Navigate the Swirl

Navigate the Swirl

by Richard S. Hawkes
Released April 2022
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119868798

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Book description

An actionable blueprint for transformational business journeys

Leading transformation in teams, businesses, and organizations is complex, and leaders are expected to know how to do it. This book provides the clear thinking required to navigate this challenge.

In Navigate the Swirl: 7 Crucial Conversations for Business Transformation renowned growth and strategy leader Richard Hawkes delivers a simple and powerful framework that any team can apply to overcome the most common leadership challenges to growing and scaling companies, known as “The Swirl.” In this straightforward book, he draws on decades of experience guiding teams to implement strategic change at companies like Edward Jones, GENEWIZ, Hitachi, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, and Chicos. In this book you will learn:

  • To understand and lead disruptive change in a complex social system – your company
  • Ways to visualize and diagnose the essential working parts of a company
  • How to apply an integrated toolset for teams to lead organizational change and business transformation
  • How to create transformational journey maps that leaders, teams, businesses, and companies must apply to unleash growth potential and agility
  • How networks of teams should work together to develop each other’s leadership and to manage and accelerate change

Written as a practical guide for business and team leaders, Navigate the Swirl: 7 Crucial Conversations for Business Transformation belongs on the desks and in the hands of every purpose driven leader.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Foreword
    1. The Framework of Transformation
    2. An Organization-Wide Approach
    3. How We're Transforming
    4. Growth River's Valuable Contribution
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. A Note to the Reader: How to Use This Book
  8. Introduction:The Swirl
  9. PART 1: Framing the Conversation
    1. CHAPTER 1: Understanding Organizations
      1. Leading Social Systems versus Leading Mechanical Systems
      2. The Art of Alignment
    2. CHAPTER 2: Understanding Businesses
      1. The Importance of Visualizing Shared Work
      2. The Business Triangle
      3. The Engine of a Business
      4. Note
    3. CHAPTER 3: Understanding Growth
      1. Growth Moves Through Stages
      2. Growth Happens in Three Domains
      3. What Limits Growth? Understanding Constraints
      4. Two Types of Performance Improvement: Horizontal and Vertical
      5. Note
  10. PART 2: The Evolution of an Enterprise
    1. CHAPTER 4: The Four Stages of Enterprise Evolution
      1. Stages of How, Not What
    2. CHAPTER 5: A Business Is Born
    3. CHAPTER 6: A Leader Steps Up
      1. Avoiding Stage 2 Bottlenecks
    4. CHAPTER 7: A 5:30 Wake-Up Call
      1. “To Win We Had to Change”
      2. Bureaucracy Is Not the Answer
      3. Notes
    5. CHAPTER 8: A Complete System of Roles
      1. A Matrix Structure
      2. The Changing Role of the CEO: From Executive Leader to Enterprise Architect
      3. Straightening the Spaghetti
      4. Why Roles Matter
      5. Architecting a Complete System of Capabilities and Roles
      6. Unleashing Strategic Intelligence
      7. Notes
    6. CHAPTER 9: Leveraging Creative Tension
      1. A Complete System of Roles Leverages Creative Tension
      2. The Natural Creative Tension in Business Triangles
      3. Depersonalizing Conflict
      4. The Natural Creative Tension in Enterprises
      5. Leading Through Creative Tensions
      6. Banish the Scourge of Functionitis
      7. A North Star for Resolving Creative Tensions
    7. CHAPTER 10: High-Performing Teams
      1. Teams at Work
      2. Understanding Teams
      3. The Building Blocks of High-Performing Teams
      4. Shared Language
      5. Secret Agents of Transformation
      6. Notes
    8. CHAPTER 11: Toward a Flat, Agile Organization
      1. Enterprise Evolution Shouldn't Be Rushed
  11. PART 3: The Seven Crucial Conversations
    1. CHAPTER 12: Organizations Evolve at the Speed of Conversation
      1. Setting the Stage for the Seven Crucial Conversations
    2. CHAPTER 13: Conversation 1: Activating Purpose
      1. Effective Decision-Making
      2. The Law of the Lid
      3. Note
    3. CHAPTER 14: Conversation 2: Driving Focus
      1. A Shared Transformational Journey
    4. CHAPTER 15: Conversation 3: Shifting Mindset
      1. Building Trust
    5. CHAPTER 16: Conversation 4: Specifying Capabilities and Roles
    6. CHAPTER 17: Conversation 5: Streamlining Interdependencies
      1. Analyzing the Performance System
      2. Aligning Between Teams
    7. CHAPTER 18: Conversation 6: Aligning Strategies
      1. Four Metrics for Competitive Advantage
    8. CHAPTER 19: Conversation 7: Implementing Initiatives
    9. CHAPTER 20: An Invitation to Transformation
      1. Closing Reflections
  12. Glossary
    1. Learning a Language
    2. Setting the Stage for the Seven Crucial Conversations
    3. Glossary of Terms for the Growth River OS
  13. Index
  14. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Navigate the Swirl
  • Author(s): Richard S. Hawkes
  • Release date: April 2022
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119868798