The Path of Least Resistance for Managers - Softcover

Fritz, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1576750655 ISBN 13: 9781576750650

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1999

Synopsis

Science tells us that energy travels where it is easiest to go, and business consultant Robert Fritz borrows from this concept to provide a concrete methodology that managers can put to use immediately to develop their own paths of least resistance toward success.

Fritz incorporates four crucial activities -- new methods are studied, spread, and adopted; being smart is rewarded; cooperation rather than competition is practiced; and fairness is the standard operating principle -- into a comprehensive guide to the structural laws that govern all organizations. He prescribes a direct approach to redesigning an organization's structure to allow positive practices to follow the paths of least resistance.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

The Path of Least Resistance Crossing the frontier of the old West, settlers in covered wagons found that much of their route was already laid out for them to follow. It had been forged by herds of the Great Plains bison as they moved across the terrain through the previous centuries. Later, when track was laid for railroads, surveyors found their best routes were these very same buffalo paths that pointed the way to the Rockys and beyond to the Promised Land of California. The master railroad designers of the Nineteenth Century chose these trails because they were the best ones anyone could have developed. The buffalo had found the optimal passage and anticipated the future movement across the vast continent. How did these magnificent animals accomplish such a feat? They followed the principle of the path of least resistance. As they moved through the land, they placed one foot in front of the next... What determined each step was the topography -- the contour of the earth. When faced with a sudden incline, or group of rocks, or thorny stubble, the bison would adjust their course and seek the easiest next step... The bison were following the laws of nature. We all do, as we all must, whether we like it or not. And in nature, energy moves where it is easiest to go. This is the principle of the path of least resistance. Water in a riverbed must follow the path of least resistance, as must electrons through a circuit, as must wind blowing through a canyon, as must weather patterns crossing the planet. As we do, ourselves, as we pass through our lives... This is true for organizations within the multinational corporate world as it is for water flowing through a riverbed, and blood surging through the bloodstream... Sometimes the path leads us to great difficulty, sometimes to easy success. Sometimes the path will lead us to be able to accomplish great deeds, and other times lead us to banging our heads against the wall. The path changes and as it changes, we must go along. So, when we're in the thick of it, and all hell is breaking loose, and we feel that we've done our best, but that our best wasn't good enough, and that other people were the ones who really screwed up and we are paying the price...we are in that situation because the path of least resistance has brought us there...

If we truly understand the profundity of the principle of the path of least resistance, we come to realize that often we are in situations that have their own rules and laws, and that we must follow these rules and laws whether we like it or not, and whether we know about them or not. Nature is not a mother we can go against for long before she proves her dominance over our lives and organizations. You can't fool Mother Nature, but you can be fooled by Mother Nature... In this book, we're not talking theory, but practice based on principles. The principles are from nature. Why try to fool Mother Nature when you can create a strategic alliance with her? She's a good lady to have on your side. All the people within your organization are in the same boat, which is traveling along the path of least resistance. The more people within the organization who understand the principles in this book, the better. But if even one person gets it -- you, for example -- there can be quite a change that can happen for the entire company... Three Insights This book is based on three insights that are the fundamental principles of the path of least resistance. By understanding and working with these principles, we can learn to master the management of our organizations and personal and professional situations. The first insight is that energy moves along the path of least resistance. Our organizations move along this path, as do our personal and professional lives. Any changes we attempt to make that do not take the path of least resistance into account, and inadvertently violate the path of least resistance, will not work. And this is the major reason that change effort after change effort often doesn't work over time. The changes might be excellent in and of themselves. But they can be imposed on an organization against the path of least resistance, and, consequently, they fail again and again. In those cases, the path of least resistance is to resist the change. The second insight is just as fundamental. It is: The underlying structure of anything will determine its path of least resistance. The topography in the old West determined the route the bison chose. Had the topography been different, they would have walked along a different path. The path of least resistance does not come into being arbitrarily. Instead, it is forged by an underlying structure. Structure determines the path of least resistance, and organizations are subject to inescapable structural laws that govern their behavior...Through our study of structure, we can understand why some organizations perform like high performance race cars, and some perform like low-tech rocking chairs. The third insight provides us with hope and self-determination. It is: We can determine the path of least resistance by creating new structures. Just as the Army Corps of Engineers can change a riverbed, and thereby change the flow of water, we can change the underlying structures of our organizations, and even of our lives. A change of structure leads to a change of the path of least resistance. We can redesign our organizations so that path of least resistance begins to flow in the direction in which we want it to go... Redesigning the organization is at least a two-step process, understanding first, application second. The application requires us to be diligent, rigorous, thoughtful, honest, disciplined, and creative... Learn these lessons well, and you will stack the cards in your favor.

Review:

The Path of Least Resistance for Managersis down-to-earth and inspiring. It introduces fundamental ideas and tools that can truly make a difference in how an organization functions, while simultaneously encouraging our deepest aspirations. It, like Fritz himself, embodies the simple truth that all creating occurs where principle meets practice. -- Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline

For the organization desiring to collegially create and collaboratively implement its goals, this is the book! Fritz's disciplined clarity in creating and managing structural tension is guaranteed to bring life giving results to your organization! -- Fr. Paul Wicker, Holy Apostles Catholic Church, Colorado Springs, CO

Through The Path of Least Resistance for Managers, Robert Fritz gives managers a tool through which they can create, direct and maintain (positive) change with a minimum of the usual personal and organizational disruptions one often associates with it. -- Garrison Krause, Executive Producer and Host, LeaderTalk, PBS The Business Channel

About this edition

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1576750655
• ISBN 13: 9781576750650
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 156