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Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change

By Louis Carter, David Ulrich, and Marshall Goldsmith

Pfeiffer/Wiley, $75

In spite of the fact that the book needs a bit of editing, the case studies presented by renowned thinkers Ulrich, Goldsmith, and Carter are going to be of help to a great many of you and not much help to others of you, simply because of the scale of the companies profiled. Of the 18 firms highlighted, 13 are great big boys (Mattel, McDonald's, HP, and Intel to name a few) and the other five are just big. It's not a book for the small operator, but that's no reason to leave it on the shelf, either.

Mr. Carter's organization, the Best Practices Institute (www.bpinstitute.net), conducted best practice studies in areas like product development, team building, ROI calculation, continuous assessment, technology integration, and yes, employing Eastern philosophy to build consensus. How, um, California.

And, believe it or not, there is some compelling reading here. If I had a choice based on studies, I'd take my skills to Intel. They use some people development resources with which I am very familiar, such as The Leadership Challenge from James Kouzes and Barry Posner, and the video products of Ninth House Network, plus Tom Peter's WOW! Projects. Their Leadership Development Forum is a very well-thought-out and comprehensive program that also happens to be highly innovative and non-traditional. It appears to be 74.5 hours of the most fun any of us could have on the job. Since Intel's very existence is based upon encouraging innovation and non-traditional thinking and behavior, that's the premise and point of their developmental activities. How, er, California. —S.C.