The following list of resources is based on an annotated bibliography in the NCSALL Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, Volume 2 (2001).

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton. New York: Penguin Books, 1981. Can be ordered online at: www.brooklinebooksmith.com
Getting to Yes is a classic in negotiation that has been widely used by businesses, non-profit organizations, churches, families, and a myriad of other groups. It is a short book of 200 pages that puts forth a new vision for how to negotiate by focusing on finding common ground. Topics include how to avoid bargaining over different positions, how to use a method that separates people from the problem, how to think strategically and objectively about mutual interests, and how to develop options for mutual gain. The book also deals with difficult areas of negotiation such as disparate levels of power among the negotiating parties. Getting to Yes is an excellent resource for adult basic education programs entering into community collaborations or alliances.

Great Meetings: How to Facilitate Like a Pro, by Dee Kelsey and Pam Plumb. Portland, ME: Hanson Park Books, 1997. Can be ordered online at: www.amazon.com
Great Meetings is a user-friendly resource on running meetings that is helpful to both experienced and novice facilitators. Topics in this 164-page volume include: group development and group dynamics, designing meetings, understanding the problem-solving process, conflict within groups, and methods for interventions. Case studies illustrate points. Great Meetings will be especially useful for community partnerships.

Leading Change, by John P. Kotter. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. Can be ordered online at: www.hbsp.harvard.edu
Leading Change describes an eight-stage process for leading change. The eight stages include: establishing a sense of urgency to change, creating a coalition to oversee the change, developing a vision for outcome of the change, communicating that vision within the organization, empowering employees to contribute to the change effort, generating short-term "wins" to encourage people toward the larger goals, co-mingling key changes to leverage more change, and integrating changes into the norms of behavior and shared values of the organization. This 186-page book brings together a wide range of theory and experience in the change process presented in a practical and personal manner that will "ring true" to anyone who has been involved in leading change.

Imaginization: Mindsets for Seeing, Organizing, and Managing, by Gareth Morgan.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing, 1997. Can be ordered online at: www.bkpub.com
Imaginization is a book about organizational change and transformation. It introduces the "imaginization" as a process through which organizations, and the people who populate them, can form new images of self, the world, and work through metaphor. By developing an image of an organizational structure, a problem area, or some vision for the future, Morgan says it is possible to gain insight into how an organization operates and what it will take to change it. Nature is seen as a good source of images to use in the process. For example, an organization might be "imaged" as an ant colony, a spider plant, a river, or a spider's web. Imaginization provides an electrifying new approach to understanding and changing organizations and the entire 388 pages are well worth reading. Morgan also wrote Images of Organizations, which can be read as a companion piece.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, and Bryan Smith. New York: Doubleday, 1994.
Senge's original book, The Fifth Discipline, inspired the business community and many organizations when first published in 1990. However, many found it difficult to apply its concepts. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, a 560-page implementation guide, outlines strategies and tools to build a learning organization. Written simply and clearly, it uses case studies and references to underlying theory to illustrate points. The foundation of a learning organization is systems thinking. Systems thinking shifts the focus away from the individual parts of the system to its functioning as a whole, with a deep appreciation for the interrelatedness of the various parts. Additionally, a learning organization emphasizes building a shared vision and breaking old habits through disciplined dialogue.

Leadership and the New Science: Learning About Organization from an Orderly Universe, by Margaret Wheatley. San Francisco: Berrett-Koeher, 1999. Can be ordered online at: www.bkpub.com
Leadership and the New Science has stirred new thinking about leadership across many types of organizations, including religious, social, and educational institutions. Wheatley invites the reader to look at natural systems such as rivers and forests for clues about organizing human activity. In nature, Wheatley says, there is underlying order in apparent disorganization (chaos perspective) that will help us better understand organizations. She urges us to look at organisms (such as plants) and the relationship of the organism to its environment (ecological systems) for information about adaptation and continuous improvement. One type of adaptive behavior is the promotion of self-organizing teams in the workplace. These teams can form quickly to respond creatively to changes in the external environment. A short book of 151 pages, Leadership and the New Science provides new insights for management and leadership.

Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work, by Joyce Fletcher. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. Can be ordered online at: www.mitpress.mit.edu
Disappearing Acts is a 175-page book that describes a study carried out with female design engineers. It details how the need for relational skills and emotional intelligence associated with teamwork in modern organizations is often undervalued or undermined when it bumps up against male-oriented images of success. The behavior that organizations say they need is, in fact, "disappeared." Fletcher suggests some ways that individuals and organizations can bring relational practice into the workplace and make the hard work of collaboration and teamwork visible. This book has spawned seminars and courses in relational practice in the workplace.

Creating and Implementing Your Strategic Plan: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement, by John Bryson. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995. Can be ordered online at: www.josseybass.com
This 295-page book explains strategic planning and its value to nonprofit organizations. It successfully outlines the dynamics of strategic planning, the key steps in carrying out the process, and a plan for managing the process. The book also presents methods for identifying external threats and opportunities to strategic planning, offers an overview for an oval mapping process, and explores concepts for establishing an effective organizational vision for the future.

The Rush to Merge: Considerations About Nonprofit Strategic Alliances, by Ruth McCambridge and Mary Francis Weis. Boston: The Boston Foundation, 1997. Can be ordered from: The Boston Foundation, One Boston Place, 24th Floor, Boston, MA 02108.
The Rush to Merge is a slim, 30-page volume packed with sound advice about how non-profit organizations should approach alliances, collaborations, and mergers. Non-profits are increasingly asked to enter into community planning, collaborations with other providers, and alliances with organizations concerned with common populations. However, the benefits of such activities are based in largely unexplored assumptions. The Rush to Merge explores questions organizations should raise before they enter into negotiations, concerns that must be addressed for an alliance to succeed, and structural options for implementing a collaboration.

"Three Roles of the Leader in the New Paradigm" by Stephen Covey. In: Leader of the Future. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. Can be ordered online at: www.josseybass.com
No resource list is complete without attention to ethical and moral considerations in management and leadership. Covey brings our attention to principle-centered leadership. He defines leadership in terms of three roles: developing a compelling vision and mission, forming continuity between the vision and the mission, and viewing employees as assets through which the vision and mission can be achieved. He stresses the importance of leaders in creating a value system based on principles of humility, courage, and integrity. Covey's work has inspired many leaders to look beyond the traditional view of management, which is often divorced from personal qualities and values.

Marcia Drew Hohn, Ed.D., is the director of Northeast SABES at Northern Essex Community College. She can be reached at 978-738-7301 or by e-mail at: mdrewhohn@aol.com