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Title: Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success by ART KLEINER ISBN: 0-385-48448-8 Publisher: Currency Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (10 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The SIMPLE Truth
Comment: Folks, I'm an Organization Development Consultant with 22 years of corporate experience spanning 3 Fortune 100 companies and a host of many smaller companies. I work internally for a major company, externally for several others. I teach Organizational Behavior online. I have a BS in Industrial Engineering, an MS in Manufacturing Management, an MA in OD and I'm 40% toward becoming a PhD in Human and Organization Development. I only lay that framework to add some credibility to this review.
This book lays out THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT OF THE DECADE. Remember when Senge hit the market with the Fifth Discipline? Remember when Goleman hit the market with Emotional Intelligence? Remember when Gardner taught us about intelligence? Well, if you remember them you'll remember the special "feel" you got for that work, when you read it you knew instantly that it was right.
Well, Art Kleiner has done it for us again. This concept is astounding to read. If you believe as I do that BRILLIANCE comes in SIMPLE packages then you'll understand why this aerospace engineer turned People Person loves this work so well!
Art lays out the concept of a Core Group that runs the organization you work for. The purpose of ANY organization is to serve the needs of the Core Group. Period. It works whether you are at Citibank or whether you are part of a sewing circle. The ones in charge call all the shots and learning the nuances of this and how to relate is what Art is all about.
I've picked up SO MANY books that were a waste of my time. Not this one. Read it, confirm me in this. I use this in my coaching work, I use this in my teaching. I have been both a "victim" of this concept as well as a consummate "gamesman" at this concept all of my life. As you read this you will have story after story after story come alive for you from your past as you piece this game together. I'm telling you, this is fantastic thinking.
I love to challenge my new MBA students with this work. They love to "kill me" for the work at first until they start to realize how important Art's work is. I love to needle them as they come to the realization that Art is right, that Art's work is simplistic genius.
I have asked many people that I work with at a peer level to engage me in conversation regarding this concept. It makes them a little nervous because the truth is nerve wracking at times. But once they embrace it they get busy. You see, once YOU embrace it you will get busy too, you will get busy building new self help strategies that are less "touchy feel" crap and more dedicated to the attainment of your goals. Trust me, this is awesome stuff.
The people who I find this work to be most valuable for are the Core Group members of any company I work with. It is important for them to know this work so they know how to analyze their own needs and how to expand their needs to include others. Where was this work when Enron was faltering? Where was this work when Arthur Anderson was helping them falter? Read this work, think about these headline corporate events and your life will be forever different for this concept will give you THE FRAMEWORK to think about corporate purpose and the motivations of executives. Remember, I'm an engineer, I like SIMPLE!
PS - I will dialogue with any of you on this. Send me a personal email at [email protected]. Because I use this work with my students and clients I made contact with Art directly. I found him online at his website (http://www.well.com/user/art/) and he wrote me right back and we've been in dialogue. He's a great guy, not just a good author!
Rating: 5
Summary: Fabulous book
Comment: This book is fascinating on (at least) two different levels. First, it is the most useful self-help book I have ever read. Second, it is a very interesting psychological portrait of organizations, and those who run them and run from them. In this sense, it is not unlike other tales from the analyst's couch that I have read and enjoyed.
Self-Help Book
Who Really Matters is an effective self-help book for those of us who have trouble negotiating life in and with organizations and those who run them. Kleiner starts with the premise that certain core groups run organizations and it is only by understanding and dealing with those in these core groups that one can understand and deal with the organization. This insight was not news to me but what Kleiner does with the insight is remarkable and I learned a tremendous amount about organizations and myself thorugh Kleiner's lively case histories of organizations and those within organizations. Through the case studies, a clear picture of the psychology of the leaders (or core groups) of organizations emerges. Kleiner prompts the reader to question himself about his own past and present experiences with core groups and organizations. He also helps the reader recognize patterns within orgqanizations that indicate that the organization (or you within the organization) will be successful or his headed towards inevitable disaster. In this way, I emerged with a much clearer picture of how power operates within organizations and of my own reactions to that power and how those reactions serve (and disserve) me.
I found particularly helpful his list of the differnt kinds of capital an individual could amass in order to be in a strong position vis a vis an organization -- reputational (keep your name known in the field in general); relational (friends all over); financial (you can figure that one out), etc. He then discusses what the different kinds of capital will do for you vis a vis the corporation. I also found helpful his discussion of the glass ceiling. Most women I know, including myself, have difficulty asking employers for money. Kleiner explains why asking for too much money is rarely frowned upon within orgnaizations and why waiting for the organization to give you that which you "deserve" is rarely in an individual's self interest. The book is the best and most useful self-help book I have ever read.
Psychological Case Studies Are Always Fun to Read
The second way in which the book is terrific is that it is essentially a psychological analysis of organizations, how they operate, who operates them and how we react to the "organization," the core group running the organization and those without the core group. I am not someone who has read much on businesses, mostly because I always thought such books are boring. This is definitely not a boring book. It puts the personal elements of business in the open and makes the business world much more accessible for liberal arts types like me.
Rating: 5
Summary: The "Invisible Committee" has a name -- the Core Group !
Comment: Kleiner's position is self-evident and irresistable to the reader. It was right there in front of us all the time -- so why all of these years couldn't we see it?!!
John Cougar's "The Authority Song" (authority always wins) came to mind before getting to page 3. So what exactly is "authority" anyway? Unless one is naive and thus on the way to being laid-off or fired in today's "swim with the sharks" corporate environment, it's for darn sure not the org chart on the wall. Instead, it's a small, incognito, collective of individuals upon whom legitimacy for calling the shots is "implicitly" bestowed by the organization at large. Prior to this book by Kleiner, this collective was simply known as "they" (aka "the invisible committee"). At last, "they" have now been exposed and are known by their real name. Kleiner has entered the "Metaphor Hall of Fame" by mainstreaming the term "the Core Group".
Before you smugly reply "I knew that already", pair up the above observation with this additional Kleiner bombshell: the purpose of an organization is *NOT* to fulfill the mission & vision of the company. INSTEAD, an org exists to serve the "perceived" needs of the CORE GROUP ! Human nature is the darndest thing ! Add to this a 3rd Kleiner truth, and the arena for a paradigm-shifting experience is set: the world is run by an infinitely large community of core groups -- NOT individuals or organizations.
Speaking as an I.T.-focused OD-HRD person, it's sometimes hell on earth to be a "professional heretic" in a world where organizations are being run by the first generation in history to "have the choice" to be knowledge workers. Using Covey-speak, in an ideal world this social arrangement would realize synergy of the org at large, not just independence & competence of the individuals within it.
But unfortunately, at this juncture in our history, Mankind is still very much a babe in the woods in terms of his understanding of how to work together in true team-like fashion instead of facing everyday adversarially in organizations that O.D. guru Chris Argyris calls "skillfully incompetent".
In closing, I found this book personally very helpful by giving me clarity of both the very self-destructive phenomenon Kleiner calls "core group envy", as well as the 7 forms of human capital equity (note to H.R. professionals here: compensation is a mere subset of the larger value delivered by a "total rewards" approach that's actually required for today's knowledge worker).
Though Kleiner has invested a lot of time working personally with Peter Senge, going forward he continues to demonstrate that he is very much his own man. Get a copy of this book and get ready for a cold but timely slap in the face. It's good medicine, really! Read this work over 3 evenings and do so with profit !
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Title: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor ISBN: 1578518520 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Age of Heretics: Heroes, Outlaws, and the Forerunners of Corporate Change by Art Kleiner ISBN: 0385415761 Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd) Pub. Date: 01 March, 1988 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins ISBN: 1591391105 Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Pub. Date: 18 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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