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(1989). Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.
"Genius may not always be associated with messiness, but the following words are very much to the point:
Picture to yourself the darkest, most disorderly place imaginable...blotches of moisture covered the ceiling; an oldish grand piano, on which the dust disputed the place with various pieces of engraved and manuscript music; under the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied chamber pot; beside it a small walnut table accustomed to the frequent overturning of the secretary placed on it; a quantity of pens encrusted with ink, compared with which the proverbial tavern pens would shine; then more music. The chairs, mostly cane—seated, were covered with plates bearing the remains of last night's supper, and with wearing apparel, etc.That passage is found in The Lives of the Great Composers, by Harold C. Schonberg. It is Baron de Tremont's description of Beethoven's 'Office." (p. 141)
(1991). Statistics for Business & Economics.
(1994). Self-Esteem : A Proven Program of Cognitive Techniques for Assessing and Improving.
"Within a given profession or social level, our culture next awards worth based on accomplishments. Getting a raise, a degree, a promotion, or winning in a competition are worth a lot. Acquiring the right house, car, furnishings, boat, or college education for your kids—all those accomplishments are worth a lot, too. If you get fired or laid off, lose your home, or in any other way slip down the accomplishment ladder, you are in deep trouble. You lose all your counters and become socially worthless.
Buying into these cultural concepts of worth can be deadly. For example, John was a bank examiner who equated his worth with his accomplishments at work. When he was late in meeting an important deadline, he felt worthless. When he felt worthless, he got depressed. When he got depressed, he worked slower and missed more deadlines. He felt more worthless, got more depressed, worked less diligently, and so on in a deadly downward spiral." (p. 88)
Buying into these cultural concepts of worth can be deadly. For example, John was a bank examiner who equated his worth with his accomplishments at work. When he was late in meeting an important deadline, he felt worthless. When he felt worthless, he got depressed. When he got depressed, he worked slower and missed more deadlines. He felt more worthless, got more depressed, worked less diligently, and so on in a deadly downward spiral." (p. 88)
(1990). Shame & Guilt: Masters of Disguise.
"Children who grow up in shaming environments quickly learn that one must blame or be blamed. There are very few compromises in shaming environments. It often feels like we are playing 'emotional hot potato' in our adult relationships...Passing the blame to someone else is our attempt to protect an already injured self from more wounds." (p. 82)
(1995). Silent Sabotage: Rescuing Our Careers, Our Companies, and Our Lives from the Creeping Paralysis of Anger and Bitterness.
"At the organizational level, we must begin removing the hierarchical walls that we've built around us....We must move away from the concept that the boss is omnipotent and all powerful [sic] and move toward a more fluid organizational structure that favors a shared approach toward conducting business." (p. 57)
(1990). Self Directed Work Teams: The New American Challenge.
"The most potentially damaging kind of performance feedback at this stage is one-on-one feedback from manager to team member. Because that relationship carries so much emotional baggage...it's important to find alternatives to manager-to-employee feedback wherever possible." (p. 135)
(1995). Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat: Business Lessons from the School of Hard Knocks.
"Visionaries have to come to work willing to be fired. That's the price you must pay. You've got to be willing to take chances, to speak up, to rattle cages, to challenge the basic premises, to suggest a better way of doing things." p. 222
(1997). Slaves of the Machine: The Quickening of Computer Technology (Bradford Book).
"Most of today's programmers are like lawyers who are concerned only with the law, not justice. Their letter-of-the-law, obey-or-you-will-be-punished tradition has the same problems in computing as it does in law." (P. 80)
(1990). Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration.
"As William James wrote in Great Men and Their Environment, 'The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual; the impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.'" (p. xxiii)
(1981). Stress/Unstress: How You Can Control Stress at Home and on the Job.
"The value of this Self Test for Stress Levels is that if you are getting totals of 300 or more, you are well-advised to take it easy for a year or so with any major life decisions. Not making a decision to change is an acceptable option."
(2000). Special Edition: Using Samba.
(1984). Scenes from Corporate.
"The men and women who work in middle management and technical jobs in corporations suffer from fear, but not from cowardice. Their ability to endure fear in the struggle to achieve happiness as it has been defined for them proves that they are not cowards. They lack options. They may move from corporation to corporation, but the systems in which they live do not change with the change of employment. As they grow older, even that illusory option disappears. Then they must choose between human alienation and their accustomed standard of living." (p. 284)
(1999). A Safe Place for Dangerous Truths: Using Dialogue to Overcome Fear & Distrust at Work.
"In a strict hierarchy, when someone in power has the reputation for retribution, it would be irresponsible to encourage the discussion of dangerous truths. One time I believed a manager's self-description as 'open-minded and empowering.' Introducing dialogue into her group was a mistake. She was not open-minded and had a reputation for shooting the messenger. The result was agony—two hours of people squirming in their seats, eyes darting longingly toward the door, and no one daring to tell the truth." (p. 194)
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