Customer Reviews

Get Them on Your Side

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a career professional in the field of HR I found this book to be incredibly useful, as my job hinges on the ability to gain consensus and sell my ideas to the organization. One of the most difficult things in any organization is developing the ability to skillfully navigate the political landscape. Frankly, if you can't do this it doesn't matter how intelligent you may be or how great your ideas are. If you can't negotiate those political pratfalls and gain consensus then you're doomed to fail, or at a minimum spin your wheels endlessly. "Get Them On Your Side" is probably the best book I've read on this subject...it provides the roadmap and the keys to making it happen. I highly recommend it to anyone in business or beyond who has to bring a group together in order to get things done.

This book is an indispensable guide to anyone who wants to move ideas or themselves forward in an organization. Bacharach, more than any other author, understands that success depends on our ability to get people on our side. His notion of 'political competence' and his insight into what it takes to achieve it is practical, simple and wonderfully clever. In my 30 year career, I've rarely read a book as lively and straightforward as this volume. I read it over the weekend, and used the concepts this week.

Samuel Bacharach's book is absolutely fantastic. Although it is excelent for anyone in business, it should be of particuar interest for the businesswoman.

I am sure that I am not the only woman who has sadly discovered that, as a woman, it is especially difficult to get your ideas implemented. It is hard to believe that in the 21st century, so many of us find ourselves fighting that same old battle to be taken seriously. But don't throw in the towel! There is help between the covers of this book. Professor Bacharach gives detailed strategies that anyone can grasp in order to change the status quo. I promise that you too can learn to "get them on your side."

This is a book that belongs in everyones library, whether you work in corporate America, are organizing a new project for the PTA, or anything in between.

Simple, practical explanation on how to get your project accepted politically.

Read it in a (full) day, start applying the next.

Enjoy!

"In today's organizations, the real conflict is not between those who resist change and those who advocate change. Conflict is over the agenda. Therefore, political competence demands that you analyze and understand the agendas of others in order to anticipate how they will react to your efforts". (page 38).

Professor Samuel Bacharach of Cornell University understands the world of change. More importantly, in "Get Them on Your Side", Bacharach presents a clear and understandable strategy to navigate change in organizations and the resistance to it. In my 39 years of ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, I have done extensive training in various forms of organizational development and management and have acted as a consultant for various churches and other not for profit organizations. The volume of material that Professor Bacharach presents articulates in a very clear and concise format, the type of work that I have been doing all of these years.

Although my experience is primarily with non profit organizations, Bacharach provides the reader with the types of skills one needs to succeed in any form of organizational life across all disciplines, It is applicable to non-profit organizations as well as small businesses and large corporations. Bacharach affirms that a good idea is not enough in and of itself. Leaders and change agents need "political competence". It is heartening to hear that his primary concern "...is to demonstrate to individuals that they are capable of political competence and coalition building and that these skills are teachable". (page 234).

This is not a book that overwhelms you with theory and concepts. Rather, you are given precise definitions, specific steps in a process ,and several good examples that put the process to work.

"Get Them on Your Side" is must reading for anyone who deals with change. It does not guarantee success in all efforts but it greatly increases the odds, while at the same time creating a climate of increased trust and cooperation in the culture of the organization.

Political savvy can shape your career in any organization. Most "politically competent" people developed their talent through extensive experience. Such competence is a difficult skill to transmit through book learning. That sums up the major shortcoming of Samuel B. Bacharach's book. On the plus side, he provides matrices and enumerates the characteristics you need to build coalitions. He also provides extensive examples, accounting for nearly half the book, to illustrate politically wise tactics. Yet, Bacharach's tone is occasionally professorial. His ideas about coalition building are certainly applicable, but people who are truly politically savvy will not need this book. We recommend it primarily for novices - those who want to be wise corporate politicians, but aren't yet. If you are higher up the ladder, you should already have developed your political competence - although you may appreciate the refresher course.

How can a politician win over enemies and gain and mobilize support for a cause? Learn how to build coalitions, understand agendas and how they can work for you, and utilize minds and talents of those who can help with the aid of Get Them On Your Side: Win Support. Convert Skeptics. Get Results. From how organizations process new information to change how they operate to understanding regulations and justifying actions, Get Them On Your Side tells how to understand underlying politics.

As an independent filmmaker, I rely on investors who could choose to put their money into just about anything. "Get Them on Your Side" does an excellent job of demonstrating how to get across a radical idea in a way that can be palatteable to all walks of life.

No matter your profession, this book will hold at least a few useful tools that will make your professional experience more gratifying and your time more effective.

Being politically savvy - especially within a large organization - is crucial to the success of any project you want to drive that will have substantial impact on the organization. Political savvy, though, is easy to overdo and end up with you looking manipulative or power-hungry. This book does an excellent job instructing how to walk that line and still be successful without burning too many bridges.

The only reason that this isn't a 5-star book is that it ignores the long-term story. There's another huge element that involves past performance and current support that you are also giving and is largely ignored. Additionally, the book doesn't hit on the importance of proper recognition of your early supporters at the successful completion of the project in order to ensure they're with you again the next time around. Still, though, this was a quick, enjoyable read, and I even picked up an additional thing or two.

This book is a must-read for anyone who want to consistently get new ideas implemented successfully. The book clearly presents the steps so that your initiatives can be successfully implemented. My personal experience in founding and running high tech company as well as working with large organizations confirm that political competence is a skill that can be and must be learned by everyone who want to get a team to achieve its goals. Political competence is a necessary skill for everyone in all areas irrespective of whether the area of expertise is sales, marketing, finance, information technology, research, education, government or non-profit. Reading this book and following the steps will definately increase your chance of getting your next idea implemented successfully within your organizations.