Ready for Anything: The Making of a Change Leader

Ready for Anything: The Making of a Change Leader challenges students to think differently about their experience as a change leader. The book calls into question their assumptions about people and change and suggests new opportunities and strategies for effecting change.

Pragmatically divided into four parts, the text addresses and gives thought to some of the primary dilemmas and paradoxes surrounding leadership and change.

Part I provides readers with the essential tools to self-monitor and self-develop the leader within them. Part II focuses on the learning organization and how to prepare and shape the change culture. In Part III, readers are encouraged to rethink notions and complex conversations related to gender, race, class, ethics, and inclusion. The final chapters map out and explore future perspectives in organizational development and change leadership.

Recognizing that the role of the change agent has become more complex, the second edition examines our new reality and how it affects society, organizations, and organizational effectiveness. The text is now coauthored by Dr. Michela Henke-Cilenti and features new content on nontraditional organizational development methods, transformation, positive change, and generative dialogues.

The text has been restructured based on reviewer feedback with each chapter now featuring clear chapter takeaways, summaries, and discussion and self-reflection questions. The opening chapter is entirely new, and the book includes four comprehensive organizational development case, which demonstrate the complexities of change in practice.

Timely and essential, Ready for Anything is an exemplary resource for courses in management and organizational behavior.

Jeffrey Haldeman is Emeritus Professor of Organizational Development and Change at Webster University. He is the founder and developer of the organizational development and change masters and graduate certificate program. Dr. Haldeman is a founding fellow of the Webster's Global Leadership Academy.

Michela Henke-Cilenti is principal of Starcoach LLC, a boutique consulting and training company specializing in guest and employee experience in the ultra hospitality industry. With a passion for the soft side of change, she coaches and supports leaders on complex change issues in a variety of customer-facing, sales-focused situations. In addition, she is an adjunct professor of management and the lead for the organizational development and change program at Webster University.