Path Of Least Resistance for Managers: Designing Organizations to Succeed: Amazon.ca: Robert Fritz: Books

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Fritz is the founder of a field called "structural consulting" and has worked extensively with Peter Senge, himself known for his theories on "the learning organization." Fritz is also the author of Corporate Tides (1996), in which he explained the "laws of organizational structure." He calls this new book an updated, redesigned, and rewritten next-generation version of Corporate Tides. He explains that organizational structure may impede organizational learning, that achievement in one part of an organization may not be replicated because of organizational barriers. Moreover, he shows that success in one department of an organization may actually lead to difficulties or problems in another; Fritz calls this phenomenon structural oscillation. He explains the key principles of structural tension and structural conflict. He also provides examples that demonstrate why best efforts do not always result in success and suggests ways to redesign organizations so that they can succeed. David Rouse

Review

The Path of Least Resistance for Managersis down-to-earth and inspiring. It introduces fundamental ideas and tools that can truly make a difference in how an organization functions, while simultaneously encouraging our deepest aspirations. It, like Fritz himself, embodies the simple truth that all creating occurs where principle meets practice. -- Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline

For the organization desiring to collegially create and collaboratively implement its goals, this is the book! Fritz's disciplined clarity in creating and managing structural tension is guaranteed to bring life giving results to your organization! -- Fr. Paul Wicker, Holy Apostles Catholic Church, Colorado Springs, CO

Through The Path of Least Resistance for Managers, Robert Fritz gives managers a tool through which they can create, direct and maintain (positive) change with a minimum of the usual personal and organizational disruptions one often associates with it. -- Garrison Krause, Executive Producer and Host, LeaderTalk, PBS The Business Channel

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
One of the biggest mysteries I confronted when I first started to work with organizations was why success didn't always succeed. Read the first page

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

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4.6 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars This book will make a major impact in your organization., Jun 27 2002

By

Gregg Burch (Atlanta, Ga. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Path Of Least Resistance for Managers: Designing Organizations to Succeed (Paperback)

I have spent 25 years growing a family business, read many volumes on leadership and management, completed an Executive MBA, and taken post masters work in leadership and organization development. This book provided me deep insight that I had not found in any of my studies. The understanding of structure I found in the Path for Managers gave me a new clarity of what it takes to design an organization to accomplish its most important goals. The insights are very practical in their application. I have begun to apply these principles, and the results have been profound. Organizations with structural conflict will never achieve the intended results, and when structural tension is created, the results build upon themselves. I give this book my highest recommendation. It will give you tools to align your organization with a vision, and to insure that the vision becomes a reality.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This book will make a major impact in your organization., Jun 27 2002

By

Gregg Burch (Atlanta, Ga. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Path Of Least Resistance for Managers: Designing Organizations to Succeed (Paperback)

I have spent 25 years growing a family business, read many volumes on leadership and management, completed an Executive MBA, and taken post masters work in leadership and organization development. This book provided me deep insight that I had not found in any of my studies. The understanding of structure I found in the Path for Managers gave me a new clarity of what it takes to design an organization to accomplish its most important goals. The insights are very practical in their application. I have begun to apply these principles, and the results have been profound. Organizations with structural conflict will never achieve the intended results, and when structural tension is created, the results build upon themselves. I give this book my highest recommendation. It will give you tools to align your organization with a vision, and to insure that the vision becomes a reality.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Simplicity, Jun 19 2002

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Fred R. Lybrand (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Path Of Least Resistance for Managers: Designing Organizations to Succeed (Paperback)

Being simple and being simplistic are often not the same. It is shocking that humans condescend to complexity when "simple brilliance" will do. I believe Robert Fritz has done for business what Einstein did for physics. Some reviewers want more theories and more data, when a genuine and workable insight could change everything for their organizations or their lives. E=mc2 is simple, but it is by no means simplistic. For the manager or leader who wants to make sense of his or her organization's struggles, The Path of Least Resistance for Managers is just the ticket. Our own company, TrimTab Solutions specializes in bringing clarity and focus to organizations in transition or crisis. The insights of Robert Fritz are the cornerstone for what we have found to be the most profound and insightful approach to organizational transformation and sanity; it is simple, but not simplistic. The insights in this book, if applied, are destined to influence your organization because they follow the basics of a structure's influence on behavior. Change the structure and the organization will change...Change it intelligently and the organization will advance. Buy the book and step to the forefront of organizational leadership...but be forewarned: Bring a teachable spirit. Be willing to unlearn a few assumptions to make room for Fritz's simple and strategic insights. I wouldn't begin to think about change in an organization without answering the 11 Questions first (they're in the book). Finally, and for Pete's Sake, Peter Senge wrote the forward for his "friend and mentor" Robert Fritz. What further reason do you need?

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Most recent customer reviews

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