A cogent presentation of a somewhat narrow aspect of business.
This debut guide details how a simple business technique can improve employee communication.
At first glance, business leaders might dismiss the idea of a “daily huddle” as trivial or even inconsequential. But business owner/consultant Hemmer makes a compelling case for how a 12- minute-a-day employee meeting can substantively impact a company’s bottom line. The author learned the daily huddle technique at a workshop for new beauty salon owners, later recognizing it could apply more broadly to most any business. Her book is a justification for using daily huddles as well as a step-by-step action plan. The volume also supercharges the idea by turning the daily huddle into an “Intelligent Huddle,” a term trademarked by Hemmer. The author first presents the problems businesses face, such as employee turnover, a weak company culture, and poor communication. Then Hemmer diligently provides a detailed overview of neuroscience basics and how to apply them, supporting the argument that there is real depth behind an Intelligent Huddle. For some readers, it may seem unrealistic that something as simple as a daily huddle can offer such key benefits as saving time, reducing stress, creating a problem-solving team, and increasing productivity. Hemmer makes a valiant effort to plead her case with well-written, convincing prose. But except for the author’s personal experiences, case studies and specific examples depicting the daily huddle in use are lacking; they would have been helpful in swaying skeptics. Still, Hemmer does lay out a very thorough implementation plan, right down to the number of minutes that should be spent on specific huddle elements. She also covers how to introduce the idea of daily huddles, enumerates “rules of engagement,” and suggests ways to deal with push back from employees. Perhaps the most critical part of the book is a chapter on measuring the effectiveness of daily huddles. Here, the author discusses common mistakes and suggests ways to track success. Hemmer’s acronym CONNECT (“Conversational Flow,” “Opportunity,” “Neuroscience,” “Needs,” “Engagement,” “Commitment,” “Trust”), referenced in the final chapter, is a handy way to “remember the key principles of the Intelligent Huddle.” The real question is whether business leaders will embrace the idea.
A cogent presentation of a somewhat narrow aspect of business.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985190205
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Innovator Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sound insight, but not for beginners.
Ercetin and her co-authors offer a collection of essays and scholarly papers aimed at all types of organizations, hoping to inspire managers at all levels to assess and develop the organizational intelligence of their arena and, therefore, of their entire organization.
According to the author, organizational intelligence (OI), the ability to take in, analyze and respond to new information and changes, can determine the success or failure of an organization. Akin to the way a person’s IQ influences all aspects of life, an organization’s OI plays a role in everything, from employee satisfaction, to overall performance, to efficiency and streamlining. It is important that managers at every level–as well as the employees who determine actual workflow processes–are working toward a higher OI, whatever their sphere of influence. Toward this end, Ercetin and company put forth not only the concept of OI, but a scale for measuring it and instructions for applying that scale, as well as commentary on different applications for OI and metaphors for understanding its different aspects. Unfortunately, OI is a complex concept, and those who understand it well seem to speak a language different than that of the average employee or midlevel manager. That, combined with some English-language and/or translation difficulties, will make this book difficult for any novice to understand and thus extremely difficult to apply in a meaningful way. On the other hand, those with previous training in the language and concepts the book discusses will find interesting, compelling ideas for further inquiry. The authors explore different aspects of matter and liquid as a metaphor for OI and expand the usual concept of OI with their study of peace intelligence. It’s fascinating, but not straightforward or rudimentary.
Sound insight, but not for beginners.Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4196-3582-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Though the administration may be remembered as the worst in American history, the people seem mostly silent. One wishes that...
New York Times columnist Rich delivers a savaging sermon on the US government’s “rampant cronyism, the empty sloganeering of ‘compassionate conservativism,’ the reckless lack of planning for all government operations except tax cuts”—and so much more.
Anyone who knows his work will know that Rich is no fan of either George Bush, a man “not conversant with reality as most Americans had experienced it,” or the Bush administration. In this blend of journalism and mentalités-style history—that is, the study of the mindsets that underlie and produce events—Rich looks closely and critically at the White House’s greatest hits, from the 2001 defense of gas-guzzling as essential to the American way of life to “Heckuva job, Brownie” to the ongoing morass of Iraq. By Rich’s account, of course, that parade of missteps is organic; Bush and company cannot help but err. In an effort to disguise that track record, the Republicans have exercised single-minded control of the grand narrative of the last five years, at least in part because they have exercised quasi-totalitarian control over the news media. (They are nearly forgotten already, but one needs to remember Judith Miller, Jeff Gannon, Karen Ryan and various columnists and commentators paid off to repeat the party line.) Not for nothing did a White House adviser reveal to one journalist that his bosses were set on creating their “own reality,” one that all Americans were expected to share; not for nothing did that reality include spinning amazing lies about everything from the death of football- and war hero Pat Tillman to the kidnapping of Jessica Lynch to the government’s preparedness for Katrina. And yet, and yet . . .
Though the administration may be remembered as the worst in American history, the people seem mostly silent. One wishes that Rich had explored that particular mentalité along with the others he so fluently discusses.Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2006
ISBN: 1-59420-098-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2006
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