Product Description

`The future is not inevitable. We can influence it, if we know what we want it to be…We can and should be in charge of our own destinies in a time of change.' If you put a frog in water and slowly heat it, the frog will eventually let itself be boiled to death. We, too, will not survive unless we actively respond to the radical way our world is changing. Find out about the Boiled Frog and other concepts that will turn your understanding of the world on its head and change the way you work and live: -Upside-Down personal thinking -Personal Re-framing -Telecommuting -The Electronic Shamrock -The Inverted Doughnut -Horizontal Fast-tracking -Portfolio Marriages

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31668 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-02
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Tom Peters
`His lucid, exciting, shocking descriptions...thrust us one giant step closer to understanding the new, “upside-down” competitive realities.'

Synopsis
If you put a frog in water and slowly heat it, the frog will eventually let itself be boiled to death. We, too, will not survive unless we actively respond to the radical way our world is changing. "Here is an inspiring vision of an era of new discoveries, new enlightenment and new freedoms" - Association of Business Executives. "It succinctly points out that change cannot be avoided and explains how we can turn it to our advantage. Invaluable to all those who wish to succeed and prosper" - "Industrial Magazine".

From the Publisher
Thinking the unlikely and doing the unreasonable - Charles Handy presents his vision of changing relations in the spheres of commerce and the workplace, providing original and thought-provoking advice to the employee and the employer.

Customer Reviews

Not for modern readers
I have been a manager for around 10 years. I have done my fair share of management courses - nowadays they tend to be called leadership courses - and it was in one of these that I first came across Charles Handy.

I heard the quote which was along the lines "I once facitiously described a typical british group as a rowing eight, a group of people going backwards, steered by the one person too small to see where they are going". This stuck with me and I have used it many times in coaching my own teams about leadership.

I had high hopes for The Age of Unreason. The other reviews all speak highly of it and remark on the foresight. Well, I agree. The foresight is remarkable and Handy should be commended for it. But, the reviews are around 10 years old, as is the book. Foresight aside, the book is dreadfully dull and there is very little of the useable quotes and insights that I was hoping for. There is a wealth of more relevant and appropriate management models in other places.

I like reading and read all sorts of things. Some for pleasure and some for background reading to support my own personal development. I hoped Handy would be the latter, perhaps I just picked the wrong book. Sue Knight's book on NLP was much better, Heinz Guderain's "Panzer Leader" was an interesting insight despite not being a text book.

I am suggesting you look elsewhere. This was probably really good then, isn't very good now.

A far-sighted book about the work ethic of the future
I found this amazingly farsighted, it would be of great interest to anybody involved in how work is evolving and the futures of individuals and their place in the work market. It gives plenty of food for thought on how not just employees but employers should view the work market in the years to come. Would be of interest to anybody involved in education, careers guidance, personnel and management, especially management!

Compelling book about the future of work and organisations
A book that is probably chronically under-read because it is categorised as a management book. It writes compellingly about the nature of work, the nature of the individual, and the nature of organisations to come. The main premise of it is that change is a constant, evolutionary process, and the individual and the organisation must be open to this, in order to not be left behind. Several theories such as The Inverted Doughnut and the Personal Re-framing are introduced to illustrate Charles Handy's theory, and are very accessible. My first 'management' book!