DreamMakers: Putting Vision and Values to Work [Hardcover]

Michele Hunt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1998

Visionary leadership in action. These stories reveal the often elusive qualities critical to leaders of any organization and will inspire readers to release the dream makers within themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Review

There is enough inspiration to last almost a lifetime. -- Booklist, April 1, 1998

From the Publisher

A selection of the Doubleday Executive Program Book Club. Features a Foreword by Max De Pree, author of Leading Without Power and Leaderhip Is an Art, and former Chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc.

"Michele Hunt has served in as diverse an array of work settings as most of us can imagine. She has been doing one job--seeing people. Read this book and see what Michele sees: the commitment that energizes our work, the love that unifies our actions, the dream that lives within us."--Peter N. Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline

"Michele Hunt opens doors to lives that illuminate and inspire. DreamMakers is a book about hope, values, and the human spirit with stories that move and stir. A book to be read many times, always with a grateful heart--grateful to the individuals who make our dreams."--Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO, The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management

"Michele Hunt, a DreamMaker herself, touches us with some profoundly beautiful tales of wonder at the workplace. Her book is as instructive as it is motivational."--Warren Bennis, Distinguished Profesor, University of Southern California, and author of Organizing Genius

"Michele Hunt is a people person, and in this book she helps us understand the potential there is in the people we work with and the people we live with--extraordinary people who provide a hope for the future."--C. William Pollard, Chairman of the Board, The ServiceMaster Company

"DreamMakers should be read by every manager who thinks the road to success is paved with only analysis and execution. DreamMakers shows that the analysis and execution are meaningful only when they support the vision and values of the leader of the organization."--C. William Crain, President, London Fog

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing; 1st edition (April 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891061088
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061083
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,211,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michele Hunt
Phones: [phone]
Cell: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Website: www.dreammakers.org
Blog: And The Good News Is...
http://www.michelehunt.blogspot.com

Michele is an, executive transformation catalyst, author and public speaker. Leaders of companies, organizations and communities internationally know Michele for her work as a transformation catalyst and advisor on putting vision and values to work for all. Her work centers on leadership development, organizational transformation, and effectiveness. She works with leaders, their teams and all their people to help transform their organizations to higher levels of participation, collaboration and performance. Her work is rooted in the principles of shared vision, values and shared ownership. Michele's focus is partnering with leaders on large-scale whole systems transformation initiatives. Her methodology taps into the minds, hearts and imagination of all of the stakeholders. This approach creates shared understanding, commitment and shared ownership for achieving the mission vision and values of the organization or community.
Michele launched her firm in 1995. Her customers have included leadership teams of: IBM, Motorola, Swiss Reinsurance Company, Popular Inc., (Banco Popular Puerto Rico, Banco Popular North America), SRA International, Bright China Management Institute, BHP of Australia, NASA, The U.S. Veterans Administration, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, The U.S. National Park Service, The US Department of Education, Junior Achievement of New York, World Vision International, The Episcopal Divinity School at Harvard and the leadership team of the Chicago Public Schools. Banco Popular and SRA joined Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, after engaging in Michele's vision and values transformation process. SRA has sustained that honor for 10 consecutive years.
Her work also includes communities. In 1998 Michele partnered with Aruba's Quality Foundation in the facilitation of a national shared vision for the country of Aruba: Aruba, 2005. This process engaged, mobilized and energized the citizens in all sectors of their society in the creation of a shared vision. Their seven-point vision guided the development of their people, communities, businesses, government, education and their environmental policies.

Michele is also a keynote speaker at meetings and conferences around the world for businesses, nonprofit organizations and communities. Her presentations are founded in her belief that people are extraordinary and have the capacity to create far better futures than we have dared to dream. She comes to these beliefs through her personal life and professional experiences. Her beliefs have been validated through her research for her books and documentary about people who have dared to dreamed big and turned their dreams into reality and contributed to making the world a better place. Her public speaking topics include:

- Visionary Leadership: Putting Vision & Values to Work For All
- The Secret To Cultural Transformation: Participation, Collaboration and Shared Ownership
- The Power of DreamMakers: Personal Stories Of DreamMakers
In 1992 Michele served on President Bill Clinton's Transition Team. In 1993 she was appointed by President Clinton to serve as the Executive Director of the Federal Quality Institute. The institute's mission was to partner with government leaders in reinventing the U S government agencies. This was President Clinton's initiative; Creating a Government that Works Better and Cost Less, lead by Vice President Al Gore. Michele brought the latest thinking and progressive leadership and management practices to this effort, to work alongside the Cabinet Deputy Secretaries and their leadership teams. She created public-private partnerships with world-recognized thought leaders including: Peter Drucker, John Gardner, Max De Pree, Frances Hesselbein, Peter Senge, and the participation of high performing corporations like GE and Herman Miller.
Prior to this appointment, Michele spent 13 years with Herman Miller, Inc., a Fortune 500 global office furniture company. She served on the executive leadership team as Corporate Vice President for People, reporting to Max De Pree, CEO and Chairman. In this capacity she facilitated the company's organizational transformation. She was responsible for global Leadership Development, "Human Resources", Quality Management, Learning and Development, Corporate Communications, and Change Management. The company's organizational transformation resulted in Herman Miller becoming: Fortune Magazine's Most Admired Company and America's Top 10 "Best Companies in America to Work For. The company also was recognized as the Best Company for Women, and The Best Company for Working Mothers. Herman Miller also received the prestigious Bertelsmann Award as The Best Managed Companies in the World, and numerous environmental awards. During her 13 years with the company, Michele also served as Director of Corporate Relations including: government, media, shareholder and community relations.

Michele began her career with the Michigan Department of Corrections as one of the first two female probation officers to supervise adult male felons on probation in Detroit, Michigan. She served as Executive Director of Michigan's only halfway House for female felons, and later became Michigan's first female Deputy Warden, leading programs for rehabilitation in a male prison.
Michele is the author of the book DreamMakers: Putting Vision and Values to Work, Foreword by Max De Pree, former CEO and Chairman of Herman Miller, Inc. In 2010 she published the second book in her DreamMakers series, DreamMakers: Agents of Transformation, published in Brazil and featuring Brazilian DreamMakers. She has contributed chapters to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook by Peter Senge, Leading People by Robert Rosen, The Diversity Action Book by Janet Crenshaw Smith and Coaching by Values: A Guide to Success in the Life of Business and the Business of Life, by Simon Dolan She has also contributed articles to numerous publications including Leader to Leader publication, special tribute to the Peter F. Drucker Centennial.
She also writes a blog - And The Good News Is... Thoughts and stories of people dreaming a new future and transforming their lives in spite of the chaos and confusion in our world. http://www.michelehunt.blogspot.com
In 2004 Michele collaborated with co-directors Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmaker Susan Koch and Puerto Rican filmmaker Paloma Suau in the production of DreamMakers. This documentary features people who transformed their lives and communities against tremendous obstacles.
Michele has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University in the Executive Education Program at the McDonough School of Business. She served as a facilitator of Tomorrow's Corporation at the Aspen Institute. She formally served on the board of directors of Hewitt Associates, Inc. and The ServiceMaster Company. She was a founding board member of the Society for Organizational Learning (SOL) founded by Peter Senge. Michele currently serves on the board of directors of the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI), the Fowler Center for Sustainable Development at Case Western, The Institute for Inclusion and the Detroit Windsor Dance Academy.
Michele earned her Bachelor and Master's degrees in sociology from Eastern Michigan University and University of Detroit, respectively.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, and real stories of DreamMakers., July 21, 2000

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: DreamMakers: Putting Vision and Values to Work (Hardcover)

"DreamMakers are people who make dreams happen. They have the deep insight and long foresight necessary to perceive the consequences their actions will have...This book tells twelve different stories that could not have happened without the DreamMakers involved. These DreamMakers come from all sectors of society all over the world -corporations, local and national goverments, nonprofit organizations, and voluntary community groups. They also come from different economic and social backgrounds. They come from different national, cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds.What they share, however, is far more powerful and important than how they differ...This is a book about hope, intended for anyone who is seeking to create a better future. It is especially for those who choose to accept leadership roles, who sense on an intuitive level that we are living in an unprecedented time in which to make a difference, and who are looking for inspiration, insights, and ideas to reshape our institutions, communities, and lives. The people I call DreamMakers are not those we read about in the headlines every day. They are not necessarily, nor would they identify themselves as, heroines, heroes, or geniuses. They have, however, discovered and tapped in to the extraordinary nature and power we all have within us. It is my hope that, from hearing these personal stories, others may discover that ability as well" (from the Preface).

In this context, Michele Hunt firstly tells the theories underlying this book, and formulates:

1. 'The Power of Shared Vision' by defining vision as our deepest expression of what we want to create. And she argues that " I believe vision fuels our passion and lifts us above our fear. It is our North Star for exploring and charting our future".

2. 'Shared Values of DreamMakers' by asking some questions as follows:

* How they see the world, how they treat people, how they take in information, how they make decisions, how they build teams, how they use creativity, how they act, how they respond to 'failure', how they learn and grow, and how they are anchored (more detailed discussion and answers of these questions see Chapter 1).

In the following Chapters, she tells the stories of different individuals/DreamMakers. And she summarizes these stories, as 'lessons we learned', end of the each chapter. These lessons learned from all stories told in the book can be summarized as follows:

* DreamMakers express vision and values.

* DreamMakers engage others in their vision.

* DreamMakers work with others to build a shared vision.

* DreamMakers understand that we are all connected and interdependent.

* DreamMakers support diversity and honor the integrity and contributions of all people.

* DreamMakers question and challenge the status quo.

* DreamMakers value and nurture interpersonal relationships.

* DreamMakers tap in to the extraordinary potential in all of us.

* DreamMakers find unprecedented opportunities for transformation and renewal in the current climate of rapid change.

* DreamMakers collaboratively transform and renew themselves and others.

* DreamMakers make their dreams a reality.

* DreamMakers are both passionate and compassionate.

* DreamMakers focus on education and continual learning.

* DreamMakers trust feelings, emotions, and intuition.

* DreamMakers learn from their mistakes.

* DreamMakers foster creativity and hope.

* DreamMakers follow a moral compass.

* DreamMakers believe in a higher power and purpose.

* DreamMakers demonstrate responsibility toward a large community.

* DreamMakers are committed to making the world a better place.

As written by Max De Pree, "Stories about people tell us both who we are and who we might become. Stories map the paths toward potential and unity. The stories in DreamMakers are honest, real stories. Not everythig works. Not everything is easy. Ann Denison writes, 'We had to call the police, and they arrested him'. Leadership and service are demanding".

I highly recommend.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring, Thought Provoking, March 8, 2003

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DreamMakers: Putting Vision and Values to Work (Hardcover)

Several things grabbed my attention as I picked up this book. First was the author's photo on the front cover-rather unusual. But, if you're a Black woman in today's world, achieving at a high level, there's something to say here. Flipping over to the back cover, I saw testimonials from Peter Senge, Frances Hesselbein (President and CEO of the Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management), Warren Bennis, Jack Kemp, the chairman of ServiceMaster, the president of London Fog, and more. OK, this woman is connected, obviously valued by some people who are careful about where their names appear. Foreword by Max De Pree, former chairman and CEO of Herman Miller, Inc.

Checking her biography, I learned that she served for two years as executive director of the Federal Quality Institute, appointed by President Clinton. Prior to that she was vice president for people and quality for Herman Miller. The impressive list goes on. This is a woman who knows what makes the difference between high achieving organizations and also-rans.

In her first chapter, Hunt talks about visioning-imagining the world we want to create. Her emphasis is on leading and living on purpose. She talks about change and how we need good foundations to thrive when everything is changing around us at a frightening pace. "I believe vision fuels our passion and lifts us above our fear." The redesign, realignment, reinvention must be done with a deliberate urgency, engaging the hearts and minds of the people who comprise organizations and communities. Dream makers inspire their people-all their stakeholders-to move consciously and purposefully into the future. We can all learn from their examples.

The next twelve chapters consist of twelve stories of people who make a difference. At the end of each chapter is a summary of lessons learned. Each one of these stories could be a valuable book all by itself, so this collection has a lot to offer. The book concludes with some personal philosophy from the author, putting the frosting on the cake. Recommended for leaders and aspiring leaders who want to gain greater insights into the kinds of things that make life and organizations work a lot better.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational perspectives on leadership, September 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: DreamMakers: Putting Vision and Values to Work (Hardcover)

Michelle Hunt has an uncanny ability to make leadership palpable. Her case studies, particularly the one dealing with an IT company in Virginia, are insightful and inspiring. While it's disappointing that she didn't interview junior people about who they looked up to as leaders, her vignettes capture the true essence of leadership.