Review of If Your Water Cooler Could Talk
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[Following is a volunteer review of "If Your Water Cooler Could Talk" by Dr. Jim Bohn.]
If Your Water Cooler Could Talk: Organizational Engagement: Getting Beyond Employee Engagement, by Dr.Jim Bohn is a business development book that rethinks organizational development methods. There are three unique water coolers in my view. The first holds a precise argument for change. The second offers an analysis of improved engagement practices, and the third outlines actions that can give any business a start-up, a head start, and steadfast resilience.
The first cooler tackles one truth. It is difficult to prove that "no one is as smart as all of us" in any organization. Taking this as a fact requires an open recognition of the whole organization in moments of routine triumph (ROI, productivity, savings, growth, innovation, leverage). Dr.Bohn outlines this list of wins to prove shared action leads to provable results. But then, he turns to your genuine concern that you - the leader or ordinary worker could be doing it all wrong. What if the cooler knows more than you? He gives you the Bohn Organization Engagement Scale (BOES). Regardless of a person's position in a business, he argues everyone can find ways to lead as a "me" and a "we" in their organization. He then puts his work as a specialist to the test. He finds that using "worker engagement" to know more about their experience has become dissatisfying, an organizational obsession, and one-sided. He runs through the top-selling literature on the subject as proof and leaves you to your own decision. Finally, he forces the reader to say, so now what? Companies need to grow, transform, innovate and lead. They cannot afford to get sick. If so, how do you know?
Perhaps every reader attracted to this book has known in their gut that if the company they own or work for is in trouble, they feel unwell. Bohn's use of this as a metaphor is beneficial and the steps recommended are helpful for a successful open diagnosis from the top-down and the bottom up. Is it possible for the whole company to call in sick? Depression, anxiety, anorexia, and attention deficits can all be placed on the company spectrum. The answer is yes, make a diagnosis as soon as possible, even if it's the sniffles. He then goes straight to the what to do. First, implement methods that exhibit the organization's whole experience. To do this, he offers tools to examine six vital behaviors.
Bohn's analysis observes Organizational Engagement (OE) as the preferred alternative. Although companies gather employee experience and engagement data, it does not produce transformational changes. Enter the second water cooler. It holds the psychological content of the company. He stops his cookbook argument and gives you a playbook. Bohn's BOES – is a thirty-item scale for analyzing the behavioral top-six: mission, cohesion, communication, conviction, commitment, and consequences. He asks you to develop a thirst for these six items by answering 1 to 10 scale questions. The narrative eases you past the dreaded "5" with plain talk about human interpersonal relationships and the barriers to the top six that can stop a business. He then presents data, stuff he knows by drawing on decades of experience with his clients, his doctorate on the subject, and colleagues he finds brilliant in this field. The first-person narratives are stiff but make the point. The 30-items are there but not listed.
Bohn reduces the academic jargon of cognitive science with a list of characteristics that hinder the organization's mission. The transformational power of a focused business can continuously reveal itself as a whole despite resistance. His descriptions of these intangibles of dynamic social environments are helpful. It is challenging to read through them all, but you have a playbook to take to the third cooler. Think of it as one filled with an energy drink for action and, best of all, a case study of BOES in action. Your personal 1 to 10 answers to his questions will move you through the last three chapters for relevance to you in a tightened-up version of everything he covered; even diving into extensive appendixes and a list of references could be worth your while. This book is mildly repetitive but to a purpose. It earns four out of four stars for every leader seeking Organizational Engagement as a venture in business growth.
******
If Your Water Cooler Could Talk
View: on Bookshelves |
If Your Water Cooler Could Talk: Organizational Engagement: Getting Beyond Employee Engagement, by Dr.Jim Bohn is a business development book that rethinks organizational development methods. There are three unique water coolers in my view. The first holds a precise argument for change. The second offers an analysis of improved engagement practices, and the third outlines actions that can give any business a start-up, a head start, and steadfast resilience.
The first cooler tackles one truth. It is difficult to prove that "no one is as smart as all of us" in any organization. Taking this as a fact requires an open recognition of the whole organization in moments of routine triumph (ROI, productivity, savings, growth, innovation, leverage). Dr.Bohn outlines this list of wins to prove shared action leads to provable results. But then, he turns to your genuine concern that you - the leader or ordinary worker could be doing it all wrong. What if the cooler knows more than you? He gives you the Bohn Organization Engagement Scale (BOES). Regardless of a person's position in a business, he argues everyone can find ways to lead as a "me" and a "we" in their organization. He then puts his work as a specialist to the test. He finds that using "worker engagement" to know more about their experience has become dissatisfying, an organizational obsession, and one-sided. He runs through the top-selling literature on the subject as proof and leaves you to your own decision. Finally, he forces the reader to say, so now what? Companies need to grow, transform, innovate and lead. They cannot afford to get sick. If so, how do you know?
Perhaps every reader attracted to this book has known in their gut that if the company they own or work for is in trouble, they feel unwell. Bohn's use of this as a metaphor is beneficial and the steps recommended are helpful for a successful open diagnosis from the top-down and the bottom up. Is it possible for the whole company to call in sick? Depression, anxiety, anorexia, and attention deficits can all be placed on the company spectrum. The answer is yes, make a diagnosis as soon as possible, even if it's the sniffles. He then goes straight to the what to do. First, implement methods that exhibit the organization's whole experience. To do this, he offers tools to examine six vital behaviors.
Bohn's analysis observes Organizational Engagement (OE) as the preferred alternative. Although companies gather employee experience and engagement data, it does not produce transformational changes. Enter the second water cooler. It holds the psychological content of the company. He stops his cookbook argument and gives you a playbook. Bohn's BOES – is a thirty-item scale for analyzing the behavioral top-six: mission, cohesion, communication, conviction, commitment, and consequences. He asks you to develop a thirst for these six items by answering 1 to 10 scale questions. The narrative eases you past the dreaded "5" with plain talk about human interpersonal relationships and the barriers to the top six that can stop a business. He then presents data, stuff he knows by drawing on decades of experience with his clients, his doctorate on the subject, and colleagues he finds brilliant in this field. The first-person narratives are stiff but make the point. The 30-items are there but not listed.
Bohn reduces the academic jargon of cognitive science with a list of characteristics that hinder the organization's mission. The transformational power of a focused business can continuously reveal itself as a whole despite resistance. His descriptions of these intangibles of dynamic social environments are helpful. It is challenging to read through them all, but you have a playbook to take to the third cooler. Think of it as one filled with an energy drink for action and, best of all, a case study of BOES in action. Your personal 1 to 10 answers to his questions will move you through the last three chapters for relevance to you in a tightened-up version of everything he covered; even diving into extensive appendixes and a list of references could be worth your while. This book is mildly repetitive but to a purpose. It earns four out of four stars for every leader seeking Organizational Engagement as a venture in business growth.
******
If Your Water Cooler Could Talk
View: on Bookshelves |
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