Читать книгу Stacking the Deck - Pottruck David S. - Страница 7

I never intended to write this book. But as it turned out, there were no practical books on change written by and for people from midcareer managers to global senior executives. There was no resource for on-the-ground leaders seeking clear ways to develop the skills to implement change within their organizations, whether for-profit or nonprofit. Plenty of books and articles about leading or managing change have been written, many of them very insightful. Some, especially John Kotter's groundbreaking Leading Change, have stood the test of time and are invaluable. But none of them offered the whole picture, or at least not the picture that I saw through the lens of my background and experience – the practical, operational side of leading breakthrough, transformational change. And none of them deeply engaged with the human reality of leading big, risky change initiatives – not in ways that could be immediately put to use.

I saw a need for a book that would go beyond outlining the strategies and processes required for success, one that would also address the challenges leaders are likely to confront in driving and implementing change. A book that told in-the-trenches stories of individuals who led bold, sweeping change; that walked readers through the social and emotional reality of leading others without shortchanging the real difficulties involved in promoting a change to people who, perhaps rightly, are fearful of it. A book not for the novice, but for people who have years of firsthand experience leading others.

These are the people I teach in various venues, ranging from Wharton's Executive MBA program through corporate programs tailored for specific needs. Whether as emerging executives or seasoned senior executives, these leaders have high expectations and enormous demands on their time. In all of my classes and presentations I offer a specific nine-step Stacking the Deck process and an approach to leadership that students and participants may never have encountered before, either in their careers or in their formal business education. By exploring leadership within the framework of a problem to be solved, this approach enables people to better understand the demands and requirements of leadership. It enables them to look at the whole picture: the people they must lead, the purpose of the change, the steps through which they must travel, and the actual situations they will confront. There's nothing abstract about change when it affects the job security, 401(k) programs, and even identities of real people in an organization. This process of contextualizing leadership strikes a chord and makes the information real, current, and immediately useful.

Eventually I realized that the book I was looking for would have to come from someone like me – someone with a personal history of business leadership that has provided a wealth of practical, hands-on lessons. Someone who had to learn on the ground, and who sometimes made big mistakes. Someone whose many attempts to lead breakthrough change were much more difficult than they actually had to be – but were certainly more instructive as a result. Someone who could keep you from making those same mistakes.