Product Description

Today's managers waste an estimated 40 per cent of their time on unnecessary cooperation, communication and control. Old-fashioned management skills are too expensive and slow to use in today's complex companies. When great companies grow they become more complex. This complexity starts to undermine what made the company successful: the organisation slows down, it is more difficult to get things done and it becomes a less satisfying workplace. In his work with talented people from hundreds of the world's leading companies. Kevan discovered that they spend over 80 per cent of their time on cooperation, communication and control - and that up to 50 per cent of that time is wasted. Organised around 4 Cs - Cooperation, Communication, Control and Community - "Speed Lead" distills the experience of more than 35,000 people in over 200 of the world's leading companies. The resulting radical view has enabled organizations to unravel the spaghetti of complexity, reduce project cycle times, build closer business relationships and curb the costs of unnecessary travel. Contrary to current leadership wisdom, "Speed Lead" advises to: celebrate the end of teams where you don't need them; abolish meetings of the bored; take control of the "crack-berry" and don't be a 24-hour control freak; expect more from your people and lead a lot less; make "good-enough" decisions; and, don't let diversity be a diversion - share practices, not values.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46452 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 324 pages

Review
"Intensely practical. Hall's book is a highly stimulating guide to creating a more efficient business. Any global firm would benefit from the chapter on managing across time zones by organising continuous 24-hour working." Carol Kennedy, Director "An eminently practical book, good at giving pragmatic, realistic tips that can help the reader to reframe and reflect on one's practice, and change behaviour without the guilt from being "stuck" in an outdated managerial mindset. This is a well-organised and enthusiastic synthesis of good managerial practice." People Management "Organizations are getting ever more complex. Globalization, technology and scale can lead to growth and success, but they also bring dysfunctional baggage. Kevan shows how to get off the organizational "hamster wheel" and focus on what is important." Geoff Armstrong, Director General, Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development "We all want our companies to be faster, simpler and easier to run - this refreshing blend of challenging ideas and practical tools shows us how." Karl Kahofer, Group President Rubbermaid / IRWIN Group Europe & Asia Pacific "Great management and leadership includes application of a lot of common sense. This book contains the sort of practical help and guidance that you can dip into and refresh your common sense quotient. Keep it close!" Christine Betts Senior Director, Audience Marketing, Microsoft "A much needed new look at managing and leading in complex modern organisations. Practical tools you can implement to speed up your company." Bob Morton, Head of People Development Competence Centre, Europe - MEA. Ciba Specialty Chemicals "Speed is the key word for companies in Asia Pacific Rims; China, Japan and Korea. Kevan's remarkable new book SPEEDLEAD comes from his long practical experience and is based on Creativity & Innovation, Simplicity, and easiness of applicability for managers of global companies. New tools and techniques from this book can be applied in many different countries without any cultural difference." Professor Jae Ho Park, Chairman, Department of Psychology of Yeungnam University, South Korea

From the Author
I wrote this book because I met so many good people, in great
companies, working hard but frustrated with how long it took to get things
done. They were spending 80% of their time on cooperation, communication
and control and told us that 50% of this time was wasted - and it seemed to
get worse as their companies grew and became more complex.

In working with hundreds of real teams around the world we started to
realize that teamwork was not always the answer, that most of what happens
in meetings is irrelevant, that communication is the problem, not the
answer and that central control is stifling real control.

We also realized that community had changed a lot; it was much more diverse
and not based on a physical place.

12 years later we think we have some of the answers, Speed Lead offers some
proven, practical alternatives that work better in complex companies. I
also hope it is real "win: win" improving business performance and at the
same time improving job satisfaction and motivation for people who are
currently suffering from a lot of wholly unnecessary work..

About the Author
Kevan Hall is the founder and CEO of Global Integration Ltd, a consultancy specialising in skills required to work in complex, international organizations. He works with companies worldwide, including Microsoft, Cisco, Nokia, JP Morgan, GlaxoSmithKline and Vodafone. He has practical experience in line management, manufacturing operations, HR, training, and strategic and market planning in the Telecoms & FMCG sectors. He has lived in the UK and France, manages his own cross-cultural and remote organization and is a regular speaker at international conferences. His website is www.global-integration.com.

Customer Reviews

Practical and Pragmatic
This book could easily be renamed, "Speed Read", as once I picked it up, it was impossible to put down. It's an easy book to read and the tips are so practical I was skipping ahead for the next ones. Having spent all my working life in and around complex companies, it was refreshing to have some of the assumptions around how businesses work challenged - they certainly resonated with my own frustrations as a line manager.
The focus on satisfaction worked well for me, as I have often seen very efficient businesses full of unhappy and dissatisfied people, often as a result of the complexity of the business or function they work in. The ideas and advice will help in the future.

How to achieve and then sustain a decisive competitive advantage in a "crazy-quilt world of work"

According to Kevan Hall, "the book is about how to simplify the way we work together in complex companies to increase speed, make them easier and cheaper to operate, and provide a more satisfying place to work." Obviously, these are highly desirable objectives but seldom easy to achieve...especially now in what James O'Toole and Edward Lawler characterize as a "crazy-quilt world of work." In The New American Workplace, they share the results of their research and identify "some clearly identifiable developments":

Insufficient creation of "good jobs"
Increased choice and risk
Increased influence of competitive and economic drivers
Increased tension between work and family life
Mismatch between skills and business needs
Increased social stratification based largely on educational attainment
Changing nature of careers
Reduction in community and commitment
Shortcomings of the healthcare system
The boomer demographic imperative
Unrealized opportunities to make more effective use of human capital

These and other developments suggest a context, a frame-of-reference, for the material that Hall provides in Leading Speed. He focuses on what he calls the "4Cs": Cooperation, Communication, Control, and Community. None is a head-snapping revelation and I would have included Collaboration. However, this is Hall's book, not mine. He is to be commended for identifying the most serious efficiency and productivity problems in the workplace, and, common causes of each. He then proposes practical solutions to those problems.

I presume to suggest to those about to read this book that they first formulate a list of their organization's 3-5 most serious problems and be as specific as possible. Next, review the Contents (Pages v-vii) and see what each of the eight chapters covers. For example, are there problems with cycle time (e.g. preventable delays) or first-pass yield (i.e. quality of work the first time around)? Are there too many meetings that accomplish little (if anything) of value? Is too much time spent on what is urgent and not enough time spent on what is really important? How about communication, cooperation, and collaboration between and among departments, divisions, business units, etc.? Does the organization have silos, bunkers, castles, moats, drawbridges, hermits, snarling dogs, etc.? I then suggest to those about to read this book that they lock in on those sections that seem to be most relevant to the given organizational needs.

Of special interest to me is Hall's emphasis on the need for what he calls "selective decentralization" when identifying simpler ways to manage people, projects, and teams, especially in (but not only in) complex companies. He also stresses the importance of simplicity throughout his narrative, agreeing with Einstein that policies and processes should be "as simple as possible but no simpler." Hall has no illusions whatsoever as to how difficult it is to overcome all manner of barriers (especially cultural barriers) in complex organizations. In this context, I am also reminded of Oliver Wendell Holmes observation, "I wouldn't give a fig for simplicity this side of complexity but I would give my life for simplicity on the other side of complexity."

Here is a selection of brief excerpts that are representative of the flavor and thrust of Hall's insights:

"The essence of a team is that [its members are] interdependent. A team is a tool you should use when a complex task requires people with a range of skills and points of view to cooperate to get the work done over a period of time." (Page 13)

"The idea behind best-practice reviews is to transfer learning...Sometimes the best practice comes from outside the team or from a specialist function or head office...People will only be receptive to learning [from a best practice] if they have a need for it and an interest in it. If not, then best-practice reviews are largely a waste of time." (Page 48)

"Companies need control to make sure they are efficient, legal, and predictable. Too much control, however, particularly from the center, can slow things down and undermine local responsibility...[Control] should be a finger on the pulse, not a grip on the jugular." (Page 106)

"The principle of building a sense of community at the right level is simple: Align the keys to community to your objectives...The more you need loyalty, the more you need to take control of line management processes, rewards, and career development. However, the more you need to build community, the more time and expense it will take [because] loyalty is naturally local." (Page 149) Those who read this book will also appreciate Hall's skillful use of several devices in most of the chapters. The checklists either summarize key points ("Top Tips in Designing for Participation" in team meetings) or suggest next steps (e.g. "Putting this chapter [on meetings and conference calls] into practice in your organization"). Hall clearly agrees with Jason Jennings and others that, more often than not, "less is more."

C-level executives obviously have more authority and influence to leverage than do those who report to them but that fact remains that almost anyone who reads this book and then effectively applies material in it that is most relevant to the given needs and objectives also can derive substantial benefit from Hall's book. If not planning and conducting a meeting, she or he can at least be a more productive participant in it. If not heading a team that has been charged with completing due diligence for (let's say) an acquisition prospect, he or she can at least be a more productive contributor to the team's initiatives. Corporate agility is by no means easy to establish and then sustain. Kevan Hall suggests how managers (not only C-level executives) at all levels and in all areas can create that decisive competitive advantage by working effectively with their associates to produce more and better work faster in less time and at a substantially lower cost.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out O'Toole and Lawler's aforementioned book, The New American Workplace as well as Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood's Leadership Brand: Developing Customer-Focused Leaders to Drive Performance and Build Lasting Value, Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement: Rethinking the Way We Measure and Drive Organizational Success, and Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

A Must Read for all who work in Large Companies
Anyone who works in a large(ish) company will enjoy and benefit from this book -- it is well worth reading. Its basic premise is that traditional management practices no longer work in the complex world that most business people inhabit.

The author points out various problems that I'm sure are common to many other companies especially in other major multinationals. Two that really caught my attention were too many bad meetings and too many pointless e-mails. Provocatively (but in my experience rightly) he says that in companies there is too much Co-operation, Communication, and Control (these are the first three sections of the book) but not enough "Community" (a sense of Trust and Team Spirit)which comprises the fourth section.

The book doesn't stop there but tells you what you can do about it. It is logical, easy to follow, and is full of simple practical insights, tips and tools to help you solve these issues. So there are lots of practical things to take away. Of course if you don't have these problems you won't need this book.