Jonathan Gifford - Böcker

The typical structure of today's corporate organization was essentially invented in the nineteenth century and based deliberately on the military's "command and control" model and on the hierarchical pyramid of the Catholic Church. As such, it is outmoded and not equipped to deliver corporate success in the 21st century. My Steam Engine is Broken calls on a new generation of organisational leaders to stop trying to fix a broken and outmoded structure, and to create new, successful working structures that work with, not against, people's natural modes of behaviour. The authors explore the way in which the Steam Engine organisational model is no longer offering job satisfaction to its managers precisely (and paradoxically) because managers are not being enabled, and are often being prevented, from delivering what the organization most needs from them: self-direction, innovation, leadership and heartfelt commitment.

This book explores and demonstrates the transformative learning experiences that organizations and their leaders can derive from the arts. It is through the arts that we have always explored our humanity: through dance and music; art and sculpture; theatre and poetry. The arts allow us to explore our own selves and our relationship to others and to the world around us. This central role of the arts is commonly accepted in everyday life, but the implications of this are not typically extended to the world of business. The authors argues strongly that, to the contrary, the methodologies and approaches that are fundamental to performing artists of all kinds can provide exactly the kind of inspirational, people-centred and performance-related techniques that are missing from much of the typically mechanistic, systems-based and process-driven training and development of managers and executives. Technical proficiency and expertise are not enough to deliver an award-winning result; what enables a truly outstanding performance is the elusive but entirely recognizable element of artistry - the spark that transforms a technically good performance into something extraordinary.

The best way to secure yourself against being 'let go' in the modern economy is to rise to a level within the corporation where you are making the strategic decisions, not bearing the brunt of their consequences. It may be tough at the top, but it's dangerous in the middle -- and the rewards at the top are far greater. Machiavellian Intelligence argues that many intelligent and hard-working professionals with good leadership skills fail to maximize their career potential because of a number of instinctive 'good' habits - things that make them highly effective executives, well-liked and respected by their colleagues, but which are not best designed to take them to the very top of their chosen career.