Leading Beyond the Walls: Wisdom to Action Series [Paperback]

Frances Hesselbein (Editor), Marshall Goldsmith (Editor), Iain Somerville (Editor)

Book Description

Series: J-B Leader to Leader Institute/PF Drucker Foundation | Publication Date: January 3, 2001

"Beyond the walls is a battle cry that mobilizes . . . The walls that surround us, protect us, and embrace us can also inhibit movement, limit understanding, restrict engagement, and diminish our relevance in the wider world. I realized that my walls, and the walls of leaders everywhere, were not only the walls of current policy, practice, procedure, and assumption but also the walls of the past--safe, familiar, and secure. This recognition was just the first of several as we worked through a process to take ourselves and our organizations beyond the walls to new levels of performance and positive changes in the lives of people."
--from the Introduction by Frances Hesselbein
In Leading Beyond the Walls, twenty-nine great thinkers examine leaders adept at establishing partnerships, alliances, and networks both within and outside their organizations. They address the challenge of leading in an age when the old rules and conventional boundaries no longer exist. Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins, Noel Tichy, Regina E. Herzlinger, C.K. Prahalad, and Sally Helgesen are among those who explore new ways of building relationships, new approaches to strategy and marketing, new models of employee relations, and other innovations. Their essays herald a new world where success comes to those willing to move beyond the walls of tradition and inertia.
To read the first chapter from this book, click here.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...well presented and worth reading..." (Long Range Planning)

From the Inside Flap

"Beyond the walls is a battle cry that mobilizes.... The walls that surround us, protect us, and embrace us can also inhibit movement, limit understanding, restrict engagement, and diminish our relevance in the wider world. I realized that my walls, and the walls of leaders everywhere, were not only the walls of current policy, practice, procedure, and assumption but also the walls of the past--safe, familiar, and secure. This recognition was just the first of several as we worked through a process to take ourselves and our organizations beyond the walls to new levels of performance and positive changes in the lives of people."--from the Introduction by Frances HesselbeinIn This first volume of the Wisdom to Action series, twenty-nine of the world's greatest thinkers explore the need for a new paradigm in leadership. In today's fast-paced global society, leaders must be adept at establishing diverse partnerships, alliances, and networks by building and maintaining relationships both within and outside their own organizations. They must be comfortable with working with individuals and organizations they cannot control in the traditional sense, but with whom they share core values, purposes, and goals. Ultimately, they must learn to lead through commitment and connection--both of which are rooted in freedom of choice rather than in systems of coercion and control. Leading Beyond the Walls brings together Peter F. Drucker, Stephen R. Covey, Peter M. Senge, Jim Collins, Noel Tichy, Regina E. Herzlinger, C.K. Prahalad, Sally Helgesen, and other thought leaders to describe new ways of building relationships, new approaches to strategy and marketing, new models of employee relations, and other innovative ways of thinking and acting. They share practical insights on the challenge of leading in an age when the old rules and conventional boundaries no longer exist.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (January 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787955558
• ISBN-13: 978-0787955557
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #852,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Must Have" Book For Every Business Leader, December 21, 1999

By 

Gilbert A. Williams (Lincoln MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Leading Beyond the Walls (Hardcover)

As a management consultant who is interested in helping executives get results I am always looking for reference material for my clients. This book clearly articulates the need (and "means-by-which") Leaders must adopt a systems perspective and then go beyond "thinking about it" to the "doing of it". It is jamb-packed with useful information and applicable ideas that will help Leaders truly "Lead", well into the new mellinium. Represented are methods you can use "right now". I will be buying this book for my clients and insisting they read it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh Insight from Leading Organizational Thinkers, November 8, 2002

By 

Paul Jones "Nonprofit Marketing Consultant" (Salt Lake City, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Leading Beyond the Walls: Wisdom to Action Series (Paperback)

I would walk barefoot to the bookstore to read something new by Peter Drucker. Now in his ninety-fourth year the man still seems preternaturally able to unearth new insights, no matter what subject commands his attention.

The 23 essays in Leading Beyond the Walls are based around the premise that weve all gotten a little too comfortable with business as usual. More to the point, that our comfort zones arent only comfortable, but limiting. Its a slightly self-evident conclusion called by a new and more awkward name.

Drucker gets first crack at the topic with an essay on the hazards of unfettered pluralism. Drucker is always didactic, but not in a painful way. One never feels talked down to. Instead its as if a wise old man has watched things develop from the vantage point of a tall tower, then comes down periodically to tell us where things really stand. His call for new community in an age of pluralism is cogent, to the point, and on the money.

The remaining essays come from some name brand organizational thinkers including the likes of Jim Collins, Peter Senge and Steven R. Covey. Not surprisingly the writing and thinking are little uneven. Thats the usual price of admission for these collected works.

Leading was published in 1999 and theres more than a little of the Fast Company group-think that now has been so thoroughly disavowed. ...

And so reading parts of Leading Beyond the Walls now is a little like déjà vu all over again. For instance, C.K. Prahalads breathless, dense essay Preparing for Leadership reads like old Latin after Vatican II. In separate essays William Bridges and Sally Helgesen wave the everythings different banner so reminiscent of the go-go 1990s when it comes, respectively, to partners and leaders. Time will tell.

By contrast, there is a wonderful timelessness to Stratford Shermans The Power of Choice, an insightful case study on a Catholic priest in the Philippines who successfully uses choice to redeem Manilas most hardened street children.

There are no bombs thrown in Leading. But one of the more incendiary essays comes from consultant Charles Roussel, who suggests that corporate governance is paternalistic and determinalistic. Roussel wouldnt abolish boards and executive teams just yet. But he finds them largely unprepared to change or lead change, especially when it comes to modern alliances. Instead, new decision routines should be established and governance decisions driven by decision expeditors, alliance champions, and frontline employees.

Theres a lot of meat here and my pages of Decision Making Beyond the Boundaries were well marked by the time I finished reading it. Roussels conclusions may be right on, but Im still digesting his rather challenging recommendations.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Insight for leading with partnerships, alliances, etc., September 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Leading Beyond the Walls (Hardcover)

This collection covers critical issues with wise insight. "Leading Beyond the Walls" is the only way that small, competitive (and it seems large and successful) organizations will prevail in the world tomorrow. We each need to focus on OUR strengths and then coordinate, partner, and work with others on THEIR strengths.

The Drucker Foundation uses its expertise on nonprofit management to bring a focus on collaborative work. The examples are from across the sectors, and business is as much the subject as community-building is. I like the Reader's Guide the Foundation gives away on its site. See drucker.org for it and a sample chapter.