Charlene Li announces working on a new book

Announcing my next book « Altimeter Group : A Holistic Approach To Emerging Technologies

Charlene, co-author on the "Groundswell" book will be working on another book over the next few months. The book is being published by Jossey-Bass and will come out in May 2010.
This book is sure to have some useful and exciting revelations on emerging technologies including sources and case studies. She is still working on a title for the book, but will make a decision before the week is over because the publishing world’s schedule requires that she submitted a title. She is asking member of the Alimeter group to take a minute and respond either via comments which title(s) you like the best.

http://www.altimetergroup.com/2009/10/wanted-your-opinion-on-book-titles-part-2.html

The book will discuss how to talk with your customers; listen to your employees. These are long-time, well tested truisms of business. But ask a businessperson to engage with people on Facebook or Twitter, or create a forum where employees can connect, and a look of sheer terror crosses his face. Rather than jump at the opportunity to interact, engage, and dialog with customers and employees, s/he runs in the opposite direction.

Why, in the midst of the largest seismic technological and sociological shift our generation, are organizations so hesitant to engage? Companies push back – how open, how transparent, how authentic, and how real do they need to be? The problem is that they are asking only half the question — it’s not just a matter of how open they should be, but also, how comfortable they are giving up control. The new reality is that customers, partners, and employees are demanding that they be given a role in the process and forcing organizations to give up control – or more specifically, the semblance of control.

In this tempest, command-and-control leadership and traditional hierarchical structures are too brittle to deal with fast-moving changes. But there is also a very real limit to how much control a business, organization, or association can give up. This is more than simply being open, authentic, and transparent. It’s a considered and rigorous approach to leadership, strategy, and management that can be studied, emulated, developed, and most importantly, measured.
This book posits that it is essential that the modern organization and the people who run them feel comfortable working in a world where they are not in control — but are able to command and get things done with the very technologies that caused them to give up that sense of control in the first place. The book will lay out a process of how companies can bring their employees, partners, and customers into the process of running the organization, giving them control – and thriving in the process.

Some of the Questions The Book Will Address:

What are the benefits of open leadership and open organizations?
How do you define and measure openness within an organization?
What are the characteristics of open leaders? How can they be measured?·
What tools and technologies are enabling open organizations to thrive?
How can open leaders be identified and developed?
How do open leaders and open organizations deal with risk?
What will the future of leadership and organization look like?

Leadership: How to Give Up Control But Remain in Command
Letting Go: How Leaders Give Up Control But Remain in Command
Why Leaders Who Give Up Control Can Retain Command
Letting Go: Why Leaders Must Give Up Control To Retain Their Authority
Leading Without Controlling: The Case For Open Leadership
Lead Without Limits: Why Leaders Must Give Up Control to Retain Their Authority
How To Give Up Control But Still Be In Command
The Upside Of Giving Up Control

For anyone who is interested in social technology and teaching your organization how to encourage it, I suggest you read Charlene's book when it hits that bookstores.