| Subcategories |
 |
Biographies & Primers |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
written by Tom DeMarco
Studio : Broadway
by Broadway
Release Date : 2002-04-09
Publisher : Broadway
Released : 2002-04-09
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780767907699
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 38 reviews)
List Price : $14.95
Our Price : $8.41
|
|
| |
|
Product Description |
If your company’s goal is to become fast, responsive, and agile, more efficiency is not the answer--you need more slack.
Why is it that today’s superefficient organizations are ailing? Tom DeMarco, a leading management consultant to both Fortune 500 and up-and-coming companies, reveals a counterintuitive principle that explains why efficiency efforts can slow a company down. That principle is the value of slack, the degree of freedom in a company that allows it to change. Implementing slack could be as simple as adding an assistant to a department and letting high-priced talent spend less time at the photocopier and more time making key decisions, or it could mean designing workloads that allow people room to think, innovate, and reinvent themselves. It means embracing risk, eliminating fear, and knowing when to go slow. Slack allows for change, fosters creativity, promotes quality, and, above all, produces growth.
With an approach that works for new- and old-economy companies alike, this revolutionary handbook debunks commonly held assumptions about real-world management, and gives you and your company a brand-new model for achieving and maintaining true effectiveness. |
| |
|
Americancivilwar.com Review |
|
Another entry in the small but growing management library that suggests purposely slowing down and smelling the roses could actually boost productivity in today's 24/7 world, Tom DeMarco's Slack stands out because it is aimed at "the infernal busyness of the modern workplace." DeMarco writes, "Organizations sometimes become obsessed with efficiency and make themselves so busy that responsiveness and net effectiveness suffer." By intentionally creating downtime, or "slack," management will find a much-needed opportunity to build a "capacity to change" into an otherwise strained enterprise that will help companies respond more successfully to constantly evolving conditions. Focusing specifically on knowledge workers and the environment in which they toil, DeMarco addresses the corporate stress that results from going full-tilt, and offers remedies he thinks will foster growth instead of stagnation. Slack, he contends, is just the thing to nurture the out-of-box thinking required in the 21st century, and within these pages, he makes a strong case for it. --Howard Rothman |
| |
|
| |
|
Bedtime essential reading for anyone who works in a delivery focused company. |
Look around, do you notice how certain people get work done (and done well), hit deadlines and still have time to chat at the water cooler. These are the most valued people in any organisation. The 20% people out of the 20/70/10 rule, when given 'slack', over produce, everytime. This book explains how they can do this.
Read this book, it will only take a few hours; which includes long pauses for "hmmm" and chin scratching moments. You'll be glad you did. Then implement what you've learned. |
| |
|
Sound Advice |
What's in your workplace?
Efficiency or flexibility?
Tom does a fine job reminding us of the difference. |
| |
|
Indispensable Pithy Swath Through the Process Jungle |
I agree that this is simultaneously a great screed on the inanity of most corporate management, and also a powerful indictment of the tendency of IT management to just go along, accepting a premise that is false and on most projects, is life-threatening.
I totally disagree with the one bad reviewer who claims the book is below the bar of even anecdotal, and boring. On the contrary, much of what is argued here is a logical, or purely rhetorical position, but that is the part that is the most refreshing! Whereas Peopleware may be more comprehensive, it is also less bold and rhetorically less daring. I love to see someone like DeMarco, who has proven all he needs to, instead of just churn out another episode in his established realm, provoke, argue, and show the amount of passion this book contains. Only someone who considers rhetoric sinful could find this book boring.
That said, this book is also not from left field: it owes a lot to Lean, et al, on the biz and IT process side, and it is also of a piece with other writings like Mythical Man Month. Personally, I think the most important thing about this book is that it is original in its approach and size, etc.: computer science, folks, is not a science, and the fact that it has been controlled by science people all these years, is one of the reasons it has denied many of the hugely important aspects of its reality, e.g. psychology, sociology, etc. We desperately need more books like this that are broadly rhetorical, small, quick reads, that can penetrate into the more densely forested parts of the realm. |
| |
|
Perfect Companion to Peopleware |
If you've read Peopleware, this book is the next logical step.
You may get a sense of deja vu since this book reiterates and indirectly references Peopleware in places. However, even in these sections, Slack goes deeper. Peopleware tells you that certain things are bad, and Slack tells you exactly why it is bad and what you can do to avoid it. |
| |
|
Some good points, but boring |
|
Before I get harsh, I will say that there are definately some good points and ideas that you will go away with from this book. However, the author could have said it in fewer words, and clearer. If you're reading this, I'm sure you've read all the cliche mangerial types of books. This, to Tom's credit, is different than your average manager book, with a different perspective on the surviving the coporate world... but its also a stretch. Much of the points in the book are not only subjective, and not backed with real-life anecdotes and testimonials (there are few, but they are far between), but the analogies are weak, and the diagrams and graphs are subjective and border-line bogus (not constructed with real points of correlated data; they are more like guess-sketches). If you looking for a fresh, quick, to the point book that will keep your attention and that you can't put down, then this is not that book. |
| |
|
|
|
