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Rating: 
Summary: Some Helpful Insights
Review: Consultants Belgard and Rayner assembled an anecdote-rich book with some interesting ideas.The book's subtitle proclaims that it is, "A Dynamic Process for Creating and Achieving Your Company's Strategic Vision." While there are occasional bits of actionable advice between the covers, the book really doesn't describe a cogent, implementable process (dynamic or otherwise). Shaping the Future is really about rethinking the principles of change management, and the dust jacket copy does telegraph this. To their credit, Belgard and Rayner do effectively contradict common wisdom about implementing change programs. They: • Defy the "burning platform" mandate that other management pundits claim must be created to force support for a change initiative; • Deny that change must emanate from the CEO's suite, suggesting (and offering examples) that most real change is driven by the middle of an organization not by the top; • Push back against the prevalent assumption that managers have to combat their employees' resistance to change. (The authors essentially suggest that garnering support for change is more effective than fighting resistance to it.) Messrs. Belgard and Rayner also rightfully challenge the convention that to create "buy-in" for change, executives must stage pep rallies and deploy slick, sometimes frenzied internal sales campaigns. Such top-down, hard-sell events, they correctly argue, are not as effective as associate-to-associate water cooler conversations that affirm the coming change as credible. To spur that phenomenon on a wide scale, the authors suggest cultivating the corporate grapevine by seeding social networks. Grand idea. Few implementable details provided. TOO CUTE, TOO FAMILIAR
The authors begin the book by making the apparently obligatory but totally superfluous case that we live in times of change. Amid this bit of extraneousness, perhaps to give the appearance of originality, Belgard and Rayner coin goofy terms like "megadigm" (big paradigm change, get it?), and "infolocity" -- fast evolving information likened both to dog years and internet time. Ugh. Later in the book the authors recommend that you start an epidemic of "pro-change flu." There's an appealing image. These oh-so-clever indulgences don't further the cause of either understanding or implementing "a dynamic process" for anything. (Still, I have to give the authors their due for minting this charming meme, "mind barnacle" -- a memorable idea that attaches itself to people's consciousness so that they more readily support a change effort.) There are stimulating insights in Shaping the Future. Unfortunately, there's lots of stale amid the fresh. So much of the book's territory has been previously trampled over and over: have a compelling vision, heed your values, empower others, communicate to an extreme, execute well. Blah, blah, blah. The real strength of Shaping the Future? Its well-told anecdotes. Many of them are drawn from corporations in the authors' stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest (such as Boeing and Microsoft), as well as Harley-Davidson, the U.S. Navy, Quaker Oats, and others. Historical tales also occasionally punctuate some points to good effect. So the book provides an interesting read, even when it is plowing through worn fields of truisms everyone already knows all too well. BUY OR NOT?
If you are about to undertake a change initiative, or are in the midst of one, yes, get this book. You won't find much in the way of a specific prescriptive process, but you'll likely get some insights that can lead to actionable ideas. And better results. If Amazon allowed ratings with half-stars, I'd weigh in at 3.5 stars for this work that mixes tired and fresh, and cutesy with insightful. Don Blohowiak
Lead Well® Institute
Rating: 
Summary: My Book Review
Review: Consultants Belgard and Rayner assembled an anecdote-rich book with some interesting ideas. The book's subtitle proclaims that it is, "A Dynamic Process for Creating and Achieving Your Company's Strategic Vision." While there are occasional bits of actionable advice between the covers, the book really doesn't describe a cogent, implementable process (dynamic or otherwise). Shaping the Future is really about rethinking the principles of change management, and the dust jacket copy does telegraph this. To their credit, Belgard and Rayner do effectively contradict common wisdom about implementing change programs. They: * Defy the "burning platform" mandate that other management pundits claim must be created to force support for a change initiative; * Deny that change must emanate from the CEO's suite, suggesting (and offering examples) that most real change is driven by the middle of an organization not by the top; * Push back against the prevalent assumption that managers have to combat their employees' resistance to change. (The authors essentially suggest that garnering support for change is more effective than fighting resistance to it.) Messrs. Belgard and Rayner also rightfully challenge the convention that to create "buy-in" for change, executives must stage pep rallies and deploy slick, sometimes frenzied internal sales campaigns. Such top-down, hard-sell events, they correctly argue, are not as effective as associate-to-associate water cooler conversations that affirm the coming change as credible. To spur that phenomenon on a wide scale, the authors suggest cultivating the corporate grapevine by seeding social networks. Grand idea. Few implementable details provided. TOO CUTE, TOO FAMILIAR
The authors begin the book by making the apparently obligatory but totally superfluous case that we live in times of change. Amid this bit of extraneousness, perhaps to give the appearance of originality, Belgard and Rayner coin goofy terms like "megadigm" (big paradigm change, get it?), and "infolocity" -- fast evolving information likened both to dog years and internet time. Ugh. Later in the book the authors recommend that you start an epidemic of "pro-change flu." There's an appealing image. These oh-so-clever indulgences don't further the cause of either understanding or implementing "a dynamic process" for anything. (Still, I have to give the authors their due for minting this charming meme, "mind barnacle" -- a memorable idea that attaches itself to people's consciousness so that they more readily support a change effort.) There are stimulating insights in Shaping the Future. Unfortunately, there's lots of stale amid the fresh. So much of the book's territory has been previously trampled over and over: have a compelling vision, heed your values, empower others, communicate to an extreme, execute well. Blah, blah, blah. The real strength of Shaping the Future? Its well-told anecdotes. Many of them are drawn from corporations in the authors' stomping grounds in the Pacific Northwest (such as Boeing and Microsoft), as well as Harley-Davidson, the U.S. Navy, Quaker Oats, and others. Historical tales also occasionally punctuate some points to good effect. So the book provides an interesting read, even when it is plowing through worn fields of truisms everyone already knows all too well. BUY OR NOT?
If you are about to undertake a change initiative, or are in the midst of one, yes, get this book. You won't find much in the way of a specific prescriptive process, but you'll likely get some insights that can lead to actionable ideas. And better results. If Amazon allowed ratings with half-stars, I'd weigh in at 3.5 stars for this work that mixes tired and fresh, and cutesy with insightful. Don Blohowiak
Lead Well® Institute
Rating:
Summary: My Book Review
Review: Jun 29, 2004 Shaping the Future: A Dynamic Process for Creating and Achieving your Company's Strategic Vision, William P. Belgard and Steven R. Rayner
These guys are change mongers. What I really like about this book is that the authors not only talk theory, but they talk implementation as well. By using real life examples from companies they've researched, from Boeing and Rockwell Collins to Tektronics and Famous Footwear, they show how companies have shaped their future by changing strategic direction thought a series of six very clear, logical and well laid out shifts of change. Both of the authors, Belgard who specializes in change management and Rayner who is an expert in high-performance organizations, get right to the point of making changes in a high-performance company. It is one thing to affect change in a small fast moving company, it is quite another to change a behemoth the size of a continent. Through the examples they use, they show the reader how changes can be made in even the largest of companies with a simple, well planned and logical approach. Is there anything bigger or more complicated than building airplanes - very large airplanes? Yet the authors show how Boeing changed the way planes were reorganized from a herringbone assembly line to a straight moving assembly line reminiscent of Henry Ford's assembly plant. This simple appearing change allowed Boeing to increase efficiency and dramatically lower cost, while bringing a new sense of purpose and satisfaction to the work force. By using traditional companies as examples, the authors were able to show a step-by-step process of changing long standing paradigms by using logical such 'meat and potatoes' tactics as: taking the right steps, setting the vision of the future, making the change completely understandable to the work force, working through those persistent anti-change issues, breaking through complacency and setting up a concrete foundation for future resiliency. In short these guys put together a book that enables readers to direct changes in their organizations and shaping the future of the company to encompass success. The entire message of the book can be summarized in the slogan "There is only one way to control the future and that is to invent." I can't pass up the chance to talk about some of the great anecdotes that the authors use to dramatically illustrate their points. At the risk of stealing their thunder, here is my favorite example of persistent resistance to change: "In the seventh century the Russian Orthodox Church decided that they would use three fingers instead of two when doing the sign of the cross. This upset their members so much that Church members took to locking themselves in barns, setting the barns on fire and burning themselves to death just to protest the minor change." Now that's what I call resisting change! This is the kind of book that you buy in bulk and then distribute to key members of your management team. Actually, don't stop there, pass copies to everyone in your company from the CEO and Board of Directors to the custodial staff. Anyway you get the idea. Do yourself, your team and your company a favor, buy and read this book, at least a couple of times.
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