Book Beat

 

InView September 2010 Issue

 
BOOK BEAT

 

If the 1980s and early 1990s were about replicating programs and the last decade was about building effective organizations, the authors of Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits (©2007 John Wiley & Sons), believe the next leap is to see nonprofits as transformative agents of change. Leslie Crutchfiled and Heather McLeod Grant see nonprofits as catalysts that can change entire systems. The book explores six practices that help great nonprofits achieve significant results. Organizations seeking greater impact must learn how to:

 

  • work with government and advocate for policy change, in addition to providing services;
  • harness market forces and see business as a powerful partner, not as an enemy to be disdained or ignored;
  • create meaningful experiences for individual supporters and convert them tinto evangelists for the cause;
  • build and nurther nonprofit networks, treating other groups not as competitors for scarce resources but as allies;
  • adapt to the changing environment and be as innovative and nimble as they are strategic;
  • share leadership, empowering others to be forces for good.

 

Implementing the Four Levels: A Practical Guide for Effective Evaluation of Training Programs (©2007, Berrett-Koehler Publishers), by Donald L. Kirkpatrick and James D. Kirkpatrick shows how to ensure that managers at all levels take an active role in determining training needs and evaluation. The ten requirements for an effective training program include:

 

  • Base the program on the needs of the participants.
  • Set learning objectives.
  • Schedule the program at the right time.
  • Hold the program at the right place with the right amenities.
  • Invite the right people to attend.
  • Select effective instructors.
  • Use effective techniques and aids.
  • Accomplish the program objectives.
  • Satisfy the particiants.
  • Evaluate the program.

 

Lasting Contribution: How To Think, Plan and Act To Accomplish Meaningful Work (©2007 Agate Publishing), by Tad Waddington demonstrates how you can radically reimagine the measures by which you value your work and in the process discover what it means to make a lasting contribution. The book draws from more conventional resources, including management theories of Drucker, Collins and Senge, as well as thinking by Aristotle, Sun Tzu, Viktor Frankl, Zen philosophy, and art history, among others.

 

Learn how to retain and attract new members by communicating with metaphors. According to Anne Miller, author of Metaphorically Selling: How To Use the Magic of Metaphors to Sell, Persuade & Explain Anything to Anyone (Chiron Associates, Inc.), with metaphors, a writer or speaker holds attention, makes a point, and moves others to action more easily and memorably than with information and facts alone. Included in the book are exercises, resources, and examples of how metaphors have been successfully used in the business environment. The book provides an explanation of metaphors, how to use them, and why listeners/readers actually crave them; a four-step process to create winning metaphors targeted to a constituent’s needs and concerns; strategies for using metaphors to maximum advantage in presentations.

 

Good interpersonal skills boost the bottom line in many ways—by helping to retain employees, improve morale, win new members or customers, seal deals, create a loyal following, secure support for new initiatives; expand networks, achieve our organization’s missions. Get Along with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: 8 Keys To Creating Enduring Connections (©2007, Morgan James Publishing), by Arnold Sanow and Sandra Strauss, provides tools for building relationships that are valued and long-lasting. While mostly common-sense offerings, the book reinforces what many in the association and not-for-profit world already know. The authors maintain, “to be heard, offer a listening, compassionate ear; to be encouraged, extend support and optimism; to be appreciated, express gratitude and an attitude of caring; to be respected, act with honor and personal excellence; to be trusted, build and preserve a reputation of integrity.

 

Weird Ideas That Work: How To Build a Creative Company (©2007, Free Press), by Robert I. Sutton, explains what innovation is all about and why it is so important for organizations, and offers 11 ½ off-the-wall ideas that are counter-intuitive to many executives, including:

 

  • Hire slow learners
  • Hire people who make you uncomfortable, even who you dislike;
  • Hire people you probably don’t need;
  • Use job interviews to get ideas, not to screen candidates;
  • Encourage people to ignore and defy superiors and peers;
  • Fund some happy people and get them to fight;
  • Reward success and failure; punish inaction;
  • Decided to do something that will probably fail, then convince yourself and everyone else that success is certain;
  • Think of some ridiculous or impractical things to do, and then plan to do them;
  • Avoid, distract, and bore customers, critics, and anyone else who just wants to talk about money;
  • Don’t try t learn anything from people working on the same problem.
  • Forget the past, especially your own organization’s successes.

 

Additional Articles