Managing Change in Organizations

This book really drew me in. It goes deep into the theory but also translates it into practice. This focus on management asks us to move away from practices that reinforce hierarchies and hero leaders coming to the rescue.

Tony presents compelling arguments for the need to re-assess the value of management as opposed to leadership and provides a practical guide to modern practices that will be useful to managers at all levels in organisations.

This book speaks to the part of me that resists convenient containers compartmentalising what it is to be leader, manager, or organisation. My rebellious side responded to this book as an invitation to break free of simplistic either/or arguments, and accept that to deliver real change we become what the situation demands of us. There is no handbook for this job. You can read all the books, absorb all the theory - but you're the secret sauce. Filled with anecdotes, lived experience and practical exercises - this is not a book of theory, but more like a collation of evidence to demonstrate where leaning into the complex and not having the answers, but being willing to 'do the work', are the practices that serve us to become 'unstuck'.

This book is urgently needed. The predominance of 'leadership' thinking ignores the fact that running an organisation is an everyday business, needing raised awareness and wise choices that are often left up to the people working closest to the grain of the work. These are often the people most 'leadership' thinking ignores. This book explains why they need to think differently about their everyday but it also shows these everyday managers how to do this. Supremely grounded and practical as well as thoughtful and informed, this is a manual for the wise manager with their feet on the ground.

Tony has written from the heart and based on his extensive experience. I value managers who can see through the noise and get to the nub of what is needed. This requires them to be 'always on', tuned into their context and to develop deep working relationships with their colleagues. Something I have witnessed first-hand that Tony focuses on and conveys extensively in his writing. Tony focuses our attention on the need for managers to move beyond the tools and techniques of management and to see themselves as being 'the instruments of change'.