Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.48 (811 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0767907698 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-11-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Review by J. Colannino Tom DeMarco wrote Slack in 2001. However, I have a ten-year rule on management books: if they're still around in ten years, then I read them. Slack has something important to say, but first, the bad news. Although the book is short (220 pages) it is often boring. However, it is also interesting and insightful in some important places.DeMarco starts out by describing an old puzzle you may remember: a square 2"x2"puzzle with 8 plastic tiles in a 3x3 grid with one space left over. The object was to order the tiles from 1 to 8 by sliding them around and interchanging tiles and spaces. DeMarco prop. Tom Demarco gets it right While some folks have felt that Tom did not go into enough depth on the many topics he covers, he does enough on each topic to give you some good starting points for managing your work and projects, and most importantly the folks that will be doing the work.I have long believed the drive to long hours with people working under the gun and advocating multi-tasking in business is fundamentally flawed. Tom shows good basics and data to clearly illustrate why these practices can get you into trouble if not managed. Kanban usage in software was not in vogue when Tom wrote this book, but it it is a . "Good concepts, little evidence" according to Lance C. Hibbeler. In "Slack," Tom DeMarco (of "Peopleware" fame) takes on a lot of old management practices that apparently are still in use today, with the precept that so-called "knowledge workers" need to be managed differently than traditional factory workers. DeMarco plays fast and loose with logic, relying on anecdotal summary evidence from his consulting experience (take my word for it) rather than giving the actual evidence or citing previous studies to back up his claims. If you can get past that, and have an interest in better managing "knowledge workers," then this book might be for you. It's not tha
It means embracing risk, eliminating fear, and knowing when to go slow. Implementing slack could be as simple as adding an assistant to a department and letting high-priced talent spend less time at the photocopier and more time making key decisions, or it could mean designing workloads that allow people room to think, innovate, and reinvent themselves. That principle is the value of slack, the degree of freedom in a company that allows it to change. If your company’s goal is to become fast, responsive, and agile, more efficiency is not the answer--you need more slack.Why is it that today’s superefficient organizations are ailing? Tom DeMarco, a leading management consultant to both Fortune 500 and up-and-coming companies, reveals a counterintuitive principle that explains why efficiency efforts can slow a company down. With an approach that works for new- and old-economy companies alike, this revolutionary handbook debunks commonly held assumptions about real-world management, and gives you and your company a brand-new model for achieving and maintaining true effectiveness.. Slack allows for change, fosters creativity, promotes quality, and, above all, produces growth
Another entry in the small but growing management library that suggests purposely slowing down and smelling the roses could actually boost productivity in today's 24/7 world, Tom DeMarco's Slack stands out because it is aimed at "the infernal busyness of the modern workplace." DeMarco writes, "Organizations sometimes become obsessed with efficiency and make themselves so busy that responsiveness and net effectiveness suffer." By intentionally creating downtime, or "slack," management will find a much-needed opportunity to build a "capacity to change" into an otherwise strained enterprise that will help companies respond more successfully to constantly evolving conditions. Focusing specifically on knowledge workers and the environment in which they toil, DeMarco addresses the corporate stress that results from going full-tilt, and offers remedies he thinks will foster growth instead of stagnation. Slack, he contends, is