Designing the Purposeful Organization

I've spent many very enjoyable hours with Clive, discussing people, their talent, their lives and their work and I've always been impressed by his passion for the inseparable interrelationship of these. In this book, Clive describes the inseparable nature of different aspects of organizations and the people who work in them. He describes the contrasting but complementary perspectives of head and heart and takes us on a series of journeys from the conceptual to the practical. Great examples and metaphors help ground the learning (the fractal geometry of cellular development is a particular favourite - yes, really). It's a book that is always interesting and always useful with exercises and techniques to support your organization development journey. For me, the book's greatest gift is to guide the reader to ask the most powerful questions of their organization and themselves.

The guidance on how to help an organization get to the 'why' of its existence and be able to synergize the perspectives of multiple stakeholder views into an integrated purpose is inspirational [...] This book is a direct reflection of the calibre of expertise, insight and intensity that Clive and the Primeast team bring to their professional work.

This superb book delivers a magnitude of relevant information on a timely topic and provides a roadmap to understanding how to inspire business performance beyond boundaries. As Clive says,Purposeful people make purposeful organizations, families, communities and nations. I was instantly smitten by the expertise and insightful information as well as the richness of the tools, activities, case studies and resources. Anyone charged with leading change organizations will find the information relevant and useful. Anyone who truly wants to make a difference in their workplace or community will find the information inspiring.

If you are looking to gain some energy and focus in pulling together a strategy or change management plan for your department or business, then picking up this book would be a good start. What you will gain is a professional review of over 40 years of insight in the success that some organisations have achieved by clearly defining their purpose and vision for their business.

The tricky part in any strategy is understanding of how you get from purpose to performance. This book makes some simple definition of steps ensuring that you have a framework to follow. Perhaps the best recommendation I can offer is that if like me you allow yourself your guilty pleasure of marking and highlighting sections of management books with pen and post in notes then you will be pleased to leave it suitably defaced and plastered with tabs.

Wilson is to be commended on his brilliant use of reader-friendly devices that include directly relevant mini-case studies, implementation activities, and sets of '10 Questions' that serve as assessments of purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success, and talent. ...Provides just about everything that you and your colleagues need to 'inspire business performance beyond boundaries.