The book is organized into five parts. Part 1 consists of Chapters 1 through 7 and is entitled “Foundations.” It includes information on key terms and definitions, models, origins of OD, and practitioner competencies. Part 2 consists of Chapters 8 through 13 and is entitled “Steps to Guide Planned Change.” This section covers marketing, pre-launch, launch, implementation, evaluation, and separation. Part 3 consists of Chapters 14 through 19 and is entitled “Levels of Organizational Change.” In it we discuss the issue of organization culture and interventions across various levels: individual, team, large systems, and interlevel. Part 4, the final part of the book, addresses some special issues in OD: global OD, values, appreciative inquiry, human systems dynamics, technology, consultant issues, and looking to the future

“ Practice Made Perfect is the ideal opportunity to spend quality time with the best financial-advisory business consultants in the country. You get tips, tools, and worksheets to ensure that you can manage your practice to become the business success you want it to be. This book will be your new best friend—guaranteed.”

In 1996, when we drafted our authors’ preface to the second edition of this book, we would have been very surprised by any suggestion that we might find ourselves again invited to come together to produce a third edition in the early years of the twenty-first century. We are, of course, delighted that interest in the strategic choice approach and its applications has continued to grow, spreading to new parts of the world and new generations as fresh areas of application continue to emerge. So we welcome the opportunity to add some new content, and to review the way in which we had presented our concepts and methods in earlier editions. Both of us have now passed normal retiring age, and have started to limit our commitments accordingly. So the question arose: were we ourselves necessarily the ones who should be writing about these new developments? Or should we now invite others to join us in presenting the learning points arising from their recent experiences, and speculating about what further developments the next few decades will bring?

When we published the first edition of Paying for Performance in 1997, the business climate was very different than it is today. At that time, the U.S. financial markets were in the midst of an unprecedented multiyear boom. Many established companies were delivering record profits, but perhaps more important, a myriad of “new economy” marvels were rewriting long-standing rules about the relationship between earnings and market value, the relative importance of growth and profitability, and the definition of what constitutes successful business performance. Since then, the air has escaped from the Internet bubble and both old and new economy companies have been forced to wrestle with more fundamental business issues, including the long-term implications of a possible global economic recession.

This book is dedicated to the true heroes of September 11, 2001—those people who spent what they knew were the last moments of their lives in dedicated and urgent work focused on helping others. The long list of “lifesaving partners” includes firefighters, police, Port Authority workers, passengers on United flight 93, workers who stayed with disabled fellow employees, and the countless, nameless people who put others first in the race down the stairs to possible safety. These people, with their actions, redefined the concept of “partnership” we write about in this book. They sacrificed their lives so that others may live. We honor their sacrifice by donating our profits from this book to charities supporting the families of September 11 victims.