The World's Best Book Summaries
Does your company operate on a “need to know” basis? Does management wield all of the power? Visionary companies eliminate the compartmentalization of information, and they distribute power. This transparency leads to trust. Employees feel respected, and performance increases. Read on to learn more about organizational trust and transparency.
Does your organization treat employees as adults or children? Do people feel as though they can be themselves at work? In Reinventing Organizations, business consultant Frédéric Laloux identifies many commonalities among the companies included in his research. These include encouraging all employees to be their authentic selves at work. Continue reading to learn the difference that authenticity at work can make.
Do organizations have callings just as individuals do? Does your company allow you to be yourself? In Reinventing Organizations, Frédéric Laloux discusses three common elements of organizational culture within visionary companies: purpose, authenticity, and trust. Only this kind of organizational culture can foster the practices that set these exceptional companies apart from the rest. Keep reading to learn about three elements of organizational culture that are present in visionary companies.
What if your organization focused on team performance rather than individual performance? How would that impact feedback, conflicts, and compensation? When everyone is free to act as a self-regulated agent in an organization, it might be hard to imagine how individual performance is measured. For the most part, it isn’t. Business consultant Frédéric Laloux explains this in his book Reinventing Organizations. Keep reading to learn how organizational performance measures work in visionary companies.
What are the best ways to plan for reducing errors in the workplace? What do experts recommend? The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks offers guidance to managers leading large teams, especially teams coordinating detail-oriented projects with lots of moving parts. In the book, Brooks explains how to manage the inevitable errors that arise from managing teams performing complex tasks. Keep reading to learn Brooks’s three rules for reducing errors in the workplace.
Why do projects fail in business management? What is the most common reason? How can you avoid failure? In The Mythical Man-Month, Frederick P. Brooks offers a guide to completing complicated projects on schedule. The book covers strategies for streamlining your process so that you can keep your staff working together smoothly and finish your most daunting projects on time. Read on for some of Brooks’s examples of why projects fail and his solutions for avoiding failure.
What makes a productive business? How do you create a hard-working team? According to Patrick Lencioni in his book The Advantage, a productive business is one where the goals of the company are clear and communicated to everyone on the team. In addition, everyone within the company is dedicated to achieving these goals. To learn how to create a productive business that’s efficient, continue reading.
Are middle managers necessary? What are some ways to get around a top-down structure? In Reinventing Organizations, Frédéric Laloux describes “teal organizations.” The most radical departure of these visionary organizations from modern structures is the elimination of the top-down pyramid. They aren’t “flat” but fluid, with complex interrelationships determining how power and resources are shared. Read more to learn about three different structural approaches that non-hierarchical organizations use based on their size and the nature of their work.
Looking for practical advice for managing complexity? How can you improve performance for large teams and complex projects? The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick P. Brooks offers guidance to managers leading large teams, especially teams coordinating detail-oriented projects with lots of moving parts. Its advice centers on managing and reducing complexity. Read on to learn Brooks’s groundbreaking strategies for managing complexity at IBM in the 1960s.
What is organizational health? Why is organizational health important? Patrick Lencioni’s book The Advantage talks in great detail about organizational health and its role in helping businesses reach their fullest potential. Further, he claims that there are four steps that you can take to reach organizational health. Read below for Lencioni’s definition of organizational health.