- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Perseus (28 Sep 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0738203661
- ISBN-13: 978-0738203669
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 14.7 x 1.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 5,355,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
An irreverent and inspirational guide to overcoming corporate complacency.. Have you heard "Let's get everybody on the same page" just one time too many? Was your latest management training course just another plateful of warmed-over dogma? Then it's time to start kicking up some dust and making a difference. In All Hat and No Cattle , maverick consultant Chris Turner shows you how to do just that. With a healthy dose of Texas humor, and with wisdom gained from experience on the front lines, she exposes much of what passes for management wisdom as baloney and offers fresh ways of thinking about organizations and the people who bring them to life.
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My family never did hold much with organized religion. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
My family never did hold much with organized religion. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Let's face it, all organisations are dysfunctional. The larger the organisation, the more dysfunctional it will be, in part because of the number of dysfunctional people working in it (which must include yourself)!
There are obviously two reactions you can have when met with this. The first is to accept it and either rise or fall to the level of mediocrity of those around you. The second, is to find ways (however small - and small is GOOD) to improve things. As the Chinese proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
If your natural inclination (as is mine) is to take the latter approach, then you are a corporate outlaw and this book is for you!
Chris also re-iterates that change is not a top- down or a bottom-up activity. Everyone in the organisation is responsible for examining, questioning and attempting to improve how you "do" business. Just because others around you don't have that approach is no excuse.
Chris mentions a host of other useful titles on her web site [...] to which I would also add Gerald M Weinberg's "Quality Software Management" series. Don't be put off by the title if you're not in the software business - engage your lateral thinking abilities and you'll find much applicable elsewhere (systems thinking and congruent action (it's not enough to know what is the "right" thing to do, you also have to do it) get a volume each).
I've come across a couple of other books (e.g. "When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses: How to Survive in a Crazy and Dysfunctional Workplace") which might suggest they cover similar material but in practice they don't. One title (from the American Management Association, so perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised) suggested that the only dysfunctional people are those "below" you on the org chart, not those above or beside you, and clearly never YOU! The "Why do smart people" book is more about "coping" (i.e. the first option) than the second, so may not appeal.
I believe there is quite an art (and a skill) to making effective change at work - especially to do so without getting yourself "changed" in a fashion you may not appreciate.
Chris covers various ways to do this, and ways that organisations get into such a state in the first place. Systems Thinking and Systems Dynamics are mentioned as effective methods, and I would certainly agree ("you cannot solve a problem for someone else, if it isn't a problem for them").
Another area I found very interesting was discussion of various ways of making learning more effective. Solutions to "death by Powerpoint" at last! So, if you ever find yourself droning on, regurgitating Powerpoint slides (or manuals) verbatim to a bored (and probably comatose) audience - there are better ways, and Chris gives valuable food for thought.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
11 reviews
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful
A Rare Diamond
3 Jan 2000
Format:Hardcover
Probably one of the most searing, and brutally honest, books on the subject of business structure and organization of the 20th Century. All is told in an entertaining style, and with refreshing clarity.
Chris succeeds in melding the lessons of complexity theory into a comprehensive, and very practical book dealing with the deficiencies of modern business. She does this by constantly ripping apart the prevailing hierarchical mindset so often found in big companies, and by contrasting that to real success stories obtained through viewing business as a complex adaptive system, instead of a machine. Where people get treated like intelligent human beings, and not as second-hand citizens.
Through various stories and anecdotes she illustrates the incredible potential of the new way of seeing reality. She excels in making the case for unleashing the creativity and promise of employees, through allowing greater openness, and the freedom to learn, collaborate, and interact across geographical and functional boundaries.
Some of her no-holds barred quotes will make the point stronger than I can get across in these few words:
1. There is no telling how much 'pee-pee' there is in the corporate coffee. People who feel shat upon often get revenge.
2. Executive pay is obscene. I mean, these folks make feudal lords look like philanthropists...Lou Gerstner, who axed two hundred thousand IBM employees in 1993 and 1994, simultaneously tripled his own pay to $12 million. What a guy.
3. We should understand that when people are hanging out in the hallways or on the production floor, there is learning going on.
4. People are either learning things that support the strategic intent of the organization, or they are learning how to retire on the job.
5. Understanding the assumptions underlying current organizational practices is the first step toward creating productive organizations filled with learning, creativity, imagination, energy, fun and meaning.
6. The planning process is useful only to the extent that it is thoughtful, that it provokes questioning and causes people to challenge old thinking.
7. Given the dollars spent on wooing new customers, wouldn't it make sense, to try to hang on to them? Wouldn't it make sense to design systems and create environments that amaze customers?
8. Organizational disturbances should unsettle, cause a commotion, create a ruckus, and shake things up. Designed well, they lead to new thinking, new doing, to questioning the status quo, and to give rise to a new level of consciousness. Good disturbances create the future now.
Buy the book!
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
More than a business book.
3 Nov 1999
Format:Hardcover
A powerful critique of contemporary business culture. Exposing corporate hypocrisy for what it is, Turner makes a convincing case for mindful organizations that foster participation, enrich learning, and understand themselves as living systems in need of disturbance rather than as machines in need of oiling. This irreverent, thoughtful, and engrossing book is a must-read for business people and for anyone concerned with generating institutional change. All Hat & No Cattle suggests actions that each of us can take to create the world we want.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Insightful and entertaining, with a message.
27 Oct 1999
Format:Hardcover
Ms. Turner tells it like it is. She uses skillful narrative to weave a true tail of corporate intentions gone wrong, and a few that went right. Read between the lines to create a "how to make change happen" manual for yourself and your organization. Read this book for the refreshing writing style and straightforward perspective.
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