Bøger af Ralph H. Kilmann

Today's executives and managers face an unprecedented challenge. They must find innovative ways to meet the demands of the complex and interrelated problems posed by new technology, globalization, rapid change, and intensifying competition. Empowerment, work engagement, training and development, organizational learning, and other change initiatives have attempted to offer practical solutions to this challenge. But what has been lacking is a completely integrated approach for leading, managing, and organizing for the new millennium. QUANTUM ORGANIZATIONS presents a new paradigm that can help today's executives see, think, and act in new ways that enhance organizational success and personal meaning. Management expert and top-selling author Ralph Kilmann brings together more than three decades of research and consulting experience in this groundbreaking book to provide a practical guide to achieving the essential transformational changes the new realities require. Making use of 107 full-color illustrations, he uses both art and science to illuminate the new paradigm for accelerating self-awareness and self-transformation.Writing with a masterful command of the sweep of human evolution and the awesome discoveries of the new sciences, Kilmann shows why the old concepts that served the industrial age must give way to altogether new categories--a new paradigm for the age of global interdependence and self-aware consciousness. He clearly explains how to use this new paradigm to see the increasing interconnections among industries, markets, organizations, and organizational members; radically improve infrastructures, systems, and processes; create new levels of organizational success and economic value; and reach new heights of personal meaning, fulfillment, and enlightenment.

As revealed by the author's very personal journey, expanding consciousness can indeed be achieved through a dedicated sequence of mind/body/spirit modalities. Dr. Ralph Kilmann candidly shares his earliest traumas and how he then investigated his fears and anxieties by actively participating in a great variety of wellness and healing modalities--such as talk therapy (psychoanalysis), Holotropic Breathwork, Holosync meditation, Network Spinal Analysis (NSA), Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), Vipassana meditation, advanced structural alignment, electro-homeopathy, Pulsor chakra clearing, and many others. Through his intense experiences with all these mind/body/spirit modalities, Kilmann was able to resolve the unintended consequences that stem from specialized (and thus limited) efforts at living an examined life. Indeed, the author illuminates these fundamental lessons: Without already having a fairly conscious mind and a secure ego, you won't choose to work through the accumulated tension and painful memories in your body. And without maintaining an energetically flowing and feeling body, you won't have an easy time directly and continually experiencing the spiritual fabric of the universe. Stated differently, this book illustrates how participating in a sequence of mind/body/spirit modalities can transform childhood traumas into unique opportunities for awakening to your soul's purpose and then living your soul's purpose--which thereby sets you free. The Courageous Mosaic, however, also recognizes how the systems in society play a major role in either expanding or obstructing human consciousness. This book thus considers how organizations and institutions (including public schools, religious organizations, health-care organizations, governments, and workplaces) can be--must be--redesigned for conscious living. If this mission can be achieved, many more people (and not just a privileged few) will be able to achieve a higher level of human consciousness. Indeed, as Kilmann convincingly demonstrates, it's only by expanding consciousness in people--and their organizations--that humankind can wake up and stop war, violence, hatred, poverty, hunger, disease, hopelessness, and the destruction of our planet.

Organizational influence is a two-way exchange: Organizations cannot accomplish their goals if they cannot influence their members to do the right things. And the members, of course, cannot do the right things-and satisfy their needs-if they can't influence what goes on in their organizations. This survey enables members to assess four key aspects of their organization that they may need to influence less or more than they do now: (1) formal systems inside each work unit, (2) formal systems outside each work unit, (3) informal systems inside each work unit, and (4) informal systems outside each work unit. After taking and self-scoring this survey (about 30 minutes), work groups can decide how changing the balance of influence among these four domains will improve both their performance and job satisfaction.

Knowing the specific areas in which time is being diverted from fully contributing to the organization's goals (either as individuals or in work units), members can focus their attention on how time can be reallocated-from spending the wrong time on the wrong tasks or the wrong time on the right tasks to the right time on the right tasks. After taking and self-scoring the survey (about 20 minutes), members can decide how to shift the time they spend in addressing these key areas of their organization: (1) culture, (2) skills, (3) teams, (4) strategy-structures, and (5) reward systems. By Identifying their largest time-gaps and then using the five steps of problem management (sensing problems, defining problems, deriving solutions, implementing solutions, and evaluating outcomes) to close those gaps, members and their work units can fully contribute their time, wisdom, and energy to achieving their organization's goals.

The Courage Assessment takes only twenty minutes to complete and another fifteen minutes to graph the Courage Profile of a work group of five to fifteen members. Additional pages are provided for graphing Courage Profiles for whole departments and the entire organization. Next, the members of each work group can begin discussing the many implications of having been assessed as one of four types of organization: courageous, quantum, fearful, or bureaucratic organization. Two action recommendations can be offered that derive from the results of the Organizational Courage Assessment: First, an organization that is assessed as bureaucratic can become a quantum organization-applying the available programs and processes of organizational transformation. Thereby, members will be empowered to act on their internalized sense of what is in the best interests of the organization. If an organizational transformation is just not feasible, however, then the members in either a bureaucratic or fearful organization will have to become more courageous: to do what is needed for long-term success despite the risks of receiving negative consequences for challenging traditional practices, confronting their managers and co-workers, and ignoring official policies and procedures. Without performing the necessary acts of courage in a fearful organization (or in a bureaucratic organization), and thus without a personal transformation of the members, the danger arises of organizational members living with fear or, worse yet, giving up all hope for the future.

Based on Kilmanns Team-Gap Survey, these work sheets help members identify the largest gaps in their work group, regarding their actual versus desired behavior in four key areas: cultural norms, people management, problem management, and time management. Once the largest team-gaps have been identified, group members use the five steps of problem management (sensing problems, defining problems, deriving solutions, implementing solutions, and evaluating outcomes) to close these troublesome gaps. Members are also asked to design and use an informal sanctioning system in order to help one another switch from their old behavior patterns to more desirable ones. After a little time (a few weeks to a few months), members can retake Kilmanns Team-Gap Survey and then use the additional work sheets to identify and close their most stubborn team-gaps.

Based on the Kilmann-Saxton Culture-Gap(r) Survey, these work sheets help participants develop unique lists of their most dysfunctional actual norms (the unwritten rules of the game) and then establish more desired norms (the new rules that will enhance both performance and satisfaction). Once these culture-gaps have been identified, additional work sheets help participants to use the five steps of problem management (sensing problems, defining problems, deriving solutions, implementing solutions, and evaluating outcomes) to close their largest culture-gaps. Participants are also asked to design and use an informal sanctioning system in order to help one another switch from the old norms to the new one

The members in any work group have a great deal of knowledge and experience. But the bottom-line question is: Will all this available talent in the group be used to manage business, technical, and organizational problems or will the expertise and information be wasted? This survey allows your work group to identify what might be getting in the way of its daily functioning in four key areas: cultural norms, people management, problem management, and time management. By taking and self-scoring this survey (about 30 minutes), members will be in the best position to improve their work group, department, and whole organization.

The Kilmann-Saxton Culture-Gap Survey is a self-report assessment that takes only fifteen minutes to complete and another ten minutes to graph the Culture-Gap Profile of a work group of five to fifteen members This profile pinoints the difference between actual and desired cultural norms. Additional Culture-Gap Profiles can be calculated for larger work units, including the entire organization. Following completion of these graphs, the members of one or more work groups can begin discussing how to close the largest Culture-Gaps that were identified in four areas: Task Support, Task Innovation, Social Relationships, and Personal Freedom. Previously, unconscious, unstated "rules of the game" (actual norms) often undermined everyone's best efforts and intentions. Once the these culture-gaps have been closed (or at least brought within an acceptable threshold), members can effectively proceed with other change initiatives and improvement programs.

The necessary non-quick fix for creating and maintaining organizational success. A reprint.

"Brings together leading authorities' major approaches to understanding, managing, and changing organizational cultures. Presents methods for identifying cultural norms, strengthening positive aspects of existing cultures, and building new cultures to support organizational goals and strategies."--Sloan Management Review