This book "The Case for Connection," uncovers the Twelve Practices that sit behind the work of multiple, respected leaders and innovators. It shows the power of the practices based on real results, demonstrable evidence and research. It then goes on to discuss the impact of AI, the best ways to tackle the practices and how to get started, helpfully supported by the same industry pioneers:
- Chapter 1: Thirty-six Respected Experts. Soundbite summaries of the thirty-six experts, their seminal works, and their core contributions. A glimpse of significance, not a substitute for the originals.
- Chapter 2: Four Core Problems, Twelve Practices. Most organizations experience one or more of four challenges: building the right things, structure for success, building things the right way, and operating as one. The experts converge on Twelve Practices that address them, working as a system rather than a menu.
- Chapter 3: A Surprising Consensus. Authors from product, the military, manufacturing, social science, technology, and general management arrive at the same answers despite starting in different places. This is unexpected and significant.
- Chapter 4: Beyond Consensus: Evidence. A critical review of evidence and its provenance; empirical, survey, and practitioner. Across more than 200 pieces of evidence, 40,000+ contributors, 180,000 business units, and decades of data, the substantial returns organizations have achieved and can expect become clear.
- Chapter 5: The Multiplier: Cognitive Diversity. Diverse problem-solvers can beat the smartest individuals on complex problems, but only when handoffs are reduced and dissent is authentic. You cannot synthesize diversity of thought.
- Chapter 6: AI Adds Urgency. AI is a mirror before it is a multiplier, making strong organizations stronger and weak ones weaker, faster than ever before. AI homogenizes how people and organizations think. Connection protects the organization's strategy, distinctiveness and future.
- Chapter 7: The Case for Connection. What Connected Organizations achieve: results measured in multiples rather than margins. 3x shareholder returns, 3x innovation, 3x faster time to market, 5.1x more likely to produce strong results, +38% customer engagement, +37% brand awareness, +40% quality.
- Chapter 8: Headwinds, Bravery, Antipatterns. Why isn't everyone already doing this? A hundred years of management thinking optimized for a world that no longer exists, plus the headwinds and antipatterns that subvert many attempts.
- Chapter 9: Who Cares? The most powerful evidence relevant to different stakeholders: CEO, CFO, CTO, board, delivery leaders, customers, and SME founders. The evidence is compelling in every case.
- Chapter 10: What to Do? Signposts. For each of the Twelve Practices, the key authors, approaches and books that show how to execute well.
- Chapter 11: Getting Started. A six-step Connection Diagnostic and plan designed to be done as a group in the messy reality where everything matters and not everything can be done at once.
- Chapter 12: Scenarios. From the stalled transformation to the post-investment scale-up, nine common situations run through the diagnostic. Showing how the most obvious answers are sometimes wrong.
- Chapter 13: Connection: Why It Wins, Why It Wins Now. The Case has been made: Overperformance is a decision. Connection is always the answer. The chapter closes with what it is like to work in a Connected Organization, and how to begin.
Together, The Case for Connection: Why Connected Organizations Win: Twelve Practices for the AI Era makes a single, evidence-based case: the path to better returns from technology investment, and any returns from AI, is not through more governance, more process, or more tools, but through fundamentally better relationships and cross functional collaboration across organizations.
We also include appendices designed for non-linear consumption. For print readers, the appendices are available on-line at raedhelm.com.
- Appendix I: Expert Summaries aiming to concisely communicate our thirty-six experts' work and significance
- Appendix II: Evidence Summary bringing together for the first time ALL of the evidence showing Connected Organizations deliver better results
The diagnostic described in chapter 11 includes several practical templates for teams that wish to become more Connected.