Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

This was a good book, another quick read, but was very well written.  The Style of writing in a fable format was very easy to follow.  Now the content of the book was very good.  The things that I enjoyed were the fact that the basis for the model is trust and that the overcoming of each dysfunction is a logical lead in to the next dysfunction.  In my experience gaining the trust of your team is vital in becoming a successful organization.  Once trust is gained the second dysfunction “fear of conflict” can be addressed.  Without trust, conflict will deteriorate into just fighting.  Good conflict is productive and will lead to better decisions.  The book allowed the story to show the effectiveness of the management tools in the book.  These tools allow you to become a better leader, but do not force you into a pre-set manager mold.

I highly recommend this book to managers and leaders or those aspiring to become one.

Book Review: The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard

This was a quick read, a short fable discussing a fictional “One Minute Manager” and what makes him good.  This came down to several points:

• Set expectations (One Minute Goal Setting)
• Provide feedback both positive and negative (One Minute Praising / Reprimands)
• Show employees respect
• Separate the individual from the performance

This is not the greatest book on management or leadership, however it did have some nuggets of quality tools, nothing new, but useful.

I do take exception that a manager’s mold is set in a similar fashion for everyone (Everyone becomes a “One Minute Manager”).  Each successful manager must find their own methods for utilizing leadership and management tools.

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking

Book Review:I just completed reading “Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking” by Malcolm Gladwell (http://www.gladwell.com/blink/ ) and found it very enlightening. From the book I found insight as to what and where rabid cognition can be effective in my life. The stories provided a view into what “thin-slicing” is and what it takes to be able to effectively use this in our daily lives.What I was glad to read in the book was that concept that in order to have a effective rapid cognition, one must first be a student of the situation. By this I don’t mean the actual instant that is taking place right now, but be an expert of that situation in the generic sense. For example I am an IT professional and I understand the details of IT project management and development. I have always been able to sit through a project status meeting and at the end be able to tell with fair accuracy if the project was on schedule and budget, and do this without a lot of background of the project, just by listening to the project manager’s status report. I’ve never put detailed though into why I’ve been able to do this, I thought I have a talent for IT projects. Well, now after reading the book, I realize that what I had thought of as an instinctive talent was a compilation of experience, knowledge, and insight in an area where I had expertise.I really like the concept that the effectiveness of thin-slicing is in direct correspondence with knowledge in the area. The fact that you can improve this ability with study and learning and become better at rabid cognition is a real motivating factor.

The other end of the thin-slicing spectrum is when you follow your instincts in areas where you have no background. This can get you into more trouble that it is worth. There are times when you need to gather all pertinent facts and others where you just need the rapid cognition from you inner core. Gladwell does his best to help us understand what he called the “Warren Harding Error”, or recognizing the good rapid cognition from the bad.