The Leader's Guide to Radical Management

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

This book is written by the author of The Secret Language of Leadership—a Financial Times Selection in Best Books of 2007.

Preface.

Introduction.

1 Management Today.

2 A Brief History of Management.

3 What Radical Management Means.

Part One: The Seven Principles Continuous Innovation.

4 Principle #1: Delighting Clients.

5 Principle #2: Self-Organizing Teams.

6 Principle #3: Client-Driven Iterations.

7 Principle #4: Delivering Value to Clients in Each Iteration.

8 Principle #5: Radical Transparency.

9 Principle #6: Continuous Self-Improvement.

10 Principle #7: Interactive Communication.

Part Two: Implementation.

11 A River of Cascading Conversations.

12 Epilogue.

Appendix: Summary of Radical Management Practices

Notes

Acknowledgments.

About the Author.

Index.

"Denning puts forward a fundamentally different approach to management." (Publicnet.co.uk, November 2010)

STEPHEN DENNING is a leading writer who consults with organizations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia on leadership, management, innovation, and business narrative. In 2009, he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University, U.K. He is the author of The Secret Language of Leadership—a Financial Times selection in Best Books of 2007, and a 800-CEO-READ selection as the best book on leadership in 2007.

In this provocative book, Stephen Denning introduces the seven principles of radical management, along with more than seventy supporting practices. Radical management focuses the entire organization on the goal of constantly increasing the value of what it offers to its clients, not merely producing goods or services or making money for shareholders. The seven interlocking principles comprise a new mental model of management: focusing the entire organization on delighting clients; working in self-organizing teams; operating in short client-driven iterations; delivering value to clients with each iteration; fostering radical transparency; nurturing continuous self-improvement; and communicating interactively. The principles and practices simultaneously inspire high productivity, continuous innovation, and deep job satisfaction, and result in surpassing client expectations.

Rather than offering a quick fix for today’s complex workplace problems, radical management rethinks the nature and purpose of management. It addresses the questions: “What is good? Who is it good for? Is it good for the organization? Is it good for those doing the work? Is it good for those for whom the work is done? Is it good for society at large?” At the very foundation is open communication. Managers and workers must communicate interactively, using authentic narratives, open-ended questions, and deep listening, rather than treating people as things to be manipulated.

The principles and practices outlined in this book create a work environment that lifts up the human spirit and inspires the exhilaration of extraordinary performance

“Denning has written an original and brilliant book which transforms ‘radical management’ into doable and, more important, indispensable management. Also an indispensable read!”
—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California & author of the just published: Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership

“Denning goes to the root of the management issues confronting companies today. Focusing on seven core principles, he lays out a pragmatic roadmap for shifting the corporation from a focus on scalable efficiency to a focus on delighting the customer and each other, while achieving even higher levels of productivity. In the process, he creates a space where we all can more fully achieve our potential.”
— John Hagel, Co-Chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge

“The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management delivers. It delivers insight into why today’s broken institutions don’t work. It delivers the principles and practices that can reinvent them. It delivers powerful examples of organizations that are doing it —and some that aren’t — and it delivers the tools to help you start digging a new foundation.”
—Jim Kouzes, award-winning coauthor of the bestselling The Leadership Challenge and The Truth About Leadership; Dean’s Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University

“To reinvent America and the world, we desperately need radical, new leadership and management. Stephen shows the way.”
—Mark Victor Hansen, Co-creator of the series Chicken Soup for the Soul®

“The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management is the paradigm shift we have been looking for to guide us as we evolve. This is the first book that focuses on what is truly important to being successful.”
—Matt Hlavin, President, Thogus Products Company

“The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management reframes the way we think about management in a practical, application-driven way. A must-read for anyone in a management position!”
—Ed Scanlan,CEO, Total Attorneys

“This book contributes with principles on radical management and continuous innovation to support an Agile mindset in your entire organization.”
—Michael Holm, CEO, Systematic Software

“I’ve spent the last 35 years of my professional life bushwhacking my way towards what I now know, thanks to Steve Denning, is the nirvana called Radical Management. It is a place where delighting customers is the religion and creativity, passion and learning are revered. Denning’s Radical Management is the antidote to the greatest disease in the workplace today, mental resignation due to lack of purpose. Radical Management should be required reading for anyone entering the work force or looking to reignite their inner bushwhacker!”
—Sam Bayer, CEO, b2b2dot0

“The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management accomplishes what no leadership book has been able to do in recent times. It delivers clear insights on the impediments keeping most institutions today from success. Beyond that though it provide tools and means of overcoming these barriers in novel and often counter-intuitive ways. A must read for leaders attempting to move to the next level of performance.”
—Rob Cross, Professor, University of Virginia