Almost any business leader will admit that creating a strategy is
far easier than executing it.
That's because the majority of organizations don't know how to bridge the
canyons that exist between executives, managers, and front-line employees. Most strategic
initiatives fail when a company tries to execute strategy despite its people rather than
through them.
As CEO of consultancy Root Learning, Jim Haudan has more than twenty years
experience helping businesses bridge these canyons and achieve their strategic goals.
Here, he shares his secrets for driving this strategic execution. Refreshingly accessible,
this important book presents executives, managers, and team leaders with a proven,
effective way to communicate, empower, and motivate employees at every level of an
organization.
Through stories, illustrations, and insightful observations Haudan explores the
concept of engagement in business--from the ?roots of engagement? to the six reasons why
so many workers rank themselves as disengaged to the keys to unlocking engagement in any
organization. He also includes a framework for implementing the process of strategically
engaging employees as well as a self-assessment for checking your own company's level of
strategic engagement.
The Art of Engagement equips you with a range of tools--sketches,
illustrations, and highly visual ?learning maps?--to help employees speak the same
language, see from the same point of view, and connect their individual actions to the
success of the whole company. Included are:
- Engaging visual learning tools designed to help you communicate more
effectively with your workforce
- Proven methods for successfully engaging employees at every level of an
organization
- Real-world case studies of such organizations as Harley-Davidson, Pepsi
Cola, and Blockbuster
A strategy may look perfect on paper, but it's worthless if leaders forget that human
beings have to implement it. The Art of Engagement arms you with the knowledge and the
know-how to engage your employees and drive effective strategic execution.
Jim Haudan is CEO and co-founder of Root Learning, an international
management consultancy. He and his colleagues have helped hundreds of companies worldwide
to engage their employees in the execution of strategy through the use of dialogue and
visualization.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The Canyon
3. Living for the Weekend
4. Altitude Matters
5. Cheering Your Team to Lose
6. ?Human Beings Work Here?
7. The Need to See More Than the Pieces
8. Thinking Big with a ?Big Picture?
9. Making the Complex Simple
10. What We Say vs. What We Mean
11. The Art of Engagement
12. Three Major Themes of Strategic Engagement
13. Hoe These Themes Work at the Altitude Levels
14. Focus on Leaders
15. Focus on Managers
16. Focus on the Frontline
17. Conclusion
288 pages, Hardcover