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The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities

The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities

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The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities

 
 
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Description

"Haudan's approach helps organizations bring strategies to life by engaging the hearts and minds of their people.”
-Marcus Buckingham, bestselling author of Go Put Your Strengths to Work

Almost any business leader will admit that creating a strategy is far easier than executing it. That's because the majority of organizations don't know how to bridge the canyons that exist between executives, managers, and front-line employees. Most strategic initiatives fail when a company tries to execute strategy despite its people rather than through them.

As CEO of consultancy Root Learning, Jim Haudan has more than twenty years experience helping businesses bridge these canyons and achieve their strategic goals. Here, he shares his secrets for driving this strategic execution. Refreshingly accessible, this important book presents executives, managers, and team leaders with a proven, effective way to communicate, empower, and motivate employees at every level of an organization.

Through stories, illustrations, and insightful observations Haudan explores the concept of engagement in business--from the “roots of engagement” to the six reasons why so many workers rank themselves as disengaged to the keys to unlocking engagement in any organization. He also includes a framework for implementing the process of strategically engaging employees as well as a self-assessment for checking your own company's level of strategic engagement.

The Art of Engagement equips you with a range of tools--sketches, illustrations, and highly visual “learning maps”--to help employees speak the same language, see from the same point of view, and connect their individual actions to the success of the whole company. Included are:

  • Engaging visual learning tools designed to help you communicate more effectively with your workforce
  • Proven methods for successfully engaging employees at every level of an organization
  • Real-world case studies of such organizations as Harley-Davidson, Pepsi Cola, and Blockbuster

A strategy may look perfect on paper, but it's worthless if leaders forget that human beings have to implement it. The Art of Engagement arms you with the knowledge and the know-how to engage your employees and drive effective strategic execution.


Product Details
Author:Jim Haudan
Hardcover:288 pages
Publisher:McGraw-Hill
Publication Date:July 30, 2008
Language:English
ISBN:0071544852
Product Length:9.24 inches
Product Width:6.36 inches
Product Height:1.0 inches
Product Weight:1.24 pounds
Package Length:9.1 inches
Package Width:5.9 inches
Package Height:1.0 inches
Package Weight:0.95 pounds
Average Customer Rating: based on 8 reviews

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:5.0 ( 8 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:


5A How-To Book for Human Capital  Aug 30, 2008 By Jon P. Tveten
Human capital is a concept that has been evolving to explain a major portion of the intangibles underlying market valuation of a company. Jim Haudan is providing the key to leveraging human capital. Investment of financial capital is routinely justified by monitoring the return on investment. Investment of scarce resources in human capital can deliver outsized returns, as Haudan clearly illustrates.

There is a difference in performance between a company whose employees routinely deliver discretionary effort and a company whose employees are marking time until the end of the work day, work week, or retirement. The contrasting depiction of engagement and disengagement in this book shows the path to energizing employees, who then deliver results.

The Art of Engagement offers an abundance of wisdom in how any organization can benefit from the hearts and minds of its membership. These incredible resources are all too often wasted, but the chances of that will be far less for those business leaders who embrace Haudan's lessons of engagement.

5 of 5 found the following review helpful:


5An Excellent Field Guide to Strategy Execution  Aug 25, 2008 By Arden Brion
For executives searching for innovative ways to execute strategy effectively, Jim Haudan's "The Art of Engagement" is an excellent field guide for that journey. Many will want to keep it as a deskbook, especially for those dark days when strategy stalls, or never gets off the ground.

Haudan offers a refreshingly practical approach to executing strategy by engaging people to think and act much differently about strategy. It is about how to use strategic conversations and visualization of systems to accelerate strategy execution through people. Haudan's company, Root Learning, connects diverse group of people to complex messages through creative engagement methodologies that generate ownership of those messages. In short, Root Learning helps people "get" strategy and want to particpate in implementing it.

Loaded with innovative ideas and lessons learned from Haudan's 20 years of helping executives in some of the world's largest companies bring their strategies to life, the book also offers readers an opportunity to test some of Haudan's proven methods through free downloads of strategic learning applications discussed in the book.

Here is a caveat: Don't buy this book if you think you can execute strategy despite your people, and not through them. Quite frankly, it will waste your time.

But if you want to learn about proven methods to engage the hearts and minds of your leaders, managers and front line to execute a shared mental model of strategy, then grab a bunch of copies for your team and test the concepts.

4 of 4 found the following review helpful:


5Taping into The Human Spirit  Aug 27, 2008 By Bill Achenbach
One of the most daunting accomplishments to which any one organization can aspire is breaking the code on how to create an environment where employees enthusiastically not only pour their minds and bodies into their work but also their heart and spirit as well.

Providing employees the opportunity to understand and influence their work and how they contribute to achieving the overall mission of the organization is highest form of recognition any company can give.

The Art of Engagement provides a terrific framework to begin thinking and acting on those participative management practices that if done well can elevate an organization to a whole new level of performance.

I recommend Jim Hauden's book to any entity who truly believes the people within their organization deserve the opportunity to understand and feel inspired about their job and the organization for which they work.

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:


5An Overlooked Skillset for Leaders  Oct 22, 2008 By T. Mueller
This is one of the better leadership/management books I have come across in the last few years. The best high school, college, and pro coaches are those that are able to help players visualize success and winning- while fully engaging their hearts. Many leaders today are skilled at strategy development and planning, but if they are not capable of facilitating the right dialogue, creating accountability, and executing their plans, they will never reach their goals.

Jim Haudan and the folks at Root Learning have provided great insight into the skills and tools needed to help leaders understand the importance of "the common line of site," and how to create the critical conversations and visual images that lead to results.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:


5Inventive program for engaging your employees  Jun 01, 2009 By Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract"
Organizational leaders spend considerable time and effort carefully developing strategies to advance their corporate goals. However, they often fail to communicate these strategies compellingly to their employees - the people who must execute every step. Therefore, it is no surprise that most such strategies fail. Management consultant Jim Haudan recommends a strategy-sharing approach using visuals, metaphors and stories to engage employees. He offers tactics for getting them on board to execute your strategy and organizational directives. One negative: Many of the illustrations (reductions from original table-size artwork) are busy and even fuzzy. Some feature tiny text, which illustrates - in the breech - Haudan's point about using clear visuals to communicate and engage. Otherwise the book is superior, very insightful and nicely written. Haudan uses case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of his employee engagement process. getAbstract believes leaders can benefit from learning his tactics for communicating strategies so employees understand them, support them and actually implement them.

See all 8 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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