The New How

Once in a generation, a book comes along that transforms the business landscape. For today's business leaders, The New How redefines the way companies create strategies and win new markets.

Management gurus who have always said that "people matter" still relegate strategy to an elite set of executives who focus on frameworks, long presentations, and hierarchical approaches. Business strategy typically has been planned by corporate chiefs and then dictated to managers to carry out. The New How turns that notion on its head. After many years of working with Apple, Adobe, HP, and other companies, Nilofer Merchant discovered the secret sauce: the best way to create a winning strategy is to connect employees at all levels across the enterprise, enlisting their participation in building strategy they not only believe in, but are also equipped to implement.

• Introduction: Why Strategies Fail
• Chapter 1: System Overload
  • Blaming People Only Works for So Long
  • The Three Systemic Patterns
  • The Telltale Signs
  • Strategy in the Organizational System
  • Naming the Systemic Issues Lets Us Fix Them
• Part I: "Being" Collaborators
  • Chapter 2: Each of Us
    • When Individuals Step Up Their Game, the Overall Game Gets Better
    • Perspective Change
    • Beyond Title
    • Each of Us: Co-Creator
    • Five Practices for Busting Out
    • Sitting Forward, Going Forward
  • Chapter 3: As We Lead
    • Enabling Organizational Velocity
    • The End of the Era of the Chief of Answers
    • The Goal Is Repeated Wins
    • Transitioning to the Un-Hero
    • The Seven Responsibilities
    • Be a Collaborative Leader
• Part II: The QuEST Process for Collaborative Strategy
  • Chapter 4: Phase I: Question
    • Know What We Need to Ask and Answer
    • How It All Works
    • Sequences of the Question Phase
    • The Goal: Getting Shared Understanding
  • Chapter 5: Phase II: Envision
    • Create Options That Matter and Know Why They Matter
    • How to Do It
    • Envision Roles and Responsibilities
    • The Goal: Achieving Viable Options That People Believe In
  • Chapter 6: Phase III: Select
    • Killing Off Bad Ideas So Good Ideas Can Thrive
    • Selecting "The One"
    • Murderboarding: What Is It?
    • Steps to Murderboarding
    • Select Roles and Responsibilities
    • Sequence of Select
    • The Goal: Selecting a Winning Strategy
    • Moving On
  • Chapter 7: Phase IV: Take
    • Eliminate Gaps by Owning Outcome
    • The Goal: Taking Ownership
    • Wrapping Up
• Part III: Foundations to Successful Collaborative Organizations
  • Chapter 8: Collaborating to Win
    • What Makes It Work Inside the Corporation Context
• Epilogue: It's What We Make of It
• Appendix A: Tools
• Appendix B: Resources

What at a first glance looks very interesting, is when you look inside in detail, yet another book about Collaborative Strategy with a bit of Learning Organization thrown in.

It is nothing wrong in the book, and some gems exists, but there is nothing here to get excited about.

Read it, if you are a New Economy person or a relatively fresh junior executive.