"Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organizational Resilience" - Why do some people bounce back from life's hardships while others despair? This collection of articles looks at the nature of individual and organizational resilience, an issue that has gained special urgency in today's unstable world environment. In the business arena, resilience has found its way onto the list of qualities sought in employees. This collection provides readers with the ability to solve problems without the usual or obvious tools and prepares them to improvise rapid responses to crisis.The "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series" - The series is designed to bring today's managers and professionals the fundamental information they need to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. From the preeminent thinkers whose work has defined an entire field to the rising stars who will redefine the way we think about business, here are the leading minds and landmark ideas that have established the "Harvard Business Review" as required reading for ambitious businesspeople in organizations around the globe.
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Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
From trust to combat zones: a few nuggets of wisdom,
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This review is from: Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organizational Resilience (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) (Paperback)
In today's unstable global environment we appreciate more than ever the virtue of resilience in both individuals and organizations. This collection promises to provide you with the ability to solve problems without the usual or obvious tools and prepares them to improvise rapid responses to crisis. You *will* find enough solid contributions here to justify the purchase, unless you already have the original HBR articles. The pieces range from Robert Galford and Anne Siebold Drapeau's February 2003 "The Enemies of Trust" back to William Patagonis's "Leadership in a Combat Zone" from late 1992.These two pieces also hint at the diversity of the collection hidden under the title. Patagonis writes about how he directed the logistics of the 1991 Gulf War. He explains that leading successfully requires a person to demonstrate expertise and empathy - which can be systematically learned and true leaders create organizations that support the cultivation of leadership. Galford and Drapeau analyze the role of trust, finding a disparity between managers beliefs about their own and their colleague's trustworthiness and their lack of confidence in their ability to build trust within the organization. In explaining the disparity, the authors distinguish three kids of trust: Strategic trust, personal trust, and organizational trust. Two of the strongest pieces are Diane Coutu's "How Resilience Works" and "A Survival Guide for Leaders" by Ronald A. Heifetz and Marty Linsky. Coutu explains resilience at its toughest as consisting of a staunch acceptance of reality, a deep belief, often bolstered by strongly held values, that life is meaningful, and a well-developed ability to improvise. One weakness of this piece is that the reader is left to figure out how to go about the development process if no crisis forces the issue. Heifetz and Linsky draw on their book Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading to explain risk management for leaders in two parts: An externally-focused part offers tactical advice about relating to your organization and the people who comprise it. The internally-focused part focuses on your human needs and vulnerabilities to help you from defeating yourself. The other pieces included are: "Leading in Times of Trauma" by Jane E. Dutton, Peter J. Frost, Monica C. Worline, Jacoba M. Lilius, and Jason M. Kanov; "Crucibles of Leadership" by Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas; "The Toxic Handler: Organizational Hero - and Casualty" by Peter J. Frost and Sandra Robinson; and "September 11, 2001: A CEO's Story" by Jeffrey W. Greenburg.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Book Review,
This review is from: Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organizational Resilience (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) (Paperback)
Leading in the contemporary world is harder then ever before. More and more skills are asked from leaders. Especially resilience is a skill that managers not only look for in employees but also a skill that every leader and every organization want to achieve. The book "Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organizational Resilience" focuses on the topic of resilience. It consists of eight articles published between 1992 and 2003. The articles are written by 15 Canadian and American academics, researchers, and managers, all being experts in the given topic.
The "Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organizational Resilience" is part of the Harvard Business Paperback Series published to help managers to stay competitive. It is released by the Harvard Business Publishing (a company owned by the University of Harvard). Their goal is to improve the practise of management publishing for educational institutions, corporations, and individual managers. All articles focus on individual or organizational resilience. The authors especially give attention to times of crisis as a time when resilience develops. By using many examples the authors constitute their subject interesting, easy understandable and concrete. Although all articles are written by different authors they amend each other and therefore create an good overview about what is most important concerning resilience. The first chapter "How Resilience Works" (2002), written by D. L. Coutu, concentrates on the characteristics of a resilient person. In her opinion a resilient person accepts the reality, has a deep believe by strongly held values and has the ability to improvise a solution even without proper tools. A person that faces the world in a resilient way is prepared to survive extraordinary hardship. The chapter Leading in Times of Trauma" (2002) by J. E. Dutton, P. J. Frost, M.C. Worline, J. M. Lilius, and J. M. Kanov concentrates on the communication structures in organizations. It is pointed out that an organization should show compassion to their employees after traumatic circumstances and should allow them to communicate their feelings in order to make them feel understood and more embedded to the organisation. Being compassionate as an organisation also increases the attachment to the organisation of the colleagues witnessing such a compassionate act. As a result the organisation can maintain high performance. The skills needed by a great leader are emphazised by W. G. Bennis and R. J. Thomas in their article "Crucibles of Leadership" (2002). They underline that a really good leader needs to have the ability to learn even from the most negative experiences and should be able to handle adversity. Other skills mentioned are the sense of integrity, an adaptive capacity and the ability to engage others in shared meaning. The article "A Survival Guide for Leaders" (2002), written by R. A. Heifetz and M. Linsky, seems to be the most significant in this book. The authors consider the environment of the leader needed for adaptive changes and provide a range of tactics that can be used by the leader to effectively? interact with the people around. Besides they mind the needs and vulnerabilities of leaders and give advices how to remain focused and persistent. The chapter "The Toxic Handler" (1999), written by P.J. Frost and S. Robinson, is special as it discusses a resource that needs to be considered by the leader in order to gain a resilient organization. A Toxic Handler, as a person shouldering the sadness of others, keeps the organization going. With his competence to listen empathetically, suggest solutions, work behind the scenes to prevent pain, carry the confidences of others and reframe difficult messages, he plays a very important role in organisations. The articles "Leading in a Combat Zone" ,written by W. G. Pagonis, and "September 11, 2001: A CEO's Story" ,written by J. W. Greenberg, are more like field reports. They show exemplary how difficult situations like leading in the Golf War and leading after September 11 were handled. Based on his experiences while leading in the Golf War W.G. Pagonis explains his point of view concerning the most important skills in leadership. He especially underlines the importance of expertise and empathy in leadership. From his point of view expertise and empathy need to be cultivated on personal and organizational level. In the article, written by Greenberg, the good resilience of the organization was shown on September 11. Right after the terror attacks many employees helped to establish communication structure in order to get to know what happened to their colleagues. Furthermore family support was offered. Besides that Greenberg managed to keep the business running. In my opinion this book can help managers reflect on the structure of their organization and their own position and skills. Also for non-managers the book can help to gain a greater understanding of the difficulties of leadership and the processes in an organization. I would not recommend this book to researchers as it is based rather on subjective experiences than on scientific research and therefore rather has an subjective frame. The article "The Enemies of Trust" written by R. Galford and A.S. Drapeau, explains why trust in an organization is important and what the difficulties are in order to establish trust. The advantage of the book is the diversity of the collection as every chapter is written by a different author and therefore many points of view are shown. Although it is not a textbook the reader obtains a lot of new and helpful information about what needs to be considered as a leader. Aside from that the book points out how to handle the challenges of leadership. By using many examples as well as presenting personal experiences the authors achieve the readers interest in the topic. As it is easy to read the reader gains a greater understanding of the topic. As a disadvantage it can be seen that the authors base their findings rather on personal impressions than on research. Caused by the many examples the reader probably gets the impression that there is rather few substance. By comparing this book with one of the many other books about management it has the big advantage that the articles are written by many different authors. For those who are interested in reading more about leadership and resilience I would also recommend the book "How to suceed no matter what life throws at you. Resilience at work" written by S.R. Maddi and D.M. Khoshaba. On the homepage of the Harvard Business Review [...] it is also possible to download articles of the book "Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organisational Resilience". Taking everything into account I would recommend the "Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organisational Resilience" to everyone who is interested in organizations and leadership. I would also recommend people who would like to take a critical look at their own organization and personal skills to read this book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful and Insightful,
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This review is from: Harvard Business Review on Building Personal and Organizational Resilience (Harvard Business Review Paperback Series) (Paperback)
A very good read. Contains articles taked from Harvard Business Review on:
* How Resilience Works *Leading in Times of Trauma *Crucibles of Leadership *A Survival Guide for Leaders * Toxic Handlers *Leadership in a Combat Zone *9/11/01 - A CEO's Story of MMC Corp *Enemies of Trust The focus of the articles are on the challenges of leadership in crisis, as well as the needs and casualties caused by challenges in the workplace. In particular, the article on "A Survival Guide For Leaders" is a must read for anyone in a leadership role. It is a good reminder of the true challenges of leadership, organizational resistence and means to overcome those challenges.
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