Transforming Organizations: Engaging the 4Cs for Powerful Organizational Learning and Change

Description

In a world where current political climates and management cultures make risk aversion commonplace, Transforming Organizations shows how all organizations, including large and cumbersome institutions, can transform to suit the needs of our rapidly evolving economic and social realities. This book looks at how organizations and their leaders can adapt to an increasingly volatile and uncertain operating environment through the 4Cs: Creativity Critical reflection Communication Collaboration Based on extensive research in the education, organizational and business sectors, Michael Anderson and Miranda Jefferson show how the 4Cs can be embedded, embodied and enacted in many different types of organizations to make them more responsive to emerging challenges, threats and opportunities. Transforming Organizations highlights clear links between leading and learning - because leadership is no longer (if it ever was) just a role for CEOs, CFOs and senior managers. For organizations to be flexible and agile in the 21st century, all employees must have the opportunity to exercise leadership. But this can only happen if deep learning is a standard feature of a leadership approach that actively and deliberately incorporates key 21st-century skills - the 4Cs themselves. There is a substantial gap between companies knowing what they should do to be flexible, creative and have clear channels of communication, and how to make that a reality. Transforming Organizations provides the evidence and inspiration necessary for doing business differently. Written for those who have become disillusioned or frustrated with business practices that cannot meet the fast-moving demands of the 21st century, the book provides strategies and approaches developed from the authors' work in real organizations in order to implement change and see organizations transform for the better.

Michael Anderson is Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research and teaching focuses on how leaders and organizations can transform through deep and direct engagement with creativity, critical reflection, collaboration and communication. Michael has designed and delivers MBA and EMBA and Interdisciplinary Education programs in creativity and critical communication and presents international keynotes in these areas. Michael is co-founder and academic leader of 4C Organizations and 4C Transformative Learning. Miranda Jefferson is co-founder and innovative practice leader of 4C Organizations and 4C Transformative Learning. She has been involved in leading innovation in organizations and schools for over 20 years. Miranda works with leadership and organizations to facilitate transformation that is responsive to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century

My Cs about Michael and Miranda's 4Cs: this book has compelling content, case studies, considered lessons, and provides coherency and clarity. It is first class. A must-read for anyone tasked with leading change. Transforming Organizations is a concrete catalyst for change. -- Karen Ferris * Organizational change management rebel with a cause; author; facilitator; coach; speaker and trainer * Taking constant change and contradiction as givens, Anderson and Jefferson provide an invaluable set of tools - "coherence makers" - to interrogate, push and organize our thinking and actions toward organizational transformation. Numerous rich and current case examples illustrate not so much why to apply these tools but how to do so effectively. -- Mary C. Gentile * PhD, Professor of Practice, University of Virginia Darden School of Business; author of Giving Voice To Values * The authors have brilliantly weaved fact, illustrative storytelling, scholarly research, and industry examples to artfully bridge the gap between rhetoric and reality in presenting the challenges of instituting change in organizations that are feverishly working to adapt to the complexities of the "post-normal times" of the twenty-first century. They've produced a rock solid strategic road map for success in transforming organizations via the 4Cs! -- Donnette Noble * PhD, Associate Professor, Heller College of Business, Roosevelt University (Chicago); Past President, Association of Leadership Educators (2016-2017) *