You can't order change: lessons from Jim McNerney's turnaround at boeing.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Brief article - Book review

You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. By Peter S. Cohan. Portfolio, 256 pages. $25.95.

The statement, "you can't order change," was made by Jim McNerney seven years ago when he was chief executive officer at 3M Co.

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But it clearly represents a lodestar for McNerney, a former General Electric Co. star. Seeking consensus and a patient, probing means for gathering information are central to McNerney's success, wherever he has been, Cohan writes.

Cohan, a management consultant and venture capitalist, who has been a contributor to Financial Executive, finds McNerney a model of a modern CEO.

"Thanks to his decades of experience leading complex organizations, he finds solutions that engage the entire organization rather than favoring one part over the other," Cohan writes.

"He can see the benefits of both the analytical and process-driven approach to a business problem and the softer, human side. His contribution comes from the way he can combine both to improve results."

Much of the book is devoted to what...