ëWhat started out as a short book to acknowledge the first 21 years of the companyís life turned into a homily to the greatest people and workplace thinkers I have come acrossÖí, notes Rob Davies, Managing Director of Water for Fish, the people and organisation consulting company.
In a new book published by the company, Rob Davies produces succinct, personal pen-pictures of some of the great workplace and leadership thinkers. In short chapters Rob uses an easy-going everyday writing style to summarise the key, time-eluding contribution that thinkers like Maslow, Herzberg, Taylor, McGregorÖ and many others have made ñ past, present and future.
As Rob observes: ëThinking about people and organisational performance issues is prone to the ëlatest fadí problem. There is often a preoccupation with invention at the expense of application. People who are responsible for organising and managing people are regularly bombarded with ënewí ideas such as emotional intelligence, visionary leadership, Big Hairy Audacious GoalsÖ when what they really need is what we already know about. The most beneficial innovation can be simply doing the basics really well, however unexciting that may sound!í
Rob has been especially keen to look back to ideas and approaches that are established, that have a legacy and a track record. As Rob notes, our failure to implement tried and tested ideas has resulted in under-performing organisations, poorly designed jobs, and a society that increasingly sees paid employment as no more than a necessary evil ñ something to be marginalised in an otherwise enjoyable life.
ëIt is unlikely that the core psychological processes that drive peopleís behaviour at work have changed over the past sixty years. During that time we have learnt a great deal of important and practical stuff about how to build organisations, design good jobs, harness peopleís motivation ñ yet much of this still remains to be applied well.í
Written in association with business writer, Stefan Stern, ëGood Jobí is slim enough to be carried around, to dip into before a meeting, or turn to as a resource and aide-memoir. It can be read at a single go or dipped into at will. Its strong visual design and questioning for the reader at the end of each section - íwhat about youí - means few will ignore ëGood Jobí.
To receive a copy, please e-mail marketing@waterforfish.com or call 44 (0) 1491 571182.
Greatest people and Organisational thinkers of the last 100 years celebrated in new book
ëWhat started out as a short book to acknowledge the first 21 years of the companyís life turned into a homily to the greatest people and workplace thinkers I have come acrossÖí, notes Rob Davies, Managing Director of Water for Fish
