A proactive take on relating more effectively at work.
Latting and Ramsey offer a step-by-step guide to improving work relationships.
In this nonfiction book, readers are encouraged to learn to manage their emotions, resolve conflict, and promote positive changes in their professional environments. The authors (Latting is a University of Houston professor emerita and president of a leadership consulting group; Ramsey is a writer and former professor of management at Texas Southern University) use behavioral science theories and empirical research to inform their practical recommendations. They state, “Changing the outcome of problematic situations requires making conscious decisions to try something different. Using these skills seldom comes naturally.” Their Conscious Change model is built on six principles, each with its own skill set. According to the first principle, one must test negative assumptions: The authors state that readers should “consider the possibility that you may be making up stories about what happened during an interaction or exchange.” With the second principle, the authors counsel readers to clear their emotions and aspire toward a neutral or positive emotional state. The third principle directs readers to build effective relationships through listening, inquiry, and feedback exchange. Using the fourth principle, readers will be prepared to foster equitable and inclusive work environments by learning to bridge differences. The fifth principle, the conscious use of the self, emphasizes accepting responsibility and maintaining integrity. Finally, to initiate change, the authors urge readers to use the sixth principle by committing to their own transformations and addressing systemic issues. Throughout the book, 19 contributors share their experiences using the skills described here. The advice is clear and simple, such as this guidance for effective apologies: “An effective apology has three ingredients: authentic expression of regret, genuine reflection of the harm or inconvenience caused, and an offer to make restitution.” The emphasis on fostering diversity and examining the systems in which people work is highly relevant to the modern workplace. The skill names could have used some polish, however—examples such as “Move From the Answer Into the Question” read awkwardly and fail to stick in the mind. In a graphic at the beginning of the book, the authors list all 36 skills, which may be information overload for some. Still, professionals will find many tips worth trying in this book.
A proactive take on relating more effectively at work.Pub Date: July 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781647427085
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.
Helping liberals get out of their own way.
Klein, a New York Times columnist, and Thompson, an Atlantic staffer, lean to the left, but they aren’t interrogating the usual suspects. Aware that many conservatives have no interest in their opinions, the authors target their own side’s “pathologies.” Why do red states greenlight the kind of renewable energy projects that often languish in blue states? Why does liberal California have the nation’s most severe homelessness and housing affordability crises? One big reason: Liberal leadership has ensnared itself in a web of well-intentioned yet often onerous “goals, standards, and rules.” This “procedural kludge,” partially shaped by lawyers who pioneered a “democracy by lawsuit” strategy in the 1960s, threatens to stymie key breakthroughs. Consider the anti-pollution laws passed after World War II. In the decades since, homeowners’ groups in liberal locales have cited such statutes in lawsuits meant to stop new affordable housing. Today, these laws “block the clean energy projects” required to tackle climate change. Nuclear energy is “inarguably safer” than the fossil fuel variety, but because Washington doesn’t always “properly weigh risk,” it almost never builds new reactors. Meanwhile, technologies that may cure disease or slash the carbon footprint of cement production benefit from government support, but too often the grant process “rewards caution and punishes outsider thinking.” The authors call this style of governing “everything-bagel liberalism,” so named because of its many government mandates. Instead, they envision “a politics of abundance” that would remake travel, work, and health. This won’t happen without “changing the processes that make building and inventing so hard.” It’s time, then, to scrutinize everything from municipal zoning regulations to the paperwork requirements for scientists getting federal funding. The authors’ debut as a duo is very smart and eminently useful.
Cogent, well-timed ideas for meeting today’s biggest challenges.Pub Date: March 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781668023488
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Avid Reader Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
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