Management Books

Like so many business books, this book could be condensed into a single page. Here are some of the key bullet points:
* save more money.
* expect to be able to withdraw 4% of your assets annually after you retire i.e. you need $1 million to generate $40,000 a year in pre-tax income.
* asset allocation across 10 Vanguard (index) funds (low cost)
* 70% stock, 30% bond portfolio with heavy international slant
* re-balance every 12-18 months
* don't use brokers/investment advisors with their 1%+ annual fee
* don't try to time the market

Good advice. Now how is the portfolio doing? From January 2, 2008 to October 1, 2008, it is down 17.84%. How is that doing relative to the market? S&P 500 is down 22.89% but that is U.S. stock only. VTSMX (Vanguard's total stock index fund) is down 18.91%. My only point is that the going fishin' portfolio is roughly going to give you the basic market return. Nothing fancy. We're not talking endowment fund returns.

[...]

Alex Green's "The Gone Fishin' Portfolio" may be one of the most unique financial publications I've read in a while. The practical advice and knowledge can be applied to just about everyone. For many, it may seem like nonsense that you could literally spend less than 20 minutes a year managing your portfolio. But I was surprised to find that it's true, and the best part... he actually shows you step by step how to do it. Man, for 20 minutes of work per year, sure beats trying to beat the odds at Churchill or Vegas.

I just finished reading the book. Wow.

I'm a fairly new investor and investment books aren't exactly my "thing". But this book was incredible. The author didn't use fancy language. He explained everything in a way that was easy to understand but still interesting. And it wasn't all just theory and ideas. He gives you step-by-step instructions on what to do.

Highly recommended.

I'm a CPA, and I think this book is excellent investment coverage for inexperienced investors. It's also good for experienced investors who are honest with themselves about the net returns and excess stress their trading is generating. (To get some of the juice but less of the stress, active traders may want to set up a "play money" account for short-term trading, but use this plan for most of their money.)

This book gave complete and accurate coverage of the whole investment spectrum. It was also well written and well organized. Alex Green covers saving your initial capital, asset allocation, saving on mutual fund fees and taxes, and then discusses investor psychology. This plan is easy to implement even for inexperienced investors. Green gives specific mutual fund and Exchange Traded Fund recommendations. His recommended asset allocation is different than the usual domestic stocks/bonds/cash, and he offers compelling reasons for considering different asset classes.

Although I hadn't read about the Gone Fishin' Portfolio before, I had already implemented many of its' principles through trial and error. As a result, during the past week of front-page headlines about stock markets tanking, I wasn't stressed, and my portfolio held up well.

I recommend the book, and I'll buy more copies for gifts.

I just finished reading this book and thought it was pretty good overall. However, as an experienced investor, I know that there are no magic bullets in investing. The book shows performance of the portfolio over the past seven or so years. In those years, the S&P 500 (domestic stocks) performed rather poorly while gold, other commodities, real estate and foreign investments did exceedingly well. This portfolio stays invested at all times in all of these asset classes.

I took the liberty of backtesting the same portfolio for the ten years preceeding the 2000's, and the S&P 500 way outperformed this portfolio. This did not surprise me given the fact that we were in a full blown bull market. Those other asset classes underperformed, some badly.

I think that the Gone Fishin Portfolio will perform relatively well in more uncertain markets. However, I am not convinced that will happen when the domestic markets rally strongly.

My point here is that the oversimplification will lure rookie investors into a false sense of security.

I am sorry, but even if you are using a broadly diversified portfolio of mutual funds or ETF's, you must pay attention and understand the weakness of such a simplified approach. You will have to spend more time on your portfolio than 20 minutes a year.

This is a good book, if you buy it new and have access to the online test. Otherwise the book is rather pointless.

We loved the concept behind this book (and its Christian companion, "Living Your Strengths"). Our church staff took the (included with book) online StengthsFinder assessment and all found it very accurate and helpful in providing insights on what drives our fellow co-workers. It brings to light strengths you may not have identified previously and validates them - empowering you to explore and utilize them in new ways. We just ordered enough for our ministry leaders and church council and will be recommending it to our congregation as a very helpful tool not only for self-discovery, but also insight on others who have taken the StrengthsFinder assessment.

Sorry to all who really liked this book, but I have to disagree. I read it for a management class and it was so short and general, it really did not d anything for me. It has a typical "personality" type assessment test, but instead of really giving you a great interesting test it was composed of a very simple, short test that took about 10 minutes. From that, Rath's website examines where your strengths are. My test was probably only 50% accurate. Don't buy the used copies, more than likely someone ha already used the code in the back of the book and then the book is virtually useless....geee, wonderful sales gimick! This type og general test taking to "Discover Your Strengths" is giving the world false impressions. Combined with a formula of Talent X Investment = Strength, Rath hopes that he can convince people to not waste their time if they have no natural talent for something. These types of books only want ot sell to the public and do not really offer much of any analysis.

Really an excellent improvement in the test compared to the original Strengthfinders test. The new test takes a combination of your factors to determine how each factor applies to you. I recently had my team go through the new strengthfinders and even people with the same strengths had different descriptions about how they were impacted and the types of ways the various strengths show themselves for each individual. The book itself is not as impactful as Now Determine Your Strengths, but the test is the primary value, so I'd recommend Strengthsfinder 2.0. I also highly recommend Marcus Buckingham's Go Play to Your Strengths.

We are a strength based organization and basically had all of our staff read this book and take the online test. THe results were so accurate in describing each individual and, as well, in explaining why each person was excelling in their work, that we have started a policy of having new employees, in the interview process, read the book and take the test. No, it is not a fortune teller. Rather, it shows tendencies and areas where a person can see the world from the power rather than as an observer... Yea! Great book!!

This book is easy and interesting reading. Not only is it required text for my class, but the Vice President of the company that I work for actually told me to read it. Imagine her surprise when I informed her that it was required reading for my masters in social work class.

Great practical ideas. How refreshing it is to see a passionate individual pursue an idea to completion and take the time to fully investigate all possibilities.
It's been a great addition to my book club at work.

After many years of ignoring the hype about this book (it admittedly has a great name) I buckled and read it. It was o.k. I did find some useful facts and anecdotes in it but for the most part it reminded me of esoteric research papers that I was forced to read in med school and residency -- crammed with #'s and statistics and graphs, but relatively little in the way of real-life applicable insights. Worth a quick perusal. The books by Trout and Ries are much better.

I don't need much to write here as hundreds of people has written review for this book.
In simple terms the book is easy to read & understand. Analyze how best companies manage to retain their position by innovative & intelligent leadership. Research is sound & findings are really interesting. This book would be useful for any leader (or follower) even if they are not into financial sector.
The concept of "Good is the enemy of Great" struck me the most
Definitely worth for its price.

I did not finish this book. Many may argue reviewers should not review books that they have not read entirely, but I think it would ultimately benefit potential readers if even those who started books reviewed them. Maybe then Amazon book reviews would not be so skewed to 5-star reviews. Now on to why I did not like this book.

As a former management consultant, I appreciated the techniques the author used to make what he was saying sound important such as using fancy charts and graphs and writing in business lingo with little substance. The author also sets the stage by self-aggrandizing. In the first page he ruminates about how much someone would have to pay him in order not to publish the book. Apparently even 100 million dollars would not stop him from publishing his work. Now if this were a truly amazing book and research, why not let the readers decide instead of telling them how great it is going to be? Mr. Collins is smart, however. He knows self-aggrandizing works. Human beings fall for those pretensions all the time. Sales people use those strategies all the time. I don't believe that the author is trying to deceive readers and I am sure he genuinely believes his own material. "The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." (quote by physicist, Richard Phillips Feynman).

Collins looks at 11 companies that have achieved success and tries to explain what drove them to that success. This is a meaningless exercise. Every situation is unique and more importantly it has little application to the real world. If it did, then why hasn't he been able to predict the future successful companies and become rich by investing in them? If you are not convinced by my review, consider this: one of those "good to great" companies that is studied in the book is Fannie Mae. Enough said!

I think this was a great first book to look at if you're planning to do the GMAT, though I wish there was a little more explanation with the statistical answers. Otherwise it's an easy guide.

As a primary resource for preparing for the GMAT this book is invaluable. The questions are organized from easy to difficult and separated in to topics to help you find weaknesses. That said, there are a few minor mistakes in the book that can lead to hours of confusion. Those mistakes can be found at

http://www.gmatix.com/blogging/index.php?x=25

Other than that the book suffers from to few questions. This is not a good comprehensive study plan, just the best first step.

Unless you are one of the lucky few who don't need formal instruction to prepare for standardized tests, you can not use this GMAT book as your only resource. But, if you are using other instruction or practice materials the Official Guide is great for testing the accuracy of the strategies you've learned.

It's true that this guide will not tell you how to test better, but some people have left reviews saying there aren't any explanations. I don't understand why they're saying that though, because I thought one of the best features of the GMAT Review is that it explains every single answer in both the quant and verbal sections very clearly. There are some typos, but it's not like you can't figure what they meant to say. Some people have also said that random questions they tried from the book were too easy. I wonder what sections they tried, because at least in the quant portion the questions become increasingly difficult. So the first 50 questions are pretty easy, but the last 25 are much harder.

Just as a side note, I took the 7 week Veritas GMAT prep course and scored a 630 on the test right when I finished the class. But afterward I spent the next month testing the strategies in this Offical Guide and improved my score to a 700. So I would definitely say it's helpful.

I've been working with this book for about a month, and I'm very pleased with the progress I've made thus far. Reviewing questions in order of difficulty has allowed me to slowly build my skill level- I'm feeling much more confident than I once was about taking the GMAT. The only thing this book is missing is extended explanations of some of the concepts commonly used in questions.

It is ofcourse a must buy because it comes from the makers of the test.
But then this is not exhaustive. Atleast it doesn't look exhaustive to me. Moreover, the level for Problem Solving looks really low to me in this book.

Great book! Many very practical advises on how to improve your performance and improve your life. I can recomend it to all office employees and entrapreneurs who want to improve their lives.

I've been teaching my students for years and years about the issues that Mr. Ferris explained in his book and I'm glad that I wasn't alone! The entire system of education in America (and in most countries for that matter), which is known as Prussian System, implies that the only option we have is to slave full time for somebody else for forty years and quietly die after that in poverty! That's how we are supposed to spend our lives! That it's perfectly normal to identify ourselves with how we make a living. It's unquestionable that it has to be a full time job to make money to survive in this world. It's normal to answer the question "What do you do?" with the explanation about where you spend most of your life trying to make money to survive. Isn't it humiliating! Is that what God planned for us? We stopped questioning it long time ago. Generations wasted their lives working. Just working! Do we even realize how huge it is? When a person can actually enjoy life, spend time helping others, learning something new, spending time with the family, actually doing what he or she enjoys, we somehow settled for forty years of hard work not even in order to achieve something in life, but just to survive, just not to starve to death! We can't even afford to stop working for a couple of month, because we are going to run out of money and become as poor as we are planning on being when we are retired.
The same thing with delegation. We don't know how to do it. We must make sure that we are busy 100% of the time and we can not delegate anything to anybody! If we get some free time it only means that we are lazy and we need to cure the situation by filling free time with more work!
The most ridiculous case of inability to delegate is our national crazy idea (I'm from Russia) that if you grow potatoes yourself - it's free! I still remember how pretty much everybody goes to plant potatoes in the spring. No matter how well off you are, you must do it yourself, because if you do it yourself - it's free! Can you believe it!
Anyway, this book is going to be called at least "controversial" or most likely will get one of those slap-on "get rich quick" or "it will never work" labels.
Our society is not ready for this.
But for a small business owner today it's one of the most comprehensive guides on today's business and a must-have.

Tim Ferris is part entrepreneur part action hero, all energy. I picked up the book having little in common with him other than a bald head and a desire to get control of my life and create time to do the things I've always dreamed of. I first picked up this book more than a year ago and have reread several parts of it since. Mr. Ferrris outlines both a plan and a philosophy which are mind opening to the average person. I ave adapted several of his tactics and a few of his philosophies in my own life and have found myself to be more efficient and productive in both my work and personal life. I have not yet gotten to a four hour week and don't expect I ever will but I've always felt that if you read a book like this and find one or two things to adapt into your own life you have made a great investment in both money and time.

This book has helped me to organize my life in such a way that I have completed two novels (not yet published) found time to help coach my son's soccer team and improved my relationship with my wife. These are priceless life improvements which may not have given me a nicely compartmentalized four hour work week, but have gien me a life balance that has changed my lfe.

The 4-Hour Work Week:
Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
By Timothy Ferriss

Twenty-years ago a young psychologist named Marsha Sinetar helped jumpstart a revolutionary approach to work. With the publication of her best-selling book "Do What You Love, The Money will Follow," Sinetar liberated millions from the idea that working was necessary only to make a living so you could do what you loved.

Since that time, the ideas of discovering your right livelihood, balancing work and life and becoming rich enough to afford retirement have spawned thousands of self-help books. Among these are numerous sterile accounts of how to become a millionaire before you are 30.

Now, a 29-year old suggests what may become the next step in the work revolution. In his book, The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, Timothy Ferriss relays to us in his high speed text that change is long-overdue. Instead of the slave/save/retire mentality of most overworked employees today, there are new opportunities for workers that have never existed before.

But The 4-Hour Workweek is not another book on the work-life balance describing the problems we all face. It is about creating solutions by changing not just your workstyle, but your lifestyle. The new currencies, he says, are time and mobility. These should be used in the here and now to create a luxury lifestyle. The author assures us it is not difficult. It simply takes the courage to make a few uncommon decisions and follow them with equally uncommon actions.

There is already a fast-growing subculture who has abandoned the "deferred-life" plan and are now distributing retirement throughout life instead of saving it for the end, Ferriss says. He titles this group the New Rich (NR) and states their main goal is to escape the rat race entirely, not win it. The NR believe that traditional one office locations and 9 to 5 workdays are obsolete. Money alone rarely ever solves problems or gives enjoyment.

The desire for more money, the author argues, is often laziness. "If only I had more money is the easiest way to postpone the intense self-examination and decision-making necessary to create a life of enjoyment--now and not later," he says. "Busy yourself with the routine of the money wheel, pretend it's the fix-all, and you artfully create a constant distraction that prevents you from seeing just how pointless it is."

Ferriss is no poverty guru however. A few years ago, he was a poster boy for the extremely overworked and underpaid cubicle dweller. Using the insights he developed for this book, he went from $40,000 a year and 80 hours a week to $40,000 per month and four hours per week. In part because of his extensive world travel, he now speaks six languages. He is a national champion in Chinese kickboxing, an actor on a hit television series in Hong Kong and holds a world record in tango.

The author offers four steps and strategies to reinvent yourself, whether as an entrepreneur or in your current job. The first letters of each step form the acronym of "DEAL" The manifesto of the "dealmaker" is simple: Reality is negotiable. Outside of science and law, all rules can be bent or broken. Here's the four steps for reinventing yourself:

* Definition: Define what you want to be doing.
* Elimination: Ask yourself three times a day "am I being productive, or am I being busy?" Eliminate interruptions. Stop checking e-mail more than once a day.
* Automation: Delegate or automate the remaining tasks, even sending personal tasks overseas. If you're a writer, outsource your research the night before to a virtual assistant in India. Have it ready the next morning. Cost: $4. Per hour.
* Liberation: Enjoy your mobility and use the time you create. Surround yourself with positive people who have nothing to do with your work.

This is a book about challenging assumptions. For example, the New Rich credo is not to strive to buy all the things you want, but to do all the things you want to do. The NR goal is not to have more, but to have more quality and less clutter and of course, the time to do what matters.

Can you have it all--by working 4 hours a week? Tim Ferriss's belief-blasting, fast-paced, book makes you want to believe it. It's an exciting, mind-expanding declaration about how our lives don't have to be all about work. If Ferriss' book is the ticket to the workplace of the future, you definitely want to get on board.

While reading the 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss I kept asking myself: what world does this guy live in?

Then deja vu hit.

I've seen this world and actually lived in it for a few years. It was called a "bubble" and the year was 1999. Everyone was at the center of their own world of self-aggrandization chasing down pre-IPO stock, throwing lavish parties with chocolate fountains, and creating money losing companies at breakneck speed.

It's as if Ferriss had time traveled from 1999 or is some kind of fossil a book publisher dug up trying to cash-in on a perceived market for a 2.0 generation of greed seekers.

Yes, this book is that bad.

It seems like I'm a minority voice, as the average Amazon review is 4 out of 5 stars... if interested you can read entire review here:
[...]

A recipe for life success (I first heard it 8 years ago). Covey's style is compelling in audio - for me much better than reading the book.
Listen to it twice (at least) to let it sink in.

While I read through this wonderful book, I came to a striking realisation: There exist ways to deal with any situation in life effectively. Stephen Covey has put these into writing.
The challenge remains to live by these universal principles - which Covey did not create but so prudently recognises - but realising they exist is the first step.
How one person, through years of research even, put this vital gem so rich in content together escapes me. It's as if the book was written from the creator of these concepts themselves - a higher force.

I know a lot of people who have done great things after reading this book. Obviously, not right after finishing, but I think it helps your frame of mind if you are driven, and success and accomplishment is important to you. It speaks to some fundamental truths about human nature that allow the book to stand the test of time.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

this is a great book. I have to read it for one of my classes, but
I am really glad I got assigned to read it.

It is a great resource of knowledge that could help one throughout
their whole life.

I strongly recommend it!

It was good in the past and it's still good. Check this out if you've never read it.

I actually had to get this book for a college class, and while it isn't the kind of book I would choose for myself to read, it has had quite an impact on my way of thinking.

The world is changing, and those who sit with their eyes closed and pretend it's going to go away are in for a rude awakening. Friedman gives many insights into both the benefits and consequences of having a global communication via the internet, the world wide web, and other technological advances. This is just scratching the surface, but to go over everything in the book would take much more than just a few paragraphs.

Overall, I found it tough to get into (maybe because I was required to read it), but once you get into it, it really makes you realize what is going on in the world today and where we stand as a society as the changes come.

Simply put, this is a book that any student of business or politics needs to read to claim currency. It's insightful, controversial, yet raises valid arguments for globalization.

In summary---"You can't put the genie back in the bottle" so get with the program or be left behind.

Thomas Friedman shares with us the most updated human value system, Philosophy, we have to live on with passion and curiosity. This book presents the direction of human evolutiion with increased demand for more personal touch to thrive in this automated society. Thank you very much for your humanity.
Hak-Nam Kim from McAllen, Texas

Friedman is excellent at 'at the factory' reporting on supply chains, outsouring, reporting on the strengths of Bangalore and China, how services are now exported and imported and how all corporations are now effectively multinational. The world really is quite different than it was fifteen years ago and Friedman describes this well. Friedman's analysis of how to 'surf the wave' however amount to little more than bromides. Friedman encourages constant learning, stresses engineering and the sciences, avoiding slip ups etc. It is not the Friedman is mistaken it is that Friedman doesn't develop anaylyses of the trials and tribulations of the 'flat earth' in depth. Friedman seems to be saying both that 'this is paradise' and the 'sky is falling' with the message going back and forth between the two. Friedman's analyses of how to take advantage of and how to avoid the pitfalls of the 'flat earth' are lacking. The first 200 page deserve five stars but the rest is more or less padding.

....by virtue of the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels. Eventually everything will be made locally (each town and hamlet will have its own cobbler, etc.) A veritable nightmare from the microeconomic point of view.
Amru Albeiruti

This book was helpful when I read it with a few organizational items in my life. It's been a while since I've read it, and I can't exactly remember what I learned so I've given it a 3/5.

Management begins with self! Start managing yourself and you would be able to manage everyone and everything around you. But there are times when you have lots of things to do and you are left with no choice but to get more and more confused.

The best ways I thought to manage everything starting from my desktop to the projects I was working in was (after I analyzed a lot and Googled around) to more and more equip myself with sophisticated gadgets, this is what they are meant for, isn't it?. Well after I installed good software, mindmaping applications, get good PDAs, I was, once more, to my surprise managing additional stuffs that what I already was previously. At least for few days I was feeling a little satisfied that my investment in one of the most updated software or a hand-held device is going to bring me peace. But after few weeks everything was back to square one.

I even saw this occasionally with other people, the more unorganized you feel the more devices, gadgets, etc you tend to buy, but no one was happy, eventually the more STUFF you get the more unorganized you become. Which ultimately leads to stress. That is NOT the solution. Basically, after getting myself acquainted with GTD I understood that the devices were actually built around GTD. So, once I know what the basis principles of personal productivity are I can accordingly arrange myself, my mailbox, gadgets etc.

The solution is to know and understand the CORE the basic principles that are essential to generate productivity and efficiency. You must be a person with great ideas and already very successful, however, if you are someone who is under stress of not being able to manage a lot of stuff then you need this book.

Know exactly what stress is? How your internal commintment, even when you think that you are not committing, to various things around you build more and more stress? How can you arrange, discard, delegate stuff.

This truly is, as coined by David, an Advanced Common Sense.

There is a lot of stuff about GTD over the internet including the 43 folders website. I suggest you surely visit the YouTube videos for Davids lectures at Google (authors@Google). Look at him when he is explaining things on video and then read the book.

Other than the Bible, this is probably the most impactful book I have ever read. I stumbled upon this book in a bookstore years ago and bought it on a lark. The ideas are so simple but also can change the game of how you interract with your work and life to get more important things done. While seeing David Allen in person (which I later did) is even better in the book, this is a great way to spend $10 and I often buy it for people who work for me.

"Getting Things Done" is a great motivator, as it speaks volumes for the simplicity of how we individually require a set way of organization to really make it flow for our daily interruptions.
This book was a recommendation, and I would also recommend it for both people "on task" and those that are flailing to keep the paper tiger in order. I will use this book over and over to recalibrate both home, work, and electronic devices whenever I am once again needing to regroup and set new goals.

There are some really good ideas on how to get more organized and less stressed out due to disorganization in this book.

However, I have to say that this book isn't going to really help you deal as effectively with time management or procrastination. It's more a book on how to get organized and stay that way.

For dealing with procrastination and perfectionism, I would highly recommend "The Now Habit" by Neil Fiore (rev. 2007 edition). It ultimately ended up being a much more useful book for me than GTD - although the systems described in both books can easily work together.

Good Seller. Is always available to help, if we have any questions regarding the delivery he acknowledges via email within 6-12 hrs.
Overall, would say a good quality service.

It's a great book for all who intend to acquire knowledge in Project Management. It gives knowledge of widly used & practiced management theories, concepts & formulae etc. It's very helpful and probably the key book for getting PMP certification.

As a professional Project Manager and member of the PMI, this book is a must for all persons either, as a reference tool, or a text book to obtain qualifications in Project Management. Not the easiest to read but none the less, an invaluable asset.
Barry Conroy
Impact Project Management,

The book is necessary to get your Project Management Certificate but it is very boring so you may have to read it twice to comprehend.

The Project Management Book of Knowledge is a Must-Have book for any Project Manager, whether or not your goal is to become PMP certified.

This is an easy read. The principles are applied within a story. Useful tool to use for improving team moral.

This was a great book, an easy read that was packed with information and suspense. After reading the fictional part of the book, I found the in depth descriptions of each dysfunction at the end of the book very important and informative. Also what makes this book so good is the fact that almost anyone in any team building situation can relate to the book. As a high school senior who is involved in sports, is involved in many activities at my school and who has a weekend job that is focused around teamwork, reading this book has been beneficial and inspirational to me. As I look back at things I have done and been involved with and also ahead to future endeavors, I realize not only the importance of teamwork but how to take the idealistic thought of a perfectly functioning team and turn it into reality. Almost anything that you do has some sort of team aspect. If you can conquer the 5 dysfunctions by taking conflict head on and trusting others while at the same time doing not what is best for you but what is best for the team, I think that you will truly understand and retain the true meaning and importance of this book.

I think I enjoyed the concept of this book more than the actual implementation. Told like a fairy tale, the book tells the story of a team in trouble and a company facing internal failure. A professional "team builder" is hired as CEO to restructure and revitalize the team.

The new CEO struggles to establish a team mentality among her newly acquired executives. Rampant mistrust and confidence issues are paralyzing them. The author chronicles the steps Kathryn takes to overcome these obstacles and begin establishing a self-sufficient group.

In theory, if your team is suffering these sorts of issues, the book should work. This book was required reading for my workplace, and while I found it to be an easy, entertaining, and perhaps even insightful read, I couldn't quite relate to it. Yes, the same sorts of issues are prevalent on my own team at work. However, Kathryn was dealing with eight or nine team members. There are many more on mine. Technically, it should work no matter the size of the team. The problem is convincing everyone on board that this is a good plan.

I would recommend reading the book if for no other reason than to gain more insight into the workings of a team...particularly the ones that aren't working.

We are launching Strategic Planning for the next 5 years...our facilitator of our Strategic Planning suggested that all 16 employees read this book before we launch our planning sessions...it was terrific! Gave everyone a volcabulary and context in which to work as we journey forward to make our own organization totally functional!!!!

As a corporate human resources director, I am continually searching for material that will enhance our organizations team skills. Somewhat like another management book that I recommended Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions, the author uses fictional tales to deliver truthful insights into our business practices. I found the book to be a very intertaining and fun read along with a ton of valuable information. The concepts within the book can be easily implemented and will result in continual improvement in your team building endeavors. The value of teamwork within the modern corporate structure is sometimes a hard sell in the real world. Managers need reference material and books that contain much needed advice if they are going to `prove' the value of teamwork to the CEO. Like communication, everyone says it is important but the rubber rarely meets the road.

The part of the book that details the "five dysfunctions" is a great reference guide and also a topic that sounds eerily familiar as all seasoned managers have been down that road. The `five' are:

1. Absence of trust,
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of accountability
5. Inattention to results.

Buy this book. It will be a valuable addition to your bookshelf and certainly one that will be referenced again and again through the years. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR Author of Wingtips with Spurs