Why is constant change bad for business? Because it's bad for human performance. <a>For decades, "disruption" and "change" have been seen as essential to business growth and success.</a> In this provocative and incisive book, Ashley Goodall argues that what has become a sacred dogma is both wrong and harmful. &nbsp; Whether it's a merger or re-org or a new office layout, change has become the ultimate easy button for leaders, who pursue it with abandon, unleashing a torrent of disruption on employees. The result is what he calls "life in the blender"--a perpetual cycle of upheaval, uncertainty, and unease. The problem with change, Goodall argues, is that a culture where everything from people to processes to strategic priorities are constantly in flux exerts a psychological toll that undermines motivation, productivity, and quality.&nbsp; And yet so accustomed are we to constant churn that we have become numb to its very real consequences. &nbsp; Drawing on two decades spent leading HR organizations at Deloitte and Cisco, Ashley Goodall reveals the truth about human performance and offers a radical new alternative to the constant turbulence that defines corporate life. &nbsp; The Problem with Change is a clarion call to leaders everywhere:&nbsp; by prioritizing team cohesion (instead of reshuffling teams at will), using real words (rather than corporate-speak), by sharing secrets (not mission statements), by honoring shared rituals (rather than mandated bonding), by fixing only the things that are truly broken (instead of moving fast and breaking everything in sight), and more, leaders at every level can create the stability that people need to thrive.

The Problem with Change: And the Essential Nature of Human Performance

Business & Money

Goodall, Ashley

Management & Leadership

Little, Brown Spark

Your organization's culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. People's competencies should be measured and their weaknesses shored up. People crave feedback.These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they're lies. As Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall show in this provocative, inspiring book, there are some big lies-distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking-running through our organizational lives.But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These are freethinking leaders who recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness, who know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom, and that evidence is more powerful than dogma. With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal the essential truths that such freethinking leaders will recognize immediately: that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company's culture, that matters most; that we need less focus on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people's goals we should strive to align people's sense of purpose and meaning; that people don't want constant feedback, they want helpful attention. This is the real world of work.

Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader's Guide to the Real World

BUCKINGHAM, Marcus

Business Culture

Gildan Audio

Forget what you know about the world of work
You crave feedback. Your organization's culture is the key to its success. Strategic planning is essential. Your competencies should be measured and your weaknesses shored up. Leadership is a thing.
These may sound like basic truths of our work lives today. But actually, they're lies. As strengths guru and bestselling author Marcus Buckingham and Cisco Leadership and Team Intelligence head Ashley Goodall show in this provocative, inspiring book, there are some big lies--distortions, faulty assumptions, wrong thinking--that we encounter every time we show up for work. Nine lies, to be exact. They cause dysfunction and frustration, ultimately resulting in workplaces that are a pale shadow of what they could be.
But there are those who can get past the lies and discover what's real. These freethinking leaders recognize the power and beauty of our individual uniqueness. They know that emergent patterns are more valuable than received wisdom and that evidence is more powerful than dogma.
With engaging stories and incisive analysis, the authors reveal the essential truths that such freethinking leaders will recognize immediately: that it is the strength and cohesiveness of your team, not your company's culture, that matter most; that we should focus less on top-down planning and more on giving our people reliable, real-time intelligence; that rather than trying to align people's goals we should strive to align people's sense of purpose and meaning; that people don't want constant feedback, they want helpful attention.
This is the real world of work, as it is and as it should be. Nine Lies About Work reveals the few core truths that will help you show just how good you are to those who truly rely on you.

Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

Harvard Business Review Press

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