Chris Argyris
After our article on leadership agility was published in The OD Practitioner, we had the honor of doing a book-signing at the national Organization Development Conference in San Francisco back on October 24. We had some wonderful conversations there. One of the warmest moments for me was the opportunity to present my former mentor, Chris Argyris, with an inscribed copy of the book and to congratulate him for being a recipient of the ODN’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
I studied with Chris and his close colleague Don Schon back in the late seventies and early eighties while earning my doctorate at Harvard. I learned a lot from Chris. His work is a major influence on our Pivotal Conversations programs. You can also see his influence in the sections of the book that show how leaders at different agility levels approach pivotal conversations.
Argyris was Bill Torbert’s thesis advisor when they both were at Yale. (See November 6 post). He is also a major influence in Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. For some time now, Chris has been a Director of the Monitor Group. I’ve always thought that Organizational Learning, which he wrote with the late Don Schon, was one of his best books. My favorite book of Don’s is The Reflective Practitioner.
Our new book, Leadership Agility, clearly describes the inner capacities and core competencies of highly agile leaders. With over twenty real-life stories, it also identifies the five stages of levels that managers move through to master leadership agility.
Written in an engaging, down-to-earth style, this ground-breaking book is designed as a roadmap that tells you how to bring increased agility to the initiatives you take every day — whether you want to improve working relationships, develop your team, or change your organization.
This 29-page white paper tells the story of an executive team that transformed themselves and their business by learning a new approach to high-impact conversations. Provides a detailed inside view of the learning process that takes place in our Pivotal Conversations Learning Lab.
The Leadership Agility white paper is essentially an executive summary of the book. It clarifies why agility has become essential to leadership effectiveness, outlines the five levels of agility described in the book, identifies the four kinds of agility needed for successful leadership initiatives, and provides tips for becoming a more agile leader and helping others do the same.
The Leadership Agility Thought-Letter goes beyond what you'll find in the book. It provides you with applications of Leadership Agility principles and methods that you can use every day, plus updates about Leadership Agility resources.
