The Beauty of the Beast: Breathing New Life Into Organizations

Bellman's book provides much more than suggestions about how to successfully implement organizational change. Its additional value includes a series of questions, that when answered will provide important insight into individual and organizational history, motivation and prospects for future success. This is a very readable and thought-provoking book.

I recently finished Geoff Bellman's book The Beauty of the Beast, and I thoroughly enjoyed this very readable book! It offers a simple, realistic, and accepting perspective on organizations as they are, including their "warts, wrinkles, and wonder." It reveals a depth of understanding that is only gained through years of engagement with and thoughtful reflection on organizations . . . and on oneself. The Beauty of the Beast guides the reader through his/her own balanced exploration of organizations and his/her relationship to them - an honest, eye-opening, often times humbling exploration. A potential outcome of this exploration is a much larger frame of reference in regards to organizations and one's life within them. Geoff teaches us of the need to hold "creative tension" between opposite truths, between competing needs and agendas; something that many disciplines are telling us is essential to our long-term success in today's complex world. But it is clear that Geoff is teaching from experience and from his own capacity for this work. He demonstrates his Eldership and his personal and professional maturity by modeling his ability to hold a balanced perspective towards each situation, to see the truth in all sides . . . even those sides that differ from his own. And while this exploration takes the reader into the dark "authority-worshiping, talent-diminishing, heart-stomping" beastly aspects of organizations, it also unfolds a message of great hope - hope for the prospect of a meaningful, creative, value-adding individual life right now and for sowing the seeds for organizations generations hence. And to help us in this process he lays out a practical guide of inquiry and reflection for engaging a future that is still only a possibility - but is inspiring and powerful enough to evoke our best efforts now.I think this is an important book. If even just a small percentage of people in an organization could develop a working relationship to the perspective Geoff offers, efforts towards organizational renewal would have a much higher success rate.

The Beauty of the Beast is a welcome addition to Bellman's writings. As a management consultant, I found lots of immediately useful ideas in the book for working with my clients. From his early matrix examining how loving or hating organizations can hurt or help us, to his reasoning for why we create the bureaucratic organizations that we love to hate, I found sound thinking that has already influenced my work. His 20 renewal assertions read like the synthesis of a long consulting career. The assertions are like the design for an appreciative journey into finding and developing life in organizations. Each of the 20 assumptions about organizational change is accompanied by several questions to enable better and more lasting change. In terms of adding value to my work, Bellman's book was like getting a senior consultant as a mentor. So, was it worth the money? It was a bargain.

For all of us who yearn for change within our organizations, The Beauty of the Beast has a clear and hopeful message: we can do something about it! In drawing from 30 years of work as a master change facilitator in corporate and community settings, Geoff Bellman offers very practical advice about how to create the organizational future we want. The Beauty of the Beast offers step-by-step guidance through the change process, showing us how to embrace both the beauty and the beast in the organizations we inhabit. It offers us a roadmap to a better future. Read it!