Imaginization: New Mindsets for Seeing, Organizing, and Managing

Maybe management is the topic with the poorest quality of books in social sciences. Authors usually think that their readers are so busy or so stupid (or both) that they have to write a book for kids (they repeat the same example one hundred times) Fortunately, there are some authors as Morgan that believe posible to write a simple but interesting book like this one. I know Imaginazation is not the best book of management (even Images of Organization of the same author is better), but it is a quite intelligent one and in management this is a very rare quality.

Morgan's book is a delight to read. I couldn't wait to go out and try some of the techniques myself! While extremely readable, Morgan includes a couple of appendices that give the extensive scholarship behind his work.

Innovation and creativity are big buzzwords in management these days. Every second guru has a new paradigm or a new way of thinking, many of which aren't really new and may not be relevant to the situation on the ground. Many books are written on these subjects, mostly long on concepts but short on real tools.I loved this book because Gareth never falls into that trap. His approach is always created from the situation on the ground, not as manna from above. Indeed, one of his best insights is the way he neatly explodes the word "supervision" into its component parts, showing the assumption of management as people with "super vision" who can see the future. Think about the realities behind that one word, and watch many of your assumptions about managing start to change.As you might expect, Imaginization has several chapters which use real consulting experiences to illustrate the ideas presented. It's very effective at illustrating the ideas, conveying both the approach in action, and giving people the tools to actually start putting innovation and creativity to work in their workplace. It's also a very enjoyable read, as fun as its name implies.Gareth Morgan's course was the most useful and well-spent time in my entire MBA at the Schulich School of Business. END

Innovation and creativity are big buzzwords in management these days. Every second executive has a new paradigm or a new way of thinking, many of which aren't really new and may not be relevant to the situation on the ground. Many books are written on these subjects, mostly long on concepts but short on real tools. I loved this book because Gareth never falls into that trap. His approach is always created from the situation on the ground, not as manna from above. Indeed, one of his best insights is the way he neatly explodes the word "supervision" into its component parts, showing the assumption of management as people with "super vision" who can see the future. Think about the realities behind that one word, and watch many of your assumptions about managing start to change. As you might expect, Imaginization has several chapters which use real consulting experiences to illustrate the ideas presented. It's very effective at illustrating the ideas, conveying both the approach in action, and giving people the tools to actually start putting innovation and creativity to work in their workplace. It's also a very enjoyable read, as fun as its name implies. Gareth Morgan's course was the most useful and well-spent time in my entire MBA at the Schulich School of Business. I was so impressed that I offered to create a free web site for him so that he could share his ideas more widely. If you want get a solid feel for Gareth's ideas and approach before buying the books, give it a visit! (I made sure we put lots of interesting content there, so even if you have read the book there will be new stuff for you to see): http://www.imaginiz.com/