Book Reviews | Chris Higgins

Riding The Tiger –
Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times,
by Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen.

This book is really three books in one.

Firstly, it is an inside account of the breaking of the Satyam scandal, when the founder and chairman of one of India’s most successful and most loved companies confessed to having committed a massive accounting fraud. Told through the personal statements of employees and managers, we discover the human impact on devoted employees when the company that has become part of their own identity changes from revered to disgraced overnight.

Secondly, the book provides a step-by-step guide to managing a company in the immediate aftermath of a crisis. Starting from a ‘lights on strategy’, the book moves into detailed processes for communication priorities, reestablishing trust in leaders, evaluating the cultural shifts and steering the culture back in the right direction.

In many ways, the actual cause of a corporate crisis (in this case, the accounting fraud) is not what does the long-term damage to the company. Much of the damage is caused by the subsequent loss of talent and knowledge which causes a flow-on loss of customers and revenue.

Many successful organisations have faced setbacks, and recovered, becoming stronger and healthier. As is explained in this book, (and in some ways referenced in Jim Collins’ writing) even in a crisis the application of great management and learning can retain talent and knowledge and help to set the company on a new, more sustainable course.

Finally, the book is a manifesto for the importance of learning and development in all companies. If these powerful learning strategies can guide and heal a sick organization, imagine what they can do for a healthy one.

I would recommend this big not only for managers in learning and development roles, but also for managers of other departments. The techniques in this book don’t need to be saved for that one huge crisis. Many of these strategies can be implemented in ongoing planning, in preparing an organization for change, or even in helping employees deal with the small knocks that all companies face: the death of an employee or leader, the loss of a major client or changes in the political/economic/technical landscape that challenge the established vision for the company.

Book Review: Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It

Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke-the Simple Change That Can Make Your Job Terrific, by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson

Do you hate cramming all of your errands into the weekend?
Do you resent having to beg permission to watch your kid’s weekday soccer game?
Are you tired of seeing people who aren’t very good at their jobs get promoted because they arrive early and stay late?

There’s got to be a better way—and there is, according to Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. They should know – they developed the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) and rolled it out at Best Buy headquarters. These days, they consult to other companies on how to create similar systems.

Some of the key elements of a ROWE are:

You can work when you want, where you want, as long as the work gets done.
All meetings are optional.

To make this approach successful, managers have to be specific with their employees regarding their deliverables, and employees have to learn to manage their own time. Letting everything happen at the last minute (constant fire-fighting), because you know that all employees should be at their desks anyway, no longer works.

Employees are only assessed on the actual work they complete. Not, the number of hours that they spend in the office or how many meetings they attend.

Many managers, upon hearing this, imagine total chaos. Everyone on permanent holiday, the company failing as nothing gets done. According to the authors however, work doesn’t really change that much. Everything gets done. People who have to work face to face still do. People turn up to meetings that are well run and relevant. The big difference that that employees are vastly happier because they can balance work with the rest of their lives.

This book is a great discussion of the first part of the title: why work sucks. Any reader who is trapped in an office that lives (unnecessarily) by the clock, will love discovering something that articulates so clearly how they feel. It really gets you thinking about the nature of work i.e. something you do vs somewhere you go.

Sadly the book fails miserably in resolving the second part of the title: and how to fix it. There is almost zero detail on the mechanics of transforming your office to this system. There is little discussion about how the system would translate for workplaces that aren’t composed of ‘individual contributors’, such as retail, customer service, education, medical, construction etc.

A more cynical reader might assume that this book is just a sales pitch for their consulting services…….

The authors suggest that this should be an-all-or-nothing approach. I, on the other hand, suggest you use this book as a launching pad to question the nature of work and how you structure your office. Can you manage your employees just on the basis of their work? Is time-at-work important for you? Which of your employees’ actions actually contribute to the company’s success? Can you just manage based on these actions and ignore everything else?

Good Luck!!!

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