ChangeThis
“I discovered this site a week or so ago and I absolutely adore it. It’s filled with slickly packaged manifestos (full-color PDF eBooks) from contemporary thinkers around the world. Both of the links below are to ChangeThis manifestos I’ve enjoyed.
The Bioteaming Manifesto
This eBook gives a 30 page introduction to Bioteams as defined by former Reuters manager Ken Thompson. Thompson’s new work builds on Buckman’s “command and control is dead, ad hoc virtual teams are the future” ideas from 2004. Accepting multiple virtual teams as a starting point, Thompson explores the uncannily effective strategies of egalitarian natural teams such as flocks of birds or swarms of insects. Instantaneous broadcast communication, regular handoffs of leadership duties, and an unquestioned faith in the team’s ability to deliver results are the cornerstones of this piece. UPDATE: Ken Thompson e-mailed to point out that his manifesto is three years old and that he has an expanded book on the topic that he released earlier this year. Thanks for the heads up, Ken!
People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them
This manifesto by business speaker Michael Kanazawa gave me a lot to think about on the topic of “buy in” and how the very phrase implies a backwards thought process. We’ve come up with this great new plan and now we’re going to convince everyone else in the company to get on board! It’ll be great! vs. We need to change this! Let’s get everyone in the company involved in figuring out what’s wrong and how we’ll improve from top to bottom! Once I thought about things this way I felt a bit silly about my Ray Kinsella approach to wikifying my last team.
