Every Sunday, the St Paul Pioneer Press asks a local business leader what they’re reading and why. This week, Jeff Prouty of the Prouty Project reviewed my book, Without Warning. Here is the article.
Who: Jeff Prouty, chairman and founder of the Prouty Project, a Minneapolis-based strategic planning and organizational development firm.
What: “Without Warning: Breakthrough strategies for solving the silent problems taking aim at your organization,” by Rodney N. Johnson
Why: After reading a book, I can always tell how much I gained by the number of Post-Its, dog-eared pages, underlined quotes and starred segments. Without Warning is a 127-page book filled with compelling stories and pithy quotes that can help leaders begin thinking about their game plan for 2010
The book’s premise is that many businesses and organizations have silent problems - problems that are avoided, neglected or altogether unnoticed - taking aim at productivity and profitability. These problems are ready to attack without warning as people adapt to the problems rather than solve them.
Johnson encourages readers to look out for the following yellow flags, which often are telltale clues of something lurking below the surface:
- Slow decision-making
- Unnecessary complexity
- Busy people with insignificant results
- Incomplete information
- Low performance standards
- Spun answers versus straight answers
- Quesiness in your stomach.
Johnson shares real-life examples of leaders tackling silent problems. I loved the one about Continental Airlines where the new CEO held an all-employee ceremony in the parking lot to burn the nine-inch policies and procedures manual as a way of creating a sense of urgency to eliminate the stifling bureacracy and start over.
I recommend reading this book as 2009 winds down to stretch every leaders thinking for proactive strategies in the New Year.
