How to Make Collaboration Work - Powerful Ways to Build Consensus, Solve Problems, and Make Decisions

Informationen zum Autor David Straus founded Interaction Associates in 1969. Over the years, he has served in every major leadership position in the company, including president, CEO, and chairman of the board. Under his guidance, Interaction Associates has become a recognized leader in organizational development, group process facilitation, training, and consulting. Mr. Straus guided the development of Interaction Associates’ consulting practice and training programs. He was also responsible for major change efforts in a variety of organizations, including the health care and service industries. He has worked with social action partnerships in Newark, New Jersey, and Palm Beach County, Florida, as well. Mr. Straus earned a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. With grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Carnegie Corporation, he conducted re- search in creativity and developed training programs in problem solving. Mr. Straus also coauthored the bestseller How to Make Meetings Work (Jove Books, 1976). David Straus lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Patricia. They have two daughters, Sara Landis and Rebecca Straus. Klappentext Every day we work with others to solve problems and make decisions, but the experience is often stressful, frustrating, and inefficient. In How to Make Collaboration Work, David Straus, a pioneer in the field of group problem solving, introduces five principles of collaboration that have been proven successful time and again in nearly every conceivable setting.Straus draws on his thirty years of personal and professional experience to show how these principles have been applied by organizations as diverse as Ford Motor Company, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston Public Schools, Kaiser Permanente, the city of Denver, and many others.How to Make Collaboration Work shows how collaboration can become a joy rather than a chore-a kind of chemical reaction that releases far more energy than it consumes.The Power of Collaborative Action People in nearly every occupation and every walk of life have to work and make decisions collaboratively. Collaboration is required at every level of every organization—be it a corporation, small business, nonprofit organization, educational institution, government agency, or legislative body. And collaboration takes place not only within these organizations, but also between and among them. Collaborative action is required, for example, when: a senior management team needs to figure out how to cut expenses by 15 percent; an organization wants to define its purpose and vision, or develop a strategic plan; a team in an advertising agency needs to design a new ad campaign; administrative staffers have to make logistical arrangements for an important company retreat; a group of teachers must jointly develop a new curriculum; nonprofit advocacy groups want to form a coalition to lobby for a particular issue;2 a number of social service agencies must determine how to coordinate their services; a government agency needs to update its policy for regulating a toxic pollutant; or a couple decides they want to build a new house. The list could go on and on. These and so many other activities require collaboration. They require people to work together to plan, solve problems, and/or make decisions before action can be taken. You undoubtedly collaborate all the time—primarily at work, but also at home, in your volunteer activities, at your child’s school. You may not think of what you are doing as collaboration, but if you have to get the support and agreement of others before you can take action of some kind, then you are collaborating. Even in those cases in which you supposedly have the power to act unilaterally—in w...

Product details

• Authors: David Straus
• Publisher: Berrett Koehler Publishers
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 02.09.2002
• EAN: 9781576751282
• ISBN: 978-1-57675-128-2
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 216 mm x 20 mm
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Management; Management, Konflikt, Arbeitspsychologie