Execution

Just finished reading Execution (which you may have noticed already if you've been following me on Shelfari). And the verdict? Not so good.

I had to read Execution for work, otherwise I probably wouldn't have finished it. It brought to mind a great article I read in 2006 in the Atlantic Monthly (thank you Mike Lawton for turning me on to that excellent magazine), called "The Management Myth." I quote Matthew Stewart:

According to my scientific sampling, you can save yourself from reading about 99 percent of all the management literature once you master this dialectic between rationalists and humanists. The Taylorite rationalist says: Be efficient! The Mayo-ist humanist replies: Hey, these are people we’re talking about!

Execution belongs in the rationalist camp, the idea being that you can't just be a management-strategy guy, you actually have to make sure that stuff gets done. I never would have thought of that. I'm not saying that I, as a manager, couldn't do better at that particular aspect of my job (who of us couldn't?); I'm just saying that I didn't get much out of this book except the impression that the CEO contributors seem pretty pompous (yeah, I have no doubt that employees are carrying your handwritten notes of criticism around and showing them to their colleagues because they're so starstruck to have them from you, from you!) and the feeling that the authors maybe put too much emphasis on the somewhat controversial Six Sigma thing.