Saturday, October 31, 2009

Leading Organizational Change by Ricardo Gonzalez



Leading Organizational Change
by Ricardo Gonzalez
Edited by Stephen J. Banta
2009. 512pp. ISBN 978-971-8558-53-9
How can leaders of an organization better utilize the creativity of their team members?  How can the collective energy of an organization be better focused to achieve shared goals? When does a leader let go so that the wisdom of the organization can manifest itself and thereby be fully applied? 
Author Ricardo Gonzalez, presents that a lot of the answers to organizational management and culture change issues can be found in the observation and understanding of how natural systems operate.


Leading Organizational Change: Lessons From Nature integrates the author’s 30 years of experience as an Organization Development (OD) consultant in the Asia Pacific region with a number of current theories like The Complexity Theory that studies systems in the physical and life sciences and The Swarm Theory that takes observations of insect and mammalian group behavior in their natural habitat, and applies it to organizational management and change processes.

The author questions the usefulness of currently employed organizational culture change approaches like Behavior Modification and the Organization Development Process. He advocates the nudging of organizations towards a point where transformational change is more spontaneous, employing the principles of The Complexity Theory and Eight Change Levers.

The book is an invaluable tool for leaders at all levels of an organization looking to re-examine certain fundamental management practices, and to transform prevailing assumptions about organizational culture change.