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Recommended Resources

The OED team has collected this list of organization development resources for the reference and use of the MIT community. We refer to these resources frequently in our work with clients at the Institute. We hope you'll enjoy them.

The resources are arranged within OED Learning Topic categories (although some resources may apply to more than one category), and then alphabetically within each Learning Topic category. You may print the entire list by pressing Control-P on your keyboard.


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COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS
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Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
Authors: Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen, Roger Fisher
Type of resource: Book
Published: 2000, Penguin
Description or notes: This book was developed from ten years of work at the Harvard Negotiation Project. Written to help professionals, parents, teachers, government officials, corporations and communities, Difficult Conversations offers a concrete, step-by-step approach to preparing for and conducting your most challenging conversations.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook : Strategies and tools for building a learning organization
Author: Peter M. Senge, et al
Type of resource: Book
Published: 1994, Currency, Doubleday
Description or notes: A compendium of articles, case studies and exercises for developing a learning organization. Key to the creation and maintenance of a learning organization is interpersonal communication skills, which are highlighted throughout the book.

Powerful Conversations: How High Impact Leaders Communicate
Author: Phil Harkins
Type of resource: Book
Published: 1999, McGraw-Hill
Description or notes: Powerful Conversations is aimed at maximizing the impact of your communications. Specific guidelines show you how to personalize Harkins' program to your own unique style and situation. Examples of Powerful Conversation techniques in action, case studies, and self-tests help you analyze your own conversational style.


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DESIGNING MEETINGS
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Facilitation at a Glance
Author: Ingred Bens
Type of resource: Book
Published: GOAL/QPC
Description or notes: A wonderful Pocket Guide to facilitation, filled with tools and techniques useful to both novice and advanced facilitators. Great set of tools for Problem Solving.

Facilitators Guide to Participatory Decision-Making
Author: Sam Kaner
Type of resource: Book
Published: New Society Publishers, 1996
Description or notes: An excellent resource for ideas on facilitation, with a focus on decision-making tools and techniques. The book includes excellent illustrations, which can be reproduced to help explain facilitation concepts to others.

How to Make Meetings Work
Author: Doyle, Michael & David Straus
Type of resource: Book
Published: Jove Books, 1976
Description or notes: A classic in the field of meeting design and facilitation. This book was the first to describe many of the ideas which are now common practice. Doyle and Straus developed the "Interaction Method" back in the 1970s. This is the basis for the Mastering Meetings course we teach at MIT.


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LEADING AND MANAGING OTHERS
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MANAGING CHANGE
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Adult Development and Leadership
Author: Robert Kegan
Type of resource: Book
Published:
Description or notes: Very readable article that outlines how adult development is expressed in leadership. Great for client centered approaches.

Leading Change
Author: John Kotter
Type of resource: Book
Published: Harvard Business School Press, 1996
Description or notes: A change classics that includes an 8 step model for implementing change.

Managing the Corporate Dream
Author: William Torbert
Type of resource: Book
Published: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1987
Description or notes: This book is more academic in tone and intent, but in it Torbert describes a developmental ladder of leaders and a parallel ladder of organizations. He offers both descriptive and prescriptive commentary. Wonderful in showing organizations and leaders as growing things that meet distinct challenge points as they move from one stage to another.

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
Author: William Bridges
Type of resource: Book
Published:
Description or notes: Bridges is a very readable author, and well spoken about the psychological aspects of change in personal and organizational life.

Productive Workplaces
Author: Martin Weisbord
Type of resource: Book
Published: 1987
Description or notes: A wonderfully readable book about the 20th century history and theory of change; suitable for ardent students of management and organizational development.

Strategies for Change
Author: Kotter and Schlesinger
Type of resource: Article
Published:
Description or notes: An "old chestnut" but still relevant, this 1979 Harvard Business Review article offers a handy assessment for how to implement changes based on key factors surrounding the change.

Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Author: Spencer Johnson
Type of resource: Book
Published:
Description or notes: This simple, quick read is a popular book on dealing with change.

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WORKING ON TEAMS
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The Discipline of Teams
Author: Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith
Type of resource: Article
Publisher: Harvard Business Review, March-April 1993.
Description or notes: A classic in the literature on teams; a highly readable article that provide systematic findings on how and why teams work. If you're only going to read one article, I'd recommend this one. -- Judith Stein

Keeping Your Team Out of Trouble
Author: Ingrid Bens
Type of resource: Article
Publisher: Journal for Quality & Participation, Jul/Aug99, Vol. 22 Issue 4, p45, 3p
Description or notes: When teams are formed, there's a strong tendency to put on rose-colored glasses and focus on all the benefits. Too often there's no recognition that most teams will experience some interpersonal friction, not to mention other roadblocks. Ingrid Bens provides some prevention strategies for averting team conflict.

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