The Three laws of performance

 Full title: The Three laws of performance: Rewriting the future of your organization and your life.

Authors: Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan

Genre: Productivity, Self-help

Original publication date: 2009

Book description:

A proven system for rallying all of an organizations' employees around a new vision and ideas for making the vision stick When something at work isn't going smoothly, managers struggle with what part of the problem to tackle first. Do they start with cost reduction? Or should they go for process improvements first? The authors--who have helped hundreds of companies and individuals change and improve--say spend time and money adjusting the systems in which people operate, rather than targeting people and their performance directly. The authors show that it's in fact possible to change everything at once--with a focus on making such transformations permanent and repeatable.

Brand-new Introduction written for the paperback edition Filled with illustrative examples from Northrup Grumman, BHP-Billiton, Reebok, Harvard Business School, and many others Two experts in the field show how to make major transformations happen The book outlines a process for engaging all employees to buy-in to an improved vision of an organization's new and improved future.

Thoughts:

This is more of a self-help book than what I expected. I wanted something a bit more scientific, something with more data to draw from. It is like any of that help yourself kind of book that you find floating everywhere. It was way too long and had zero methodologies. It was more of a promotion of these two people than a book that can help you accomplish your own personal growl or better your work life. 

There were a few concepts (nothing ground braking but still worth noting)

-The way you perceive others is not always accurate.

-Learn to communicate with those around you and don't force your own judgment upon them as a fact.

-The default future is something to consider if you are going to try to succeed. Again nothing revolutionary something every self-help business book can include. If you think you're going to fail then it's likely that you will because you will not try your best to succeed, why would you if you will fail anyway. 

A few hightlights so you don't really have to read the book:

Three Laws of Performance

1. How people performs correlates to how situations occur to them
2. How a situation occurs arises in language
3. Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people
Leadership Corollary
1. Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situations occur
2. Leaders master the conversational environment
3. Leaders listen for the future of their organization
First Law Practice - Exploring how the situation occurs to you and others.
Second Law Practice - Exploring how language shapes how things occur to you
Experiencing language at work.
Third Law Practice - Having a say about how situations occur
Creating a new future.

I am hugely disappointed by this book. I wanted facts, methods, a system to back up what they were saying. It was not. We have several examples of people who used this method, but what method? It simply says we must get together actually communicate and work as a team. That is not news and is not helpful at all.

I felt cheated, it promised so much and it was nothing like I expected. The worst part was that I did purchase this and now I feel like I could have spent that money in a different book and just tried to get this one in Scribd, or some other online service that offered it with no extra charge. 

It felt too long and had no real content. Not something I would recommend really.

Online I saw few people praising it, I guess as a self-book yes might be recommendable but it really sells its point. This is more like marketing and promotional to the writers, it feels like the praise and examples you give to convince people to hire you. I, unfortunately, think it was a waste of time and that does not happen often. 

I am aware that people think and assimilate things differently and the few good points and ideas were good especially if you have never read anything related to effective communication, teamwork, or leadership. This is a good head start in the self-help books. If you have read anything related to leadership or effective communication skills, this might be just a repeat of what you have heard elsewhere. But if you are like me and do not enjoy Self-help books don't bother to pick this up.

I hope this might help others out there.

For now this is it. Wish me luck for my next pick. Also if anyone knows a good book related to time management, performance or effective communication drop it in the comments below. After this, I would like to find one a bit more objective to not leave the topic on a sour note.