12 STEP WISDOM AT WORK: Transforming Your Life and Your Organization

Like recovering alcoholics and drug addicts seeking to regain control of their lives, corporations struggling to keep up with competition, maintain employee satisfaction and be responsible to investors can fruitfully apply the 12 steps at the heart of Alcoholics Anonymous, according to these essays by experts associated with Hazelden (a nonprofit organization dedicated to rehabilitation from and education about addictions). The authors construct management models based on the Hazelden principles, beginning with Step 1—"Acknowledge that the current situation is in crisis and needs to change dramatically"—and ending with Step 12—"Become an example to other stakeholders to adopt the same principles and practices." Yet even executives and employees who embrace the 12 steps and follow them in their own lives may find these management principles difficult to apply. Taking steps that are appropriate (and often difficult) for individuals and applying them to the workings of the corporate boardroom in most companies would require a dramatic shift in management techniques. Readers would be better served by a workbook by a single author that presents the principles laid out in this book in an easy-to-follow guide for managers. (Mar.)

Forecast: With a $50,000 marketing campaign and support from the Hazelden Foundation, this book could generate early enthusiasm and solid bulk sales to corporations. But it will need more mainstream endorsements to reach a wider readership.