andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Understanding Organizations Finally!

Understanding Organizations Finally! Structuring in Sevens

by Henry Mintzberg

The four forms of organization are Personal (autocracy), Programmed (bureaucracy), Professional (meritocracy), and Project (adhocracy). Respectively, the coordinating mechanism of each form is direct supervision, standardization of work, standardization of skills, and mutual adjustment.

That last term should be defined before going further, as Mintzberg uses it throughout the book. “Coordination and control are two different concepts. Mutual adjustment is coordination without control… Currently, the literature of management gives considerable attention to teams, task forces, and networks, all manifestations of mutual adjustment.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Purposeful Enterprise

Purposeful Enterprise: Design Your Organization to Change the World

by Roger Mader

“Purposeful enterprise means doing work that makes a difference, work that helps others, and aspires to make the world a better place. As a happy consequence, you’ll find you take pride in your accomplishments and discover that you love your work more deeply.” The premise is compelling, in theory.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, risk

Why Can’t You Just Give Me The Number?

Why Can’t You Just Give Me The Number? An Executive’s Guide to Using Probabilistic Thinking to Manage Risk and Make Better Decisions

by Patrick Leach

Decisions can be based on a deterministic calculation only in conditions of certainty, that is to say the input parameters are known quantities. But strategic decisions are often made in a context of uncertainty and complexity, where a definite answer is unknowable, so we must turn to probabilistic thinking.

Uncertainty. “I make the case that all value generated by business executives comes—directly or indirectly—from how they manage uncertainty. Without uncertainty, a share of a company’s stock is effectively a bond, with guaranteed future cash flows. Guaranteed bonds don’t need management. But stocks (or rather, companies issuing stock) certainly do.”

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

The Conclusion Trap: Four Steps to Better Decisions

The Conclusion Trap: Four Steps to Better Decisions

by Dan Markovitz

As a management consultant, Dan Markovitz has seen too many executives waste money on “Ready, Fire, Aim” decisions which yield no benefit—and sometimes even make things worse. “Frankly, I’m tired… of seeing leaders jump to conclusions and taking action without really understanding their problem.” This concise 67-page book resonates with me and I think it applies not only to business, but also more broadly to political policy on many of society’s complex issues, such as education and healthcare.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

The Fifth Discipline

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization

by Peter M. Senge

Senge writes, “I believe that, the prevailing system of management is, at its core, dedicated to mediocrity. It forces people to work harder and harder to compensate for failing to tap the spirit and collective intelligence that characterizes working together at their best.”

The subtitle is about the learning organization, but the book is also very much about systems thinking. 

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works

by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin

Former P&G chairman A.G. Lafley and former dean of University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management Roger Martin explain, “in our terms, a strategy is a coordinated and integrated set of five choices: a winning aspiration, where to play, how to win, core capabilities, and management systems.” 

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World

by Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall 

Conventional management practices are based on a mindset of conformity and control. The authors, in contrast, argue the key to optimum performance is encouraging individuals make the most of their idiosyncratic strengths. The authors study team performance and employee engagement for ADP Research Institute and Cisco respectively.

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andreweverett360 Book Review, Management

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency

by Roger L. Martin

Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto from 1998 to 2013, writes about a fragile imbalance in the U.S. economy and the erosion of the middle class. Major themes include efficiency vs. resilience, reductionist thinking vs. complex adaptive systems, and gaming the system. He cites examples of companies where an obsession with efficiency was catastrophic, and conversely, where slack is the secret sauce. He offers policy solutions in such areas as antitrust, taxation, stockholder voting rights, and education.

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