The Forgotten Half of Change shows you how to unlock and embrace business creativity by changing perceptions. Humorous and humanistic, this unique business book pokes fun at our weaknesses yet sympathizes with our desire to be both active and thoughtful. It entertains and challenges readers with an array of examples drawn from philosophy, mathematics, technology, and linguistics.
Buy this book at: Amazon Barnes and Noble
Managers are trained to change reality. Leaders teach themselves to change perception. This is the essential and often "forgotten half of change," argues Luc de Brabandere, a partner and managing director in BCG's Paris office.
"We must all change twice. Consider people who always arrive late. They could get an appointment book, or wake up earlier, or schedule more time between meetings. But change is not just a matter of better organization. If they limit their change to action only, they will revert to their old habits and arrive late again within weeks. To really make a change, they need to change the way they look at punctuality."
The same applies to those who aspire to change organizations. Running a company is a task that straddles two distinct dimensions. There is daily management, decisions made to improve the process on a continual basis. This is where the manager acts for the company. And there is the level where the manager invents the future, thinks for the benefit of the company.
Luc de Brabandere shows us with words and pictures as well as intelligence and charm.
- How stereotypes impede business creativity and how you can smash them
- How metaphors and analogies trap your thinking and how you can break out of them
- How questioning can lead you to organizational "Eureka" moments
- How to tell the difference between "new" ideas and really "good" ideas
Inspiring creativity is one of the most pressing needs for American corporations, particularly those in markets that are forcing them not only to improve but also to transform themselves. The Forgotten Half of Change will help managers think about how they think. This understanding will enable them to sense when it is time to focus on the second half of change—changing perceptions of themselves, markets, and competitors.
- Changing Twice
- A Non Finito World
- Seeing is Believing?
- Surviving the Success
- Think Twice, It's All Right!
- The Magic of Imagination
- An Ideas Factory
- The "Ideal" Manager
Notes
Bibliography
Luc de Brabandere is a specialist in creativity applied to business. Since 2001, he has been responsible for the development of creativity both within The Boston Consulting Group and with many of BCG's clients. His strategic seminars have been attended by a wide range of audiences from several industries.
Since the early 1980s, de Brabandere has been developing his philosophical approach to management and technologies, based on systems analysis and creative techniques. A prolific author, de Brabandere is a regular columnist for various newspapers and has authored or cowritten nine books.
Before joining The Boston Consulting Group, de Brabandere was the chairman of the National Geographic Institute, the general manager of the Brussels Stock Exchange, where he was a player in the "Big Bang" capital-market reformation initiated by the Ministry of Finance, and a computer scientist and information service manager at the Generale de Banque.
De Brabandere graduated as a civil engineer in applied mathematics (1971) and philosophy (2003) from the Catholic University in Louvain.
