Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni

Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business by Patrick Lencioni

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Pros for this title are easy to come up with: It was a quick read. The information is easily consumable. The resulting recommendation is fairly specific and easy to implement. The concept behind this strategy for your meetings seems solid.

Cons are that the information, while easy to test, does not seem to come from any sort of empirical source. Most of it sounds like Lencioni conjured it up from nothing. I'm OK with that, since that is how I have come up with some of my best work, but it is an easy criticism for a business book. The strategy sounds good, but will require some tweaking, I think to work in various situations, and I don't think it provides an end-to-end solution to business woes, or even challenges with making your meetings effective.

If I were to sum up the message of the book in a way that I could stand behind it 100%, it would be: "If you want your meetings to be more effective, and ultimate contribute to the bottom line of your business, then introduce healthy conflict within a light weight structure. Let the attendees emotion be the driving energy behind good decisions and business success."



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First, Break All The Rules by Marcus Buckingham

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As another research-based business book, this one presented a great point-of-view on managing people. While it does seem that Buckingham departed from his research slightly from time to time, the message still rings true. I would recommend that all managers consider the idea that people are all different, and therefore should be managed differently, not the same.

While I like the main message of this book, I will say that the delivery was somewhat lacking. The content was good, but it just isn't well written. Academic portions seemed to drag on, and the language isn't engaging. This was actually my 3rd attempt at this one, and I made it to the end by sheer will, despite liking and appreciating the message.

All things considered I would give the content a solid 4.5 stars, but taking a holistic view, I can't go over three stars. I plan on picking up a few additional titles by the same guys (Gallup research results) so they will get another chance...



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Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I haven't handed out five stars in a long time. So how did this book get all five? Well, part of it might be that I haven't broken out of the Fantasy genre in a while, given my goal of getting through the Wheel of Time. Or maybe this is just a fantastic study on what makes companies great. Really great.



So the pros: This is a study put together with an approach that can only be called scientific for a topic that is so difficult to analyze quantitatively. That sounds pretty dry, I know. Yet it was very consumable. I had no trouble keeping my interest, and about 2/3 of the way through the book, when my attention started to wander, it ended right on time. The last third of the book held appendices a very helpful index, and basically a variety of a la carte data that backed up the main message of the book. It was very well put together.



The cons: I only have one con, and it is pretty weak. I look at the principles and think that there is room for a lot of personal application. I admit it doesn't fit in with the objective of the study, and any conclusions would be highly suspect, but I was left wanting. So it is my only con.



I recommend this to anyone who owns a business, works in a business, or is just plain interested in becoming not just good, but great at something. So that is just about everybody.