Accelerate

Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World

By: John P. Kotter

Narrated by: Chris Sorenson

Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Based on the award-winning article in Harvard Business Review, from global leadership expert John Kotter.

It's a familiar scene in organizations today: a new competitive threat or a big opportunity emerges. You quickly create a strategic initiative in response and appoint your best people to make change happen. And it does - but not fast enough. Or effectively enough. Real value gets lost and, ultimately, things drift back to the default status. Why is this scenario so frequently repeated in industries and organizations across the world?

In the groundbreaking new book Accelerate (XLR8), leadership, change-management expert, and best-selling author John Kotter provides a fascinating answer - and a powerful new framework for competing and winning in a world of constant turbulence and disruption.

Kotter explains how traditional organizational hierarchies evolved to meet the daily demands of running an enterprise. For most companies, the hierarchy is the singular operating system at the heart of the firm. But the reality is, this system simply is not built for an environment where change has become the norm. Kotter advocates a new system - a second, more agile, network-like structure that operates in concert with the hierarchy to create what he calls a "dual operating system" - one that allows companies to capitalize on rapid-fire strategic challenges and still make their numbers.

Accelerate (XLR8) vividly illustrates the five core principles underlying the new network system, the eight accelerators that drive it, and how leaders must create urgency in others through role modeling. And perhaps most crucial, the book reveals how the best companies focus and align their people's energy and urgency around what Kotter calls the big opportunity. If you're a pioneer, a leader who knows that bold change is necessary to survive and thrive in an ever-changing world, this book will help you accelerate into a better, more profitable future.

©2014 John P. Kotter (P)2017 Recorded Books

Worst audio narration ever.

Narrator speaks in a sing song condescending voice the whole time. It was all I could do to finish the book. I didn’t think there was a huge difference in this book and his earlier work. The vignettes were told in excruciating and boring detail. By the time I got to the end of one the examples I’d had forgotten where it started.

Interesting story, but the performance is sorely lacking

I greatly appreciate John Kotter’s work, and I have read most of his books. I was excited to get the opportunity to listen to this one. I understand and agree with Mr. Kotter’s proposal that there is an advantage to having both the standard hierarchy structure in the organization, and a network to take advantage of new opportunities and be able to move quickly and drive change, beside and through the network. I would say that this book would be best listened to his original “Leading Change”. I didn’t find the theories presented in this work to be as engaging as his earlier books, but they certainly are applicable in the real world.

The performance of this book is unfortunately grading. Chris Sorenson’s narration almost made me stop the book multiple times. I found his voice to be nasal and grating to the point where it distracted me from actually listening to the material. I have listened to well over 100 audiobooks and I’ve never had this before. On that basis I gave the overall story four stars but I had to get the performance only one.

The narration will put you to sleep

The book content is amazing. But the narrator is not a good fit. it’s ironic to listen to a narrator with such dull monotone, talk about a sense of urgency. The narration instills the absolute opposite effect as to what the book is meaning to generate.

Great book

Great insight. Could be shorter. Dual operating systems are the future. Recommend any organization reading this book.

Not the most compelling leader ship book.

Not the most compelling book. Not the worst either. Not sure if it is the reader or the material or the combination of the two. Books like switch and five dysfunctions of a team and good to great are far more engaging and thought-provoking. I’m not sure if the goal was different but there are bits and pieces of this book that come across as confusing. I will relisten and update my review. If I find it it was my error.

Great content, horrible narration

This is one of the worse narrative books I have listened to. I listened on 1.25 speed just to make it tolerable.

The story/content was excellent!

Good concepts / boring narration

I appreciated the concepts discussed and the review of the accelerators - but it was a very boring narration.

Good content but otherwise boring

Dr Kotter has a tremendous amount of good ideas for setting up change management. The narrator was simply too monotone

Seriously off putting narrator's voice

The book is great on its own, frameworks like Scaled Agile Framework have been even created on the theory behind it as foundation.

The voice though, oh the voice. This sounds like a butler for the queen of England is reading the book. You feel as if somebody is talking down to you with unjust self proclaimed authority.
It's a short book but terrible tedious to listen here.

I personally advise for this book to be purchased but NOT in audio format, no unless Chris Sorenson is no longer the narrator.

Terrible

Avoid this audiobook, borderline unlistenable, which is a shame since it’s a great book full of great info.