Ewing Change Consulting Resource Centre

A Bibliography of Helpful Books for Modern Organizations

Adams, Marilee G., Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2004. "Questioning" is a skill rarely taught in school, but doing it well - that is, asking the right questions of the right people - can radically transform attitudes, actions, and results. Change Your Questions, Change Your Life provides easy-to-learn tools that can make a significant and immediate difference in people's business and personal lives. Written as an engaging fable, it inspires readers to take charge of their thinking in order to accomplish goals, improve relationships, advance careers, investigate new territories, and in general gain greater life satisfaction. This book explains how to "be your own coach," outlines the author's QuestionThinking Model, and lists the top 12 questions for change. Real-world examples provide practical models for applying the principles in a variety of situations, while a Choice Map is a useful visual tool that demonstrates that everyone has a choice in every situation, even if it is not immediately apparent.

Beckwith, Harry, Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing, Warner Books, 1997. A treasury of hundreds of quick, practical and easy-to-read strategies on how to sell services. This will help anyone marketing a service.

Black, Stewart J. and Gregersen, Hal B., It Starts With One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations, Wharton School Publishing, 2008. Talk about change has far outstripped leaders' ability to successfully lead it. Black and Gregersen push the change leaders to explore how they think about or 'map' the world in which we live. These maps become either a critical barrier or an asset to their ability to lead change. The authors also provide a challenging self-examination for the serious leader to assess his or her ability to create long-lasting and effective change.

Camp, Jim, Start with NO...The Negotiating Tools that the Pros Don't Want You to Know, Crown Business, 2002. Negotiation coach Camp has been under the radar since 1989, helping clients reach deals at Motorola, Merrill Lynch and IBM. He now brings his advice to the general public. Asserting that the term "win-win" has become a cliché, he suggests readers enter into every negotiation knowing that if the offer doesn't meet their expectations, they should walk away. He also advocates leaving emotions out of negotiations. "Whether we like it or not, it really is a jungle out there in the world of business, and it's crawling with predators." Camp's solid advice will help people control negotiations and prepare themselves for anything.

Cremona, Katina, The Thin Book of Smart People Skills: 8 Tools for the Savvy Leader, Thin Book Publishing, 2007. Katina Cremona has addressed the Achilles Heel of many leaders – their inability to interact with others successfully. Every leadership task occurs in the context of a relationship. Without being able to ‘work and play well with others’, leaders risk creating a frustrating and demotivated workforce. Katina’s straightforward ‘8 Tools’ go right to the heart of leadership. The higher leaders climb the more they are dependent upon the work of others for their success; so they had better get on with learning how to engage others and create the conditions for their success. This book is recommended for its clarity, business focus and accessibility to the reader exploring new areas for development.

Feltman, Charles, The Thin Book of Trust: An Essential Primer for Building Trust at Work, Thin Book Publishing, 2008. This is an excellent book on an important subject. It provides a clear explanation of a new way of looking at trust and real, practical ways to build, maintain and rebuild trust. The vignettes provide vivid pictures of how assessments of sincerity, reliability, competence and caring play out in the workplace. The sample conversations about trust are excellent templates.

Goleman, Daniel, Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam, 1998.This book is all about why working with your emotions is one of the most important things you will ever do. The single most important factor in job performance and advancement is emotional intelligence. This is a practical guide to this set of skills which anyone can acquire and develop.

Goldratt, Eliyahu M., The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, North River Press, 1986. This is a novel which teaches an important lesson on how to manage through-put.

Hammond, Sue and Mayfield, Andrea, The Thin Book of Naming Elephants, Thin Book Publishing, 2005. After reading this book, you'll understand the role of assumptions and multiple realities; why surfacing assumptions is so important; how to have constructive dialogue; why arrogance, hubris and smart talk gets in the way of constructive dialogue; and what strategies you can use to name the elephants in your organization.

Hargrove, Robert, Masterful Coaching Fieldbook, Pfeifer, 1999. This book focuses on coaching knowledge workers and work that involves creativity and innovation. It discusses both coaching individuals and teams made up of far-flung collaborators. It provides guidelines for coaching individuals and groups through multiple media, face-to-face, by phone, e-mail, or groupware over the Web. This is a great resource for managers to motivate and get the best out of their staff. It gives them exercises to use in encouraging their staff to high performance.

Kim, Chan W., Mauborgne, Renee, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, Harvard Business School Press, 2005. Kim and Mauborgne's blue ocean metaphor elegantly summarizes their vision of the kind of expanding, competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike "red oceans," which are well explored and crowded with competitors, "blue oceans" represent "untapped market space" and the "opportunity for highly profitable growth." The only reason more big companies don't set sail for them, they suggest, is that "the dominant focus of strategy work over the past twenty-five years has been on competition-based red ocean strategies"-i.e., finding new ways to cut costs and grow revenue by taking away market share from the competition. This may be a useful book in how you look at the CPA market in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Mindell, Phyllis, A Women’s Guide to the Language of Success, Prentice Hall, 1995. Packed with real-life examples, business-tested techniques, practical tips, even “crib sheets”, A Woman’s Guide to the Language of Success gives you the skill, strength and credibility to break through the glass ceiling and get your ideas heard. If you are a working woman who wants to get her point across, this is the one reference you can’t afford to do without.

Mornell, Dr. Pierre, Hiring Smart: How to Predict Winners and Losers in the People-Reading Game, Ten Speed Press, 1998. In today’s fiercely competitive workplace, people are any organization’s most valuable asset. Whether you are a small business, non-profit, or Fortune 500 company, your success depends on hiring the right person the first time, every time. In this book, Dr. Mornell distills 15 years of experience on the hiring front lines to present forty-five strategies designed to take the measure of a candidate, emphasizing behaviour, not words. All the stages of the hiring process are covered, from pre-interview screening to interviewing to checking for references and backgrounds. Taken together, these strategies form the basis of a selection system that is easy to adapt, efficient and most importantly, effective.

Schwartz, Peter, The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, Doubleday, 1991. Author and president of an international consulting firm, Peter Schwartz presents lessons in thinking for the future. Schwartz offers scenarios from the oil industry that can be applied to all aspects of life. His first-hand accounts, originally developed for Royal Dutch/Shell, are invaluable tools for creative thinking in one's personal life and in business. Schwartz's methods will enable anyone to think more creatively.

Senge, Peter M., Kleiner, Art, Roberts, Charlotte and Ross, Rick, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, 1994, NY. Senge and his colleagues say that organizations that embed ongoing learning in their culture and practices will be more successful. This book is filled with practical tips and real-life examples from companies and organizations that have embraced the teachings of the Learning Organization successfully. While not a short book, it is pratical and easy to read. It is a classic

Watkins, Jane Magruder and Mohr, Bernard, Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination, Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer, 2001. This book outlines the approach of appreciative inquiry, a method of making individual and organizational change. It talks not only about the theory, but also includes many practical ‘how-tos’.

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