Friday, November 11, 2011

The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform An Entire Organization By Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton

The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization

The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization
By Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton

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Product Description

From New York Times bestselling authors and renowned leadership consultants Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton comes a groundbreaking guide to building high-performance teams. What is the true driver of a thriving organization's exceptional success? Is it a genius leader? An iron-clad business plan? Gostick and Elton shatter these preconceptions of corporate achievement. Their research shows that breakthrough success is guided by a particular breed of high-performing team that generates its own momentum—an engaged group of colleagues in the trenches, working passionately together to pursue a shared vision. Their research also shows that only 20 percent of teams are working anywhere near this optimal capacity. How can your team become one of them?Based on a groundbreaking 350,000-person study by the Best Companies Group, as well as extraordinary research into exceptional teams at leading companies, including Zappos.com, Pepsi Beverages Company, and Madison Square Garden, the authors have determined a key set of characteristics displayed by members of breakthrough teams, and have identified a set of rules great teams live by, which generate a culture of positive teamwork and lead to extraordinary results. Using a wealth of specific stories from the breakthrough teams they studied, they reveal in detail how these teams operate and how managers can transform their own teams into such high performers by fostering:Stronger clarity of goalsGreater trust among team membersMore open and honest dialogueStronger accountability for all team membersPurpose-based recognition of team members' contributions

The remarkable stories they tell about these teams in action provide a simple and powerful step-by-step guide to taking your team to the breakthrough level, igniting the passion and vision to bring about an Orange Revolution.

Product Details
  • Amazon Sales Rank: #42894 in Books
  • Published on: 2010-09-21
  • Released on: 2010-09-21
  • Format: Bargain Price
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 288 pages
Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Why doesn't every corporate leader actively listen to employees and to veteran consultants like Gostick and Elton (authors of the Carrot Principle books)? Though the answer to that question isn't the subject of this book, adopting the how-to's for realizing dreams could indeed provide the solution to staid, stagnant, and unrewarding work in America. As with most human resources type of business books, the authors present ideas in a many-stepped process, with principles to follow, often too many to remember. Yet if readers and executives just stick to their rule of three (wow, no surprises, and cheer), the rewards of an engaged workforce will probably ensue. Examples of great teams, believe it or not, proliferate here; in addition to the well-known cultures of a Zappos, for instance, there are also stories from Medical City Dallas Hospital, Pepsi Bottling Group, the Blue Angels, and Nash Finch, all about the power of teams to transform. And lest you think that the authors simply collected anecdotes, their philosophy is based on valid and overwhelming statistics, thanks to the Best Places to Work database (350,000 employees from 28 industries): 63 percent of workers surveyed found productivity to be positively affected when coworkers are friends outside of work (to cite just one finding). Take a letter to the C-suite: it's all about work that matters. --Barbara Jacobs

Review
"This book can change your business as it teaches you how you can create great teams to WOW your customers, employees and vendors."

—Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos, and Author of Delivering Happiness

"Truly groundbreaking. Gostick and Elton take us to new heights in cultivating great teams. This book will bring you world-class results!"

—Marshall Goldsmith, Executive Coach and Author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There

"From the first story to the last, The Orange Revolution captivated me. Chock full of solid research, inspiring stories and practical tips on how to turn your group into a breakthrough team. Their 100 ways to bring your team together is alone worth the price of the book.

—Jim Kouzes, coauthor, The Leadership Challenge and The Truth about Leadership.

"This book captures the true essence of leadership and how leaders develop teams that make a difference and truly work."

—GJ Hart, President & CEO, Texas Roadhouse, Inc.

"The book is a blueprint for revolutionary team performance. It is a neo-classic."

—Dave Ulrich, Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and Partner, The RBL Group

"A rare and extraordinary business book, The Orange Revolution contains everything you need to cultivate a breakthrough team."

—Matt Davis, CEO, Pets at Home (UK's largest pet store chain)

"The Orange Revolution should be required reading for all people leaders wishing to unleash the power of their workforce and create an ongoing fountain of high performance."

—David Kasiarz, Senior VP of Global Compensation and Benefits, American Express

About the Author
Adrian Gostick is the former leader of O. C. Tanner Company's recognition training and publishing practice. He continues to work as a speaker for the program as well as the business. His books The 24-Carrot Manager and A Carrot A Day are sold in more than fifty countries around the world. Learn more at adriangostick.com.

Chester Elton is coauthor of the bestselling Carrot books, a popular lecturer on motivation, and an influential voice in global workplace trends. He was previously O.C. Tanner's lead recognition consultant and researcher and works with numerous Fortune 100 clients. Subscribe to his weekly podcasts at chesterelton.com

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
5How to leverage the power of teamwork to achieve breakthroughs to greatness
By Robert Morris

Those who have read any of Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton's previous collaborations, notably Managing with Carrots: Using Recognition to Attract and Retain the Best People (2001) and The Carrot Principle: How Great Managers Use Employee Recognition (2007), already know that they have exceptional reasoning and writing skills, their observations and recommendations are research/evidence-driven, and they are world-class pragmatists, determined to know what works in the business world, what doesn't, and why so that they can share what they have learned with as many people as possible.

In The Orange Revolution, they share the results of a 350, 000 person survey (involving participants from 28 different industries) to identify the characteristics of the most effective teams. By now, we know a great deal about great non-athletic teams such the Disney animators who created so many film classics (e.g. Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo), the Manhattan Project, Lockheed's "Skunk Works," and Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). In fact, some of the most important business books written in recent years have focused on teamwork and they include several written by these authors: Chip and Dan Heath (Switch), Jon Katzenbach (The Wisdom of Teams and Managing Outside the Lines), John Kotter (A Sense of Urgency and Buy-In), Patrick Lencioni (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team), and James O'Toole (Leading Change). All are worthy of careful consideration as primary sources for teams involved in change initiatives.

So, why another book on change? No other book of which I am aware, on the subject of breakthrough teams, is driven by research/evidence to the extent this one is. Nor is there a book of which I am aware that explains more thoroughly than this one does what motivates members of breakthrough teams. In The Orange Revolution, Gostick and Elton limit their attention to such teams. (You know when I think about it, ALL teams should achieve breakthroughs to ensure that their organization remains competitive.) They base their observations, insights, and recommendations on the results of the aforementioned survey. "What we found was unexpected - and eye-opening. We were able to statistically establish a pattern of characteristics displayed by members of the best teams, as well as a set of rules that great teams live by. Even more rewarding was the realization that these qualities could be shared with other teams." The business subjects and themes that Gostick and Elton rigorously examine include these:

o Commitments all breakthrough team members share
o The transformational common causes these teams establish
o The four top obstacles related to neglect of leadership basics
o The "Basic 4+ Recognition" formula to achieve enhanced business results

Note: This formula is based on a ten-year study on which The Carrot Principle is based.

o The five areas most likely to indicate positive and productive employee engagement
o How breakthrough team members communicate effectively
o Six "secret" ingredients to achieving world-class results
o Common consequences when violating the "No Surprises" rule
o "Tips on how to ensure an effective recognition program
o Seventeen of the most common teamwork challenges and how to respond to each
o How to establish and then sustain a breakthrough teamwork culture
o How to recruit, hire, train, and retain high-potential workers
o How to develop effective breakthrough leadership at all levels and in all areas

This list is incomplete but, I hope, gives some idea of the nature and extent of the business subjects and themes on which Gostick and Elton focus. They cite hundreds of real-world situations, many of which feature exemplary organizations that are consistently ranked among the best to work for, the most highly admired, etc. It is no coincidence that they are also among the most profitable with the greatest cap value within their respective industries. For example, American Express, Best Companies Group, Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, Medical City Dallas Hospital, Nash Finch Company, NBA, Royal Australian Navy, and Zappos.

I highly recommend this book to leaders in organizations in which there is an urgent need for what can be accomplished by breakthrough teamwork. The wider, higher, further, and deeper that teamwork extends, the greater the number and impact of the breakthroughs that result from results-driven, highly-motivated collaborators who, in Teresa Amabile's widely-quoted words, "do what they love and love what they do."

In my opinion, this is the best book that Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton have written...thus far. They invite those who read this book to visit carrots.com/orange to obtain several free resources: "The Orange White Paper: Teamwork and Your Bottom Line," "Weekly Esprit de Corps: Fresh Cheering Ideas in Your Inbox," "Film #1: WOW," "Film #2: No Surprises," and "Film #3: Cheer."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
4Orange Refreshment
By Nick McCormick
Carrying forth the successful theme created in their best seller, "The Carrot Principle," the co-authors set out to identify the characteristics and rules that govern great teams. They gathered data from over 350,000 surveys and captured their findings in what they call the "Orange Revolution Model." As expected, there is a healthy dose of recognition mixed in, but there is also much more. You'll learn about the importance of purpose or common cause, the foundational characteristics of great teams encapsulated in "The Basic 4," and how to weave in "The Rule of 3." The authors also apply the same principles as a guide for living our lives.

It's a refreshing, easy, and entertaining read with a lot of good pointers and helpful examples. One important take-away is that the characteristics of great teams are not flashy. They are incredibly fundamental. Too many managers try to leap frog the fundamentals in search of breakthroughs when it's the fundamentals that are required if one has any hope of achieving the coveted breakthrough.

--Nick McCormick, Author, "Acting Up Brings Everyone Down" and "Lead Well and Prosper"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
5Execute better
By Norman Lacasse
As mentionned in " The Orange Revolution ", " The way to win in a sea of sameness is to execute better ". This book will help you do it. In many areas. I realy appreciate when they say : " A leader's greatest success comes by lifting someone else into the spotlight ". One of the greatest key to Success.

Norman Lacasse
Author
Master Of Service

http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/B005OHS84Y

 

 

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