Amazon.ca:Customer reviews: Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within

Top positive review

If you have any question on the impact of change, this will bring clarity

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 30, 2013

This book will spur you to really look at your life, both personally and professionally. It is clear and concise, and brings home how each of us can direct the path of our own life and the effect that has on others. I read this book for the first time almost ten years ago, and now re-reading it, it reminds me of is still available for me to do to take life to the next level. I highly recommend this book!

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Ryan Eric Jones

It's not yoy

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 24, 2021

My girlfriend can't read this without getting upset.

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From Canada

JANICE L GOLDMINTZ

If you have any question on the impact of change, this will bring clarity

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on July 30, 2013

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 5, 2016

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Helpful

Robert Morris

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 22, 2000

By chance rather than by choice, I read this book before reading others previously or subsequently written by Quinn. Deep Change provides an appropriate introduction to any one of them. I value his books so highly because they make substantial contributions to our understanding of HOW to achieve and then sustain meaningful change, both in our personal lives and in our organizations.
According to Quinn, "Incremental change is usually the result of a rational analysis and planning process. There is a desired goal with a specific set of steps for reaching it. Incremental change is usually limited in scope and often reversible. If the change does not work out, we can always return to the bold way. Incremental change usually does not disrupt our past patterns -- it is an extension of the past. Most important, during incremental change, we feel we are in control." Does all this sound familiar? Has Quinn described accurately how change occurs within your organization?
Now consider a second brief excerpt: "This book explores a much more difficult change process, the process of deep change. Deep change differs from incremental change in that it requires new ways of thinking and behaving. It is change that is major in scope, discontinuous with the past and generally irreversible. The deep change effort distorts existing patterns of action and involves taking risks. Deep change means surrendering control." Decades ago, David Riesman made the helpful distinction between "inner-directed" and "other-directed" people. The same can also be said of organizations (communities of people) when determining the nature, extent, and location of control. Quinn believes that "one person can change the larger system or organization in which he or she exists." If I understand Quinn correctly, his central assertion is this: If and only if enough individuals achieve deep change individually can their shared organization then achieve deep change.
This is a very dangerous concept. Unlike incremental change, deep change poses a very serious threat to the status quo of an organization and, especially, to those who (you can be certain) will steadfastly defend it. There will also be perils for those who seek to achieve deep change in their individual lives. Cherished assumptions, premises, values, and beliefs will all be called into question and many of them will be found inadequate, if not false. As Quinn describes it, those undergoing deep change will feel as if they are "walking naked into the land of uncertainty." He acknowledges "This is usually a terrifying choice, often involving a ' dark night of the soul.'" In Riesman's view, that person becomes inner-directed. For Quinn, that person is "internally driven...more capable of leading under conditions of continuous change...more organic."
What is the alternative? Quinn's answer: "slow death." I am reminded of a relevant insight expressed by Ernest Becker in The Denial of Death. He acknowledges that no one can deny physical death but there is another death which anyone can deny: the death which occurs when we become wholly preoccupied with fulfilling others' expectations of us. A slow death indeed. If you wish to achieve deep change in your life, and are now involved in an organization which can only tolerate incremental change (if any change at all), I urge you to find another organization.

Helpful

Kyle Lassiter

Change, die or exist

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on March 24, 2004

Organizations and people adapt to their environments and change, or they die or they merely exist.(become the walking dead in Quinn's words) However, there are times when something more than evolution is needed and that revolution is called "deep change". Quinn outlines why so many people in so many organizations see the need for change, but the leaders just talk or say, "I told them to change" and the followers wonder why nothing ever happens. Quinn offers explanations for why the change frequently does not take place and then gives examples of how it can and has happened in other places.
He gives us hope that perhaps things can change. In any case he helps us to learn to be the transformational leader, if we look inside and if we are willing to face the pain of change.
Another reviewer pans Quinn for concentrating on the pain of change, but I have seen few people change without pain of some sort motivating them and even fewer organizations. I am a life coach and therapist and helping people change is my business, but there usually is a motivator for the change and with most people and organizations it is pain of some sort.
This book, while not a difficult read causes thought and is therefore a great read. Highly recommended. Thank you Dr. Quinn for being real with us.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Stephen B White

If you are interested in change, you must read this book.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on April 9, 2001

This book offers great insights into change and cognitive mapping, and it offers great teaching stories, for example:
"Karl Weick tells a story about a military unit that was operating under difficult circumstances in the Alps during Word War II. The commanding officer had sent a reconnaissance squad to scout out the surrounding area. A day passed, and the squad had not returned. It was feared that it was lost. Three days later, to everyone's relief, the squad returned. It had become lost and very discouraged when one of the men remembered that he had a map in his pack. This discovery brought a surge of hope and renewed energy. The squad leader took the map and led the squad safely back. The story was recounted to the relieved commanding officer, who summoned the squad leader to his tent and commended him for his fine work. It was not until later that the commanding officer noticed the map and realized that it was not a map of the Alps at all but one of the Pyrenees.
"Weick points out that a good outcome can result from a flawed map. In this case, the map was a symbol that raised hope and energy. It allowed the squad leader to organize his men and get them to believe in a common strategy of action. The fact that the squad was again moving allowed the men to begin to calculate and think about where they were going. Even though their basic assumptions were wrong, the process of acting and calculating allowed them to learn and resolve their problem.
"Deep change works in a similar way. Once we have our sense of direction, we need to get organized, pack our gear, get motivated, and move on out. This process introduces new information and allows us to make choices and progress and grow our way forward. The process also transmits signals to others, and they are attracted by courage and motivation."
If you are interested in change, you must read this book.

Helpful

Chloe

Give me change or give me slow death!!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 31, 2001

I have sifted through many works of many authors; notably Senge's Fifth Discipline and Dance of Change, Covey's 7 Habits, and John Kotter's Leading Change; each providing valuable gifts in my own journey toward leadership of change in the healthcare organization I work in. As a physician, I am naturally a bit skeptical of 'managerial speak' and recognize how the professional culture of medicine recoils at the invasion of our professional language by 'corporate-speak.'
The profound challenges and dilemmas faced by the healthcare industry at this moment kept my nose in these books, searching, searching, searching for ways to bring clarity to the chaos of a once stable and rewarding profession.
As I took on a new post as "Director of Patient Safety" I found myself wading through even murkier waters than I had found within the context of my profession.
And then I came upon this book.
Stories, parables, myths: a language that transcends all 'cultures'. Ahhhhhhhhh, such a refreshing, concise, simple and brilliant work!
Simple yet far from easy.
There is nothing easy about this work.
To change what is "out there" I must look inward and face my own myths, dragons, fears, and shortcomings.
The only way to change the world is to change myself.
I can already feel the change within myself. Remarkable, remarkable.
I recommend it unconditionally to any and all that feel trapped, frustrated, or impeded in any way in their life's journey.
Thank you Mr. Quinn.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jim Danielson

Slow death or deep change...the only two choices?

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on September 8, 2000

My job as an associate pastor in a large church has me coordinating a number of support groups. These groups include Divorce Recovery, Grief Support for Death of a Loved One, Alcohol and Drug Addictions, Weight Control, and more. I believe this book may hold some of the key to success in helping people move through change.
I also believe that Robert Quinn is correct when he maintains that people and organization have but two main choices...
1. Slow death, or 2. Deep change
Quinn maintains that today it is impossible to remain the same because everything around us is changing, and therefore we must change.
Early in his book, on page 6, he says, "It is now widely recognized that to remain competitive in today's global enviroment organizations must frequently make deep change. What is not so widely recognized is that organizational members must also make deep change."
He continues by saying, "...an organic organization is one that is responsive, acts quickly and in coordinated way, and can adjust and learn and grow." "...only organic individuals can create an organic organization."

Helpful

Marybeth

Essential for Anyone Seeking To Become a Leader

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on May 24, 2002

I have wasted a ton of money on management books -- which are now gathering dust in the bookshelves. Most were written by academics who provide the most obvious answers to complex organizational issues.
Robert Quinn -- while an academic -- never leaves my desk at work. In Deep Change, Becoming a Master Manager and Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture, Quinn shows a deep understanding of organizational life and the fact that systems do not transform without our own individual transformation. But, he doesn't stop there. His work provides concrete tools to guide your individual transformation and your company's culture.
Outstanding work; pleasure to read! Thank you!

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Bradley J. Brisco

Excellent read on real change

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2007

Verified Purchase

Quinn's purpose in writing Deep Change is to challenge the reader to recognize that everyone is a potential change agent, if they are willing to take the difficult, yet necessary steps to experience deep personal change. He lays a strong foundation by first differentiating between deep change and incremental change. There is little doubt that most change that takes place in the life of an individual is incremental. Because people are uncomfortable with major change they choose to move in small steps. The possible exception to the choice of incremental change occurs when a person is faced with a major crisis. For example, when a person experiences a heart attack, they are motivated to make deep lifestyle changes in habits such as smoking or dietary chooses. Or when a marriage is on the brink of divorce, marriage partners are motivated to make sweeping changes in how they communicate or handle conflict. However, beyond these periodic times of being motivated by crisis, people usually make changes slowly and incrementally, rather than making needed deep change.

The tendency towards incremental change over deep change is also true on an organizational level. Rarely do organizations, including the church, make deep major changes. While it may be argued that leadership needs to be mindful of bringing people along in the midst of change, there are certainly times that organizations need to experience deep change to survive. Quinn is correct in stating that without deep change, routine patterns move organizations increasingly toward decay and stagnation. This is true in the life of the church today. The church has grown comfortable with the patterns of ministry from years past and as a result has lost much of its influence in the changing culture.

One of Quinn's foundational themes is that personal deep change must precede deep change within a system or organization. While most of the time organizational change is seen as a top-down process, Quinn argues that it can also happen from the bottom-up. He states that deep change requires a personal evaluation of the ideologies that under gird the organizational culture. This is a refreshing insight that has application to other relational contexts. As people desire to see change in the lives of others, whether in parenting, marriage or work relationships, they first need to examine what changes need to occur in themselves. It is true that we do not easily recognize the part that we play in the problem. This thought is consistent with the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:3, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

Another topic that is very applicable to numerous arenas of life is Quinn's discussion of the logic of task pursuit. Most people, under the pressure of task completion, have no opportunity to consider routine maintenance. This is true in the life of the individual on multiple levels. If a person does not take time to experience physical renewal through rest and exercise the body will experience exhaustion. This is certainly true with the spiritual life as well. People need to carve out time from the pursuit of tasks to spend time alone with God. The logic of task pursuit is also true in the life of the church. Each church needs to set aside time to revisit its mission and to ensure that the work of the church is in alignment with that mission.

Other helpful insights are found in Quinn's discussion on why organizational change doesn't take place. He states that the dominant coalition in an organization is seldom interested in making deep changes. Therefore, deep change is often driven from the outside. This has been true in the life of many organizations. Furthermore, there are pressures within most organizations to conform to the prevailing structure. Quinn does an excellent job of identifying the barriers of bureaucratic culture, embedded conflict, and personal time constraints. It is helpful to recognize that in most cases people do not need new skills and competencies, but instead they need a new perspective that allows them to act as empowered leaders in a changing organization. While this section on overcoming resistance to change was helpful, it would have been strengthened with practical examples of how individuals brought about significant change.

There is also much to appreciate with Quinn's emphasis on the transitions from the technical, the transactional, and the transformational paradigms. Quinn's description of each paradigm and the paradigm's representative would prove to be very beneficial to any organizational leader's attempt to understand those that they lead and the unique perspective they hold about the organization.

Finally the culmination of Quinn's emphasis on empowerment and ultimate transformation of an organization is what he refers to as the transformational cycle. The cycle is a helpful visual reminder that deep change does not come to a point of completion. It is a cycle that will itself become routine and stagnate if there is not a time of reinvention and realignment of self and the organization.

While written from a business perspective, Deep Change is applicable for anyone who desires to bring about change within an organization. The book is structured in an easy to follow format and includes reflection and discussion questions at the end of each chapter to provide further assistance to the reader in taking steps towards deep change, on both a personal and organizational level.

3 people found this helpful

Robert T. Lenz

Very well made. Arrived in perfect condition.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 18, 2022

Verified Purchase

Book was exactly as described, arrived in perfect condition and delivered on time. Would order from this vendor again.

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