Powell, Mark: My Steam Engine is Broken

The typical structure of today's corporate organization was essentially invented in the nineteenth century and based deliberately on the military's "command and control" model and on the hierarchical pyramid of the Catholic Church. As such, it is outmoded and not equipped to deliver corporate success in the 21st century. My Steam Engine is Broken calls on a new generation of organizational leaders to stop trying to fix a broken and outmoded structure, and to create new, successful working structures that work with, not against, people's natural modes of behavior. The authors explore the way in which the Steam Engine organizational model is no longer offering job satisfaction to its managers precisely (and paradoxically) because managers are not being enabled, and are often being prevented, from delivering what the organization most needs from them: self-direction, innovation, leadership and heartfelt commitment.