Books
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook
Strategies and Tools for Building A Learning Organization
by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith
The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, follows up on Peter Senge's book The Fifth Discipline. While The Fifth Discipline laid out the principles particularly applicable to long-term organizational improvement, the Fieldbook is meant to answer the question "What should we do differently when we go to work on Monday morning?" Forging a new, and often-copied style, The Fieldbook incorporates practice guides, exercises, stories, resource reviews, and short essays all aimed at helping people implement the disciplines on a day-to-day basis in a wide variety of settings. It clearly describes how to get started in the practice of the principles of organizational learning, reflecting not just one person's theory, but the experience and reflection of an entire community of practitioners.
Although The Fieldbook is intended as a book of practice, not theory, it embodies a key theoretical argument:
- Organizations are products of the ways that people in them think and interact.
- To change organizations for the better, you must give people the opportunity to change the ways they think and interact.
- No one person, including a highly charismatic teacher or CEO, can train or command someone else to alter their attitudes, beliefs, skills, capabilities, perceptions, or level of commitment.
- Instead, the practice of organizational learning involves developing and taking part in tangible activities that will change the way people conduct their work.
The Dance of Change:
The Challenges of Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations
by Peter Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, George Roth, Bryan Smith
All organizations that innovate or learn come up against innate challenges that block progress. The harder you push against these challenges, the more they seem to resist. But if you can anticipate them, and build your capabilities for dealing with them, they become opportunities for growth.
The Dance of Change is a fieldbook of strategies and methods for moving beyond the first steps of corporate change to generate long-lasting results. The six authors and more than 100 key contributors write in the concise, down-to-earth style of The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. This far-reaching and practical compendium addresses the frustrations and opportunities people in organizations everywhere are facing. Contributors include Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse; well-known management authors Peter Block, Joe Jaworski, and Edgar Schein; the head of General Electric's renowned organizational learning program; and CEOs and managing directors from some of the most prominent companies in the world.
Standing in the River:
Adapting Quaker Business Practices to the Work of the Board
by Roberts and Summerville
Values-based organizations often have language, protocols, and meeting practices that can be confusing to new board members and managers not familiar with them. This small book is a primer for people who are not familiar with Quaker business practices and procedures. it offers a handy translation by comparing Quaker practices to traditional American business practices, such as decision-making and managing conflicting opinions.
Articles & Chapters
Roberts, C. and Summerville, M. (Spring 2016) Strategy + Business. The Mindful Board.
Roberts, C. (November 2013) “Foreword” for The Impostor Syndrome, Harold Hillman. Random House of New Zealand.
Johnston, S, Summerville, M. and Roberts, C. (July/August 2010) Trusteeship. The Changing Landscape of Trustee and Board Engagement. pp. 14-18.
Roberts, C. (December 2009) Creating Your Leadership Annuity. DCI Links.
Roberts, C. (2007) Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion. International refereed journal. Executive Fractured Spirit and Dissociation at Work.
Roberts, C. (July 30, 2007) Nation’s Cities Weekly. Official Publication of the National League of Cities, Washington, D.C.
“Leadership As Art”
Roberts, C. (June 21, July 26, 2004) Nation’s Cities Weekly. Official Publication of the National League of Cities, Washington, D.C.
“Finding Our Voices”
“Examining Dynamic Democracy in Local Government:”
Roberts, C. (July 1, July 8, August 5, 2002) Nation’s Cities Weekly. Official Publication of the National League of Cities, Washington, DC.
“Leadership Is…”
“Conscious Oversight: The Leadership Capacity in an Organization”
“Leadership Summit is a Learning Community”
Roberts, C. (2001). A Conversation with Charlotte Roberts. The Flawless Consulting Fieldbook and Companion pp.201-207. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Roberts, C., Ross, R., & Kleiner, A. (2000). Balancing Advocacy and Inquiry.
Schools That Learn pp. 219-222. New York: Doubleday.
Roberts, C. (2000). Leading Without Control. Schools That Learn pp. 411-418. New York: Doubleday.
Roberts, C. (March 1999) Are Your Spirits Flying? Business Leader pp. 10-13.
Roberts, C. (1999). Personal Transformation and Performance Improvement: What’s the Connection? Performance Improvement, 38, pp. 9-13.
Roberts, C. (July/August 1999). What Do You Mean, Teams Are Not Enough? The Journal for Quality & Participation, p. 64.
Roberts, C. (July/August 1998). Can We Talk? The Journal for Quality & Participation, pp. 24-28.
Roberts, C. (February 1997). Systems Thinking: A New Roadmap for Endurance. Executive Forum.
Roberts, C. (1997). The Trust Survey. Executive EQ, R. Cooper (pp. 85-86). New York: Grosset/Putnam.
Roberts, C. (1996). Proceedings from La Societe de la Connaissance, Brussels. The Learning Organization: Making it Work, pp. 113-121.
Roberts, C. “Foreword” for Work & Role Redesign, Hanson and Sayers, (1995).
Roberts, C. & Thomson, S. (1993). Quality and the Learning Organization: What’s Missing? Leading Total Quality Conference Proceedings.
Roberts, C. & Thomson, S. (July/August 1992). Leading Total Quality. The Journal for Quality & Participation.
