The Drucker Foundation: The Community of the Future (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) [Hardcover]

Frances Hesselbein (Editor), Marshall Goldsmith (Editor), Richard F. Schubert (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787910066 | ISBN-13: 978-0787910068 | Publication Date: 1998 | Edition: 1st

"This book of essays is full of rampant idealism. Its authors--educators, think-tankers, corporate executives, consultants, book authors, nonprofit association executives, and a German politician--share a desire to better the world through their ideas and actions. Many qualify as do-gooders in the best sense of the phrase."
--Christian Science Monitor

This third volume from the acclaimed Drucker Foundation Future Series focuses on the basis of society itself--the community. Featuring the examples of successful communities from New York City to Hawaii, The Community of the Future presents insights from Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Arun Gandhi, Elie Wiesel, James L. Barksdale, and many others. Their powerful essays explore what our communities will look like tomorrow--how we will live, work, communicate, educate our children, and govern ourselves.

This collection shows readers:
* How to recognize and anticipate the trends that transform society
* The impact of new communications technology, including global and virtual communications
* How to create organizational communities and communities in the workplace
* How to envision and shape communities that will build values and embrace humanity

From businesses, to communities of faith, to schools, to cyberspace--the gamut of human communities is explored by the world's foremost thinkers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This is the third offering in the Drucker Foundation Future series. The previous titles--The Leader of the Future (1996) and The Organization of the Future (1997)--have proven to be popular not only in the U.S. but also abroad, where they have been translated into 12 languages. Hesselbeim is president of the Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, and she and her coeditors have gathered work that aims for a "greater understanding of community in [all] its many forms." Twenty-four original essays from a diverse and noteworthy collection of authors consider trends shaping the evolution of community, the values of community, the impact of communications technology, creating communities within organizations, strengthening the social fabric, and the global dimensions of community. Among them, Stephen Covey describes "The Ideal Community" and Howard Rheingold contemplates "Virtual Communities." David Rouse

Review

"This book of essays is full of rampant idealism. Its authors--educators, think-tankers, corporate executives, consultants, book authors, nonprofit association executives, and a German politician--share a desire to better the world through their ideas and actions. Many qualify as do-gooders in the best sense of the phrase." -Christian Science Monitor --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 285 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787910066
• ISBN-13: 978-0787910068
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,858,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Community will determine the future quality of our lives., February 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Drucker Foundation: The Community of the Future (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) (Hardcover)

Before WW I, fewer that 5% of the population lived in a city. Today in developed countries, less that 5% live in a rural area. All of this has occured in less than 100 years.

The key to survival and health of this new urban society is the development of communities in the city, by non-profit social sector insititutions, according to Peter Drucker.

Human beings need community. If no communities are available for constructive ends, there will be destructive communities, i.e. gangs to fill the void.

This thoughtfully written, well organized book is about the future -- the future quality of our lives. In "The Community of the Future", the editors have gathered the wisdom and insights from 31 distinguished authors, from around the world, to discuss their unique perspective on the nature of community.

The book is divided into six sections: * Trends Shaping the Evolution of the Community * The Values of Community * The Impact of New Communication Technology * Creating Community in Organization * Strengthening the Social Fabric * Global Dimensions of Community.

If you are interested in creating the future, strengthening our communities and improving our understanding of our world, I highly recommend "The Community of the Future".

Building the global community of the future is not the work of tomorrow. We are each called to build it today -- to build it now.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Promise and Paradox of the Community of the Future, May 24, 2006

By 

Muhammad Pyran Hewitt "polymathic autodidact" (Athens, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Drucker Foundation: The Community of the Future (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) (Paperback)

The American writer Willaim Saroyan once said, "In the time of your life, live---so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it."

In this time of global terrorism, rising oil prices, climatic disruption and political decay, hope is an increasingly scarce resource. Leadership too is becoming a perception to be managed and not a trait to be displayed. West African writer and teacher Malidoma Some declares that we have "an instinct of community," and so as societies grow and evolve, they build up resevoirs of social capital, taking generations to fill.

This instinct for community -- toward cooperation and competition, or so called 'co-opetition' by Brandenberger & Nalebuff -- is so strong in humans that we come into this world stocked with such emotions as anger, pride, shame, and guilt -- all of which, according to Fukuyama, "come into play in response to people who either are honest and cooperate, or who cheat and break the rules.

Yet the promise of this communal synthesis is being degraded as we "are using the instinct of community to separate and protect us from one another, rather than creating a global culture of diverse yet interwoven communities." Based on the interdependent models available to us in eco-systems theory, there is the possibility to "to connect to others through their diversity, [to re-establish] communities that succeed in creating sustainable [long-term] relationships."

It is the collaboration and cooperation of individuals in elaborate interdependent networks of relationships that allows new capabilities and talents to emerge. Individual fitness leads to greater societal and communal fitness and the connections and relationships strengthen and reinforce the fabric of society.

Yet as individuals weave this social fabric, a paradox is created -- the individual must surrender autonomy to achieve community. This paradoxical tension can lead to even greater awareness and understanding of the role of the individual in society, or it may contain the seed of our eventual self-destruction.

As Wheatley proclaims, "This paradox can be a great teacher to us humans. When we don't answer these questions as a community, when we have no agreements about why we belong together, the institutions we create to serve us become battle grounds that serve no one. Our institutions dissipate into incoherence and impotence. In the absence of these agreements, our instinct of community leads us to a community of 'me' not a community of 'we'." Such is the paradox and the promise of community.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good, October 4, 2005

By 

Renhuan Zhao (nj) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Drucker Foundation: The Community of the Future (J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation) (Paperback)

basically satisfied with everything. the book came in good condition and was pretty much on time.