Full Steam Ahead! Unleash the Power of Vision in Your ... (ISBN 1576752445)

Highly Recommended! For both your work and for your personal life.:
I read Full Steam Ahead! for the second time this week. I had originally purchased the book last winter because my boss wanted us to create a shared vision. Everyone in our department read the book and then we followed the process described by the authors. It has been an amazing experience for all of us. I saw my boss shift from someone who had good intentions but tended to be over-controlling and mistrustful to someone who was willing to let all us to take charge and make decisions. Because we all shared the same vision and values, we all began to trust each other more also. The atmosphere at work is, well... all I can say is I look forward to going to work each day. We have fun and are more productive than ever. The quality of our work has increased immeasurably and we get great feedback from our customers. Which leads me to why I read the book again. The first time I read it, I read it to get the instructions and learn the concepts for how to create a vision at work. Having lived the results, I decided to read it again to see how I could improve my own life. I remembered there was advice in the book for how to apply it at a personal level, but hadn't paid a lot of attention to it at the time. After finishing the book, I realized that I have been doing a lot of these things. So that was confirming. And it helped me get a sense of what else I need to be doing. Here are a few of the ideas from the book that I think are very helpful-- but you really should read the book because there are so many more helpful ideas than I could write about here. And, it's a fun, easy book to read! 1. Purpose: As human beings, a deep sense of purpose gives our lives more meaning. Some people find their purpose through religion. Others through social service. Others through arts and other forms of self-expression. We are each unique individuals and no one can tell us what our purpose is. We need to discover it ourselves. Putting it into words and writing it down, helps us to get clear and to stay focused on our purpose. It may take time to get clear about your purpose. Write something down, read it over time, revise it as things become more clear. 2. Values: We are hold deeply beliefs about what is right and wrong. When we are clear about our values and consciously use them to guide us, we make decisions that we feel good about living with. It is important to identify the top 3 to 5 values. 3. Picture of the future: It's not enough to just be clear about our purpose and values. It is powerful to close your eyes and imagine what it looks like when you are fulfilling your purpose and living your values. Sports trainers understand the power of mental imagery to enhance performance. Creating pictures of what it actually looks like forces us into a proactive mindset that enables us to move forward more easily. 4. Goals are only milestones. They are short-term. Don't confuse them with your vision. You may need to change goals as your circumstances change. Your vision is something that will guide you over time. It may change, but mostly to become more clear. 5. Take action. As you take a step, the next one will become clear. As you become clear about your values, live by them. As you become clear about your purpose, find ways to fulfill it. You can plan forever. Living is about acting. Mistakes are inevitable. The only problem with mistakes is when you don't learn from them. If you learn from them, then set your sights again on your vision and set your path again.

The best Blanchard book I've read:
Very good and practical. This time the story is actually interesting, rather than a lame backdrop. The lady who reads the audio book does an outstanding job. All in all very good.

This book will help when you think about goals for the new year!:
The transformational power of a compelling vision in one's life or business is compared in this book to the impact of the steam engine on modern industrialization. Like the first steam locomotives or steamships, "full steam ahead" means "being fully powered, knowing where you're going, and moving ahead full force." Ken Blanchard and Jesse Stoner use this analogy throughout the book to emphasize the power of a strong vision, or purpose, and the commitment to stay on course and achieve that vision despite obstacles. Written in the storytelling style reminiscent of Blanchard's best-selling book The One Minute Manager, this book has a style different from most others in the general business category. It reads more like a novel, in which the two main characters apply the principles of creating a vision for their lives and their business. The concept of developing a compelling vision is taught through the revelations of a company owner trying to put the spark back into his company's vision and an employee trying to establish a personal family vision to improve her relationship with her children. The book focuses on three key elements of an effective vision: purpose, values, and a picture of the future. It refers to the Apollo Moon Project to illustrate the distinction between a goal and a vision: "a vision is enduring." It advises readers to "focus on the end result, not the process for getting there." It also offers a checklist to use to test whether a vision is compelling. The book was inspired by years of experience with organizations, which uncovered the fact than "less than 10 percent of organizations . . . had a clear purpose, a set of operating values, or a picture of the future." Blanchard is a renowned speaker. author of more than thirty bestselling business books, and owner of The Ken Blanchard Companies. Stoner, also a respected speaker, consultant, and author, is president of Seapoint Center, established to provide training in personal and professional leadership and vision creation. While it seems that as much of the book is spent developing the characters as discussing the elements of vision, the story is successful in holding the reader's attention and clearly getting the point across. Like the dream of Martin Luther King that still lives on, "the mark of a true visionary leader is that the vision continues beyond the lifetime of the person who articulated it."

Excellent business resource:
Blanchard does a great job differentiating between vision, mission and purpose - something that is hard to do. He also describes how to create statements and implement them in an organization. The book uses a narrative style with some fictional characters. It makes the book longer than necessary, but also makes it quite readable. There are also good chapter and section summaries.

Timeless truths, practical applications!:
Blanchard and Stoner have done a remarkable job in taking a complex subject like vision and making it easily understood and offering practical advice on how to create a vision that engages the hearts and spirits of everyone on the team. They also demonstrate the power of vision - that it provides direction and clarity, enhances working relationships, and helps a team achieve outstanding results. I would recommend everyone on a team reading this book together and then having a discussion on how to apply the ideas with their own team. This is what our manager did - she bought a copy of the book for each of us. At first I thought it was just a nice story when I first started reading it. Then I realized that it would not be hard for us to do exactly what was being described in the book. Our team had a great discussion and long-standing problems have now been resolved. This is definitely the most helpful and interesting book I have read in the past year.