Chasing Change - by Bob Thames & Douglas W Webster Hardcover

Book Synopsis

Robust organizational capacity is a company s potential to apply its skills and resources to accomplish goals and exceed stakeholders expectations. This book provides readers with the ability to diagnose both the drivers of change in their organization and the type of change response needed. In addition to the traditional tangible dimension of change, it presents a framework to leverage the cultural and personal dimensions of change to sustain successful change initiatives. As well, it presents an organizational capability self-assessment process to derive the maximum return on change efforts and investments. CEOs and executives will benefit from the ability to link demands for change to organizational capabilities in strategic initiatives.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Chasing Change

Building Organizational Capacity in a Turbulent Environment

"How often do you get an opportunity to absorb what two highly skilled practitioners have learned about successfully executing transformational change? More to the point, how frequently do you have the chance to learn about implementing critical initiatives from people who actually know what they are talking about? If you are a leader facing the challenges of fundamental change, you owe it to yourself to take advantage of what Thames and Webster have shared about their considerable experience in this field. I've been a researcher, practitioner, and author in the field of change management for over thirty-five years. With 'elder' status comes the privilege of declaring when I think someone's work should be distinguished from other worthwhile but less valuable efforts (whether anyone listens to my opinion is another matter altogether). Chasing Change is more than a book I recommend in general; it is one that I will encourage my clients to read."
--Daryl Conner, Chairman, Conner Partnersauthor of Managing at the Speed of Change and Leading at the Edge of Chaos

"Some of the most important research in CAM-I Interest Groups was done in the Change, Adaptation, and Learning Interest Group. The resulting change model and diagnostic assessment in Chasing Change can be a powerful methodology, approach, and tool in the hands of change leaders who want to take their organizations to new competitive levels in leveraging both the hard and soft sides of change."
--Ashok Vadgama, President, CAM-I author of Data?The DNA of Business Intelligence

Review Quotes

"Drawing on their own professional experiences with strategic change they offer a practical text for CEOs, managers and others leading change initiatives. Coverage includes change basics; a framework for understanding how the external and internal environments drive and demand change responses on organizational and individuals levels; an assessment framework for building change capacity, centered on 13 core capabilities that can be evaluated and further developed for greater learning and adaptation to change." (Book News, May 2009)

About the Author

Robert C. THAMES is a Senior Program Manager at SAS Institute with over thirty years of experience in the technology industry, selling, managing, and delivering strategic solutions to customers and clients in the commercial telecommunications, entertain-ment, manufacturing, and retail industries, and the federal public sector. His association with CAM-I spans fourteen years, during which he led the Change, Adaptation, and Learning Interest Group in that organization. His articles have appeared in Strategic Management, Cost Management, SAS, and BetterManagement.com.?

As the former CFO of the Department of Labor, DOUGLAS W. WEBSTER was responsible for upholding strong financial management and accountability while enhancing internal control in an organization of more than 16,000 employees and a budget exceeding $50 billion. Prior to his appointment as the CFO, he served a twenty-one-year career in the U.S. Air Force, was the principal finance advisor to the Iraq Ministry of Transportation under the Coalition Provisional Authority, and served with leading firms providing management-consulting services to over twenty federal agencies.