David L. Francis

Many lives are influenced by effective or ineffective management. I believe that the quality of leadership, management and organizational development is important. It is the duty of researchers and writers to help managers to reflect on their role in new ways.

I have spent much of my life working as an Organization Development Change Agent, a Strategy Coach and as an Action Learning Facilitator. About 25 years ago I made a big change and enrolled (late in life) to begin Ph.D. studies in CENTRIM, which is the Centre for Research In Innovation Management at the University of Brighton in the UK. Later, I joined CENTRIM as a researcher, initially to study in how organizations can use ideas about agility to develop their enterprise.

I draw from Sociology (my first degree) and have been influenced by humanistic personal development methodologies and research into top team effectiveness. But, fundamentally, I believe that good leaders and managers are skilled practitioners of a craft that cannot be learnt only in a classroom. They have developed as people, learnt from others, gained from reviewing their own successes and failures, work at developing concepts to guide their action and take seriously the need to exercise power wisely.

My books are practice-based but are informed by social science research. I am most fortunate as I am an academic researcher who has been a manager and I have spent thousands of hours working directly with leaders and managers on issues that are rarely straightforward but are always important. In my writing, I hope to make a positive contribution to that most important endeavour: leading, managing and organizing work in a fast-changing world.