Engagement. Lee G. Bolman

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      How to Use This Book

      We have chosen to present our SURE rules of engagement through a leadership fable with interludes and an epilogue that underscore lessons and key points in the story. Storytelling has long been a vehicle for reflecting on human nature and the choices people make in responding to life's challenges. Storytellers paint a world of action with words. As you savor their descriptions, you slow life down: study it, think about your reactions, compare your solutions with others, and view events through multiple perspectives – your own, the writer's, and the characters in the story.

      We recommend a thoughtful and deliberate read. As is always the case in human affairs, much is happening in each short exchange. As you read, compare your thinking and actions to the characters in the story. You may sometimes see the characters making mistakes that seem all too familiar. At other times, their successes may suggest new possibilities for expanding your options and becoming a better leader or collaborator. The book's power and impact depend on your ability to reflect on the issues and to use its story to better understand yourself, respond more effectively in your workplace, and handle challenges in ways that bring out the best in you and others.

      Think about how you want to approach the book and how you like to learn. There are at least two paths: straight through, or story first, then interludes and lessons. If you read the book straight through, the periodic interludes offer scheduled breaks in the action for reflection and emphasis. This approach lets you cut to the chase and focus on the bottom line – what you can learn from this book. You'll digest new ideas as you go and see how they play out over the course of the story.

      A second approach is to read the story itself first: skip the interludes, follow the story line, and draw your own lessons. You can reflect on what you see as most important, how well you think Vicky and others handled things, and what each of them could have done differently. This strategy keeps you focused on you – your thinking, reactions, understandings, and interpretations.

      If you choose this approach, you may want to take notes as you read – what you see as most important, how you feel about each of the different characters, how you might have responded if you were in their shoes, how well you think our fictional manager is handling things, what you see as her strengths, how she uses her mentor, what you think about his advice, and so on. Then, read the six interludes. You can then compare your observations and reactions to the issues and strategies we suggest and see where we expand your thinking – or you, ours. The Skills of Engagement section becomes a handy reference for digging deeper into the suggested actions and strategies for success.