Great Boss Dead Boss

By Ray Immelman and  

Book Overview

Motivating entire organizations to embrace large-scale change is the biggest challenge most managers face. Ray Immelman’s insightful book offers a new perspective on why groups resist change and how... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974036919
• ISBN13: 9780974036915
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Stewart Philip International
• Length: 317 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Indiana Jones meets Eli Goldratt

While I've finished reading this book for the first time, I'm just now going back and digesting some of the tastier nuggets Ray has offered up. This isn't a book I'll read once, but one I'll dig into as my own perspective grows. As a fellow ToC person, I was expecting a novel in that vein, and, to be honest, there were several respectful nods to Eli's _The Goal_ but the similarities stopped there. I've enjoyed looking at several organizations (business, congregations, etc.) through the lenses he proposes and am impressed by the clarity I've gained. To paraphrase George Box, one of the most influencial experimental scientists of our time, "All models are wrong, but some models are useful none the less." Certainly there will be people who find fault in Ray's model, but I would be certain that many, many more will recognize the usefulness of the ideas he set forth and that this book will attract the readership it so richly deserves. Bravo & Thanks!

If you only read one management book this year, ...

If you only read one book this year, it has to be this one! I saw Ray Immelman speak at the TOC ICO Word Conference in Miami last October. His work came highly recommend from a mutual friend. So I thought there had to be something in it worth learning. What I didn't expect was that this book would change the way I thought about organization and communication down, across and up. If management is about two things then organizational structure and communication are perhaps the two most basic. Great Boss, Dead Boss has made me rethink both of those. I'm deliberately not telling you what the book is about because that would spoil it for you. What I can say is that it takes the form of a novel similar to Eli Goldratt's The Goal. However, despite the fact that Ray Immelman is part of the TOC community and works for Realization Software. This is not a TOC book. It's a book about people, about relationships, about affiliation, motivation, loyalty and leadership. It's a book which is very applicable to the agile software community. If agile's unique contribution to software development was the inclusion of people related factors then Great Boss, Dead Boss offers us that same contribution for management. And finally, if you are going through a merger or acquisition then this story of the merger of two leading silicon chip manufacturers is required reading.

A Breakthrough Paradigm in Organizational Behaviour

There are few books that change the way you view the world. Great Boss Dead Boss is one of those books. I have seen many situations where the strategic and tactical plans in an organization appear optimal on the surface, but the team still fails to achieve its full potential. Ray Immelman has managed to pull to the surface and describe the undercurrent of tribal behavior running through every organization that, if ignored, is the primary reason for the failure to achieve the organization's goals and objectives. After reading this book, I can look back and see how management inadvertently directed the competitive focus of various teams internally against each other, rather than focusing the teams externally at the true competitors. In the future, I am confident that I can use the attributes and dimensions Ray describes as a competitive advantage to unify and focus my organization in the future.

great book, dead easy to understand

The logic and deep understanding of this book is incontestable, and it has implications well beyond the limits of the business world. Yet will those who read this dare to implement its iconoclastic observations? This is the most credible formula I have ever seen for creating the conditions necessary to extract the very best performance, individually and collectively, from any group of individuals. Let us hope, at this time when we drastically need to re-appraise the way that we interact with each other in business and other environments, that books as important as Immelman's are given the widespread respect and utilisation that they deserve...

Unravelling the enigma in the riddle of motivation

Ray has done every organisational leader a great service by providing a framework for understanding the riddle wrapped in an enigma that is leadership. His insights into our tribal behaviour and how the dynamic of individual and collective security and value can not only be understood, but practically applied to the betterment of all, raises the bar for all interested in the field of group dynamics. His decision to use the form of a novel as the vehichle for the explanation of his insights makes them accessible and easily understood, whilst not diluting the power of the ideas themselves. I have always wondered how you can get a group of people with different and varied affiliations to not only work for the common good, but actually want to excel at doing so. In Great Boss Dead Boss, Ray shows the reader some high leverage answers to the question. The book, written in a captivating prose style, follows the protagonist Greg's journey of discovery, mentored by the crusty, wise Butch. In the storyline are countless nuggets of wisdom and insight which would serve well anyone who aspires to a position of leadership.