Creating Vision & Strategic Direction - Book Report/Review Example

Creating Vision & Strategic Direction. 2 Leading Change Article Plan for Results” Introduction The article “Plan for Results” is compiled byKevin Grossman and Barry Blanton. It essentially demonstrates a strategic planning process which facilitates in controlling the operations of the organizations in the right path. The article provides a realistic procedure depending upon the real life experiences of certain organizational development officials. The chief objective of the article was to communicate the organizational vision to the employees which would assist them to work proactively (Grossman & Blanton, 2012). Critical Summary of the Article The authors essentially hold the view that when an organization grows; it becomes quite complicated to ensure that all the employees are channelizing their endeavors towards a common organizational goal. Furthermore, the authors stated that the time spent on various business activities seemed to increase in case of a reasonable growth in the organization. The authors fundamentally attempted to provide a corrective procedure to control the deviation of the employees from the organizational goals. They aimed to channelize the employees’ work and effort towards the visions and the missions of the organizations. The authors principally addressed the facet of administrative management in the article recommending them (organizations) to undertake certain measures for dealing with the cases of employee deviations (Grossman & Blanton, 2012; Hughes, 1965). The argument put forward by the authors can be considered to be logical. This is because, it can be well understood that as a firm or organization grows, the business operations tend to complicate. Under such circumstances, it might happen that the employees get more concerned about their individual goals rather than the organizational goals. However, it is worth mentioning that the text construction of the article is not properly organized which makes it quite difficult for the reader to have a clear perception regarding it (Hughes, 1965). Furthermore, the facts raised by the authors were not found to be sufficiently accurate and entailed chances to vary according to the organizations and their respective managements. The authors were not likely to provide specific definition about certain terms that they have mentioned in the article. Terms such as “30,000-ft,” “NOI” and “preaching to choir” among others might not be known to common people. This makes it quite difficult for them to have an unambiguous understanding of the article. In addition, the evidences provided by the authors were not likely to be sufficient enough to support their points and arguments effectively. The authors provided an efficient method for dividing the employees according to their posts and responsibilities in order to figure out their deviations. However, the mentioned method might not prove to be efficient enough to prevent the employees from deviating away, which was the chief aim of the authors (Grossman & Blanton, 2012). Conclusion Therefore, it can be concluded that the assumptions of the authors were quite logical and correct in relation to the real life situations. However, they did not present sufficient methods which would prove to be strategically effective for controlling the diversification of employees which was believed to be their chief objective. Article 2: “Leading Workplace Innovation and Change” Introduction The article “Leading Workplace Innovation and Change” is authored by Nick Miller, who focused on explaining the challenges faced by the subordinates while carrying out the tasks assigned to them by their senior officials. The article significantly emphasizes on the training team and provides certain factors which should be taken into consideration by training departments in order to reduce the complexities and accomplish the assigned tasks in a more efficient way (Miller, 2010; Zaccaro & Klimoski, 2001). Critical Summary of the Article In this article, the author essentially elucidates the age old notions of the senior managers towards their sub-ordinates and identifies the possible outcome of such attitudes possessed by the senior employees towards their sub-ordinates. The author in this article aimed at providing a guideline to both the senior officials and their subordinates in order to help them gain a mutual understanding among themselves which is further believed to encourage them for serving the organization in a better way. In his article, the author fundamentally addressed the senior officials as well as the subordinates in general and the training professionals in particular (Miller, 2010). In this article, the author provides various arguments that support the vital point stated in it. For instance, the author pointed out certain statements often made by the senior officials such as “My salespeople can’t lose” and “My sales force can’t negotiate.” These statements describe the attitude of the higher officials towards their subordinates. The author assumes the structure and the culture of the organizations to be the major factor of such problems. Conversely, it has been stated by several experts such as John Kotter in his articles that the changing behaviors of the individuals also act significantly towards the initiation of such kind of difficulties (Miller, 2010). The facts raised by the author seem to be quite rational as the mentioned attitudes of the senior officials seem to prevail in most of the organizations. Furthermore, the presently structured guideline for the training professionals which includes five significant elements that need to be considered are “Clarify the request from the senior team,” “Make vision clear,” “Design the solution; sell it to senior management,” “Work with internal marketing team members or consultants to develop a marketing plan for the change or innovation” and “Help senior leaders to be visible.” These guidelines are supposed to help the training professionals to a great extent and facilitate them to perform more efficiently. However, the facts raised by the author cannot be considered to be accurate for the reason that he did not provide any statistical evidences which would validate his assumptions (Miller, 2010). Conclusion The author in his article provides sufficient arguments which support the fundamental topic of the article efficiently. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that the author presented his views and arguments in an ordered way by defining most of the important terms. This makes it quite easy for the readers to have a clear understanding of the contents of the article. References Grossman, K., & Blanton, B. (2012). Plan for results. Retrieved from http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Plan+for+results%3A+a+case+study+in+strategic+planning+illustrates+a...-a0134389228 Hughes, C. L. (1965). Goal setting: Key to individual and organizational effectiveness. New York: American Management Association. Miller, N. (2010). Leading workplace innovation and change. Retrieved from http://mdc.ltindia.com/librarym/mm_files/Leading%20Workplace%20Innovation%20and%20Change%20BRAVE%20NEW%20ROLE.pdf Zaccaro, S. J., & Klimoski, R. J. (2001). The nature of organizational leadership: Understanding the performance imperatives confronting today's leaders. New York: John Wiley & Sons Read More