Some links take reader to www.amazon.com listing for the reference. Links starting with "*" are available as links from this site.
Conner, Daryl, Managing at the Speed of Change. Villard Books, 1992. Excellent review of change principles, particularly commitment and resistance.
* Costanzo, W. V., Six Steps Toward Conflict Resolution, 2007. Based on Ury's steps these provide some techniques similar to Getting to Yes.
* Fast Company, "50
Reasons Why We Can't Change." October 1993. Good for use
in change management meetings.
* Kotter, J., Winning at Change, Leader
to Leader, Fall 1998. Article that
gives his views on change as well as his eight steps.
Price Waterhouse Change Management Team, Better
Change. Irwin Publishers, 1995. Good overview of change management
elements and frameworks. Excellent if you have to help a client team go
through a
change
process.
* Kendall Consulting Group, Change
Management. KCG, 1998-2003. Key change management techniques explored.
Summarized key techniques and frameworks.
* Kendall Consulting Group, Communications
and Change Management. KCG, 1997-2003. Overview of approaches used
by KCG and other consulting firms to reach their target markets.
Kinderman, B. and Walker, N., "The 100 Most Important Things to Know About Your Character," Downloaded July 23, 2006. While the list covers a game character, it is a nicely complete list in terms of what you should know about your clients in internal consulting situations. The list can serve as a checklist for discussion topics for those who need some prodding to get on a personal relationship with their client. Schmooze. (http://www.geocities.com/poetess47/100questions.html)
Harvard Business Review, On Change. Harvard Business School Press, 2002. Contains many key articles about change and change management. Mandatory reading for any consultant trying to help their client through a change process.
Nelson, Bob, 1001 Ways to Reward Employees, Workman Publishing, 1994. Lots of ideas for "currencies" that can be used for exchange in Influence Through Exchange, or to use for bargaining with stakeholders.
* Third Side, 3S Roles Everyone Plays. A quick look at over a dozen roles that consultants may have to play in change management or conflict/negotiation situations.
Arnoudse, D., Ouellette, J., and Whalen, J., Consulting
Skills for Information Professionals. Irwin, 1989. Presents another
approach to skills for information systems staff. Stresses expectations
management. Can
be useful to any internal consulting group. We worked for many years with Don
Arnoudse at CSC/Index.
Block, P., Flawless
Consulting, Pfeiffer & Co., Second Edition, 2000. Excellent overview
on various methods and rules regarding consulting. Considered by many to be
the best book in the field.
*Gardner, John, Self
Renewal. W. W. Norton, 1995. Available in paperback. Gardner headed
McKinsey for years, and also served in many corporate and government posts.
His coaching
about how to renew yourself (and your company) is well written and timeless.
A valuable read from mid-career on. An article on the subject is available
on the web and may be downloaded
here and is noted below in the Self Renewal area.
* Kendall Consulting Group, Skills
and Competencies of Successful Consultants. KCG, 2001-2003. Contains a competency
model useful for skill development and firm development.
Fisher, R. & Ury, W., Getting to Yes. Penguin Books, 1983, 1991. Available in paperback. Negotiation skills are a key consulting skill, and this book walks you through the various approaches. This is useful anywhere in your life!
* Reck, R. and Swanborg, R., Grow Your Own Consultants, CIO Magazine, 1999. Quick guide to creating internal consultants, especially from within the IS organization.
* Reck, R. and Reck, V., Measuring the Success of Internal
Consulting Organizations, 2007. An overview to the measures of success from three viewpoints for internal
consulting groups.
Weiss, Alan, Million
Dollar Consulting. McGraw-Hill, 1992/2002.
* Toolpack Consulting, "An Example of Cultural Change at Chrysler (1994)," 2005.
* Hymowitz, Carol, "New CEOs May Spur Resistance If They Try to Alter Firm's Culture," Wall Street Journal Online, August 1, 2007. Specifically talks about the culture at Chrysler and how the new CEO will be struggling to change it.
* Levine, Stewart, "Is Your Organization a Generative Place to Work?" This short article and questionnaire helps people assess their organizational cultures. Results are graded according to instructions at the end of the article
* Bonner Curriculum, " Facilitation 101: Roles of Effective Facilitators", "Facilitation 201: An Intensive Intro to Techniques," and "Facilitation 202: More Techniques and Strategies" and the companion "Handout." The last site contains many techniques with an emphasis on ice breakers. The latter part of the page discussions the role of facilitation. Also see Bonner's "Building a Personal Network" which contains some relevant ideas and approaches.
Barker, J., Future Edge. William Morrow & Co., 1992. Discusses paradigm shifts from many points of view. Key for a consultant doing strategy or process consulting.
* Chapman, Alan, Business Balls, is a web site that mixes humor and business analysis framework and a few other things too - in a slightly disorganized fashion. Use the scroll bar on the left side of the web page to scroll down through the list of frameworks and other information.
* Gartner G2 Company, Frameworks,
December 2001. Presents brief descriptions of about 15 common business analysis
frameworks.
* Gartner, Gartner
Proprietary Methodologies:
The science behind Gartner Research—Transforming information into insight.
Lays out several frameworks that are a little different from the usual "MBA" kind
of analysis tools.
Hiam, A., The Vest-Pocket CEO. Prentice Hall, 1990. Contains brief outlines of many, many frameworks and describes their application. Also contains many further references for deeper reading.
* Marketing Teacher, SWOT Analysis. A rather complete description of the SWOT analysis tool. Even more frameworks may be found on other pages of the same site by going to the "Lessonstore".
* Quickmba.com on the Internet has a wide variety of frameworks shown and explained, including their use in strategy formulation, execution, marketing, and operations. The site is recommended for a rapid view of contemporary frameworks found in today's MBA programs.
Senge, Peter et. al., The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Currency Doubleday, 1994. Available in paperback. While Senge's main book, the Fifth Discipline can be plodding to read through, this book is loaded with practical examples and learnings about each of his five disciplines which support organizational learning and success. The section on systems thinking is especially thorough and relevant to problem analysis and resolution.
* Shibata, H., Business Thinking Meta Model: Proactive Thinking, Reactive Thinking, and Passive Thinking. Available online. Presents one framework to analyze the applicability of other common business analysis frameworks. Interesting but pedantic.
* Straker, D., Changing Minds.org. This robust web site has over 2,000 pages of frameworks and philosophy directly related to EVERY aspect of consulting. This should be on everyone's "A" list.
Carnegie, Dale, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Read this when I was a kid and the concepts are still appropriate for today's business world. Well worth the read.
Cohen, A. and Bradford, D., Influence Without Authority. John Wiley & Sons, 1991. Available in paperback. In today's business work, you seldom have the authority to force an action. Instead you must base your actions on negotiations and persuasion. This is the book to help you learn how to do that. For consultants, who are often a coaching role, this book can be extremely helpful.
* Excerpt from above in article entitled Influencing Your Boss. Note other relevant articles on this site as well.
* Excerpt from above in article entitled Influencing Your Colleagues.
Ziglar, Zig, Secrets of Closing the Sale, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1982 with reprints. "The" book on sales and influencing people. Worth a read whether you are in a sales job or not.
Bennis, Warren and Goldsmith, Joan, Learning
to Lead. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1994. Available in paperback.
Both authors have published a number of books on the subject of leadership;
all are
excellent. Specific skills and approaches to skill development are discussed
in most books. We've worked with Warren and Joan in the past.
Blanchard, K, et. Al., Leadership
and the One Minute Manager. Blanchard Management Corp., 1985. Presents important
and widely popular leadership framework.
Bradford, D., & Cohen, A., Power
Up. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998. Talks about the new leadership
paradigm, as well as transforming organizations through shared leadership.
Excellent work. Alan Cohen was colleage at Babson College.
Covey, S., Principle-Centered
Leadership. Simon & Shuster, 1991. Available in paperback. Covey also
has a number of other books and tapes in similar subject areas. Packaging and
Presentation Design .
Center for Creative Leadership, “CCL’s e-Newsletter,” Monthly newsletter. Back issues available online. This page is the gateway to a number of online articles.
Greenleaf, Robert et. al., Servant Leadership, Paulist Press, 2002. The concept of servant leadership has been around over twenty-five years, however, it seems to become more relevant each year.
Barker, Joel. A., Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future. Barker was not the first, but he sure popularized the technique and made the word come to life for the corporate world. He has several books on the subject as well as videos, etc.
Wind, Y. and Crook, C., The Power of Impossible Thinking, Wharton School Publishing, 2005. Super book that will expand your thinking and how you see the world. Lots of practical advice for consultants and wannabees. The companion web site has a lot of information as well - http://www.impossiblethinking.com/.
Searls, D., It's The Story Stupid. Aug. 16, 1998. Short essay on presentation development, particularly PowerPoint that puts things in perspective.
Hyatt, M., How to Sell Your Boss, 1994. Some good advice and well packaged too.
• Kendall Consulting Group, Principle Driven Operations: Changing and Clarifying the Basis of Work and Change. KCG, 1998-2003. Discusses creating a set of operating principles that guide decision making in potential problem or issue areas. Proven technique that has consistently worked.
* Article Dashboard, Putting Professionalism Back In Management Consulting. Offers one view and some suggestions about consultant professionalism.
* Bashein, B. and Markus, L., "A Credibility Equation for IT Specialists." This abstract is robust enough to get the thrust of the entire article. Pay attention to the last paragraph for practical suggestions for building credibility.
* Bienvenu, Sharon, "Is Your Image Hindering Your Career Growth," Emory University Web Site. The title says it all and helps promote the concept we espouse of personal brand management.
* Changing Minds.org, Credibility. Brief article worth a read.
*Kellaway, Lucy, "Wanted:Branding Agent," Financial Times, 2007. Article raises some insights into personal branding from a person reluctant to believe personal branding is a necessity.
Kouzes, J. and Posner, B., "Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It," Jossey-Bass, 1993. See the revised edition. Now available in paperback. Although written for managers, most of the lessons inside this book also apply to consultants.
*McKibben, Cody, "Cliff Notes for Brand You50." This is a ten-page document that has a summary of Tom Peter's "Brand You50" book. The notes contain a good and indepth summary of the book.
* Neray, M., Credibility: It's Not What You Think. A short article on the subject.
Peale, N. V., Enthusiasm. TBD, TBD. Available in paperback. This is a book on a subject that directly and positively impacts professionalism, credibility and image; further it dramatically improve your life style. Does have religious overtones that may be offensive to some. However, work Google in this area and you'll find dozens of other references and links.
* Peters, Tom, "The Brand Called You," Fast Company, October 2002. Thought provoking. Can help change your thinking and actions. See also Tom's blog on this subject; in fact, visit his entire web site and all of his blogs - the site is very content rich and will give you lots of concepts and ideas.
*Phillips, P. and J., Building a Successful Consulting Practice: Opportunities and Challenges. A short extract from their book may be found at this link. Provocative.
* Entrepreneur.com, "Slogan." Short article describes and defines a slogan (with examples). We believe each person should work to give themselves at least one slogan that helps promote their personal brand.
* Kendall Consulting Group, Project Management. KCG, 1998-2003. A novel look at the success factors in project management. Goes beyond traditional PM thinking.
* Berinato, Scott, “Get a Grip on Risk,” CIO. July 1, 2003. For complex projects, risk management is an issue. This article gives a good overview of risk management. Be sure to read the sidebar entitled “Playing With Fire.”
* Johnson, J. et. al., “Collaborating on Project Success,” Software Magazine, February 2001. Again, some good recommendations that apply to all projects, although the article is slanted towards software developers.
Hammer, M., “Re-engineering Work: Don’t Automate, Obliterate,”
Harvard Business Review, July-August 1990, pp. 104-112. The article that kicked
off all the furor about reengineering.
Hammer, M. and Champy, J., Reengineering
the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution. Harper Business, 1993.
Basic work on reengineering. A “must read” for anyone doing business
improvement consulting. Inspirational and well written.
* Reck, R. and Gulden, G., Combining
Quality and Reengineering for Operational Superiority. Journal of the Quality
Assurance Institute, January 1992. Available online.
* Rowland, Clive, Consulting. This PDF booklet describes consulting assignments, with some degree of insight. A major section of the brochure addresses "risk" in the engagements.
* Gardner, John W., "Self Renewal," McKinsey Quarterly, 1991. The kind of article that can change your whole life!
Johnson, S., The
One Minute Sales Person. Avon Books, 1986. Available in paperback. Every
consultant should read this!
Denny, Richard, Selling
to Win. Kogan Page Ltd, 1988. Available in paperback. Emphasizes general
sales techniques.
* Kendall Consulting Group, Marketing of Consulting Services. KCG, 1998-2003. Overview of approaches used by KCG and other consulting firms to reach their target markets.
Treacy, Michael & Weirsema, F., The
Discipline of Market Leaders. Perseus, 1997. Paperback. Good frameworks
and approach to diagnosing and prescribing to companies where customers
are
a prime target. ** See also two articles
on
this subject by KCG. Article
One. Article
Two.
Ziglar, Zig, Secrets
of Closing the Sale. Fleming Revel Co., 1982. May be available in paperback.
Considered one of the basic books on sales and closing techniques.
* Epstein, Molly, "A Compelling Story is Good Business," Emory University Website, November 2003. The Emory University site requires a simple log-on with minimal information - well worth the effort. They also have many other articles of interest to business consultants.
* Simmons, Annette, "The Six Stories You Need to Know How to Tell," International Storytelling Center. Excellent article on storytelling and establishing rapport.
* Byme, John., Strategic Planning. Business Week, 1996. Good article that summarizes the field of strategic planning and the concepts in practice up to the mid-1990s.
* Handy, Charles, "The Merlin Factor: Leadership and Strategic Intent." Strategy Review, Spring 1994. Emphasis on strategic intent and on thinking backwards from the future.
* Kendall Consulting Group, Strategy Implementation. KCG, 2001-2003. Touches on some of the critical success factors that companies need to make their strategies happen.
* McKinsey Quarterly.com, McKinsey & Company, New York. A zine that contains many rich and interesting, consulting oriented articles. There are various levels of membership to the site, some expensive but giving complete access to all articles in the archive.
* Mintzberg, Henry., Reflecting
on the Strategy Process. Sloan Management Review, Spring 1999. Contrasts
ten models by which businesses form strategy. Excellent reading from an expert.
Pascale, R. T. and Athos, A. G.,
The Art of Japanese Management. Warner Books, 1981. Excellent description
of the "7-S" model framework is a key learning from this book.
Prahalad, C. K., and Hamel, G., Competing
for the Future. Harvard Press, 1995. Discussed strategic intent, core competencies
and strategy formulation.
Scott Morton, M.S., The Corporation of the 1990s, Oxford University Press,
New York, NY, 1993. Contains many models regarding the corporation of
the future.
Treacy, M. and Wiersema, F., The
Discipline of Market Leaders. Addison Wesley, 1995. Describes the operating
models and customer value discipline frameworks. ** See also two articles
on
this subject by KCG. Article
One. Article
Two.
Blanchard, K., et. al., The
One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams. William Morrow & Co.,
1990. Includes description of "forming, storming, norming and performing
stages. Available in paperback.
Lipnack, J. and Stamps, J., The
Age of the Network. Oliver Wight Publications, 1994. See also the authors'
work entitled The
Team Net Factor and Virtual
Teams. Web site interesting too.
* High Performance Patterns. Sample pattern from Nadine Stolz.
Huszczo, G., Tools for Team Excellence, Davies-Black, 1996. Describes the components of effective teams. Also has a number of team exercises that teams could use to make themselves more effective.
Joy, W., "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us," Wired Magazine, April 2000. This controversial article is the juxtaposition of Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Change and should be read by everyone in technology based industries. Joy was a founder of Sun Microsystems.
* Kurzweil, R., "Promise and Peril of the 21st Century," CIO Magazine, September 22, 2003. Kurzweil always worth reading; very thought provoking.
* Kurzweil, R., "The Law of Accelerating Returns." From Ray's web site. Very provocative reading and definitely big picture.
* Laderman, J., "Call It a Boomer Boom," Business Week, April 2000. Raises some interesting trends that will occur as the "boomer" generation matures and the echo generation approaches.
* Popcorn, Faith. Faith's web site lists her current thinking on Trends as well as a summary of her books. Easy and fun reading, and probably a good forecast of things to come and a unique way to look at things that "are".
* Reck,
R. and Reck, V., Value
Disciplines,
c1995.
An overview of the Value Discplines concept.
* Reck, R. and Reck, V., Role of IS Strategy in Making Market
Leaders,
c1994.
Discussed the use of technology to support the different Value Disciplines. Published
in refereed journal.
* Reck, R. and Reck, V., Visit to an Operational Excellent Company, 2005. Discusses what the internal operations of a company practicing the Operational Excellence value disciplines should look like.
- - - - - - - -
Business 2.0, a "pop" management magazine in the U.S. aimed at early and mid-career population, published a list of books that matter. I can't say I agree with many on their list as vital reading, but the list is interesting. Here are the books from the article I agree could be on a consultant's reading list (see article for their comments and details):
• Peter Drucker, Practice of Management, 1954. - A classic. Anyone aiming
for senior management or consulting should read this.
• Michael Porter, Competitive Strategy, 1980 - Find a summary of it, for
instance, in Executive Book Summaries.
• Jim Collins, Built to Last, 1994. - He has several books, all worth
reading.
• Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957. - You'll be a true capitalist after
you finish reading this one. Who is John Galt?
• Peter Senge, Fifth Discipline, 1990 - Find a synopsis rather than read
the book; he also had a shorter Sloan Management Review article.
Depending on your areas of interest, the website Quickmba.com contains references to a wide number of books and articles targeted at specific areas of a business. Drilling into an area of interest will give you several frameworks and additional reading around that topic.
Updated: October 8, 2007
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