7 Paths of Thriving Organizations
The 7 paths of thriving organizations
When, in desperation and hope, potential clients knock on the door of your nonprofit they are looking for a treasure. The treasure you offer needs to be based on the deepest human values and needs to address both the desperation and hope of those who come to you for help.
Potential staff members who knock on the door are looking for a cause they can believe in and the treasure of a great work place.
2. The humble hierarchy path
Humble hierarchy leaders have little personal ambition, have an unwavering will to help the organization transform the lives of those it serves, and the passion to open space for all to thrive.
Organizations that are shriveling have leaders who use power to benefit themselves but organizations that thrive constantly create decision-making space for the voices and talents of all to produce the treasure.
3. The talent path
Organizations thrive by fitting together the strengths and weaknesses of individuals. Organizations that shrivel focus on fixing people's weaknesses but those that thrive focus on the strengths of people and work around their weaknesses.
4. The ecosystem path
Organizations that build healthy, shifting relationships with their environment thrive. Organizations that shrivel defend their borders against changes in the world but organizations that thrive see external borders as creative points for discovering the healthiest way to shift with reality.
5. The smart and friendly systems path
Organizations thrive or die on the systems they set up to produce the treasure. Organizations shrivel when maintaining this is the way we've always done it but organizations thrive by always looking for ways to make their systems smart and friendly.
6. The wilderness path
All nonprofits start out on the wilderness path. They begin when the founders have an idea of how to meet an existing social need that is not currently being met. The founders take a trip into the wilderness to discover the treasure that emerges when you create an organization that meets a powerful human need. Thriving organizations continue to take long journeys into the unknown as a way to discover new ways to produce their treasure.
7. The rhythm path
Organizations and people thrive on daily and seasonal rhythms. Organizations that shrivel believe that to be productive they must override the natural rhythms of life while thriving organizations believe that to be productive they ride the natural rhythms of stress and recovery.
Thriving nonprofit links
- 7 Paths blog
- What nonprofit leaders, managers and supervisors need to know to help their organization thrive while transforming lives.
- A Brief User's Guide to Open Space Technology
- When Harrison Owen posted this free guide, he launched a movement that uses a smart and friendly systems approach to meetings that aid organizations in dealing with complex issues.
Treasure path books
The Little Book of Circle Processes : A New/Old Approach to Peacemaking (The Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding Series)
Circles are used in various settings to build connection and restore relationship. Thriving nonprofits can use circles for storytelling, team building, and clarifying identity and purpose. In circles, organizations can discover their treasure.
Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 11/09/2009) 
How Full Is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life
Want to give others in your work group the treasure of encouragement and a positive environment? This is your handbook.
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 11/09/2009)
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
Every worker is searching for the treasure of working at a great work place. The Gallup Organization did 20+ years of research and idientified 12 questions that separate great work places from the rest. Workers see the Q12 and they immediately recognize the treasure.
Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 11/09/2009)
Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without
My wife's first job at 14 was in a drive-in restaurant. Her second job was as a clerk in a small town grocery store. She discovered that its more fun to work with friends. Rath starts Vital Friends with two powerful stories from his research among the homeless; one an engineer who began a descent that led to homelessness when his best friend was fired and the other of a young woman who began her journey out of homelessness when she was befriended in a homeless shelter.
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 11/09/2009)
Path, The: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life
It's a treasure when your personal mission fits with the mission of your workplace. Lauries Beth Jones walks you along the path to discovering your personal mission.
Amazon Price: $11.16 (as of 11/09/2009)
Humble heirarchy path books
Leading with a Limp: Take Full Advantage of Your Most Powerful Weakness
Allender is not only a great writer (his two-sentence description of the difference between and manger and leader is the most memorable I've seen) but he's brutally honest about the downside of being a leader.
Amazon Price: $11.19 (as of 11/09/2009)
Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace
The amazing story of Ricardo Semler, a Brazilian businessman, who decided to trust his workers. I read this book in the early 1990's and I was stunned. It's shaped my thinking about leadership ever since.
Amazon Price: $10.19 (as of 11/09/2009)
Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job
Dennis Bakke co-founded AES, a company that decided that workers have great fun when they make decisions. This book is a fascinating account of how they shaped AES in ways that made it possible for all workers to be involved in crucial company decision-making. Talk about humble heirarchy.
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 11/09/2009)
The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works
When I prepared to launch Evergreen Leaders in 2003 I wanted to use Ricardo and Semler as an example. But, I wondered, did Semco survive given Semler's radical ideas about organizations. Semco not only survives but thrives. The Seven Day Weekend continues the story of how Semler and Semco are improving on Semlers radical organizational ideas.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/09/2009)
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness 25th Anniversary Edition
Former AT&T executive Greenleaf was the first person to introduce the concept of servant leaders in 20th century American business thinking. The roots of the humble heirarchy path are in Greenleaf's thinking.
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 11/09/2009)
Talent path books
StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths
This is a great tool for discovering your talents that are in plain sight. You just never noticed them. It also has tips what to do with your talents.
Amazon Price: $13.41 (as of 11/09/2009)
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
In this book the Gallup Organizations has the best definition of talent that I've ever seen: "A recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied."
Amazon Price: $19.80 (as of 11/09/2009)
Rhythm path books
The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr
We are born with rhythms. All too often we think w more...0 points
Take a Nap! Change Your Life. by Sara Mednick
How does your organization deal with Afternoon Att more...0 points
Smart and friendly systems books
The Breakthrough Company: How Everyday Companies Become Extraordinary Performers by Keith R. Mcfarland
McFarland did the same research for small companie more...1 point
A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder--How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place by Eric Abrahamson
Smart and friendly systems make room for a little more...0 points
Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything by Don Tapscott
Read this book with an eye towards how new systems more...0 points
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins
One always has to ask, "Who are the systems s more...0 points
The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption by John Perkins
More stories from economic hitmen and jackals. Als more...0 points
Wilderness path books
Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions
The best introduction to Bowen Family Systems Theory. Gilbert says there are three keys to solid relationships, to balance being separate, equal and open with each other.
Amazon Price: $10.85 (as of 11/09/2009)
It's Not What You Say...It's What You Do: How Following Through At Every Level Can Make Or Break Your Company
Many leaders who have initiated a significant change in an organization has found themselves in a wilderness full of resistance. Every organization has what Haughton call C.A.V.E people, Citizens Against Virtually Everything. Haughton has great ideas about how to build momentum for change in your organization before C.A.V.E people derail it.
Amazon Price: $19.96 (as of 11/09/2009)
Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
The best book I've read that combines deep thinking about organizational change and personal change. Quinn's most memorable phrase: "...walking naked into the night."
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 11/09/2009)
Building the Bridge As You Walk On It: A Guide for Leading Change (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership)
Quinn learned from people who's lives had been transformed by reading his earlier book, Deep Change, and then wrote a follow-up.
Amazon Price: $18.45 (as of 11/09/2009)
Change the World : How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Results
Quinn starts each chapter with quotes from three people who took the wilderness path and transformed kingdoms and countries: Jesus, Ghandi, and Martin Luther King.
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 11/09/2009)
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