bookreviews
by Theodore B. Kinni
The Future of Leadership
by Randall P. White, Philip Hodgson
and Stuart Crainer
Managers who long for a stable economy and a peaceful competitive environment
won't find much comfort in The Future of Leadership. From the book's first
line ("Don't read this book if you can't cope with risk"), authors
White, Hodgson and Crainer are plainly suggesting that leaders can't adopt
a business-as-usual attitude.
The future, says the trio, is going to be a "white-water" journey.
The leaders who prosper will be those who push their organizations into
the turmoil of change and the opportunities that exist there. This is the
main thesis of the book, and close to a hundred pages are devoted to convincing
the reader of its accuracy.
The most useful information comes in Chapter 4, where the authors describe
"five skills of white-water leadership." These include: difficult
learning-the desire and ability to seek real learning challenges; maximizing
energy-the ability to focus resources; resonant simplicity-the ability to
communicate clearly and concisely; multiple focus-the ability to maintain
a balanced perspective; and mastering inner sense-the ability to use intuition.
The ideas in The Future of Leadership (Pitman Publishing, $25) reveal themselves
as mostly recycled. It leans heavily on chaos theory concepts and ideas
such as Peter Senge's learning organization and personal mastery. Even the
five leadership skills are simply common-sense ideas clothed in new terms.
The book's only claim to originality lies in the spin it puts on the material.
Achieving the Competitive Edge
by Harry Jackson Jr. and Normand Frigon
Co-authors Jackson and Frigon create a synthesis of existing and new ideas
designed to help companies attain world-class performance. They call the
resulting system the Competitive Edge Model.
The examination of this model begins with vision and values, and continues
with participative leadership, planning and deployment, and process-based
management. The model relies heavily on a methodical approach that involves
a series of matrixes and short, step-by-step action plans.
The rest of the book is composed mainly of descriptions of the various
tools and concepts that are usually sheltered by the TQM umbrella. Achieving
the Competitive Edge (John Wiley and Sons, $39.95) is packed with information,
but it is very similar to the authors' 1993 book, Management 2000, which
is already out-of-print. It is a useful reference to the major quality tools,
and the "Competitive Edge" strategy is a creative spin. Neither,
however, offers a strong enough reason to justify the cover price.
Managing Information Overload
by Lynn Lively
There are many methods of organization. My usual choice is the classic quarterly
forearm sweep, which moves the contents of the desktop into a trash bin
in a single motion. Those seeking a more professional method, however, would
do well to check out Lynn Lively's Managing Information Overload.
Reading this book is a lot like spending an hour or two with a workplace
organizer. Lively has chosen a practical, action-based format that guides
the reader step-by-step through the organizational process. The starting
point is the actual definition of each individual's informational needs.
The definition stage complete, Lively directs readers to specify their most
important tasks and the processes by which they are accomplished.
Part two of the book concentrates on tips for managing specific kinds of
media. It includes chapters on hard-copy information, verbal communication
and electronic media, such as e-mail.
The goal of all this effort is to become an "information master,"
according to the author. Information masters concentrate 80 percent of their
informational efforts on their three most important tasks: controlling the
flow of incoming and outgoing information, using information to continuously
improve their own performance and preparing for the future.
Another entry in Amacom's perfectly priced WorkSmart series, Managing Information
Overload (Amacom, $10.95) leaves the reader with more than a neat desk.
It also provides a rational organizational framework for screening the ever-growing
mountains of data that have emerged as the hallmarks of the Information
Age.
Process Redesign
by Arthur R. Tenner and Irving J. DeToro
One shortcoming of single-topic business books, such as the best-selling
Reengineering the Corporation, is that they tend to ignore the larger picture.
Reading such books suggests that reengineering, for example, is all a manager
need do to create a successful business. Authors Tenner and DeToro would
tell you that there is nothing further from the truth.
In Process Redesign, Tenner and DeToro do an admirable job of creating
a full toolbox for process engineers. They weave the tools and techniques
of TQM, benchmarking and reengineering together into a comprehensive vision
of continuous process improvement.
The authors well understand the systemic foundations needed to support
process management. They spend the first section of the book describing
the cultural, strategic and leadership elements needed to successfully undertake
an ongoing improvement program. Part two describes the components of process
analysis. Part three delves into the basics of process management.
In addition to serving as a working reference for managers, the book is
also designed for classroom use. Each chapter ends with discussion questions,
and cases and exercises are used throughout the text.
The books in Addison-Wesley's Engineering Process Improvement Series usually
don't break new ground. Instead, they do a fine job of collecting, explaining
and uniting existing techniques into a holistic system. Process Redesign
(Addison-Wesley, $34.50) follows the established pattern at a cover price
that is more reasonable than some of the series' earlier entries.
