Conquer the most daunting change initiative with the right people, tools, and strategies. James Dallas' Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change is an informative, insightful guide to effectively leading the transition through change. While most change management books present case studies about what happened at other companies, this book is based on the author's own experiences managing over 10 transformational and turnaround initiatives, 15 acquisition integrations, and 5 operations/quality shared services centers of excellence. By relating personal lessons learned, how they were subsequently applied, and how you can benefit from them, this book provides a unique first-hand perspective on successful agents of change. You'll learn the qualities and skills required to usher in the new paradigm, and how to break a large initiative into manageable chunks that are more likely to proceed as planned. By crafting your strategy based on proven methods, you're far and away more likely to meet or even exceed your change objectives. The majority of change initiatives fail because people mistakenly think that a change agent is the same as a project leader. They're not. This book shows you why, and how get the tools, strategies, and people you need at the helm of your initiative to come out the other side much stronger as an organization. Learn the critical skills required for effective change management Assess the difficulty and politics of a change initiative Choose the right people to help implement the change See past obstacles and lead effectively in a crisis Change is occurring within and across all industries, countries, and organizations. They begin with the best of intentions, but most fail to meet their objectives. Don't let your organization be one of the failures. Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change shows you how to plan, lead, and manage a successful transition.

Since Peter Senge published his groundbreaking book The Fifth Discipline, he and his associates have frequently been asked by the business community: "How do we go beyond the first steps of corporate change? How do we sustain momentum?" They know that companies and organizations cannot thrive today without learning to adapt their attitudes and practices. But companies that establish change initiatives discover, after initial success, that even the most promising efforts to transform or revitalize organizations—despite interest, resources, and compelling business results—can fail to sustain themselves over time. That's because organizations have complex, well-developed immune systems, aimed at preserving the status quo. Now, drawing upon new theories about leadership and the long-term success of change initiatives, and based upon twenty-five years of experience building learning organizations, the authors of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook show how to accelerate success and avoid the obstacles that can stall momentum. The Dance of Change, written for managers and executives at every level of an organization, reveals how business leaders can work together to anticipate the challenges that profound change will ultimately force the organization to face. Then, in a down-to-earth and compellingly clear format, readers will learn how to build the personal and organizational capabilities needed to meet those challenges. These challenges are not imposed from the outside; they are the product of assumptions and practices that people take for granted—an inherent, natural part of the processes of change. And they can stop innovation cold, unless managers at all levels learn to anticipate them and recognize the hidden rewards in each challenge, and the potential to spur further growth. Within the frequently encountered challenge of "Not Enough Time," for example—the lack of control over time available for innovation and learning initiatives—lies a valuable opportunity to reframe the way people organize their workplaces. This book identifies universal challenges that organizations ultimately find themselves confronting, including the challenge of "Fear and Anxiety"; the need to diffuse learning across organizational boundaries; the ways in which assumptions built in to corporate measurement systems can handcuff learning initiatives; and the almost unavoidable misunderstandings between "true believers" and nonbelievers in a company. Filled with individual and team exercises, in-depth accounts of sustaining learning initiatives by managers and leaders in the field, and well-tested practical advice, The Dance of Change provides an insider's perspective on implementing learning and change initiatives at such corporations as British Petroleum, Chrysler, Dupont, Ford, General Electric, Harley-Davidson, Hewlett-Packard, Mitsubishi Electric, Royal DutchShell, Shell Oil Company, Toyota, the United States Army, and Xerox. It offers crucial advice for line-level managers, executive leaders, internal networkers, educators, and others who are struggling to put change initiatives into practice.

The past one hundred years have been a very trying time for Latvia, complete with success, tragedy, and still unrealized promise. Within the course of a generation, the country experienced revolutions, wars and independent statehood, and then the slide into authoritarianism. World War II brought new occupations. The tragedies were staggering: holocaust, executions, and an exodus of refugees. Soviet consolidation bred deportations, forced collectivization and partisan warfare. Almost fifty years later, Latvia regained its independence and emerged from decades of disastrous Soviet rule. This book comprehensively surveys Latvia's recent past and prospects for the new millennium, placing contemporary events in historical perspective. The authors address the evolution of the country from the movement against Soviet rule to the dilemmas of contemporary politics: party formation, the problem of corruption, the quest for the future and a regional and international role, the struggle to develop a civil society, the issue of ethnic relations and the recurring tendency towards statist solutions. Proper attention is also given to economic developments.

Dr. Peter W. Tischmann, a native of Hannover, Germany, has over 30 years of senior management experience in the luxury hotel industry with an extensive background in repositioning luxury hotels acknowledged for quality and service. Amongst his many accomplishments are the re-opening of The St. Regis, a landmark property in New York City, as well as the repositioning of the Ciragan Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, which under Dr. Tischmanns tenure reached the # 14 position amongst the 100 worlds best hotels as listed by Institutional Investor. His commitment to quality and service, combined with a strong visionary leadership have earned him numerous international recognitions, amongst others the prestigious Award for Excellence from Leaders magazine. With the undertake of one of his recent assignments at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York, known for a strong union environment as well as its illustrious owner, Mrs. Leona M. Helmsley, Dr. Tischmann has added new perspectives to his vast experience in managing a change process. Caring about people and the development of future, young hoteliers, is one of Dr. Tischmanns priorities and has led him to lecture on this subject in universities and business schools in Europe and in the United States. The attached manuscript about the Challenges of Change describes the impact of such change on the attitude and human behavior of the people affected by such change. It combines many years of real life experience with thorough research in pursuit of his objective to publish an outstanding book on this subject. In an attempt to make the reading of a comprehensive subject such as the process of change easy to understand, Dr. Tischmann has developed a new interesting format to his book, which makes it unique amongst the many business books available today.

Introducing the principles of complexity science, this innovative text illustrates how different kinds of organizational can become more effective, democratic and sustainable by using these powerful ideas.

In this revised and updated edition of Leading Successful Change, Gregory Shea and Cassie Solomon share success stories from a host of companies including Twitter and Viacom. They offer a tested method for leading successful change, which they have developed over a combined 50 years of helping organizations do just that.

This volume is based on plenary presentations from Challenges of a Changing Earth, a Global Change Open Science Conference held in Amsterdam, The Neth- lands, in July 2001. The meeting brought together about 1400 scientists from 105 co- tries around the world to describe, discuss and debate the latest scientific - derstanding of natural and human-driven changes to our planet. It examined the effects of these changes on our societies and our lives, and explored what the future might hold. The presentations drew upon global change science from an exceptionally wide range of disciplines and approaches. Issues of societal importance – the food system, air quality, the carbon cycle, and water resources – were highlighted from both policy and science perspectives. Many of the talks presented the exciting scientific advances of the past decade of international research on global change. Several challenged the scientific community in the future. What are the visionary and creative new approaches needed for studying a complex planetary system in which human activities are in- mately interwoven with natural processes? This volume aims to capture the timeliness and excitement of the science p- sented in Amsterdam. The plenary speakers were given a daunting task: to reproduce their presentations in a way that delivers their scientific messages accurately and in sufficient detail but at the same time reaches a very broad audience well beyond their own disciplines. Furthermore, they were required to do this in just a few pages.