Synopses & Reviews
The overwhelming challenges created by today's new work requirements — endless technological innovation and increasingly complex organizational issues— cry out for feedback, mentoring, and coaching processes that promote self-reflection, self-corrections, and improved performance.
In The Art of Waking People Up authors Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith draw on more than thirty years of practical experience with hundreds of organizations— from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies, schools, and nonprofits— to reveal new ways of giving and receiving feedback that maximize personal and organizational change and foster lifelong learning. They show how organizations can develop the systems, processes, techniques, and relationships that affirm, rather than undermine, the intelligence and humanity of their employees. This important resource is filled with the necessary tools, interventions, and strategies managers can use to encourage their employees to speak, hear, absorb, and use the information they need to improve the way they work.
Unlike other authors who describe a discreet mentoring process or coaching technique, Cloke and Goldsmith provide managers with a new paradigm for workplace feedback and ways of giving and receiving information that maximizes personal and organizational change. The Art of Waking People Up includes information on how to
- Create work relationships that are more honest, open, respectful, and effective
- Analyze the structures, systems, processes, and cultural practices that limit personal and organizational growth
- Identify the behaviors that suppress awareness, creativity, and initiative
- Target the information to pass along that will help develop creativity, flexibility, leadership, and responsiveness
- Implement strategies for encouraging the development of democratic organizations
In addition, this book contains value-added tools, interventions, and solid strategies that will go a long way toward "waking up" people up in any organization.
Review
"Inspiring, coaxing, guiding, and mentoring, Cloke and Goldsmith take us through a systemic approach of waking up organizations and employees. This is a book for everyone, guiding us to what good management and worker goals should be and can be when they are one. By stressing equally the goals of management and the needs of employees, they have found the road to long-term productivity." —Piedad Robertson, president, Santa Monica College, and former Secretary of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
"This book evokes the "aha" phenomenon. You will recognize immediately the somnolent state of many workers whom Cloke and Goldsmith describe. In a wonderfully written book, these incredibly wise and humane organizational experts approach the problem of workers' apathy with the keen eye of the clinician, the clear-mindedness of the theoretician, and the empathic heart of the gifted therapist. The Art of Waking People Up is a real gem!" —Jean Lipman-Blumen, Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Organizational Behavior, Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management, Claremont Graduate University; author, Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World
"Cloke and Goldsmith bring a basic tenet of civics to business organizations: personal responsibility and involvement. Their notion of a democratic corporation is both inspired and critically necessary. The principles of leadership and citizenship replace hierarchical management doctrine, establishing a collaborative process that promotes both organizational and personal growth." —Terry Fitzpatrick, senior vice president, business operations, Sesame Workshop
"A greatly needed and practical wake-up call to companies and individuals for transforming suffocating environments into dynamic, democratic, and personally fulfilling organizations." —James E. Austin, McLean Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School
Synopsis
In The Art of Waking People Up authors Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith draw on more than thirty years of practical experience with hundreds of organizations-- from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies, schools, and nonprofits-- to reveal new ways of giving and receiving feedback that maximize personal and organizational change and foster lifelong learning. They show how organizations can develop the systems, processes, techniques, and relationships that affirm, rather than undermine, the intelligence and humanity of their employees. This important resource is filled with the necessary tools, interventions, and strategies managers can use to encourage their employees to speak, hear, absorb, and use the information they need to improve the way they work.
Synopsis
In "The Art of Waking People Up "authors Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith draw on more than thirty years of practical experience with hundreds of organizations— from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies, schools, and nonprofits— to reveal new ways of giving and receiving feedback that maximize personal and organizational change and foster lifelong learning. They show how organizations can develop the systems, processes, techniques, and relationships that affirm, rather than undermine, the intelligence and humanity of their employees. This important resource is filled with the necessary tools, interventions, and strategies managers can use to encourage their employees to speak, hear, absorb, and use the information they need to improve the way they work.
About the Author
Kenneth Cloke is director of the Center for Dispute Resolution and a mediator, arbitrator, consultant, and trainer. Joan Goldsmith is an organizational consultant, coach, and educator specializing in leadership development and organizational change. Cloke and Goldsmith are coauthors of five previous books, including The End of Management and the Rise of Organizational Democracy and Resolving Conflicts at Work: A Complete Guide for Everyone on the Job, both published by Jossey-Bass.
Table of Contents
Foreword (Warren Bennis).
Preface.
The Authors.
Part One: Context: Cultivating Awareness and Authenticity.
1. An Orientation to Awareness and Authenticity.
2. The Art of Waking Up.
3. Where It All Begins.
Part Two: Processes: Championing Congruity and Commitment.
4. Turnaround Feedback.
5. Transformational Coaching.
6. Strategic Mentoring.
7. Participatory Assessment.
Part Three: Techniques: Encouraging Turnaround Experiences.
8. Courageous Listening.
9. Paradoxical Problem Solving.
10. Supportive Confrontation.
11. Risky Conflict Resolution.
Part Four: Relationships: Sustaining Organizational Awareness and Authenticity.
12. Waking Organizations Up.
13. Fostering Congruence and Commitment in Organizations.
14. Ubiquitous Leadership and Organizational Democracy.
Index.