A must-read for managers who are trying to navigate today’s workplace.
In a business world where collaborative spaces frequently replace private offices, a productivity expert pleads for a balance between the two.
Though the author begins by stating that the purpose of her guide is to help harried workers regain control over their lives and jobs, she clearly aims her advice at the head office. In chapters such as “The ‘Human’ Part of Human Capital,” Thomas (Personal Productivity Secrets, 2012) addresses senior leadership directly. Using research that mines sources in businesses and academia, she makes a convincing case that managers in today’s economy must nurture employees physically and psychologically to coax the best job performance from them. She suggests, for instance, that workers have the opportunity to nap when tired, work outside the office when they want to, and experience nature—either by going outside or playing wildlife recordings at their desks. Lest CEOs think she wants to turn offices into playgrounds, Thomas repeatedly calls for moderation in their design. Some employees require quiet, private spaces to get things done, while others prefer to be surrounded by activity. The ideal office, she writes, combines several different settings along with the flexibility for employees to work remotely. With bold claims (“Managers who have the outdated bias that employees must be supervised in order to be productive should have a skill update”), she identifies the two biggest executive challenges today: customizing management style to suit individual workers’ needs and getting staff members the training they require to avoid distractions in the office. Thomas calls the latter “attention management” and explains that it doesn’t come naturally. Rather, both workers and managers must receive instruction on how to do it. With its succinct chapters and useful margin notes, the book is an ideal accompaniment for in-office training sessions. The end of each chapter offers helpful nuggets of information, such as “Takeaways You Can Tweet,” a fun and unusual aspect of this thorough work that acknowledges the importance of social media.
A must-read for managers who are trying to navigate today’s workplace.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9980095-0-6
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Burget Ave Press
Review Posted Online: April 7, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
IN THE NEWS
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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