Strategic Thinking Month

Headed by Josh Leibner, Gershon Mader, and Alan Weiss, authors of The Power of Strategic Commitment, September marks a time to re-evaluate strategy. In their book, the authors detail a variety of ways to align people around a mission, idea, or business. Commitment is the reason systems like SixSigma, the HP Way, etc. have become benchmarks for corporate culture. A thorough and engaging book, focusing on fact and research over pure emotion, the book is a compelling read for managers and leadership well beyond the month of September. Here's a great quote from the book that will give you a sense of the direction of the text:

"There is an enormous power in galvanizing people around a bold, compelling future; and that desired future state cannot be achieved by operating with yesterday's mind-set, practices, and processes. There are two ways out of this inertia: One is an externally imposed "shock to the system," such as a market or industry meltdown, a takeover by another organization, the loss of a major customer, or some other exogenous occurrence. The second is an internally generated desire to take the organization somewhere it has never been; a desire to build something extraordinary. The best leaders do the latter, because it is proactive and controllable, not reactive and random."

Many people experienced the first scenario described above this year. For those of us who didn't, these words alone provide a great reason to pick this book up and start developing an incredible organization from the inside out.