In my appraisal a few weeks ago, I got the best performance rating of my entire career, and my boss said senior colleagues were asking him "what on earth did you do to make him so effective?" Neither of us had an answer at the time, but then it dawned on me. Quite early in the review period, I had seen the first draft of Relationships Made Easy, and discussed it at length with the author and friends during a sailing holiday on the west coast of Scotland. I don't know if the insights from this book account for my excellent performance rating, but they certainly helped.
The idea for the book came partly from David Fraser's experiences working across the cultural divide between a Government client and commercial prime contractor, who are jointly responsible for the operation of a very complex infrastructure system; and partly from the discovery that many of the techniques were equally useful in relationships with family and friends. As a review panel, albeit one gathered in the confines of a boat rather than the more usual conference room, we all found immediate relevance for the ideas both in our work and private lives.
This excellent and very readable book presents an integrated system for effective relationships, drawing several different domains and inspirations together into a freshly unified approach. The structure is really good and clear and logical, and the content equally useful in professional, social and family contexts. If you want top performance ratings at your next appraisal, and if you need to bridge across cultural and behavioural divides to solve complex system problems, or just get on with people more easily and effectively, then this book might just be what you need.