"Action inquiry" is a fresh approach to learning leadership in the midst of action. This highly accessible process takes each of us beyond muddling through daily dilemmas to exercising transforming power at key moments and more timely action in general. Bill Torbert and Associates lead you through more and more sophisticated "action-logics"--strategies for analyzing the world and reacting to it--until you are able to practice action inquiry continually. Speaking to everyone from new managers to CEOs to world leaders, real-life stories of leadership and organizational transformations show how action inquiry increases personal integrity, relational mutuality, company profitability, and long-term organizational and environmental sustainability.
Action Inquiry - The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership
Description
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Promise and the Power of Action Inquiry
PART ONE Learning Action Inquiry Leadership Skills
1 Fundamentals of Action Inquiry
2 Action Inquiry as a Manner of Speaking
3 Action Inquiry as a Way of Organizing
INTERLUDE Action Inquiry: The Idea and the Experience
PART TWO Transforming Leadership
4 The Opportunist and the Diplomat: Action-logics you probably resort to, but don’t want to be circumscribed by
5 The Expert and the Achiever: The most common managerial action-logics
6 The Individualist Action-Logic: Bridge to transforming leadership
7 The Strategist Action-Logic: Developing transforming power
PART THREE Transforming Organizations
8 Transforming Meetings, Teams, and Organizations
9 Facilitating Organizational Transformations
10 The Social Network Organization and Transformation Toward Collaborative Inquiry
11 The Quintessence of Collaborative Inquiry
PART FOUR The Ultimate Spiritual and Societal Intent of Action Inquiry
12 The Fresh Action Awareness of Alchemists
13 Creating Foundational Communities of Inquiry
Appendix: Concluding Scientific Postscript on Methods of Inquiry
Bibliography
Index
Author Description
Bill Torbert is professor of management at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, former graduate dean and director of the Ph.D. Program in organizational transformation and a consultant to such organizations as Gillette, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers, Volvo, Lego, Pilgrim Health Care, Danforth Foundation, and the National Security Agency, He is the author of numerous books, including Learning from Experience and Managing the Corporate Dream.
Dalmar Fisher teaches organizational communication, interpersonal effectiveness, and teambuilding at Boston College. His research and writing is aimed at improving managers' interpersonal skills. Books he has authored and coauthored include Communication in Organizations, Autonomy in Organizational Life, and Personal and Organizational Transformations through Action Inquiry. He has long enjoyed running, from the 400-meter race at Northwestern to marathons with the 60+ age group to more leisurely jogging in recent years. After both running at and graduating from Northwestern, he received an MBA from Boston College and a DBA from Harvard Business School. His wife of 33 years is Laura; children are Deirdre, Nathaniel, and Naomi; and grandchildren are Sarah, Caitlin, and Ocean.