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Posted April 5, 2001 11:21 a.m. by katie
Tom DeMarcos book, Slack, could not have come out at a better time. Based on what I know about the world of publishing, I expect Broadway Books acquired rights to this book in late 1999 or early 2000. Who could have predicted at that time that the economy would have taken the turn it has? Right now, executives around the world are looking at balance sheets that arent very pretty, and they need to trim some expenses. The easiest unfixed expense to trim is staff/payroll. Thats the hard, cold truth. Tom DeMarco wants you to read his book before you go too far in your cost cutting.
The premise of Slack is that the most successful companies at handling growth and change are not the companies whose employees are working at a non-stop, frantic pace. Instead, claims DeMarco, the companies that are able to absorb the impact of swift change are those organizations which may appear rather laid back, whose employees have some flexibility in the their day. DeMarco believes that organizations must build into their managers and worker schedules time to think and reflect about new ideas. The resulting benefit is that the organization can then deal with a sudden event of crisis much more efficiently. An organization that is dialed up to its maximum productivity per employee is an organization that is incapable of dealing with anything unusual. No time to plan, grow or think. As an executive in a small business that just went through some staff changes, as well as a time of abruptly increased sales, I can positively vouch for DeMarcos premises. Read this book before you make a very costly mistake.
Posted April 5, 2001 11:19 a.m. by katie
In 1971, Richard Whiteley co-founded the Forum Corporation, which has grown to be a 700-person global training firm based in Boston. In the 1990s, while at Forum, Whiteley wrote Customer Centered Growth and Customer Driven Company, two top-selling books on customer service. He is now the principal of the Whiteley Group, a speaking and consulting firm. As you can see, Richard Whiteley is an interesting man, and Love the Work Youre With is an interesting book.
Let me first give you a quote out of Whiteleys introduction which, to me, encapsulates this books focus: [P]eople who make the internal changes that allow them to love the work theyre with find that all of a sudden work isnt work any longer. Rather it is transformed into a state where all parts of themhands, head, hear, and spiritare fully engaged (4). This message can change lives! However, most of us dont choose to dislike our work, so how exactly do we go about making these internal changes? Whitely starts the reader off on this process off with a self-assessment quiz that you can use to figure out where you are, in regards to your work life. He follows the self-assessment with six core ways of being: Follow your passion; Be home; Create your own reality; Get out of your own way; Foster your interdependence; and Be yourself. These may seem like rather intangible credos, but Whiteley emphasizes that the key [to loving the work your with] is to know where you want to be, notice when you are not there, and get back on track. Each of these ways of being is the subject of a chapter, and the book closes with a chapter for leaders, focusing on how to create a spirited workplace.
Books such as this one are risky books to promote, because books that promise to help us feel good about ourselves or help us find passion in our life and work can often be a little too preachy and a lot too vague. Not this book. You wont need to take a week off and isolate yourself on the highest cliff to contemplate sweeping life changes. Instead, Whiteley has loaded this book with over fifty brief exercises, like the self-assessment I mentioned earlier, that can help you make practical changes in your overall outlook and perform your job with refreshed verve and commitment.
Posted April 5, 2001 11:17 a.m. by katie
The Invisible Heart is a book of many oddities. First, it is a novel with a business subtitle. As you know, most novels just have a title, while most nonfiction books have subtitles. This business book/novels subtitle is An Economic Romance. At this point, you may be asking yourself just what I was before reading this book: What am I getting myself into here? Second, it is published by the esteemed MITyup, that Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyPress. Again, you may be wondering: What? What is MIT doing publishing this breed of business book? Good question; I was wondering the same thing. Third, when you pick up any book, be it a novel or non-fiction, the blurbs on the back of the book, (specifically, who blurbed the book), can tell you a lot about that book. This book has two blurbers: Milton Friedman, the economist, the Washington Bureau Chief of Wired.com. These two diametric contributors to the book cover do make sense after youve read the book. As I mentioned, everything about this business book is a little strange, however, everything about this novel is also intriguing.
So, why an Economic Romance? Well, Roberts presents two main characters (who are reluctantly drawn together as with all good romance novels), and, appropriately, two opposing points of view regarding the subject of big business versus the consumer. Dan Gordon, the lead male character, maintains an economic viewpoint that is very similar to the Libertarian view. The author gives Dan many opportunities to expound on his beliefs. While my beliefs are not in keeping with Dans and the authors, I must admit that this book has made me scratch my head and, thus, define my own beliefs. I guess that is about all an author can really ask for. Dans pro-capitalism standpoint is countered by the female lead, Laura Silver, and this personal polemic is embroidered upon as a parallel story unfolds pitting a government watchdog agency versus the CEO of a big business business. This is a great book for the Rush fan on your shopping list, and even those who are not will find the argument an engaging one.
Posted April 5, 2001 11:15 a.m. by katie
Free Agency Nation began its life as a cover story for Fast Company in 1998. Historically, some of the most influential business books have started as articles in such magazines as HBR, Fast Company, and Fortune. These books tend to be extremely well-written because the author is a professional writer cogently about a timely subject, not a consultant who doesnt write very well or presents a subject matter that isnt very interesting no matter how well he/she writes. A recent example of a successful magazine-article-turned-business-bestseller is The Tipping Point, which first appeared in The New Yorker, was very well-received and, thus, expanded into a prominent book. That book has gone on to bestseller-dom and has been used in schools to teach marketing and trend-spotting.
Free Agent Nation follows in the notable footsteps of The Tipping Point, and is one of the most well-written books I have ever read period. Daniel Pink can flatout write, which I guess is a prime job requirement for his previous employment as a speechwriter for VP Al Gore. Pink has a fun, self-deprecating Gen-X Fast Companyesq feel about his writing, and he loads the book with those little factiods that make me go, Yeah, thats right!!! Each chapter ends with a page he calls The Box. Each box contains four points: The Crux;The Factoid; The Quote; and The Word. To give you an example of how the book is written, this is The Box of the chapter: How Did it Happen? The Four Ingredients of Free Agency:
The Crux:
How did free agency happen? Four ingredients were essential: 1) the social contract of workin which employees traded loyalty for securitycrumbled; 2) individuals needed a large company less, because the means of productionthat is, the tools necessary to create wealthwent from expensive, huge and difficult for one person to operate to cheap, houseable, and easy for one person to operate; 3) widespread, long-term prosperity allowed people to think of work as a way not simply to make money, but also to meaning; 4) the half-life of organizations began shrinking, assuring that most individuals will outlive any organization for which they work.
I love a book that takes something you know aboutfree agencyand gives it life and reason for being. Free Agent Nation postulates that the business world is witnessing a phenomenon where more and more people and businesses are promoting and utilizing non-long-term relationships. Businesses are hiring contract workers, and thus, people are identifying this new opportunity and becoming free agents, much like sports players. Pink explains what this means for you, the employee, and what it means for you, the employer. Daniel Pink has written an important book that is very fun to read.
Posted April 5, 2001 11:13 a.m. by katie
Tom Peters, the Nostradamas of the business world, warned us several years ago: If you think the past three years have been crazy, just wait for the next eighteen months! One only has to look at the change resulting from the recent bevy of mergers, reorganizations, start-ups and shut-downs to see that he was right. Unfortunately, more often than not, widespread corporate change often means ignoring the effect such enormous, and unsettling, changes have on employees. Jeanie Daniel Duck, author of The Change Monster, uses her years with Boston Consulting Group to bring a human face to corporate change. Why is this important, you may ask, when the financial life or death of a company may be on the line? Duck answers this question early in the book, suggesting that [c]hanging an organization is inherently and inescapably an emotional human process. And perhaps more importantly, she adds, If leaders dont take into consideration the emotional data, all the operational information and numeric data in the world wont be enough to turn around a company (14).
To help leaders understand and harness the change monster, Duck introduces her Change Curve, breaking down the change process into five stages: stagnation, preparation, implementation, determination, and fruition. To illustrate these stages, she interweaves the five-step change curve with the real-life story of the turnaround of Micro Switch, a division of Honeywell, and the fictional failure of 2 pharmaceutical companies. In both scenarios, each companys future is in the hands of leaders who have little change management experience, and this enables us, as readers, to witness the entire journey (the good and the bad choices) through the change process.
One of the sections of the book I especially liked was the time she spent diagnosing stagnation. She points out that stagnation can reveal itself in either Depressive or Hyperactive companies. Depressive companies have no energy, no sense of direction, and often are resting on their laurels. Hyperactive companies are pointed in too many directions, and often are staffed with exhausted employees. What makes this discussion about stagnation so crucial is that Duck brings us full circle (full curve?) by the end of the book. She warns that Micro Switch, even after successfully changing their organization, is again in danger of stagnation. A vicious circle to say the least.
What Duck does most successfully, and what all managers and leaders who are about to unleash the change monster need to focus on, is the fact that corporate change affects more than just the bottom line; corporate change affects living and breathing human beings, the core of any business.
