How to Lead and Still Have a Life!

A Handbook for Collaborative Consciousness

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[ About the Book ]
[ About the Authors ]
[ Table of Contents]
[ Who Should Read This Book?]
[ Catalogue Information ]

About the Book

The joint effort of three practitioners in the fields of wellness, management consulting and organizational development, How to Lead and Still Have a Life! continues where traditional management books leave off. The book extols collaborative leading, a process that leverages people, time and ideas to discover solutions to complex challenges. It offers the next step in learning for those who want to achieve business success by bringing out the best in the people. Readers will obtain an understanding of their specific leadership role and discover methods to gain inner peace so that they can enjoy life and their careers.

For over a decade, the authors Ian Johnson, Ph.D., Karen Scraba, and Christine DeGrow have investigated and researched the behaviour of complex living systems in work environments such as large multinational corporations, health care, and small business The authors provide simple tools that improve business efficiency and effectiveness in a way that frees up the time needed to bring balance to one's life. "We want to assist people to overcome the dilemma of choosing between business success and quality of life by building a collaborative business structure," says Ian Johnson. "This book explains the principles and concepts of collaboration; describes tools that help people to understand processes, and gives examples of how to collaborate."

Organizations with a focus on ethical and social responsibility, such as family businesses and non-profit groups, will welcome the emphasis on understanding and respecting people's beliefs and values. How to Lead and Still Have a Life! demonstrates how to orchestrate and choreograph groups of people to optimize job performance. "Readers will learn how to build heart and soul into the world of work in a way that makes business sense and improves quality of life."

Ian Johnson, Ph.D., Karen Scraba and Christine DeGrow met in 1988 while working at DuPont Canada's headquarters near Toronto. Although from very different backgrounds, they shared a common fascination with the way that people worked (or didn't work!) together. Over a period of ten years they have combined their experience into the body of knowledge about collaboration and leadership and have presented it in How to Lead and Still Have a Life! All have spent many years on an inner journey of transformation, and their appreciation of the profound impact of change on people's lives is very evident in this book. Christine DeGrow is a business process consultant and facilitator employed by DuPont Canada Inc. She is a chemical engineer who has worked internationally for DuPont in a variety of manufacturing, sales, marketing and business consulting roles. Karen Scraba's original training was as a medical laboratory technologist. After joining DuPont's Medical Diagnostics division as a sales representative she worked for their Health Care businesses in a variety of marketing and management positions. Her eclectic career includes experience in transformational consulting in health care, corporations and small business environments. Ian Johnson has a Ph.D. in biochemistry, and joined DuPont as part of their portfolio of biotechnology businesses. He worked in sales and marketing, as well as becoming business development manager, systems manager, and quality management consultant.

Ian Johnson moved to Vancouver, and eventually retired from DuPont. He continued to investigate the behaviour of complex living systems, and now has his own management consulting business. In 1998 he persuaded Christine DeGrow and Karen Scraba to join him in writing about their experience of collaboration and leadership. Although living in different cities and separated by thousands of miles, they have now completed their virtual collaboration. How to Lead and Still Have a Life! is the result.    

Collaborative Leadership is a people-oriented "pencil and paper" method of managing that works well for family businesses, professional associations, and volunteer groups. It is a simple way of converting "hands-on" operations into managed enterprises that follow business processes and operate with defined roles and responsibilities. The method is systematic and also humanistic, because it helps people to improve the quality of their lives as well as the performance of their organizations. You can use the skills of Collaborative Leadership when you realize you need to work with others to achieve your goals. People collaborate instinctively in moments of crisis (such as disaster situations), but organizations typically do not help employees to learn how to work together Ð the results depend on what they know already. Our goal is to help you learn the skills of collaboration proactively so you can create value in calmer times, as well as in the moments of crisis when complex systems fail. Collaboration consistently outperforms individual efforts, yet leadership is still commonly structured as an individual responsibility, despite the devastating personal consequences. To try to control everything in an organization (business, family etc.) takes more time and energy than we have to do our work and live fulfilling personal lives. Our intent with this book is to show you how to improve the performance of your working environment and the quality of your personal life by using the skills of Collaborative Leadership. This book is an introductory guide for those who are new to this way of being. It is also for those who are leading collaboratively and want to learn more. We provide concrete, useful, practical tools, resources, and information that you can take back and use in the workplace on Monday morning. Collaborative Leading is an approach to managing that is rather like flying an airplane. Before you take off, you need to know some principles so that once in the air you base your actions on understanding as well as reaction. In fact, the method works even when you don't know what you are doing - it's just more stressful. The Collaborative Leadership process is a way of creating value that amplifies the gifts of individual participants while compensating for their weak areaSs. It works independently of beliefs. Whether you believe it is possible to fly or not, the plane takes off when you follow the instructions. People's beliefs, however, can be barriers to innovation. For example, in 1892, when powered flight was being developed, Lord Kelvin declared, "Heavier than air flying machines are impossible." Beliefs may hinder the progress of Collaborative Leadership. We have, therefore, included discussions about beliefs and vision, as well as sections containing pragmatic instructions. Those who have a living connection with spirit, emotion, and intuition welcome Collaborative Leadership, because it specifically pays attention to all levels of being. It is also of value to the pragmatist, because we describe concrete specific actions that produce results. The method works if you follow the process. You should, however, have the right attitude. Begin with the positive intention of developing your skills and getting the method working for you in the way that you and your associates value the most.

CIP: Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Johnson, Ian,
   How to lead and still have a life!

   Includes bibliographical references and index.
   ISBN 1-55212-259-X

   1. Success in business.  2. Self-actualization (Psychology)
I. Scraba, Karen.  II. DeGrow, Christine.  I. Title.
HF5386.J58		650.1		C00-91108-4