Creating We: Change I-Thinking to We-Thinking, Build a Healthy, Thriving Organization

by Judith E. Glaser

Book Overview

A leading executive coach presents her personal program for modern- day business leadership, explaining how good communication skills and a team-approach can achieve a sense of business unity,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159337268X
• ISBN13: 9781593372682
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Book

Our society largely advocates quick fix solutions to our problems. Creating WE rejects this approach entirely, offering the tools to make real transformations and lasting change for individuals, teams and even entire organizations. It is filled with well-articulated ideas and gives you the tools to put them into practice. Not overly complex but not too simplistic, readers will find this book to both enjoyable and extremely helpful.

Great resource for my PhD

I ordered this book because I am pursuing my doctorate in education and I was in a leadership class. This book was a great source for many of my assignments.

Self-Help Manual for Power-based Leaders

Introducing her "I-centric / WE-centric" language to distinguish 'power-over' from 'power-with' behaviors, executive coach, Judith Glaser presents a self-help book for C-level executives who want to transform themselves in order to take their organizations into the higher performing WE culture. In doing so, Glaser adopts a 'Believing / Learning / Being' change model; first challenging beliefs about the ways one is supposed to behave in organizations, then defining five advanced skills leaders must learn, before showing how to face stressful situations and express WE-consciousness in real time. Believing - The belief section is a direct challenge to command-and-control leadership - something Glaser calls "followership" - which she describes as 'power-over' (exclusive, judging, dictating, punishing risk-taking, etc.), I-centric behavior. She contrasts this using the 'power-with' (inclusive, appreciating, developing, encouraging risk-taking, etc.) leadership (fellowship) model of the WE culture. This power-over mindset drives territorial and conflict thinking with its US/THEM outcome, and thus a power-over approach prohibits a WE culture with its benefical creativity and growth. Learning - The five new leadership skills to be learned are: 1. understanding the culture - ability to understand the culture and your role in shaping it 2. embracing the possibilities - ability to move outside of your Comfort Zone and into new learnings 3. opening the space - ability to open up dialogue and create a feedback-rich environment 4. shaping the conversations - ability to share responsibility for creating the future together 5. transforming the culture - ability to promote collective success Being - is a matter of WE-centric CHOICES to be made in real time: C = Co-creating - setting the tone H = Humanizing - building positive relationships O = Optimizing - transforming fear into hope I = Interacting - cross-divisional collaboration C = Catalyzing - reinvention E = Expressing - speaking up S = Synchronizing - becoming a bigger WE In presenting her case-for-change, Glazer speaks with passion for and about what she calls her grandiose-sounding idea. Of course, she is not alone with this idea - while the language may be uniquely hers, the beneficial behaviors and leadership practices may not be conventional, but they are well written about by many others. She understands the power of story-telling - her most compelling story is the Bob Lutz turn-a-round of Exide Technologies, one of the many examples from her +20 years of executive coaching experience. And, the book is not just a 'what' to change manuscript; it is full of tables contrasting the I-centric / WE-centric behaviors, with numerous behavioral analysis questionnaires and other self-help processes. It contains several meeting-facilitation process guides, and when you get thru all 345 pages, you will have actionable ideas for many common cultural change challenges. It is easy to agree with everything

Excellent Read

I have read this book in the context of my management of medical care application in a University-based system. I have found this to be an excellent book, with a plethora of useful information. This book is not a pedantic technical analysis nor a passive bedtime story book: it's a lean, mean primer on building a succesful organization.

This is a great book and I highly recommend it

Judith Glaser has herself tapped into the "we" philosophy that she so ably illuminates in her excellent new book. She has synthesized insights, anecdotes and examples from her very wide and deep circle of colleagues and clients and has created something both highly original and highly applicable. The book itself puts into practice the values it espouses, considering all of the different perspectives that must somehow get melded together in order for organizations to function well. By skillfully mixing stories, models, and practical advice, "Creating We" clearly spells out, for individuals, teams and entire organizations, what to do, and what not to do, in order to be successful.