Book Review - The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable by Robert H. Thompson
Category Book Review Robert H. Thompson The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable
There's obviously no dearth of books on leadership methodologies. But there are fewer books that take a program and package it such that you see yourself in it. Robert H. Thompson makes that jump in The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. He uses the storytelling method to take you through a philosophy in a way that makes application so much easier, because you've "seen" it work.
Contents:
Part 1 - Arrivals: The Revolution Begins; I'm Perfect, You're Perfect; The Lone Stranger; The Games Begin
Part 2 - Connections: Yoda Is My Gardener; Light My Fire; Suck or Succeed; Pyramids Amid Denial
Part 3 - Sessions: It's No Secret; A Grenade for Your Thoughts; The Perfect Fall; Practice Makes Perfect; Burn Baby Burn; To Dream, Perhaps; Our Never-Ending Story; A Rope, A Hope; Fire Away!; The Brainstory; Embrace the Struggle; What's Real Matters!
Part 4 - Separate Ways: Success Is Assured; The Perfect Choice
Acknowledgments (Gratitude); The Author
The material from this book is based on The Leadership Challenge, so if you've read that book first you'll recognize the principles. Thompson takes the five practices from The Leadership Challenge and weaves them into a story that brings it all to life: Model The Way; Inspire A Shared Vision; Challenge The Process; Enable Others To Act; and Encourage The Heart. In his fable, two drug companies are coming together to form some partnerships. As with most situations similiar to this, there are culture clashes, egos, vested interests, and all the other baggage that gets picked up and displayed. The head team decides to have an offsite retreat at a hotel in Arizona in order to teach the Leadership Challenge principles to all the players, in hopes that the partnership will get off on the right foot. You hear the challenges and problems from the perspective of the facilitators, the executives sponsoring the meeting, a few managers who want nothing to do with all this "group hug" stuff, and the people who are tasked with actually doing the work. Along the way, people change, beliefs are examined and challenged, and hidden leadership capabilities start to emerge that had been buried in the frantic day-to-day pressures of keeping up with work.
Aside from being a well-written story, Thompson's style is far more effective than most leadership books. What works on paper doesn't always translate well to practice. Granted, when you write a fable, you can have it turn out however you want, and there's no guarantee that your particular situation will mirror the one in the book (both pre- and post-offsite). But still, all the typical personalities you find in a company are here, and you get a chance to experience the obstacles as well as the victories.
If you're not using any leadership framework, you could start here with a solid chance of success. And if you're already using some framework, reading The Offsite might help you to tweak some behaviors to be even more effective.
There's obviously no dearth of books on leadership methodologies. But there are fewer books that take a program and package it such that you see yourself in it. Robert H. Thompson makes that jump in The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable. He uses the storytelling method to take you through a philosophy in a way that makes application so much easier, because you've "seen" it work.
Contents:
Part 1 - Arrivals: The Revolution Begins; I'm Perfect, You're Perfect; The Lone Stranger; The Games Begin
Part 2 - Connections: Yoda Is My Gardener; Light My Fire; Suck or Succeed; Pyramids Amid Denial
Part 3 - Sessions: It's No Secret; A Grenade for Your Thoughts; The Perfect Fall; Practice Makes Perfect; Burn Baby Burn; To Dream, Perhaps; Our Never-Ending Story; A Rope, A Hope; Fire Away!; The Brainstory; Embrace the Struggle; What's Real Matters!
Part 4 - Separate Ways: Success Is Assured; The Perfect Choice
Acknowledgments (Gratitude); The Author
The material from this book is based on The Leadership Challenge, so if you've read that book first you'll recognize the principles. Thompson takes the five practices from The Leadership Challenge and weaves them into a story that brings it all to life: Model The Way; Inspire A Shared Vision; Challenge The Process; Enable Others To Act; and Encourage The Heart. In his fable, two drug companies are coming together to form some partnerships. As with most situations similiar to this, there are culture clashes, egos, vested interests, and all the other baggage that gets picked up and displayed. The head team decides to have an offsite retreat at a hotel in Arizona in order to teach the Leadership Challenge principles to all the players, in hopes that the partnership will get off on the right foot. You hear the challenges and problems from the perspective of the facilitators, the executives sponsoring the meeting, a few managers who want nothing to do with all this "group hug" stuff, and the people who are tasked with actually doing the work. Along the way, people change, beliefs are examined and challenged, and hidden leadership capabilities start to emerge that had been buried in the frantic day-to-day pressures of keeping up with work.
Aside from being a well-written story, Thompson's style is far more effective than most leadership books. What works on paper doesn't always translate well to practice. Granted, when you write a fable, you can have it turn out however you want, and there's no guarantee that your particular situation will mirror the one in the book (both pre- and post-offsite). But still, all the typical personalities you find in a company are here, and you get a chance to experience the obstacles as well as the victories.
If you're not using any leadership framework, you could start here with a solid chance of success. And if you're already using some framework, reading The Offsite might help you to tweak some behaviors to be even more effective.
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