Journal: 21st Century Management–New Rules

5 Star, Best Practices in Management, Leadership
Steve Denning

The biggest difference between 20th and 21st Century Management

Management in the 20th Century was about achieving a finite goal: delivering goods and services, to make money.

Management in the 21st Century is about the infinite goal of delighting customers; the firm makes money, yes, but as a consequence of the delight that it creates for customers, not as the goal.

Amazon Page

. . . . . .

UTTERLY BRILLIANT STUFF HERE

. . . . . . .

A radical new management model for twenty-first century leaders

Organizations today face a crisis. The crisis is of long standing and its signs are widespread. Most proposals for improving management address one element of the crisis at the expense of the others. The principles described by award-winning author Stephen Denning simultaneously inspire high productivity, continuous innovation, deep job satisfaction and client delight. Denning puts forward a fundamentally different approach to management, with seven inter-locking principles of continuous innovation: focusing the entire organization on delighting clients; working in self-organizing teams; operating in client-driven iterations; delivering value to clients with each iteration; fostering radical transparency; nurturing continuous self-improvement and communicating interactively. In sum, the principles comprise a new mental model of management.

  • Author outlines the basic seven principles of continuous innovation
  • The book describes more than seventy supporting practices
  • Denning offers a rethinking of management from first principles

Review: Whose Water Is It?–The Unquenchable Thirst of a Water-Hungry World

5 Star, Complexity & Catastrophe, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Intelligence (Public), True Cost & Toxicity, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Core selection, not a substitute for the master works

August 28, 2010

Bernadette McDonald and Douglas Jehl (editors)

Published by the National Geographic in 2003, this is an edited work with several but not all of the greats brought together. The short pieces are a fine collage for undergraduate reading and discussion but the book does not make the jump to graduate-level thinking. I place it behind Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource published in 2001 and Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water, while also recommending The Atlas of Water, Second Edition: Mapping the World's Most Critical Resource and Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water as well as Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. I have written summary reviews on all of them.

The book sets out to address (in a general but most informed way) the areas of water ownership, water scarcity, water conflict, and water prospects. Below I identify the author of the individual section, and then highlights that I retained from that section.
Continue reading “Review: Whose Water Is It?–The Unquenchable Thirst of a Water-Hungry World”

Review: Water–The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Change & Innovation, Complexity & Catastrophe, Complexity & Resilience, Culture, Research, Economics, Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Future, History, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Survival & Sustainment, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars In a class by itself, more to be done

August 29, 2010

Steven Solomon

This book is in a class by itself, and for the US audience, I would recommend The Atlas of Water, Second Edition: Mapping the World's Most Critical Resource, this book, and Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping And The Fate Of America's Fresh Waters or the more recent Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It as well as When the Rivers Run Dry: Water–The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century and The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink.

For the international audience, this book is a very fine complement–despite lacking visualization and a more interesting lay-out on both water technologies over time and the environmental challenges they generated (with what time lags)–to the top world view books. If you buy only one, Marq de Villier Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource is still the very best single book, followed by Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water now also a DVD Blue Gold: World Water Wars, and the original short book Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit. There are others, you can find my reviews of all water books I have touched at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog, under Reviews/Water (middle column far down). All my reviews there lead back to the Amazon page of the respective book.

Continue reading “Review: Water–The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization”

Review: Unquenchable–America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It

5 Star, Complexity & Catastrophe, Culture, Research, Education (General), Education (Universities), Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Intelligence (Public), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Politics, Priorities, Survival & Sustainment, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Real book, real facts, desperately needs visualization

August 29, 2010

Robert Glennon

I was torn between a four and a five and came down on the side of five because this is a real book with real facts and real interviews and it covers a vital topic very ably. I was tempted to drop to a four for two reasons: this book desperately lacks visualization, something publishers are going to have to learn to integrate if they want to survive (see the TED Briefing “Data is the New Dirt” by David McCandless); and because this book is part of a twelve-book read and review series started for UNESCO, I don't see all the solutions well represented at the end–the book ends weakly. Still, it is a vitally serious, desperately serious book, a sequel to the author's Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping And The Fate Of America's Fresh Waters, and should be read with When the Rivers Run Dry: Water–The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-first Century and The Blue Death: Disease, Disaster, and the Water We Drink.

Continue reading “Review: Unquenchable–America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It”

Review: The Blue Covenant–The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Complexity & Catastrophe, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Disease & Health, Economics, Education (General), Education (Universities), Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Intelligence (Public), Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Survival & Sustainment, United Nations & NGOs, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Overview and Update As of 2007

August 27, 2010

Maude Barlow

I now realize that this book is a sequel to Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water and I will read and review that book next.

First off, am really starting to pay attention to Right Livelihood, the Alternative Nobel that seems to avoid really big mistakes that have characterized the Nobel Peace Prize in recent decades (Kissinger to Obama). I first learned of this award when Herman Daly, conceptualizer of Ecological Economics, spoke at one of my conferences, and now I am going to look into this and post a listing of recipients at Phi Beta Iota, where all my reviews can be easily exploited across 98 distinct categories, something not possible here at Amazon.

Up front I will still say that Marq de Villier's Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource is the best book around, along with the The Water Atlas: A Unique Visual Analysis of the World's Most Critical Resource.

This book joins with Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit and its own prequel Blue Gold (now also coming out as a new DVD Blue Gold, along with another DVD, For Love of Water not found, author may have meant instead Flow How did a handful of corporations steal our water) to make the case for water as a human right. The book ends with a Blue Covenent in three parts.

Two points in this book hit me hard:

Continue reading “Review: The Blue Covenant–The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water”

Review: Water Wars–Privatization, Pollution, and Profit

5 Star, Capitalism (Good & Bad), Civil Society, Complexity & Catastrophe, Consciousness & Social IQ, Corruption, Crime (Corporate), Crime (Government), Culture, Research, Economics, Education (General), Environment (Problems), Environment (Solutions), Insurgency & Revolution, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Philosophy, Politics, Power (Pathologies & Utilization), Survival & Sustainment, Voices Lost (Indigenous, Gender, Poor, Marginalized), Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Original, Grounded, a Foundation Book

August 27, 2010

Vandana Shiva

Published in 2002, this is a foundation book within the twelve books on Water that I am reading, with all reviews both here and at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog where you can easily use Reviews/Water to see all my reviews of books on water.

Right up front the author impresses me with her discussion of the paradigm war–a culture clash–between those who see water as sacred and its provision as a duty for the preservation of water, and those that view water as a commodity and its exploitation for profit as a fundamental corporate right.

Up front she lists and discusses the key lessons she has drawn:

Continue reading “Review: Water Wars–Privatization, Pollution, and Profit”

Review: The World’s Water 2008-2009–The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources

5 Star, Atlases & State of the World, Complexity & Catastrophe, Culture, Research, Disease & Health, Education (General), Education (Universities), History, Nature, Diet, Memetics, Design, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Stabilization & Reconstruction, Survival & Sustainment, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, Water, Energy, Oil, Scarcity
Amazon Page

5.0 out of 5 stars Evolving Series, Multiple Authors, Deep Value

August 26, 2010

Peter Glick, Heather Cooley, Michal J. Cohen, Mari Morikawa, Jason Morrison, and Meena Palaniappan

Although I continue to recommend The Atlas of Water, Second Edition: Mapping the World's Most Critical Resource as the best overall combination of content, visuals, and price, this book is a solid five stars and represents not just the current biennial report, but in the comprehensive index and tables of contents at the back, the volumes that preceded this one.

This is a multi-author work, and whiled Peter Glick is clearly the lead, other authors are Heather Cooley, Michal J. Cohen, Mari Morikawa, Jason Morrison, and Meena Palaniappan. I continue to be annoyed by Amazon's oblviousness to academic standards in relation to properly crediting authors, even when publishers correctly list them.

I am very glad to see that the publisher used Amazon's Look Inside the Book capability and strongly recommend studying the book through that route if you have any doubts. This is a fairly priced master work. It is not for the average reader, for that I continue to hold Marq de Villiers Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource, but any of the following that I have reviewed or will be reviewing in the next few days are world-class:

Continue reading “Review: The World's Water 2008-2009–The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources”