Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today [Hardcover]

George Land (Author), Beth Jarman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1992

The founders of Leadership 2000, an international leadership development corporation whose clients include DuPont, IBM, 3M, and Sony, show how business professionals and organizations can adopt a new design for living in a dynamically changing world through new ways of creative thinking. 19 graphics.

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Leadership 2000 Inc (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887305474
• ISBN-13: 978-0887305474
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will help you to think about your life - & to stay vital all your life!, September 26, 2007

By 

Lee Say Keng "KNOWLEDGE ADVENTURER/TECHNOLOGY... (Ho Chi Minh City/Singapore) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today (Paperback)

In anticipating the future, three things generally fascinate & intrigue me, & they are: Change, Complexity & Competition. Hence, I am always seeking better understanding - & appreciation - of these critical areas of concern.

In the search of books & resources, I have come across many excellent authors or masters. I have already featured a few in my earlier posts.

In this post, I would like to review one original, thought provoking book, written with warm, passion & clarity as well as mastery of content.

Actually, I had read `Breakpoint & Beyond' during the mid-nineties, when it was first published. At that time, I had just embarked on a journey to play a better game in the second half of my life.

Oftentimes, I have returned to the book to read certain earmarked pages.

In a nut shell, it weaved a compelling story about change by focusing a new & penetrating lens on the master teacher of change, Mother Nature herself. The authors asserted that understanding the invisible forces of natural change would uncover the hidden patterns that could unlock our potential as individuals & organisations.

The authors also showed that natural growth was characterised by long periods of stability, punctuated by "breakpoints" - bursts of explosive change & showed how we could take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that would arise during these exciting periods.

Amidst the somewhat lofty rhetoric - the book was rather heavy to read - I would like to single out one principle from the book - the Principle of Future Pull.

According to the authors, every single cell in a tree, in a caterpillar, or in a human being would grow & develop not based on its history but by being pulled toward in its internal picture of the possible future. That future was inscribed in the DNA, the genes that reside in the nucleus of every cell. That way, every part of the system could pull together toward the common future.

In human terms, this would translate into living with a powerful vision of the future. A compelling vision could pull individuals & organisations to their desired future.

Let me share some of the authors' ideas of doing it.

Know your purpose & vision:

Purpose can be defined as how an individual & organisation makes the world a better place. A vision is a compelling image or picture o the purpose having been achieved.

The book gave this example: Landing a man on the moon in a decade was the vision that President John Kennedy held out as an inspiring magnet pulling an entire nation to develop the technological capability for manned space flights.

Purpose & vision are as important for individuals as they are for organisations.

A compelling purpose energises life. Without a compelling purpose, we live life as a fairly haphazard experience, being easily swayed by the latest fad, temporary pressures, or the most recent advice on what others think we ought to be doing with our lives.

Commit to achieve your vision & purpose:

When an organisation lacks a compelling purpose, its people cannot helped but be uninspired. The book gave an example of the late Anita Roddick & the Body Shop, whose concerns for the environment & the people still infuse the enterprise.

Abundance is Mother Nature's state:

Abundance comes to those who have the courage to follow their dreams. This brings not only material abundance but connection with the opportunities that are vital to the full expression of one's talents.

Today thousands of people are doing what they love to do in the most unlikely occupations & making an excellent living.

No one with a compelling purpose & a great vision knows exactly how it will be achieved. You have to be willing to follow an unknown path, allowing the road to take you where it will. Surprise, serendipity, uncertainty, & the unexpected are guaranteed on the way to the future.

Make the world a better place by living according to shared values:

Values are often thought of as soft stuff of an organisation, something that goes on a bronze plaque in the lobby. Somehow the values get separated from how the business really runs. Inevitable, employee & customer s know it.

The purpose & values are the heart of the vision that will pull organisations into their future. These ingredients provide the essential elements of successful self-creation: the picture of that future whole. It is the internal guidance system, the DNA that allows everything to work together. The purpose, vision & values furnish the internal reference point for making choices & connections in a complex & rapidly changing world. They endow the individual & organisation with direction to be pulled into the future.

With a little bit of hindsight, I am very glad I had made full use of many of the authors' ideas in my own life.

If you are concerned about your own personal change & renewal, you must read this book. It will help you to think about your life -& to stay vital all your life.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Change in a New Way, February 26, 2002

By 

Thomas McNamee (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today (Hardcover)

Many books tell us things are changing, but this is best one I've read that explores change itself. Change happens constantly, yet the "rules" underlying change are poorly understood. Land and Jarman meet this challenge with examples from the sciences, business, and individual lives.
A central point of this book is that all systems go through distinct phases of change. These phases are visible in rocks and relationships; they govern the behavior of crystals and families and galaxies. Each phase has its own rules for success. This book maps out the phases of change, teaches you how to tell "where the system is", and most importantly, how to adopt strategies that work in the current set of rules.
A must-read for executive leadership, this book has been indispensible in helping organizations understand and implement the process of transformative change.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What we, as a country, need to read, especially our leaders., July 18, 2011

By 

Guido - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future Today (Paperback)

I read this book back in the 90s, after listening to speaker at a summer workshop that I attended. It was a Pennsylvania State Education Association that was trying to get teachers to look at ways to improve their teaching and student performance. The speaker used the book as the basis for the session. I went out an bought the book, read it from cover to cover, underlining many especially important sections.

It certainly opens ones eyes to the way Nature does things, and in turn, the way we should look at moving past those "knock your head against the wall" times. How can I improve, what is the processes that I need to embrace to allow that to happen. As most people do, I bang my head against the wall a couple of times, and then I remember that I should work smarter, or in a different way, rather than harder. I have used it as a teacher, a coach and in my personal life.

I recommend that it should be made required reading. at least twice in one's life.