimensions." The Andersons do not. In fact, their Conscious Change Leader Accountability Model (when accompanied by provisions for performance measurement) can be cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective.

Readers will appreciate the Andersons' skillful use of "Case in Point" material that serves as mini-case studies to illustrate key points. They include Electronic Health Records (Pages 36-40), "a large [unnamed] bank in California" (47-49), Detroit Edison (Page 70), John Lobbia, ex-CEO of Detroit Edison (95-96), "Dean" and Optimal Performance Institute (72), "one hospital system client" (198-199), pilot testing of desired state design (205), and "one manufacturing organization" (215-217). Those who read this book also receive a substantial value-added benefit: free premium content that includes worksheets and job aids. (It is listed on Page xvii in this book) Access them at www.pfeiffer.com/go/anderson using the password provided in the book.

Reading most business books is a benign experience as material is absorbed and digested sequentially. That is certainly not the case with this book, nor with The Change Leader's Roadmap. Each includes checklists (especially of the right questions to ask...and answer) and worksheets that are designed to facilitate, indeed expedite and intensify the reader's engagement in their narrative. The Andersons immediately establish a direct and cordial rapport with their reader so that there is continuous interaction between the reader and the material provided. Throughout their narrative and at the aforementioned website, the Andersons provide about as much information, wisdom, and advice as an individual or team will need to design and then implement change initiatives. I also highly recommend Spitzer's book as well as the ne co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

I selected the title of my review because, as I worked my way through this book, I was reminded of Oliver Wendell Holmes' observation, "I would not give a fig for simplicity this side of complexity but I would give my life for simplicity the other side of complexity." It is no small praise to suggest that in this book, Dean Anderson and Linda Ackerman Anderson take their reader to "the other side of change management."