Publisher's Synopsis
The development of agile, multi-capable, organizations requires the rethinking of many traditionally held assumptions. Flexibility needs to be built in to facilities, equipment, systems, people and organizations. All elements in the agile organization need to work together seamlessly. - - The result is that managers need to prioritize and re-prioritize with breathtaking frequency. In an agile organization, priorities can change weekly, even daily. The traditional business planning process, designed for a more stable world, is challenged. - - Agility presents new challenges for managers too. They must learn to take decisions which commit the organization. Their role has changed dramatically in 50 years; from administrators to æintrapreneursÆ. New criteria for decision making are introduced: no longer is the achievement of an objective a sole criterion; each decision is a stepping stone to a more capable agile organization. - - Mike Woodcock and Dave Francis have been two of the most influential writers of books and training resources of the last two decades. They have drawn on their insight and experience to create this latest collection of ready-to-use training materials. - - The interventions have a solid theoretical base around the seven key managerial skills for the agile organization. These skills are: - - ò Perceptive Decisiveness - - ò Two-brained Problem Solving - - ò Multiple Teaming - - ò Change Leading - - ò Partnering - - ò Intrapreneuring - - ò Dynamic Learning and Unlearning - - which the authors use to structure the whole of this collection. This structure enables the trainer or facilitator to use the interventions individually or in clusters, and to develop a holistic approach to agile management skills by using and linking the seven skill areas. - - Regular users of Woodcock/Francis materials will recognize and welcome the way in which the authors have produced such a definitive model of the skills needed in 2000 and beyond, along with the training materials to develop them. Newcomers should experience the same excitement and confidence, when they read the material, as those trainers who discovered the authorsÆ work for the first time, 15 or 20 years ago.
