All Hands on Deck Lib/E: Navigating Your Team Through Crises, Getting Your Organization Unstuck, and Emerging Victorious

by Peter J. Boni

Disruption creates ten times the opportunity to advance your organization and your career, according to former CEO and author Peter J. Boni. In ALL HANDS ON Navigating Your Team Through Crisis, Getting Your Organization Unstuck and Emerging Victorious, Boni shows any leader or aspiring leader exactly what to do. Following his advice, recognition and rewards come quickly. It allows leaders with or without an MBA or Ivy League education to leapfrog over those who have superior credentials or stronger ties to an old boys' network. Beginning with the riveting, true story of Massachusetts clipper ship Captain Josiah Nickerson Knowles who saved his crew and all but one passenger during not one but two shipwrecks in the Pacific, author Peter J. Boni demonstrates how adversity should be embraced, rather than avoided. Boni presents a proven process to overcome chaos and disorder. By interviewing himself as the CEO of embattled Safeguard Scientifics as well as five prominent C-suite executives who triumphed over difficulties in the fields of consumer products, healthcare, biotech, non-profit and academia, we understand the thinking and actions necessary to get and keep organizations out of trouble and onto solid ground. The 12-Step Kedge-Off Process that Boni created is a blueprint for repositioning organizations and a model for any executive facing business dysfunctions and setbacks. The Process is divided into three phases, each anchored with the easy to remember moniker the ABCs to Boni would agree that you cannot prevent the storms that are inevitable in real life situations. But with his ABCs to Advance as well as the instructive real life stories of ALL HANDS ON DECK, we have a valuable guide for how to think in a crisis and how to cultivate the character traits to become an effective leader. While the techniques will get you out of a jam, use them early enough and they may very well KEEP you out of a jam.

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Hands on Deck is a practical and disciplined guide to leading organizational change, grounded in real world experience rather than theory alone. Peter J. Boni draws on a distinguished career spanning military leadership and executive roles to present a clear, actionable framework for turning underperforming teams and organizations around.

What sets this book apart is its emphasis on execution and alignment. Boni does not simply discuss strategy at a high level, he walks the reader through how to gain stakeholder buy-in, establish critical success factors, and move decisively from planning to results. The three step process he outlines is easy to understand yet robust enough to address complex challenges across industries and organizational sizes.

The case studies and reflections from seasoned change leaders add depth and credibility, reinforcing the idea that effective leadership is less about credentials and more about clarity, courage, and consistency. Boni’s writing is direct, accessible, and refreshingly free of jargon, making the book valuable to both experienced executives and emerging leaders.

Overall, All Hands on Deck is a strong, execution focused leadership resource. It is particularly useful for leaders facing turbulence, transition, or stalled performance and looking for a proven, practical roadmap to meaningful change.

[Doug Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Disruption creates 10 times the opportunity to advance your organization and your career.” That sentence alone sums up the theses of Peter J. Boni’s book “All Hands on Deck: Navigating Your Team Through Crises, Getting Your Organization Unstuck and Emerging Victorious”. By using a story about Massachusetts clipper ship Captain Josia Nickerson Knowles who saved his passengers and crew twice in Pacific shipwrecks, Boni demonstrates how adversity should be embraced and used to inspire employees to keep organizations heading in the right direction. As business books go, this one is clearly written and uses several real life examples in the workplace to illustrate Boni’s “12-Step Kedge-Off Process”. I spoke with Peter J. Boni and that conversation can be heard here: http://dougmilesmedia.com/?p=1582

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's better books out there on these topics.