Every day organizations around the world launch change initiatives-often big, expensive ones-designed to improve the status quo. Yet fifty to seventy percent of these change efforts fail. A few perish suddenly, but many die painful, protracted deaths that drain the organization's resources, energy and morale.
Who or what is killing change? That's what you'll find out in this witty whodunit. The story features a Columbo-style detective, Agent Mike McNally, who's investigating the murder of yet another change. One by one, Agent McNally interviews thirteen prime suspects, including a myopic leader named Victoria Vision; a chronically tardy manager named Ernest Urgency; an executive named Clair Communication, whose laryngitis makes communication all but impossible; and several other dubious characters.
The suspects are sure to sound familiar and you're bound to relate them to your own workplace. In the end, Agent McNally solves the case in a way that will inspire you to become an effective Change Agent in your own organization. A step-by-step guide at the back of the book shows you how to apply the story's lessons to the real world. Key questions help you evaluate the health of your organization's change initiatives, and you'll learn best practices for enabling and sustaining the desired change.
Most companies talk about excellence, but what does excellence really mean? What specific attitudes and practices lead to excellence? Drawing on years of study and decades of experience, authors Harry Paul, John Britt, and Ed Jent have zeroed in on five core qualities of excellence. In this entertaining and enlightening book, they tell how to give and be your best in each of these five critical dimensions and foster excellence in your organization and in your life.
The audiobook begins with a crime being committed: Excellence (personified) has been kidnapped, and Leadership assembles Excellence's team (Passion, Flexibility, Communication, Competency, and Ownership) and challenges them to work together to get their Excellence back.
And who is the culprit? It is Average who has kidnapped Excellence and replaced Excellence's team with his own: N. Different, N. Ept, N. Flexible, Miss Communication, and Poser. But a mysterious ransom note sparks a struggle between Average and Excellence.
Integrated into this tale of organizational excellence is the story of Dave, a delivery man. The kidnapping causes Dave to contemplate his own life and relationships in a way that makes the paths of personal and organizational excellence cross and intertwine. Who Kidnapped Excellence? is a parable that helps organizations and individuals achieve their best in every aspect of their lives.
