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"I
have just finished reading Great
Boss-Dead Boss...
for the third time."
During
the latter half of 1982 and all of 1983, I was badgered by
Eli Goldratt every couple weeks to critique the latest
chapter or two of a book he was writing. Today, The Goal has
been read by over 10 million people and is available in
nearly two-dozen languages, which includes several
unauthorized printings. Even 20 years after its initial
publication, The Goal periodically appears on bestseller
lists in US publications like Business Week. When it was
recently published in Japan it not only topped the business
bestseller list, but also ranked ahead of Harry Potter on
the fiction listings.
The
Goal has become a business classic, read by each new
generation of mangers as if it was just published. However,
in 1982 it was just an idea that grew out of deep
frustration, a frustration caused by a seemingly unyielding
resistance to change. It wasn’t that Eli’s ideas
didn’t make sense, or were impractical – time has shown
they were just the opposite. It wasn’t for lack of
successful application – the results normally dwarfed
competing approaches. The problem was that they flew in the
face of many ingrained conventional approaches. Overcoming
these approaches required changes – changes in
measurements, changes in assumptions and changes in
thinking.
Conventional
approaches for communicating new ideas such as seminars,
videotapes, articles and the like didn’t seem to work. In
frustration Eli reached back for a communication device that
predates modern media techniques. He decided to tell a
story, to write a novel, to convey his ideas. He wrote it in
a somewhat unusual fashion – Socratically – so that the
characters in the book, and the readers, were continually
confronted with questions. In the process of attempting to
answer the questions, the characters and readers alike,
could deduce and check the validity of Eli’s ideas and in
the process either accept or reject them. In the end
they were viewed as what they are – common sense - even if
they are not commonly practiced.
Like
the ideas in The Goal, this approach seems to make a great
deal of sense. However, in 1983 it was widely rejected
by major publishers. They told us that it wouldn’t even
sell 10,000 copies. At this stage my personal contribution
was to convince Eli to publish The Goal regardless of what
the experts said and to persuade a friend who owned a small
publishing firm to print it. Not only was The Goal
enormously successful, it spawned a new genre of books on a
variety of subjects embodying this Socratic approach. Many
of these books were very interesting and quite readable,
many were neither, but none seemed to have the broad appeal
and truly enlightening “ahas” found in The Goal. That is
until now…
I
have just finished reading Great Boss, Dead Boss by
Ray Immelman for the third time and am convinced it stands
along side Eli’s book as a true business classic. In many
ways the appeal of Great Boss, Dead Boss is much broader
than The Goal since its ideas are applicable to all types of
organization, profit and non-profit alike. Everyone
who has spent time in an organization has experienced the
conflicts between functional “silos”, corporate and
division, management and union, first shift and second shift
ad nausea. Solutions ranging from cross-functional teams, to
decentralization (or centralization), more frequent/better
employee communications come and go but for the most part
the conflicts remain. Ray Immelman's view is that these
conflicts stem from a universal behavior pattern so deeply
ingrained in our socio-organizational makeup that we cannot
see it from inside. A manager, who knows how to utilize this
behavior pattern, can create a highly motivated
organization.
In
Great Boss, Dead Boss, Greg Wright, the new General Manager,
of Teralogix is faced with all these familiar conflicts. He,
and the reader, deduce solutions to turning around the
company with the help of periodic counsel from Greg’s
enigmatic mentor, Butch Johnson. Butch is less direct than
Jonah and more demanding that Greg discover and verbalize
the cause of his organizational conflicts. In return he
offers stories and other examples as clues for Greg (and the
reader) to puzzle through. In the process Greg learns how to
direct Teralogix’s internal strife towards a common
external enemy and step-by-step discovers the attributes of
a successful high-performance organization.
I
must confess that the effort required from Greg and this
reader was well worth it. The logical and common sense
nature of the solutions continually struck me as “I knew
that” or more often, “I should have known that”.
It’s not just that the ideas match one’s intuition, but
that they also explain many of the more global issues in our
world.
Great
Boss, Dead Boss has enough twists and turns to satisfy
any mystery buff and more than enough insightful ideas on
how to build a great organization to challenge the thinking
of any CEO, and those that wish to be one.
A
single thought coursed through my mind during each reading
– this is an absolutely extraordinary book. The way
the world works, or should work is now much clearer to me.
It’s the same feeling I had when I first read The Goal.
Robert
E. Fox
Chairman,
TOCC
Inc. New Haven, CT
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"No-one can put the book down - its brilliant !"
Goldratt Institute U.K.
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RE:
Book Review
It's
a hit. I have to admit that I struggled a little with
the first part of the book - there is a lot of detail there.
However, that may be what attracts others and helps them
identify with the characters. Once I got used to the
detail and got towards the meat of the book I never put it
down again until I finished it. It addresses the area
that most organizations miss. It clearly shows through
Greg Wright how someone with integrity, energy, and a
mission can make all the difference if they focus on
individuals and how they interact first, and let the
structure be secondary. All one has to do is show up
when a plant is not running and see what is missing - only
the people are gone, but the organization charts are still
intact.
The
book clearly shows that when people are led and not managed
their performance can be phenomenal. And tapping into
the spiritual and mental capacities of people rather than
just the physical parts is like striking gold for any
organization. The NINC (no involvement, no commitment)
principle applies in spades. And as much as many
people feel that spirituality in the workplace is taboo, it
is being forced on business because we are all spiritual
creatures, which is clearly the underlying context of the
book with people helping each other and working together
both inside and outside of the Teralogix plant.
Believing that we can really separate people's lives into
compartments has always been a fallacy.
I
really like the framework that is easy to understand and can
be practically applied. The use of the discovery
method for the reader helps keep up the involvement of the
reader because you simply can't wait to see what happens
next. And like "The Goal" it has a ton of
common sense to offer.
As
I made some notes in second review I found myself at the end
right where I started at the beginning of the book.
People, individually and not as a whole, must be the focus
as they are the building blocks for the tribe. And all
the interactions, or maybe a better word is intersections
between the people then become the areas of focus.
Like on a highway, the individual cars do pretty well by
themselves. It's the intersections that need a lot of
attention to avoid accidents.
In
many places in the book I found myself making notations
about the various principles involved with leading people.
This work deals with building trust and integrity between
people in organizations and the overriding theme is
"Culture First, Structure Last". Ray's
structure in the book brought new insight to me in that he
has put common sense in a simple format that you can use
every day. I intend to use this in our business as a
framework. It’s great that the knowledge can be
applied in organizations of any size, which should appeal to
many smaller business owners.
What
was really personal about the book for me is that I just
finished going through a situation that was similar to the
one that the Teralogix plant faced. Unfortunately, the
all-wise Board brought in an outsider that was clueless
about our industry, but great at changing the structure.
Hiring and firing was based on cost and not skill -
structure first and people last. They got everybody on
the right seats on the bus but it just happened to be the
wrong bus. As was predicted for them when they
started, they closed down within 12 months.
John
Lucy, CEO
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"Ray
has done every organizational leader a great service by
providing a framework for understanding the riddle wrapped
in an enigma that is leadership. His insights into our
tribal behavior and how the dynamic of individual and
collective security and value can not only be understood,
but practically applied to the betterment of all, raises the
bar for all interested in the field of group dynamics. His
decision to use the form of a novel as the vehicle for the
explanation of his insights makes them accessible and easily
understood, whilst not diluting the power of the ideas
themselves.
I
have always wondered how you can get a group of people with
different and varied affiliations to not only work for the
common good, but actually want to excel at doing so. In
Great Boss Dead Boss, Ray shows the reader some high
leverage answers to the question. The book, written in a
captivating prose style, follows the protagonist Greg's
journey of discovery, mentored by the crusty, wise Butch. In
the storyline are countless nuggets of wisdom and insight
which would serve well anyone who aspires to a position of
leadership."
David
Hodes
CEO,
TOC Center, Australia
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Ray
I
wanted to congratulate you on your excellent book. I'm
going to recommend it to all my friends. I chuckled with
recognition at some of the situations you so vividly painted
in you book. I can't wait to apply your insights in
the real word.
Regards
Rüdiger
Wolf
CriticalChain,
UK
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“Great Boss – Dead
Boss” underscores that motivated, productive organizations
are built by the collective daily actions of the people within
them.
"Ray offers
something much more valuable than the next “silver bullet”
for improving corporate culture - an insightful framework for
action that enables people within organizations to ask
themselves the right questions, and through their collective
effort to:
"Ray’s
brilliance lies not only in his deep understanding of human
behavior but also in his ability to communicate his ideas in
ways that can be commonly internalized and put into action by
people dedicated to improving their organizations."
Mike
Ahearn
CEO,
First
Solar, Phoenix, Arizona
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Stewart
Phillip International