The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide : Practical Tools or Building the New Organization [Ring-bound]

Ron Ashkenas (Author), Todd Jick (Author), Dave Ulrich (Author), Catherine Paul-Chowdhury (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787943215 | ISBN-13: 978-0787943219 | Publication Date: December 4, 1998 | Edition: 1

This hands-on kit contains everything managers need to put the strategies presented in The Boundaryless Organization into actual practice. Based on the renowned WorkOut process initiated at General Electric, this complete resource offers specific guidelines for facilitating dialogues that result in rapid, significant change. Practical tools include PowerPoint slides that reinforce key concepts, a diagnostic questionnaire for assessing your current boundaries, and exercises that apply boundaryless thinking to real-life scenarios. A leader's guide to WorkOut, process mapping, customer-supplier projects, and the employment of technology is also included.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In The Boundaryless Organization, a world-class team of management experts showed how leading companies were becoming more flexible, innovative, and competitive by breaking the barriers that limit the free flow of resources and information. Now, The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide gives executives, managers, and HR professionals the guidance and resources they need to make their own organizations boundaryless. This hands-on kit includes materials based on the acclaimed WorkOut process initiated at General Electric. It provides all the tools and techniques change leaders need to present boundaryless concepts to organization members at every level and facilitate dialogues that will turn those concepts into reality.This Field Guide follows the framework of the original book and is organized into separate sections, each of which addresses a different organizational boundary-vertical, horizontal, external, and geographic. Among the many powerful resources it contains, you'll find:

• PowerPoint presentation slides that reinforce key concepts
• Handouts, presentation notes, and sample questions that can be used to spark discussions
• Diagnostic instruments for assessing your organization's current boundaries
• Exercises that apply boundaryless thinking to real-life scenarios, with helpful instructions, worksheets, and examples
• A leader's guide to WorkOut, process mapping, customer/supplier projects, and the employment of technology

The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide gives you the means to eliminate the boundaries that limit your organization's success.

From the Back Cover

In The Boundaryless Organization, a world-class team of management experts showed how leading companies were becoming more flexible, innovative, and competitive by breaking the barriers that limit the free flow of resources and information. Now, The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide gives executives, managers, and HR professionals the guidance and resources they need to make their own organizations boundaryless. This hands-on kit includes materials based on the acclaimed WorkOut process initiated at General Electric. It provides all the tools and techniques change leaders need to present boundaryless concepts to organization members at every level and facilitate dialogues that will turn those concepts into reality.

This Field Guide follows the framework of the original book and is organized into separate sections, each of which addresses a different organizational boundary-vertical, horizontal, external, and geographic. Among the many powerful resources it contains, you'll find:

• PowerPoint presentation slides that reinforce key concepts
  
• Handouts, presentation notes, and sample questions that can be used to spark discussions
  
• Diagnostic instruments for assessing your organization's current boundaries
  
• Exercises that apply boundaryless thinking to real-life scenarios, with helpful instructions, worksheets, and examples
  
• A leader's guide to WorkOut, process mapping, customer/supplier projects, and the employment of technology

The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide gives you the means to eliminate the boundaries that limit your organization's success.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Ring-bound: 416 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (December 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787943215
• ISBN-13: 978-0787943219
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 11.4 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,138,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ron Ashkenas is a Senior Partner of Schaffer Consulting, a management consulting firm based in Stamford, Connecticut. The firm specializes in organizational transformation, leadership development, and post-merger integration.

Ron's clients have included many of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as prominent financial, governmental, and non-profit organizations such as Cisco Systems, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Pfizer, The World Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Zurich Financial Services, and ConAgra Foods. Ron was part of the original team that collaborated with then-CEO Jack Welch to develop GE's WorkOut approach for creating a faster, simpler, and more nimble organization. He also helped to develop GE Capital's approach to acquisition integration.

Ron is the author of "Simply Effective: How to Cut Through Complexity in Your Organization and Get Things Done" (Harvard Business School Press, 2010), as well as the co-author of "Rapid Results!" (Jossey-Bass, 2005), "The GE Work-Out" (McGraw-Hill, 2002), "The Boundaryless Organization" (Jossey-Bass, 1995 and 2002), and "The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide" (Jossey-Bass, 1999). In addition to his books, Ron's publications include dozens of articles. Five were published by the Harvard Business Review, including 'Making the Deal Real: How GE Capital Integrates Acquisitions' and 'Why Good Projects Fail Anyway'. Ron also writes his own weekly blog for Harvard Business Review On-Line.

Ron received his BA from Wesleyan University, his EdM from Harvard University, and his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University, where he has also held several teaching assignments.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most Boundaries Are Self-Imposed, February 23, 2002

By 

Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide : Practical Tools or Building the New Organization (Ring-bound)

The title is a misnomer: Although the authors do indeed suggest how to "break through the chains of organizational structure", they provide an enlightening explanation of four different types of boundaries (vertical, horizontal, external, and geographic) which give definition to any organization. They do not advocate the total elimination of these boundaries (which is impossible, anyway); rather, they suggest how to rearrange them so that an organization can thrive. For the authors, there is what they call "A New World Order":

"In living organisms, membranes exist to give the organization shape and definition. They have sufficient structural strength to prevent the organism from dissolving into an amorphous mess....Like a living organism, the boundaryless organization also evolves and grows, and the placement of boundaries may shift....Because the boundaryless organization is a living continuum, not a fixed state, the ongoing management challenge is to find the right balance of boundaryless behavior, to determine how permeable to make boundaries, and where to place them."

This brief excerpt from the first chapter correctly suggests the purpose of this remarkable book: To explain HOW to meet that challenge. The material is presented within four parts plus a conclusion. The first explains how to achieve "free movement up and down" by crossing vertical boundaries; the second explains how to achieve "free movement side to side" by crossing horizontal boundaries; the third explains how to achieve "free movement along the value chain" by crossing external boundaries; and in the fourth part, they explain how to achieve "free global movement" by crossing geographic boundaries." Then in the Conclusion, the authors discuss "Making It Happen: Leading Toward the Boundaryless Organization." The authors also include a series of six questionnaires. By completing each in sequence, the reader is able to determine (a) where her or his organization is now located relative to "the boundaryless paradigm", and (b), what is needed to eliminate the "gap" between where it is now and where it should be.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide. It contains a wealth of hands-on set of diagnostic instruments, exercises, and tools as well as a disk with presentation slides in Powerpoint format.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Boundaryless Organization Fieldbook Review, May 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide : Practical Tools or Building the New Organization (Ring-bound)

The fieldbook is written in a very user friendly way. It provides information that can be used in various ways - presentation slides, workshops, surveys and inteviews. Each tool is explained in great detail - how to use it and the intended purpose. I borrowed a copy from our corporate libary and liked it so much I will order my own personal copy!