Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 300 pages
- Published by: Berrett-Koehler Publishers June 9, 2004
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 157675264X
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1576752647
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Book Dimensions:
8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
- Weighs: 12.6 ounces
Product Description
"Action inquiry" is the process of transformational learning that individuals (and even whole organizations) can undertake to better assess current dangers and opportunities, act in a timely manner, and make future visions come true. Through short stories of leadership and organizational changes in the areas of business, politics, health care, and education, this book illustrates how this process can increase personal integrity, improve relationships, and lead to company profitability and long-term success.
About The Author
Now Professor of Management at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, Bill Torbert has earlier served as the school’s Graduate Dean and Director of the PhD Program in Organizational Transformation. He currently teaches the MBA Leadership Workshop, an elective in Consulting, and a doctoral seminar in Action Research Methods. He is one of the founding faculty of the Executive Program Leadership for Change at Boston College, and is a founding Research Member of the international Society for Organizational Learning, as well as a founding associate of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute. Within the academy, he has served as Chair for the Organization Development & Change Division of the Academy of Management and on the Board of the Organization Behavior Teaching Society.
Torbert has consulted widely (e.g. Odebrecht Construction [Brazil], Volvo and UBS Warburg [England], Lego [Denmark]) and served on the Boards of
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Trillium Asset Management (the first and largest independent social investing advisor).
With regard to scholarship, Torbert is best known for his theories, cases, surveys, and lab and field experiments in regard to developmental transformation at both the personal and organizational levels, as well as within science itself, undergirded by an action research process exercised in real-time, everyday life, called "developmental action inquiry." Unlike most purely third-person, analytic social science research, action inquiry integrates first-person, second-person, and third-person research/practice in real-time. His most recent books include: 1) his national Alpha Sigma Nu award winning Managing the Corporate Dream (Dow Jones-Irwin, 1987); 2) his Terry Award Finalist book The Power of Balance: Transforming Self, Society, and Scientific Inquiry (Sage, 1991); 3) Personal and Organizational Transformations: Through Action Inquiry (co-authored with D. Fisher & D. Rooke, Edge\Work Press, 2000, available through torbert@bc.edu); and 4) Transforming Social Inquiry, Transforming Social Action, coedited with Francine Sherman (Kluwer, 2000).
Reader ReviewsACTION-INQUIRY is a great book with lots of useful concepts. The editorial and other reviews focus on the content and I won't repeat a lot of that. However, I have some other comments to make that may be useful and I can describe my experience applying the ideas in daily life. The authors introduce the idea that every action is an inquiry and every inquiry is an action. The premise of the book is that you need to be in inquiry in every moment at different levels to make the best choices and approach decisions with full awareness. This is a useful concept and it is illustrated throughout the book with many real-life business examples. As a former director in a large company, I can say that these are practical ideas that if applied could be very transformational to an organization. The challenge is to really impliment them and not just pay lip service to the concepts. This must begin with the leaders. If they don't buy into the model, it will be difficult to get other people onboard, but not impossible. The book is about each individual being a change agent through action-inquiry. What I didn't like about the book is that I found there were too many examples to illustrate the same basic concepts, there was also quite a bit of repetition of concepts and an unnecessary use of jargon where plain everyday language would have done just fine. I think this book could have been half the length and been just as effective. I also think the author could have presented his ideas more clearly and concisely. In places, he uses different language for the various levels of inquiry and this tends to make the flow more confusing than it has to be. In the next revision, it would be good to see some of these issues addressed. However, I still recommend this book to business and other leaders. In fact, it is useful for anyone who wants to live with more awareness and choice through tuning into various levels of inquiry in the midst of action. Basically, we are talking about taking a systems approach to life where we have practices that give us access to better quality feedback. This is the essence of the book.
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