Bottom-Up Change

It's more effective to allow solutions to problems to emerge from the people close to the problem, rather than from the top

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xxxxx INVOLVEMENT
xxx xxDIALOGUE
xxx xxDIVERSITY
xxx xxSUSTAINABILITY
xxxxx EMERGENCE

INVOLVEMENT

Open Space Technology
by Harrison Owen.
Published by Berrett-Koehler 1997
Contains a step-by-step guide to organising and facilitating an Open Space Event. It is an effective way of organising meetings of between 5 and 1,000 participants. It enables organisations to generate transformational change from the inside.

Whole-Scale Change Toolkit
by Dannemiller Tyson Associates.
Published by Berrett-Koehler 2002
This book introduces you to a new way of engaging people in organisations to find ways to achieve their common goals. Rather than relying on outside expert diagnosis, it helps employees find solutions that are systems based and describe waht needs to be done to secure real change that is owned by the people who will implement it.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
by Peter Senge
Published by Nicholas Brearley 1994 ISBN 1-85788-060-9
This is probably the most famous book on how to achieve organisational learning through employee involvement. It contains a variety of tools and techniques to help you reinvent relationships, being loyal to the truth, developing personal mastery and shared visions, using systems thinking, making the most of dialogue, strategies for team learning and viewing organisations as communities.

Sitting in the Fire
by Arnold Mendel.
Published by Lao Tse Press 1995 ISBN 1-887078-00-2
In this book Arnold offers insights into how to initiate large group transformation using issues of conflict and diversity. It is an invaluable and excellent resource for anyone who is serious about unstructured collective work and mediation facilitation. Arnold uses what he describes as a 'quality process' to reach a point of real understanding, not just agreement.

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DIALOGUE

A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths
by Annette Simmons
Published by Amacom 1999 ISBN 0-8144-0479-0
This wonderful book shows you how to use dialogue to overcome fear and mistrust at work. It's more than ordinary conversation - it opens minds, eases anxiety and encourages people to tell the truth and trust each other. When teams can discuss the undiscussable they can solve the seemingly unsolvable.

The Solutions Focus
by Paul Jackson & Mark McKergow
Published by Nicholas Brialey 2002 ISBN 1-85788-270-9
This book offers a very simple yet powerful way to change cultures and lives in a positive and appreciative way. You are shown how to use simple priciples to solve complex problems.

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DIVERSITY

Diversity in Action
by Rajvinder Kandola & Johanna Fullerton
Published by CIPD 2002 ISBN 0-85292-742-8
This book defines what managing diversity is all about and how it can be applied strategically within your organisation. It addresses three key areas:

1. Diversity and 'bottom-line' benefits - the business case
2. Diversity in the worksforce
3. Diversity and targets for affirmative action

It focuses on all aspects of difference between employees, such as - age, gender, education, values, physical ability, mental capacity, personality, experience, culture, approaches to work, etc., to see them as an asset for securing organisational change and viability. It takes the view that diversity includes white males, because it's about tapping the potential of all employees as unique and valued people.

Leaning into the Future
by George Binney & Colin Williams
Published by Nicholas-Brearley 1996 ISBN 1-85788-082-X
This ground breaking book challenges top-down change programmes such as EFQM, TQM, ISO9000. It also challenges the zealous application of living systems and the bottom-up self-directing approach. Its about strong leadership and a strong commitment to learning. These are leaders who are forthright and listen. They foster both-and thinking and action. They argue for a dynamic approach that balances top-down with bottom-up forces with an understanding of current reality - inside-out and outside-in. They explain how leadership and change becomes everyone's responsibility, with people looking deep into themselves to improve on their previous best. It requires learning while doing, that reflect real life priorities and tasks, not classroom training. Get a grip on reality - read this book.

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SUSTAINABILITY

Focused Energy
by Paul Strebel
Published by Wiley 2000 ISBN 0-471-89971-2
Setting an organisation's energy in motion isn't enough - it has to be focused. Success requires organisations to stimulate energy on the frontline, show great flexibility and take advantage of new breakthrough opportunities. To achieve this requires the building of leadership capable of creating the conditions that will motivate others to release their natural energy. This book explores how this can be achieved.

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EMERGENCE

The Minding Organisation
by Moshe Rubinstein & Iris Firstenberg
Published by Wiley 1999 ISBN 0-471-34781-7
This is the story of an organisation that responded to customer needs as they emerged, visualising successful deliveries with order placed only an hour in advance. By embracing uncertainty the organisation made a commitment to excellence. The process involved identifying a shared purpose, developing a team of devoted leaders and being proactive to achieve that purpose. It means working as if the team were one organism. It teaches everyone how to live and learn at the edge of chaos.