Beholden to accepted assumptions about people and organizations, too
many enterprises waste human potential. Robert Quinn shows how to defy
convention and create organizations where people feel fully engaged and
continually rewarded, where both individually and collectively they
flourish and exceed expectations.
The problem is that leaders are following a negative and constraining
"mental map" that insists organizations must be rigid, top-down
hierarchies and that the people in them are driven mainly by
self-interest and fear. But leaders can adopt a different mental map,
one where organizations are networks of fluid, evolving relationships
and where people are motivated by a desire to grow, learn, and serve a
larger goal. Using dozens of memorable stories, Quinn describes specific
actions leaders can take to facilitate the emergence of this
organizational culture--helping people gain a sense of purpose, engage
in authentic conversations, see new possibilities, and sacrifice for the
common good.
The book includes the Positive Organization Generator, a tool that
provides 100 real-life practices from positive organizations and helps
you reinvent them to fit your specific needs. With the POG you can
identify and implement the practices that will have the greatest impact
on your organization.
At its heart, the book helps leaders to see new possibilities that lie
within the acknowledged realities of organizational life. It provides
five keys for learning to be "bilingual"--speaking the conventional
language of business as well as the language of the positive
organization. When leaders can do this, they are able to make real and
lasting change.
