Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life [Hardcover]

Ken Blanchard (Author), Jesse Stoner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

A bestselling business author explains the need for a guiding vision for the future, emphasizing that everyone is capable of creating and implementing one

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Blanchard, co-author of the bestselling One Minute Manager series, and consultant Stoner use a parable to convey the importance of vision to a company's success. Ellie has just returned to her job at an insurance company after an unpleasant divorce. She's startled by the e-mail messages the company's new president, Jim, sends to all employees. They're honest, upbeat and filled with personal anecdotes. One morning, Ellie gets to the office early and joins the only other person there-Jim-for coffee. Their first conversation is the start of a long and productive friendship. Jim encourages Ellie to think about herself and her career, while she helps him create a vision and plan for changes at the company. This story takes up the bulk of the book, as Blanchard and Stoner incorporate Jim and Ellie's discussions of vision (which includes recognizing your purpose and values and having a firm picture of the future) into the parable. Although the book rarely breaks from Jim and Ellie to offer general counsel, the authors' simple, straightforward writing style makes their advice obvious.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Great things come from a powerful vision--fortunes are made, diseases get cured, and democracies are born. Blanchard and Stoner not only teach readers how to develop a potent vision ... but also the equally important lesson of how to bring it alive.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1 edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576752445
• ISBN-13: 978-1576752449
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,435,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! Should be required reading for all team members., April 27, 2003

By 

"mirari" (Boston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life (Hardcover)

Everyone on our team was expected to read this book before beginning our project. I must admit I was initially not very enthusiastic about being given a book to read. But once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting! I had always looked at vision as "soft." This book shows how it is practical and necessary and it shows how to easily apply the ideas. Using the book as a reference, our team created a shared vision for our project that was supported by senior management. I have never been on a team that accomplished so much in such a short timeframe--we were focused, energized and easily moved Full Steam Ahead!

Note: This book is applicable to all aspects of your life (not just work).

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Written, Well Worth It!, April 8, 2003

By 

Leslie Wright (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life (Hardcover)

If you're like me, and have spent countless hours in countless meetings trying to develop a "vision statement" for your organization without ever really getting to the point, then this book is for you. Blanchard (The One Minute Manager) and Stoner have skillfully crafted an allegorical tale of Jim and Ellie, one a successful but uninspired business owner, and the other a recently-hired employee who serves as a sounding board and confidant. In their conversations, Jim confides to Ellie that running the insurance company his father created just isn't all that exciting anymore. Notes Jim: "When my father was president, everything here was full steam ahead." He goes on to say that his father really inspired the employees - they felt like they were doing important things at work, and there was real joy in the agency then. When Ellie asks whether "full steam ahead" means being reckless, or moving ahead blindly in the face of danger, Jim responds, "No, I think it's the opposite. It means having vision - being so clear about your purpose, so committed to it, and so sure about your ability to accomplish it, that you move ahead decisively despite any obstacles." This characterizes the tone and sentiment of the book - discovering the ability to unleash transformative power by developing a clear vision of where you want to take your organization and your personal life.

The authors delineate the three elements of a successful vision: significant purpose, clear values, and a picture of the future. This last element, what the future will look like, resonated especially strongly for me as I read the book- the idea that you know you're on the right path when you can see a clear picture of what it's going to look like when you reach your goal. Examples abound here: JFK's vision of putting a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, Soviet athletes' technique of "mental rehearsal" in the 1976 Olympics, even skiing down a difficult hill. Using Ellie as a creative muse, Jim comes to realize that his insurance company does have purpose (peace of mind) and values (ethics, relationships, success) which permit him to develop a picture of the future where employees look forward to coming to work each day and strive to provide unparalleled customer service. Of course, the process of creating the vision is perhaps as important as the vision itself - working together to develop a common theme invests members of the organization as stakeholders, and that can build cohesion and a common sense of purpose.

In the final analysis, this book is extremely well-written, engaging, and hard to put down!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended reading, May 17, 2003

By 

"crowne19876" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life (Hardcover)

There's something about this book that's different. Other business novels I've read often seem light and superficial--motivational but not practical. There is nothing superficial about this book. The authors' messages are powerful and can easily be applied. Instead of just telling you how important it is to have a vision, they show you how to create one. I was impressed that I could learn so much from a short, enjoyable to read book.