Biblio
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(2004). The organization of information.
(2003). The Lazy Way to Success.
222.
"Any individual or business that wants great success must take the concept of play seriously. For that matter, play should be the only thing taken seriously. Play in the workplace is not frivolous, as the hard work advocates would have you believe. Quite the contrary, play has enormous practical value...Play allows the mind to flow without restrictions—to explore, to experiment, to question, to take risks, to be adventurous, to create to innovate, and to accomplish—without fear of rejection or disapproval. Thus a business that regards fun as "unprofessional" or "improper" or "trivial" or "out of place" stifles the creative and progressive process. That’s like running a highly competitive race with one foot stuck in a bucket."
(2003). Managerial and organizational reality: stories of life and work.
"Defamation attempts to cut the reformer off from a potentially sympathetic following by attributing his attempts at reform to questionable motives, underlying psychopathology, or gross incompetence. This three-pronged attack is meant to blackmail the reformer into submission and to transform a sympathetic following into a mistrustful crowd of onlookers or an angry mob that feels resentful at having been deceived by the reformer." (p. 331, Rory O'Day)
(2003). Scapegoats at Work: Taking the Bull's-eye Off Your Back.
212. Abstract
"There is almost always some truth to the accusations against a scapegoat, but many other sins are laid against their name that rightly belong elsewhere. Punishing or excluding the scapegoat serves to relieve the system of the need to examine the structural problems of the system and of all concerned to explore their own participation in the problem. The ability of scapegoating to provide simple apparent 'solutions' to complex problems is part of its power." (p. 11)
(2003). The Anxiety Book.
"Have compassion for yourself and others. Rational responses should not only be more truthful than core negative thoughts, but also be kinder. When you magnify your own weaknesses, your cognitions become skewed toward disaster because you don't believe in your ability to handle stress or challenge. When you magnify the weaknesses (or dark sides) of other people, your relationships are characterized by mistrust, and you'll never feel safe in the world. You don't have to expunge awareness of your own imperfections, or whitewash the fact that people can be malevolent, in order to cultivate compassion. A compassionate worldview acknowledges all our multifaceted complexity but is purposely skewed toward the positive: You look for the good in yourself as well as in others." (p. 98)
(2003). Beyond Blame: How to Resolve Conflicts with Friends, Lovers, and Co-Workers.
"Avoid even the appearance of blame. No surprise here. This is, after all, the main theme of this book....
"There is nothing that will sabotage any strategy you employ more quickly than the mere suggestion that you are blaming the other person for the troubles. Equally detrimental is for you to accept blame that is directed toward you. This compliance tactic (perhaps even driven by the misguided belief that one person can be at fault in a conflict) will only encourage further fault-finding in the future." (p. 223)
"There is nothing that will sabotage any strategy you employ more quickly than the mere suggestion that you are blaming the other person for the troubles. Equally detrimental is for you to accept blame that is directed toward you. This compliance tactic (perhaps even driven by the misguided belief that one person can be at fault in a conflict) will only encourage further fault-finding in the future." (p. 223)
(2003). The Blind Men and the Elephant: Mastering Project Work.
"Much of what we call 'project management' stands upon Taylor's flat-earth perspectives. When applied to repeatable manufacturing situations, his primitive notions have great utility. The same ideas fall apart when applied in more human, less mechanical contexts." (p. 7)
(2003). Breathing For A Living.
"A team is a team because of their spirit, not always because they play perfectly together all the time." (p. 189)
(2003). Business Leaders and Success: 55 Top Business Leaders and How They Achieved Greatness.
"Deming's sometimes-gruff nature reflected impatience with managerial abuses of power. He thought that power carried a precious responsibility. 'Research shows', Deming said, 'that the climate of an organization influences an individual's contribution far more than the individual himself.' " (p. 206)
(2003). Career Warfare: 10 Rules for Building a Successful Personal Brand and Fighting to Keep It.
"Organizations that value you only for your business skills—a lot of Wall Street firms fall into this category—are very antiseptic. They tend to be built on addictions, but not loyalties: addictions to the money, addictions to the process. They are a bit like galley ships. The overseers don't care about the relationship. They just want you to keep rowing.
This is fine when times are good, but if you should ever fail to handle your oar well, you are overboard. Such firms will have no compunction about firing you and even ruining your reputation, if it serves their purpose." (p. 54)
(2003). Controlling People: How to Recognize, Understand, and Deal with People Who Try to Control You.
"Other people's definitions of us are not just absurd—if unchallenged, they erect prison walls around us. As they rise higher, the light of awareness fades. The world darkens. We lose freedom, safety, confidence, conviction, and sometimes ourselves." (p. 77)
(2003). Developing More Curious Minds.
"[Colleen Rowley replied to the Senate Judiciary Committee], 'I go back to the "don't rock the boat, don't ask a question" problem.' Any question, she said, might be perceived as a 'complaint', or 'as a challenge to somebody higher up and they get mad or whatever' (Excerpts...,2002)." ...
"People who ask 'hard questions' too often have been fired because of their challenges to accustomed ways of thinking and doing business." (p. 6)
"People who ask 'hard questions' too often have been fired because of their challenges to accustomed ways of thinking and doing business." (p. 6)
(2003). The Geek Syndrome.
Flattened workplace hierarchies are more comfortable for those who find it hard to read social cues. A WYSIWYG world, where respect and rewards are based strictly on merit, is an Asperger's dream.
(2003). How to work for an idiot: survive & thrive– without killing your boss.
"The plan I suggest in this chapter is the old 'false identity' ploy. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Or make it appear as if you're joining 'em. Sometimes it's just no use fighting the system. Burn your personal fuel cells on things you have some control over and enjoy. If you're trapped in a culture of idiots with no possibility for improvement in your lifetime, you might as well blend in. Why burn yourself out?" (p. 32)
(2003). I Am Never Lonely: A brief history of employee personality testing.
"This first boom in personality testing reached its apogee with Henry C. Link's Employment Psychology, in 1919, in which he proclaimed:
'The ideal employment method is undoubtedly an immense machine which would receive applicants of all kinds at one end, automatically sort, interview, and record them, and finally turn them out at the other end nicely labeled with the job which they are to do.'
(2003). I Don't Know What I Want, but I Know It's Not This : A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Gratifying Work.
"Being bored or plateaued does not mean that you aren't working hard or that you don't have enough work to do. Being busy and dealing with the excessive stimulation that the workplace provides us with today have little to do with being bored. The combination of the two merely leads to a greater level of burnout." (p. 123)
(2003). In Praise of the Purple Cow.
(2003). Leaders: strategies for taking charge.
"We must learn to perceive power for what it really is. Basically, it's the reciprocal of leadership." (p. 16)
(2003). Sick Caesars - Madness and Malady in Imperial Rome.
"Sick Ceasars is an account, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, of men transformed, and more often deranged, by absolute power." —from the cover jacket
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