Russ Linden & Associates is a management education and consulting firm, providing services that support organizational performance and change.
We offer open enrollment workshops as well as customized programs in such areas as collaboration, creating a customer-focused organization, the human side of change, and organizational learning.
Russ Linden's Management Columns:
Russ is one of a group of authors who write columns for the "Management Insights" series. These weekly columns are published online by Governing Magazine, and by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. To see all of Russ's past columns, click on the Governing cover to the right.
Here's his latest column:
"STORY POWER"
Don't underestimate the strength of a good story to persuade people and move them to action.
I wasn't going to contribute to National Public Radio this year. Yes, I love its jazz and classical music, and I appreciate the news stories I can't get anywhere else, but it was just one check too many. Our daughter will be married soon, we're committed to several other wonderful causes (all of which are hurting because of the recession), and NPR would have to wait until next year.
...Then I heard this story during NPR's annual fall fund drive. A woman talked about her own decision not to contribute to NPR one year, but every time she heard the appeal for money during the fund drive, she felt guilty. So she'd turn off the radio and play her favorite song, which happens to be "You Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog," sung by Big Mama Thornton. After a while, she'd turn NPR back on to hear the news or music.
For the full column, click here, and for a complete list of columns, click the GOVERNING cover to the upper right.
Russ' most recent Book
Most government agencies are filled with "technocrats"- employees with strong technical skills who are most comfortable working on the operational aspects of thier jobs. It sometimes takes years before they learn what Bob Stripling, a long-time city manager, discovered. As Bob puts it, "The longer I work in this business, the more I realize that it's fundamentally about managing relationships."
That's
one of the key themes running through "The Trusted Leader".
It shows how managers and leaders in government are finding ways to build
trust, work across boundaries, and connect with a variety of stakeholders
to add value and improve performance.
Russ is pleased as both a contributer to this book,
and a teacher in this field, to recommend this title as an insightful
aid to those looking to broaden thier understanding in this area.
For more on this new title, as well as ordering,
click on the cover to the right.
Watch for Russ' new book, to be released in February 2010.
Read Russ's Most Recent Columns on Management in Governing Magazine.
Russ's Most Recent columns on management innovations posted on the Public Manager website.
Latest Book:
Working Across Boundaries
What People Are
Saying About
Working Across
Boundaries
Are you a "Collaborative Leader"? Collaborative leaders understand how to lead as a peer (not only as a superior). They know that many of their most important projects require cooperation from people over whom they have no formal authority. Thus, they use the art of influence to gain cooperation. Read Russ's article on collaborative leadership, which appeared in the Summer, 2003 issue of the Leader to Leader journal. Click here to see the article in its entirety. "The Quest to Become 'One'"- A New Report by Russ Linden* Have you ever wondered,"How do I get all of the employees to start pulling in the same direction?" Why do some managers still make it their career strategy to hoard information instead of sharing it? Why is it difficult for the workforce to see the big picture? In recent years, several large federal organizations have tried to answer these questions through intitatives aimed at getting all of their units to work as "one". This report describes three such efforts in detail, at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Transportation, and NASA. Each used different approaches, but they undertook their intitiatives for the same reasons: their customers demanded it, and they couldn't succeed as fragmented entitites. The paper examines what it means for large public agencies to work in an integrated way, across the hurdles faced in doing so, the strategies that seem to work well, and some lessons learned.
* This report was published by the IBM Center for Business of Government. You can learn more about ths Center at: www.businessofgovernment.org.
Located at: Contact Us: 609 East Market Street Phone: (434) 979-6421
Suite 206 fax: (434) 977-1187 Charlottesville, Virginia 22902 e-mail: russlinden@earthlink.net
Website updated: November 10th, 2009.
PowerPoints updated: March 18th, 2009.