Recommended Readings 

In addition the 100+ articles on our Resources web page organized by topic and document type, there are several books/articles that we think can help you and your organization move the needle on specific traits and indices:

Improving Involvement:

• Tom Peters & Robert Waterman's In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best-Run Companies (1982). "This is a classic that at its core is about motivating people and creating a meaningful, high-performance organization.  The companies may be out-dated (and some of them out of business) and the research flawed, but the writing is fluid, engaging, and inspiring.  With regard to specific traits and indices in the Denison Model, there are valuable chapters such as 'productivity through people' and 'close to the customer.'" ~Ryan Smerek 

Team Orientation:

• Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable (2002). The book is a story of a troubled Silicon Valley firm and how employees were failing to function as a unit. Lencioni describes how five dysfunctions (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results), can be overcome. Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

   

• Leigh Thompson's Making the Team, Third Edition (2007).  "This is the best research-based, social psychology book on teams that I have found.  It is based on her extensive research at Northwestern University with executives.  There are several exercises and quizzes that go along with the book that I have used in classes to great effect." ~Ryan Smerek

Capability Development:

• Charles O’Reilly and Jeffrey Pfeffer’s Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve Extraordinary Results with Ordinary People (2000). The authors use descriptions of eight companies (e.g. Cisco Systems, Southwest Airlines, and the Men's Wearhouse) to illustrate how internal talent can be maximized. They suggest reasons why competitors of these companies have not been able to replicate their success stories. Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

Empowerment:

• Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us (2009). The book discusses three elements of motivation: Autonomy-the desire to direct our own lives, Mastery-the urge to get better and better at something that matters and Purpose-the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves. Recommended by Bruce Gibb.

Improving Mission:

Strategic Direction & Intent:

• Michael Porter's Harvard Business Review article "What is Strategy?" (1996). Porter discusses the differences between operational effectiveness and strategy, how strategy means deliberately choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value, the tradeoffs required for strategic positioning, and how a firm’s capabilities must fit together in a complex way to build sustainable competitive advantage. Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

Vision:

• Jim Collins and Jerry Porras' Harvard Business Review article "Building your Company's Vision" (1996) and their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (1994). These two resources also pertain to defining Core Values as the authors describe companies that have enjoyed enduring success through having core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. The authors discuss how to discover your core ideology that is authentic and inspiring and the necessity of having an envisioned future that should be a vivid picture of what it will be like to achieve your goals. Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

Improving Adaptability:

• Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe’s Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty, Second Edition (2007). "This book is particularly useful for those working in High Reliability Organizations, defined as those with little tolerance for error (hospitals, military organizations, disaster response teams, and power plants, etc.) and offers a series of principles derived from these organizations that help improve your adaptability and resiliency." ~Ryan Smerek 

Organizational Learning:

• Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (1990). "With great chapters on “shared vision" and "team learning” this book could fall under several categories of the model, but it essentially describes how to think about an organization as a system—with all of its interconnectedness—and thereby learn, change, and adapt. I highly recommend this book for the vast conceptual ground it covers, including Bohm’s dialogue versus discussion, Argyris work on action learning, and system archetypes." ~Ryan Smerek 

   

• Jim Collins' How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In (2009). This book can help a company view failure as an opportunity for learning and improvement with Collins' discussion of five stages of decline: 1) Hubris Born of Success, 2) Undisciplined Pursuit of More, 3) Denial of Risk and Peril, 4) Grasping for Salvation, and 5) Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. He discusses how to recover and in some cases come back even stronger after experiencing a period of decline. Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

Creating Change:

• Chip Heath and Dan Heath's Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard (2010). "This book has inspiring short stories about change and advice that is grounded in the social sciences how about to undergo change initiatives.  Highly recommended!" ~Ryan Smerek 

   

• John Kotter’s Leading Change (1996). Kotter describes a comprehensive eight-step framework that can be followed by executives at all levels. His advice gets directly at reasons that organizations fail to change and the steps a leader needs to take to be succesful. Recommended by Jay Richards.

   

• Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler’s Influencer: The Power to Change Anything (2007). Combines the insights of behavioral scientists and business leaders with the stories of high-powered influencers. They describe what really motivates people and why you cannot simply dictate change and expect it to happen. Recommended by Bruce Gibb.

Improving Consistency:

Core Values:

• Patrick Lencioni's Harvard Business Review article "Make your Values mean Something" (2002). The author describes basic imperatives in creating and implementing values, including understanding the different types of values (aspirational, accidental, etc.), the need for senior leadership to own the process of value articulation, and the necessity of weaving core values into everything (hiring methods, performance management systems, etc.). Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

Agreement:

• Michael Roberto’s Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer: Managing for Conflict and Consensus (2009). Using case studies of the Bay of Pigs and the Columbia disaster, among others, Roberto illustrates his primary thesis that failed leadership often fixates on the question 'What decision should I make?' rather than asking 'How should I go about making the decision?'" He demonstrates that the key to making successful strategic business decisions lies in the decision-making process itself. Recommended by Bryan Adkins.

Uncovering Beliefs and Assumptions:

• Ed Schein's Organizational Culture and Leadership, Third Edition (2004). "For getting at the grey center of the model of underlying beliefs and assumptions, Schein’s analysis of his client organizations can help activate a similar depth-of-analysis in your practice.  The book draws upon anthropology and social psychology to give an evolutionary view over time of how social groups evolve and solve the problems of adapting to external changes and integrating as a social group.  The perspective is particularly helpful when you have a distinct, fairly homogenous group that has a rich and sometimes tumultuous history with the discernable influence of a founder." ~Ryan Smerek

If you have additional suggestions, please contact us!