The Passion Plan at Work: Building a Passion-Driven Organization

by Richard Y. Chang

Book Overview

In his best-selling book, The Passion Plan, Richard Chang showed individuals how to discover their passion and turn it into personal and professional fulfillment. Now, in The Passion Plan at Work he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787952559
• ISBN13: 9780787952556
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Purpose of Passion

There are no companies; only people - people who run them and people who purchase their goods and services - and people need inspiration, a sense of purpose; they need passion. Among other things, passion creates energy, fosters creativity, inspires action and attracts customers - it provides critical edge (competitive advantage). And, in this follow-on book to his "The Passion Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide to Discovering, Developing, and Living Your Passion", Richard Chang presents his 7-step model for bringing that inspiration, that passion, to an organization. You Start with the Heart, a `Feeling' exercise: 1. Step one looks for sources of passion and involves listing situations that thrilled or enthralled the top executives, and it asks for an assessment of why passion-deficit symptoms exist. 2. Step two develops a passion profile by looking at; leaders' personal passions, leaders' shared passions, associate and customer passions, historical passions, core competencies, and future opportunities. Integration of these reveals the organization's Core Passions. Then you move to the Thinking phase: 3. Clarifying Purpose to channel the discovered core passions is step three. Why does the organization exist? How can the core passions help achieve this purpose? What are the profits of these passion pursuits? These are the questions to be answered in this step. 4. Step four creates an Action Plan; defining the scope, intensity and pace of change necessary to release the core passions. Next comes the Acting part: 5. In this Perform with Passion step, leaders are urged to `investigate' ways the newly released passions have succeeded (and failed), `communicate' with stakeholders, and `assess' progress; recognize the need to create a passion-inspiring environment via passion-driven policies, practices, and possibly realign around the core passions. 6. Although passion by its nature will be contagious, step six is a Spread Excitement movement by nurturing peoples' passion, integrating passion into the reward structure and finding the passion gaps. 7. In the final step, Staying the Passion Course, an organization must fight complacency and fuel the fire. This will involve confronting challenges, recovering from mistakes, and seeking opportunities to expand passion. There it is - the seven-step model, illustrated in the book through stories of twelve organizations that, according to Chang, have successfully captured the passion and realized the benefits. The book is well written and a very easy read; but beyond the model is the real work of moving passion from leadership workshops and plans into the living performance vision of the organization via a connection to the individuals (staff) who must make it their own to make it happen for the business. While I fully agree with Chang's assertions about the importance of passion (an important source of a person's internal energy), finding it individually and moving it into business processes goes beyond the dept

How "Passion-Driven" Is Your Organization?

In the Foreword, Frederick W. Smith (chairman and CEO of FedEx) suggests that "Successful leaders of the future will have to tap into the tremendous potential passion offers them. In fact, despite the advances in both physical networks and information networks, that drive the high-tech and high-speed New Economy, successful leaders must invest in a third and vital network -- a passionate people network that sparks the ideas and innovation for lasting success." In his previous work (The Passion Plan), Chang offers a step-by-step process by which an individual can discover, develop, and live the passion to which Smith refers. In this volume, Chang shifts his attention to what Smith characterizes as a "passionate people network", explaining how each and every person involved in an organization "has the potential to strengthen and improve performance. And when passion is involved the possibility that the changes will spread increases exponentially." Human history is filled with countless examples of passionate people who inspired others to join then in achieving seemingly impossible goals. In today's business world, according to Collins and Porras In Built to Last, they could be called Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). Point is, without a passionate commitment by those involved, achieving lasting and significant change is highly unlikely.Chang organizes his material within ten chapters whose titles correctly indicate the step-by-step process:Why Passion Works in Organizations: A Timely Source for Timely ChangePutting the Passion Plan to Work: A Model for Organizational SuccessStep One: Start from the Heart -- Passion as the Foundation of the Organization's SuccessStep Two: Discover Core Passions -- Uncovering the Forces That Will Drive the Organization's SuccessStep Three: Clarify Purpose -- Channeling the Organization's Passion Toward a Specific GoalStep Four: Define Actions -- Planning for Passion-Inspired Change and GrowthStep Five: Perform with Passion -- Translating Passion into Performance in the Workplace and MarketplaceStep Six: Spread Excitement -- Sparking Commitment and Enthusiasm in Employees, Partners, and CustomersStep Seven: Stay the Course -- Keeping the Organization Centered on PassionRealizing Profit: Moving on to Bigger and Better ThingsChang then includes an excellent resource, "Profiled Organizations", which consists of Web sites of various "superior organizations" which range from Ben & Jerry's to Wainwright Industries. I rate this book so highly because its coverage of material is eloquent, practical, comprehensive, and cohesive. It remains for each organization (regardless of its size or nature) to select, combine, modify, and then apply Chang's key ideas. Those who share my admiration of this book are urged to check out the aforementioned Built to Last as well as Real Change Leaders (Katzenbach and the RCL Team) and The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (Mitchell, Coles & Kahn). Chang invites feedback from his readers which