Action Dialogues: Meaningful Conversations to Accelerate Change (Diversity Breakthrough! Strategic Action Series)...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 84 pages
• Published by: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Edition: 1st Edition January 1, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1583760563
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1583760567
• Book Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 13.6 ounces

Product Review
Meant to be used optimally as a part of Debbe Kennedy's Diversity Breakthrough! Strategic Action series, this is a simple pack of 52 glossy cards, each isolating specific roadblocks that organizations commonly face when looking to launch a diversity initiative. The first, for example, reads, "Our leadership team does not reflect our stated commitment to inclusion." Another reads, "Resistance to change keeps diversity out of reach."

Grouped into seven areas--leadership, culture, involvement, the business, strategies and measures, staffing, and ownership--they can be passed out in groups of any size to allow participants to literally "put their cards on the table" about internal issues they'd rather not bring up aloud. (And, yes, they do come with a brief but useful user's guide with a foreword by the Drucker Foundation's Frances Hesselbein.) They're not only a brilliant icebreaker for this potent topic but a good first step toward isolating specific areas of strength and weakness within an organization when it comes to diversity.

The cards can be used alone or in conjunction with the six booklets in the Strategic Action series, each of which focuses on a crucial phase in what author Kennedy, a veteran consultant and a former manager of Equal Opportunity and human resources at IBM, calls the "imperfect circle" of change: "Assessment," "Acceptance," "Action," "Accountability," "Achievement," and--you guessed it--"More Action." Each booklet comes with self-assessment tools, concrete action strategies to mobilize change, fun and quick action-planning worksheets, and firsthand accounts from leaders at an impressive variety of organizations, from big companies to small nonprofits, that explains how they met the challenge of walking-the-talk with diversity. Each concise, 64-page booklet is as adaptable to an organization-wide initiative or a small group effort as it is to a single individual's nighttime reading and enrichment (where organizational change, after all, often begins).

Managers, consultants, and trainers can use these Action Dialogue cards independently as an assessment tool before launching a diversity initiative or in conjunction with the Strategic Action booklets as add-ons. The cards are really the touchstone in a highly integrated program that demystifies diversity management and accords it the seriousness it deserves. --Timothy Murphy

Product Review
Debbe Kennedy has given us multiple gifts--first, the gift of her deep experience with diversity work, and second, her creative gifts of presenting these ideas in a way that makes them intriguing and compelling. We have a great need for her work, because until we learn to work together in all our awesome, disturbing, and intriguing diversity, we will not be able to create organizations that can dance through these turbulent days. -- Margaret J. Wheatley, Author, Leadership and the New Science and Coauthor, A Simpler Way

Diversity Breakthrough! makes diversity a topic that is at last approachable for everyone-an opportunity to learn and grow. It makes you want to get involved. -- Debby McIsaac, Global People Development Manager, Hewlett-Packard Consulting, Letter to Publisher, November 1999

Hard hitting, pragmatic approaches, supported by well selected stories, all reinforcing the Perpetual Cycle of Action model that Kennedy has built. Diversity Breakthrough! is truly a treasure of yet undiscovered proportions. Sharp. Pragmatic. Immediately useful, forever valuable. -- Lane Michel, Partner, Director of Western Region Peppers and Rogers Group, Marketing 1 to 1, Inc., Letter to Publisher, October 1999

I took a tour of Debbe Kennedy's new work one evening, and was immediately (the next day) able to utilize her tools with a client. And, I was a hero! Her package is superb and moves (even the most sophisticated) into deep dialogue. Any organization launching a diversity effort, or in the midst of one, must press the pause button and check this out! Debbe Kennedy provides both insight and action for any practioner at any size company with the topic of diversity on their plate! A perfect set of interventions for the beginner or the skilled professional." -- Beverly Kaye, President, Career Systems International, Inc., Letter to Publisher, January 24, 2000

Once in a great while, someone comes up with a truly unique approach to human relationships. Debbe Kennedy is that someone. Her approach to diversity is the most innovative, insightful, practical, helpful set of concepts and tools I've seen in a very long time. Diversity Breakthrough is destined to become a 'classic. -- Barbara "BJ" Hateley, Co-Author, Peacock in the Land of Penguins:A Tale of Diversity and Discovery; Letter to Publisher, October 1999

Outstanding! In Diversity Breakthrough, Debbe Kennedy performs a "triage" on the myriad of action management technologies and comes up with the bare essentials that are tried and true. The author reduces years of management experiences to simple common denominators that can be read and appreciated in a short time period.

I had a sense all the way through the books that the author had been there, herself. This, more than any other one factor, influenced my acceptance of her methods. Her message: individuality, simplicity and diversity are virtues to be treasured because they lead to innovation.

I liked these books a lot. Not only were they immediately informative, but will serve as a great shelf references in my library for years to come. -- Irving W. DeVoe, Ph.D., Chief Scientist and Vice-Chairman, MR3 Systems, Inc., Letter February 2000

The topic of diversity has been an ongoing challenge to every element of modern society. Debbe Kennedy has taken on this challenge and produced, with her new book series, a process which, I think, does the best job of generating action and growth toward understanding diversity and utilizing its extraordinary advantages. Particularly important is the powerful and novel set of activities and exercises that draws in everyone and enables them to climb to a new plateau of understanding and commitment. -- Joel A. Barker, Futurist and Author Discovering the Future: The Business of Paradigms; Letter to Publisher, November 1999

Reader Reviews
You don't need more meetings or brainstorming sessions to identify what needs to be done and what the issues are. Leaders of the future need to enable themselves and their teams to work successfully among people with differences. Debbe Kennedy has heard it all, collected the best ideas and solutions, and has prepared this easy to use and understand tool kit. It allows you to get to work, start talking and build a deeper understanding of people. Most managers and human resource professionals do not know how to tackle the subject of diversity and inclusion and let their own sensitivities and lack of knowledge and experience get in the way. The Action Dialogues will more than get you started and keep you talking and thinking and doing.