The Power to Persuade: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization

By Richard N. Haass

Book Overview

The Power to Persuade answers a fundamental question: how can you navigate a world where persuasion, rather than direct command, is the rule? In public sector organizations, and in today's "flattened" corporate hierarchies, traditional management strategies simply do not work. This book shows how to hone the political skills that are so often the key to improved performance - whether the goal is better policy or greater profit. While teaching at Harvard University, Richard Haass realized that no existing book advised people working in political settings how to be more effective. Now he has filled the gap. Using a compass as his operating metaphor - your boss is north of you, your staff is south, colleagues are east, and so on - Haass provides guidelines for managing relationships, setting goals, and translating goals into results. His interviews with Colin Powell, James Baker, Robert Strauss, and dozens of others yield valuable, practical insight. For the tens of millions of Americans

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395735254
• ISBN13: 9780395735251
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding book on relationships. Something for everyone.

The main point of the book is summed up on page 17, "The individual can rarely just act, nor is forcing others to act usually an option. The net result is that effectivemess in the political world stems from the ability to influence the people and organizations that share power. This, more than any other reason, is why the only real power is the power to persuade." The author presents a compelling model using the points of the compass to represent key relationships everyone must form. The author claims that success requires sensitivity and the ability to persuade those at each compass point: Center - yourself; North - those you work for; East - those you work with; South - those who work for you; and, East - those you should work with. Strategy, tactics, and examples are presented for maintaining these relationships. The Power to Persuade is a significant book. In the political and non-profit arenas persuasion is the primary means whereby change occurs. The author implies that while these techniques are useful in the "for-profit" world, they are not as important as in the "non-profit" world. I challenge the author on this point. I believe that persuasion is becoming more and more integral in the "for profit" business world as leadership crumbles, use of teams and self-directed work groups increases, and integrated design methodologies take hold.