The Passionate Organization

by Lucas, James R.

• ISBN13: 9780814404775
• ISBN10: 0814404774
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-01
• Publisher: Amacom Books

Summary

"Everyone's heard about companies that seem to have everything--great products, enormous capital resources, reputation, skilled employees, ""advanced"" planning--and they still fail. Why? Perhaps they lack passion. Emphasizing ""big vision,"" mutual trust, and deeply held core values, Jim Lucas demonstrates how to win and keep the competitive edge by thinking with the heart as well as the head. He shows how a committed, passionate workforce can: * make shifts and leaps that strategic planning alone cannot envision * fight to achieve the organization's mission * bring continuous improvement, creativity, and innovation to their work * enjoy a more fulfilling life, personally and professionally, by committing to something greater than themselves."

Author Biography

JAMES R. LUCAS (Kansas City, MO) is president of Luman Consultants and an award-winning faculty member for the American Management Association. Previous AMACOM books are Fatal Illusions and Balance of Power.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Heart Over Head	xv
Part I: Passion Over Knowledge	1	(66)
Defining Passion	3	(14)
The Nature of Positive Passion	4	(2)
The Power of Passion	6	(2)
The Passionate Organization	8	(2)
What Passion Is Not	10	(1)
Negative Passion	11	(2)
The Absence of Passion	13	(1)
Conclusion	13	(4)
The Limitations of Reason	17	(13)
The Role of Presuppositions	18	(2)
The Speculative Nature of Inductive Thinking	20	(1)
The Narrowness of Education and Experience	21	(2)
The Non-Self-Evident Nature of Truth	23	(2)
The Paradoxical Nature of Reality	25	(1)
The Inability of Reason to Correct Its Own Errors	25	(2)
Reason's Inability to Be Foolproof	27	(1)
The Unreasonableness of the Hard Thing	27	(1)
Is It Hard or Is It Soft?	28	(1)
Conclusion	29	(1)
The Misleading Comfort of Strategic Planning	30	(12)
What Is Strategic Planning?	32	(1)
Strategic Planning As the Impossible Dream	33	(2)
Strategy As Organizational Process Rather Than Planning Process	35	(1)
Strategic Vision and Strategic Thinking	36	(3)
A Different Kind of Planning	39	(1)
Conclusion	40	(2)
The Siren Song of the Learning Organization	42	(14)
What Is Learning?	42	(1)
The Components of Learning	43	(1)
Why Should We Learn?	44	(2)
Why Don't We Learn?	46	(1)
How Will We As Individuals Learn?	47	(2)
The True Learning Organization	49	(1)
The Teaching Organization	50	(1)
Threats to the Passionate Organization's Ability to Learn	51	(2)
Protecting the Passionate Organization's Ability to Learn	53	(1)
Conclusion	54	(2)
The Uncontrollable Nature of Fire	56	(11)
Bound by the Chain of Command	58	(1)
Tools of the Chain of Command	59	(1)
When True Merit and Freedom Come to Organizations	60	(1)
But Passion Is So ... Unplanned	61	(1)
The Nonrational Labors of Imagination	62	(1)
The Death of Determinism	63	(1)
Passion Capital	64	(2)
Passion Direction	66	(1)
Conclusion	66	(1)
Part II: A Passionate People	67	(64)
Clues to the Presence of Passion	69	(16)
Willingness to Confront Reality	70	(3)
Ability to Discern the Truth About Who We Are and What We Want and Need	73	(1)
Capacity to Transform Information and Knowledge Into Wisdom	74	(1)
Alignment Between Personal and Organizational Aspirations	75	(1)
Desire to Make a Difference	76	(1)
Love for Labor	77	(1)
Indignation Over Conditions	78	(1)
Evidence of Battle Scars	79	(1)
An Amateur's Orientation	80	(1)
Being Young at Heart	81	(3)
Conclusion	84	(1)
The Role of the Soul	85	(11)
Soul and Spirituality	85	(1)
What Does This Stuff Mean to My Organization?	86	(1)
The Reality of Spirituality	86	(1)
The Red Herring of Religion	87	(1)
Tapping Into the Spiritual Core	88	(3)
Things to Avoid	91	(2)
Spiritual Intelligence	93	(1)
Conclusion	94	(2)
Commitment to a Greater Goal	96	(10)
Internal Marketing	97	(2)
Internal Alignment	99	(1)
A Case Study in Alignment	100	(2)
Elements of a Heroic Effort	102	(1)
External Alignment	103	(1)
Conclusion	104	(2)
The Need to Make a Difference	106	(12)
The Need to Leave a Legacy	107	(1)
The Seven Steps of a Decent Organizational Legacy	108	(4)
Legacy for All by Organizational Design	112	(3)
Commitment	115	(2)
Conclusion	117	(1)
Balanced People With Multiple Passions	118	(13)
The Balanced Polymaniac	121	(3)
Balance Between People	124	(1)
Balance Between Work and the Rest of Life	125	(2)
Balance Between Work and Rest	127	(1)
Opening the Floodgates of Whole-Life Passion	128	(1)
Conclusion	129	(2)
Part III: The Passionate Organization	131	(93)
Pick and Prepare Passionate People	133	(11)
The Passion Match	134	(1)
How Do We Hire for Passion?	135	(2)
Build a Farm Team	137	(2)
Let Them Learn by Passion	139	(1)
Learning by Teaching	140	(1)
Evaluating Passion	141	(1)
Conclusion	142	(2)
Encase Passion in Vision and Mutual Trust	144	(16)
The Problem	145	(1)
Encasing Passion	145	(1)
Vision	145	(8)
Mutual Trust	153	(2)
The Future of Organizational Design	155	(3)
Conclusion	158	(2)
Building Passion for Stakeholders	160	(11)
A Passion for Customers	161	(4)
A Passion for Shareholders	165	(2)
A Passion for Helpers	167	(1)
A Passion for the Food Chain	168	(1)
Evaluate Passion for Stakeholders	169	(1)
Conclusion	170	(1)
Stoke the Fire of Waning Passion	171	(11)
Avoid the Myth of Motivation	172	(2)
Stoking the Fire	174	(3)
Obstacles to Passion	177	(3)
Conclusion	180	(2)
Deal With Negative and Missing Passion	182	(9)
The Shadow	182	(2)
The Petty	184	(1)
The Indignant	185	(3)
The True Believer	188	(2)
Can Positive Passion Ever Be Wrong?	190	(1)
Conclusion	190	(1)
Kill the Concept of ``Management''	191	(10)
The Illusion of Management	193	(1)
The Problems of Management	194	(2)
Killing the Concept of Management	196	(3)
The Advantages of Leadership for the Passionate Organization	199	(1)
Conclusion	200	(1)
Know It's Better to Stub Your Toe Than to Lose Your Leg	201	(9)
Creativity at the Core	202	(2)
Mavericks Matter	204	(2)
Safety for Risk Takers	206	(2)
Conclusion	208	(2)
Use Crises and Obstacles to Increase Passion	210	(8)
What Crises and Obstacles Reveal	212	(1)
Understanding Responses to Change	213	(2)
Using Crises and Obstacles to Increase Passion	215	(1)
Conclusion	216	(2)
Spiritual Leadership in Secular Places	218	(6)
Seven Pillars of Spiritual Leadership in Secular Places	219	(3)
What Spiritual Leaders Don't Do	222	(1)
Conclusion	223	(1)
Epilogue: The Triumph of the Passionate Organization	224	(2)
Bibliography	226	(3)
Index	229	(7)
Other Reading by James R. Lucas	236