Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change: Inspire the People and Succeed Where Others Fail - Hardcover

Dallas, H. James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1119102200 ISBN 13: 9781119102205

Publisher: Wiley, 2015

Synopsis

Conquer the most daunting change initiative with the right people, tools, and strategies.

James Dallas' Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change is an informative, insightful guide to effectively leading the transition through change. While most change management books present case studies about what happened at other companies, this book is based on the author's own experiences managing over 10 transformational and turnaround initiatives, 15 acquisition integrations, and 5 operations/quality shared services centers of excellence. By relating personal lessons learned, how they were subsequently applied, and how you can benefit from them, this book provides a unique first-hand perspective on successful agents of change. You'll learn the qualities and skills required to usher in the new paradigm, and how to break a large initiative into manageable chunks that are more likely to proceed as planned. By crafting your strategy based on proven methods, you're far and away more likely to meet or even exceed your change objectives.

The majority of change initiatives fail because people mistakenly think that a change agent is the same as a project leader. They're not. This book shows you why, and how get the tools, strategies, and people you need at the helm of your initiative to come out the other side much stronger as an organization.

• Learn the critical skills required for effective change management
• Assess the difficulty and politics of a change initiative
• Choose the right people to help implement the change
• See past obstacles and lead effectively in a crisis

Change is occurring within and across all industries, countries, and organizations. They begin with the best of intentions, but most fail to meet their objectives. Don't let your organization be one of the failures. Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change shows you how to plan, lead, and manage a successful transition.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

If you've led projects, you know the three Ts of project management—tasks, timing, and technologies. But, when real change needs to occur to gain a competitive edge, the Ts aren't enough, which is why on average 75 percent of change initiatives fail. You can elevate your status and increase your value as a change leader by becoming an authority on the four Ps of change leadership explained in Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change.

Written by a change leader with an extensively triumphant track record that includes more than 10 transformational and turnaround initiatives, 20 acquisition integrations, five operations/quality shared services centers of excellence, and three innovation centers—this game-changing guide is conveniently organized around the four cornerstones of the author's personal approach to managing change: priorities, politics, people, and perseverance. With the casual forthrightness of a trusted mentor, he steps beyond one-dimensional analytics and demonstrates how engaging people, both inside and outside the company, produces the meaningful solutions leading to success. Spearheading change doesn't come from a formula; instead it emerges from relationships developed with honest communication and informed decision making. James Dallas demonstrates this through firsthand accounts of how he made it happen, repeatedly, in the field. A wealth of concrete best practices packaged in handy checklists will let you apply your knowledge easily and begin mastering the art of:

• Gathering data with an innovative method that leads to greater, more reliable insight
• Picking the core team and prioritizing tasks to move forward quickly
• Delivering the best message, including words to avoid at all costs
• Overcoming resistance to change with proven techniques
• Building trust among your teams
• Managing the group dynamics that can poison your best plans
• Fixing what breaks along the way for continued improvement

Change is essential for a business to sustain growth regardless of industry, country, or organizational structure, but it cannot come from external goals. While the most important takeaways include how to identify and enable the people capable of driving change, by the end, you'll see that Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change starts with a change in yourself to discover why you do it.

From the Back Cover:

Conquer every change initiative by inspiring the right people with the best strategies and tools

Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change provides managers with an informative, insightful guide to leading a transition through change effectively. This motivating guidebook shows you why change agents aren't the same as project leaders, and how to get the tools, strategies, and people you need at the helm of your initiative to build a much stronger, more effective organization.

This practical guide gives you hands-on learning experience by sharing the author's firsthand experiences – some at Fortune 500 companies – formulating and implementing the set of philosophies and practices that became the ultimate approach to leading transitions that gained him broad recognition in the industry. From modeling your own strategy based on his proven methods, to executing an initiative in manageable parts, to ushering in the new paradigm—this complete road map fully prepares you to lead with confidence from start to finish by showing you how to:

• Internalize the critical skills all accomplished change agents possess
• Assess and navigate the difficult aspects and politics of a change initiative
• Identify and manage the productive and challenging types of personalities involved in a change initiative
• See past obstacles and lead effectively in a crisis

Leading from where the action takes place is one of the remarkable traits that make the author and his approach so successful. Keep Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change at your side from your first planning sessions in the boardroom until you roll up your sleeves in the final days of the transition, and you'll never be in doubt.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1119102200
• ISBN 13: 9781119102205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224