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Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge
HarperBusiness Search HarperBusiness by Roger Fisher Alan Sharp John Richardson Search Roger Fisher Alan Sharp John Richardson
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Rating:  More Details: Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge @Amazon Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge @aStore |
Customer Reviews:
Clear, Simple Way to Learn Lateral Leadership
Have you ever been in a position where you did not have formal authority to change the behaviour of fellow team members only to discover, to your chagrin that telling them what to do is futile? Have you ever suspected - even slightly - that you may have contributed your fair share to the poor collaboration within your team? If so, then this book, "Getting it Done", is for you. Messrs Fisher and Sharp present a few simple techniques to help people like me, who answered in the affirmative to both questions above, influence the behaviour of my peers. They call these techniques, lateral leadership. These techniques are summarised below:
PURPOSE. Formulate the purpose of the team in terms of results to be achieved. In order to ensure that the rest of the team buys into the purpose, then it is essential that the team is involved in formulating the purpose. Furthermore, set purposes that will be attained in the short, medium and long term. It is essential to ensure a balance among the three time frames.
THINKING. The authors note with some wit that we, as individuals, think haphazardly and this is compounded when we work in teams. Therefore, it is important when collectively solving problems to think systematically from the data (the evidence for the problem) through diagnosis (possible causes of then problem) and direction (strategy to resolve problem) to what to do next (immediate tactics to realise the strategy).
LEARNING. This was the most useful insight that I gleaned from the book. The authors suggest that one learns from experience and review practice as often as possible in the team. This thinking may sound trite but it exposed my predisposition to separate planning the work from doing actually doing the work.
ENGAGEMENT. Our job descriptions almost never description all that we can do at work to improve collaboration. Even though one may have a `technical' job description one can still offer to engage with colleagues to improve collaboration.
FEEDBACK. Authors describe three uses of feedback: for evaluation, appreciation or change of behaviour.
The authors' style is easy to follow, punchy, matter-of-fact but somewhat tentative. They portray the book as `work in progress' and even go to some length to state that it (the book) may not be for everyone in the corporate hierarchy. The authors draw on their vast experience in teaching negotiation courses at Harvard. One potential drawback to the book's matter-of-fact style is that engaging case studies are thin on the ground. I thought that the paucity of human stories in the book deprived it of some intellectual bite.
Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Getting it Done. I see this book as a reference that will help me develop some of the behaviours that I want to see replicated in my immediate team at work. For ease of reading, clarity of delivery and aptness to my work situation, Getting it Done deserves my 4 stars.
Some very useful tips for working better with others
There is no doubting that working in a team we get more done than working alone. This book is packed with tips on how we can work/collaborate better with others. The advice is based on a method of "lateral leadership", which consists of three steps: "The first step is to organise and sharpen your personal skills at getting things done by yourself. The second step is to understand clearly your strategic goal of an organised way of getting things done with others. The third step is learning some tactics of participatory leadership." The first two steps I kind of skim-read. Techniques pertaining to the third step I found particularly thought-provoking and useful; techniques related to asking, offering and doing things that "stimulate others to become skillful at working together".
In summary: another good book from the Harvard Negotiation team; well-structured and plenty of examples to demonstrate the advice.
I wonder how Dilbert would lead 
There was strange assumption that organizations greatest problem is inefficiency that is caused by lack of co-operation and bad communication. Other problems such as management which living in different reality or work over loading of every person in organization. What if management decides to cut of bonuses and outsource to India? Thous currently very common situations where not mentioned.
One might think that issues in previous paragraph where not worth mentioning at time of publishing of this book (which makes the book outdated). I think hard stuff was cut out because everyone knows that quiting is only reasonable solution to handle Dilbert organization. After all we all have only one life and it is not worth to waste doing something utterly insane with people who you don't care and getting only pennies for salary.
In other words view of devil's advocate was completely missing. Funniest thing is that the book is telling how important it is to listen different opinions. I wonder did authors listen anything but yes men.
Solid Advice for the Most Common Business Problem
Whenever I meet with bright, motivated business people who want to improve the world, they always complain about others in their organizations who will not cooperate in a change process. Get those reluctant people on board the progress train, and the more positive future will soon arrive. Almost never do these complainers realize that their own habits, perspective, and behavior are contributing to delaying the progress by making others oppose the initiative.
Getting It Done is a wonderful book for helping each of us see ourselves as part of the problem and part of the solution in situations when many people must cooperate. That's a first in my experience.
The book builds on that valuable perspective by suggesting what skills we each need to improve, and how we can implement a process that will lead to genuine, effective progress. That is very critical, because most improvements occur because someone has designed an effective process to ease their implementation. In new areas, by definition, there is seldom such a process. My suggestion is that you try this one if you have no other.
I also liked the way the authors went on to generalize about how lateral leadership (influencing peers) provides lessons for when you are the boss. The same lessons apply here as well. Influencing people through genuine involvement leads to both better solutions and to better implementation.
If you only read and learn to apply one book this year, Getting It Done should be that book. My reasoning is simple. If you cannot help those you work with to make successful collaborations, you and everyone around you will always operate at a low level of effectiveness. Also, your work day will be filled with stress, conflict, pressure, too much to do, and worry. That's not the way you want to live. Getting It Done can help you develop the skills to get the benefits of how all of us know and can do more than any one of us. When you are able to get that benefit from being in an enterprise, life becomes very interesting, rewarding, and meaningful. You will also feel good about living closer to your potential as a person.
Indispensable
Packed with useful advice, techniques and plans for collaborative working and altering the way your colleagues and organisation works. Useful section on analytical thinking: how to make those unstructured, going nowhere meetings more productive. They're also willing to say when trying to change your colleagues' attitudes you won't get it right or be successful all the time, but they make a great case for sticking at it. Very useful, I'll be referring to this for some time to come.
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