Guiding Change Journeys: A Synergistic Approach to Organization Transformation [Paperback]

Rebecca Chan Allen (Author), Rebecca Chan Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0787957119 | ISBN-13: 978-0787957117 | Edition: 1

Guiding Change Journeys, a title in The Practicing Organization Development Series, takes you on a cross-cultural odyssey of personal and organization transformation. Inspired by science, mythology, and real-life lessons, this hands-on resource offers eight compelling transformation cycles that will help you connect with the universal creative spirit within and around us. Each of the change cycles focuses on a specific practice in global organization development (OD) and gives you the insights and methods to guide transformation through uncharted territory. By applying the book's eight practices--awakening, pathfinding, adventuring, dancing with dragons, compassion, epiphany, synergy, and community--you can effect powerful change.

Author Rebecca Chan Allen tells stories of change leaders and facilitators, confronted by business volatility and organization diversity, who use timeless techniques to transform impasse into innovation and conflicts into creativity. Guiding Change Journeys invites you to embrace the unknown and venture into new territory with clarity and confidence.

"Rebecca Chan Allen has created an exciting road map for a journey of change. Her landscape is complete with dragons, deep pits, and pathfinders to stimulate both the guide and the process of organization change."
--T. Don Stacy, corporate director, Noble Affiliates, Hydril Co, AEC Ltd, and Agrium; former chair, Amoco Canada and Amoco Eurasia

Editorial Reviews

Review

"With all due respect, the author has truly impressive credentials..." (Training, 2/02)

Review

"Guiding Change Journeys brings together the poetic with the practical. It is an immensely helpful book, beautifully written." --Nancy J. Adler, professor of international management, McGill University, Montreal, Canada and author of From Boston to Beijing: Managing With A Worldview

"Guiding Change Journeys is a masterful fusion of Eastern and Western wisdom, science, and mythology presented with great insight, clarity, and warmth." --Robert J. Marshak, organization consultant and author of Lewin Meets Confucius: A Re-View of the OD Model of Change

"Rebecca Chan Allen has created an exciting road map for a journey of change. Her landscape is complete with dragons, deep pits, and pathfinders to stimulate both the guide and the process of organization change." --T. Don Stacy, corporate director, Noble Affiliates, Hydril Co, AEC Ltd, and Agrium, former chair, Amoco Canada and Amoco Eurasia

"...thoughtfully written.... I recommend this book to everyone involved in the journey of change." --Robert I. Tobin, professor, faculty of business and commerce, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

"This book is a rare gift from a successful international organization development consultant in which Dr. Chan Allen shares personal, organizational, and cultural epiphanies." --Dr. Barbara P. Mink, faculty, The Fielding Institute, Santa Barbara, California

"Guiding Change Journeys has elegance and pacing that by itself is a guide to the often frantic change efforts of western consultants. It is a book to sit with, absorb, and reflect upon." --Dr. Will McWhinney, president, Enthusion, Inc. and author, Paths of Change

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer; 1 edition (August 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787957119
• ISBN-13: 978-0787957117
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #632,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A review of "Guiding Change Journeys" by Rebecca Chan Allen, January 23, 2002

By 

L. Glasheen (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guiding Change Journeys: A Synergistic Approach to Organization Transformation (Paperback)

Finally!... A book providing both practical guidance AND sound theoretical reference materials for change leaders and organizational effectiveness practitioners. Chan Allen's book is clearly organized, easy to use, and accessible at whatever level of conceptual depth her reader wishes to work (or to start from). Her examples are creative, original and fun to use -- in both professional and personal contexts. I highly recommend this for organization development professionals and those interested in transformation methodology.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must read" in the field of organizational change!, November 30, 2001

By 

Marilyn Laiken (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guiding Change Journeys: A Synergistic Approach to Organization Transformation (Paperback)

One of the greatest challenges an author can undertake is to write a book that is both theoretically complex and strongly pragmatic. Rebecca Chan Allen has accomplished this in Guiding Change Journeys. In combining the philosophical underpinnings and conceptual bases of a wide variety of organizational change strategies with practical approaches, examples, exercises and illustrations, she skillfully supports change practitioners in integrating Eastern and Western perspectives. Through her integration of stories from mythology and concepts from organization development, new science and wisdom traditions, Chan Allen takes us on an "Archetypal change Journey" based on Jungian archetypes, which describe enduring patterns of transformation.

In a spirit of integration, the book implies throughout that successful organizational change is dependent upon individual and group psychological approaches, conceptualized within a systemic framework. The author's intention seems ultimately holistic, in that she continually addresses issues of mind/body/spirit, whether individually or organizationally.

Though the book may seem esoteric and philosophically dense at times, it carefully balances the more theoretical introductions to each chapter with a plethora of practical examples and exercises, which bring the theory to life and make the concepts infinitely usable. The overall impression is a treasure-trove of ideas. The many insights, methods and resources are offered by the author as gifts, with the invitation to "tinker and improvise" in order to adapt them to one's own needs.

In this simple offering, Chan Allen summarizes the heart of her book as a journey of discovery - which may well alter the life of the change practitioner, as well as the very nature of his or her organizational context.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bridge Across Forever, October 30, 2001

By 

Layton Fisher (Calgary, Alberta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guiding Change Journeys: A Synergistic Approach to Organization Transformation (Paperback)

Rebecca Chan Allen has written a masterful book that bridges
ancient eastern wisdom and modern western organization problems.
The book illuminates both the practical and theoretical side of some of our greatest organizational issues, and supports leaders
in playing full rich transformational roles in organization change.