Category: Book Reviews

Solange de Santis is a journalist who’d never held a blue collar job in her life. She wondered what it would be like, so she took such a job. For a year and a half! Now that’s commitment.

But it’s also something more. What drove her was partly curiosity about a different work environment and the desire to show that she could overcome a completely new set of challenges – but her book Life on the line which describes her experience also shows that there is more to it. The blue collar life has an attraction that shines through almost every page of the book. It may be rough, dirty, physically demanding and underpaid. But it is also challenging, giving and lets you meet many fascinating people.

Solange got a job at a GM van factory that was slated to close 18 months in the future, and this added to the intensity and relevance of the experience. What happened to the 2700 people working at the GM Scarborough is happening again and again in companies all over the world.

And if there is one lesson, that I take from the book, it is that the stereotypical view of factory workers is dead wrong. Many if the people she meets are dedicated, hard working, highly skilled and creative. But the way they work offers them no opportunity to use those sides of themselves. They’re locked in a tight battle between management and unions that actually has them cheering when production stops, giving them an unexpected break. This is not what they’re naturally like – it’s a reaction instilled in them by an inhuman system.

Solange made it through some very tough times (especially at the beginning) and I have the deepest admiration for her, for having stuck with it. The resulting book is fascinating – I almost couldn’t put it down, I constantly had to know what would happen next. It’s also a fascinating glimpse of a different work environment that most white collar workers will never see for themselves. Managers would gain immensely from reading the book to get a view of management seen “from below”.

The book is especially relevant for our work in the Happy At Work Project, because most of our customers so far have been white collar companies. This begs the question: Will the same methods work for blue collar workers? And after having read Solange’s book I remain convinced that they will. The difference between the white and blue collar people is much smaller than we think. And in the end we all have the same ambition for work: That it will make us happy!

Work is good. Work gives our lives meaning, and if we choose to work a lot, well, we’re probably happier for it.

Work is important. You would never accept a romantic relationship that was “sort of OK” or stay with a spouse who is “you know, nothing special, but I’m used to him/her”. So why should you accept anything less than true fullfilment on the job?

Work is changing. From long-term commitment and slowly and predictably climbing the career-ladder to a gold watch after 25 years of faithful service to rapid job changes, lateral career moves, free agents and entreprenurism.

And this is all good.

This is basically the point of Richard Reeves’ book Happy Mondays: Putting the Pleasure Back into Work. You’d be hard pressed to find an author more determinedly and forcefully optimistic about the changing work environment, and I think his book is an important and valid contribution to our efforts to construct the future of work.

My long-distance friend Mike Wagner put me onto this book, and I was very glad to read it – especially as a counter-weight to The Corrosion of Character by Richard Sennett, which looks at the exact same phenomena and basically concludes that it’s all bad – as you may have guessed from the title.
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If you’re interested in Appreciative Inquiry (AI), the Appreciative Inquiry Handbook by David L. Cooperrider, Diana Whitney and Jacqueline M. Starvos is the book to read, because:
* It’s edited by the foremost AI people on the planet
* It’s relevant to every level of AI user from novice to expert
* It covers both the theory and the practice of AI
* It’s clear, readable and very thorough
* You can read it as a book or use it as the ultimate AI reference

If you don’t know AI already, you should consider looking into it – it’s one of the two most important tools I know of for creating positive organizational change (the other being Open Space Technology).

There’s more on AI here and here.

Almost anybody who works with HR, organizational development, motivation or similar areas has heard of the Pike Place Fish Market. This is basically a fish shop, that one day decided to be world famous. As the owner tells it:
The first step for us at Pike Place Fish was to decide who we wanted to be. In the words of John Yokoyama:?In one of our early Pike Place Fish meetings with Jim (our coach from bizFutures), we began an inquiry into “who do we want to be? We wanted to create a new future for ourselves. One of the young kids working for me said, ?Hey! Let’s be World Famous!? At first I thought, ?World Famous?what a stupid thing to say!? But the more we talked about it, the more we all got excited about being World Famous. So we committed to it. We added ?World Famous? to our logo and had it printed on our shipping boxes.

This got picked up by some consultants, who created the Fish! concept, including a video and a series of books. But now, the Pike Place Fishmongers have told their own story in their own words, in the book Catch!: A Fishmonger’s Guide to Greatness by Cyndi Crother. And their version ain’t bad either.
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I disagree with almost everything in Richard Sennett’s book The corrosion of character, and I still think it’s hugely important and very much worth reading. Confused? Read on.

Sennett looks at the working conditions in the new flexible economy, and he sees a lot of problems. People no longer work at the same company or the same job for long stretches of time. They switch jobs or switch teams or change fields or even become consultants :o). There’s no predictability, no long-term commitment, no long-term relations with co-workers and bosses, no loyalty, more confusion, etc. Most of all, the new work environment makes it more difficult to find and maintain a narrative of your work life. Previously, when people could focus on their careers, you had that as a measure and as the backbone for that narrative. Today, where the fixed path of a career has been replaced with a crazy quilt of job changes that can be up, down, sideways or just plain jumps-into-the-unknown it becomes much more difficult to find meaning and to find yourself in your work.
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Saying sorry when you are is one of the most fundamental and important personal skills there is. A well-timed, well-phrased apology can get you out of a lot of trouble – and conversely, withholding and apology when one is due can poison almost any relationship.

In The One Minute Apology: A Powerful Way to Make Things Better Ken Blanchard and Margaret McBride tell a story of positive change promoted by just such an appropriate apology. And of course along the way they outline the principles of good vs. bad apologies.

And it’s powerful advice. Apologizing means you take responsibility for your actions. It displays confidence, responsibility and maturity. It also lets you move on from a sticky situation that might otherwise trap you and others for a long time.

So here’s my challenge to you: What apology have you been postponing? Think of one, and go apologize now :o)