My annual blog about the importance of reading books, modified from my previous January blogs. 

My experience is the best leaders always have a book they are reading. Reading is essential to lifelong learning, which is essential to our growth.

What role do books play in your life? In your learning? My guess is that for many, we just don’t have enough time. Making time to read books is important. I usually have several books in my study that I am working through. On long trips I enjoy audiobooks. I have friends who like audiobooks best. Currently the audio version of my book Decoding the Workplace outpaces the other formats.

How do you nurture book reading in those who do not enjoy reading? As leaders, we lead by example. We talk about books we are reading, we share stories, we talk about how books have affected our lives. I'm often asked what book influenced me the most as a manager and consultant. Easy to answer: Peter Drucker's Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, and Practices. I came across this book as a young manager when I was first building consulting capabilities in my teams. I have returned to it for knowledge, wisdom, and ideas throughout my career.  

In 2021 two books had the most influence on me. The first is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor in the second century. Meditations is just that, a book of reflections written by Marcus Aurelius. These were notes he made for himself. They were never intended to be shared or published. The first chapter consists of remarks about people for whom he was thankful. For me the book really begins in the second of the twelve chapters. Aurelius reflects on many aspects of human behavior, temperament, personal conduct, human relations, death. In his youth he was schooled in Stoic philosophy which he integrated into his life. Thus it is not surprising that Meditations is considered a great work of Stoicism. I read Meditations slowly, digesting, highlighting, and thinking about passages as I read them. The wisdom and insights in Meditations remain relevant in the 21st Century. 
 
The second book is Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life, the memoir of Donna McKechnie, dancer, actor, and singer. McKechnie was a dancer on a 1965-66 TV musical program Hullabaloo, segments of which stream on YouTube. In 1976 she was awarded a Tony as Best Actress for her role in A Chorus Line. I was curious how she went from a TV program to starring on Broadway so I checked out this book. Imagine my surprise to learn she was on Broadway even before she was a dancer on Hullabaloo. Apart from the story of McKechnie’s fascinating life, the book took me into the world of theater, learning about acting, dancing, and the lifestyle of performers. Sometimes a book expands your horizons, takes you where you’ve never been. Time Steps was like that for me. 

As we begin 2022, here are a few of the books I am reading or are on my reading list:

• Now Comes Good Sailing: Writers Reflect on Henry David Thoreau edited by Andrew Blauner
• The Saturn Above It: An Anthology of Short Fiction about Space edited by Karen Stevens
• The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman 
• The Odyssey by Homer translated by Emily Wilson
• Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys by Michael Collins
• A Short History of War by Jeremy Black
• The Experience of Leadership: Proven Examples from Successful Leaders by Fred Stuvek, Jr. (I contributed a chapter to this book and am now reading the other chapters.)

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them," Mark Twain. 

Or as the comedian Groucho Marx said, “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”   
 
What are you reading?
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Aurelius, M. (2020). Meditations: The philosophy classic. John Wiley & Sons

McKechnie, D. (2006). Time steps: My musical comedy life. Simon & Schuster.

Image, my photo. 
​
© John Ballard, PhD, 2022. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace “deals with principles and practices that are timeless . . . Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Now also available as an audiobook, paperback, and audio CD. ​

My most popular blog of the past nine years discussed differences between authentic and servant leadership. Thinking about giving and kindness of leaders, I researched and found few academic journal articles. However, I did find an interesting reference to James Hunter’s “The Servant.”  

Johnson and Vishwanath (2011) shared Hunter’s thoughts on how love is about behaviors, such as being kind and giving of self to others. Specially Hunter (1998, p. 124) suggested the true leader demonstrates the following behaviors:

1. Self-control (patience)
2. Appreciates others
3. Encourages others
4. Gives attention
5. Acts with respect to others
6. Seeks to meet others’ needs
7. Is honest
8. Forgives
9. Commits to decisions made and sticks to them
10. Seeks “greatest good for others”

My take-away:

Hunter (and Johnson et al.) are talking about servant leadership but regardless, this list makes sense. Each of these activities should increase influence, and perhaps inspire others. 

Consider using this list for a self-assessment as we begin the new year. Rate yourself on a scale from 1 to 5, where 1 means “I do not demonstrate this behavior” to 5, “I demonstrate this behavior very often.” Then look at the gaps. Where do you need to change your behaviors or work on some aspect of being a better leader? Self-reflection is at the heart of leader development. This might be a useful exercise. 

Best wishes for the New Year. 

Hunter, J. C. (1998). The servant: A simple story about the true essence of leadership. New York: Crown. 

Johnson, A. C., & Vishwanath, K. R. (2011).  Servant professorship and its implications. International Journal of Education Research, 6 (1), 135-146.

Image, "Team Spirit", by Kalhh. Obtained from pixabay.com/illustrations/team-spirit-teamwork-euro-959269/

Modified from my blog of 12/29/2014. © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

People who exude confidence often seem to be natural leaders. Perhaps it is the erect posture, or the confident tone of voice, or the way the person looks at you and others directly. Some people look and act confidently. Such people often move into positions of leadership.

Connson Locke (London School of Economics and Political Science) and Cameron Anderson (University of California, Berkley) wondered how people who appear to be highly confident affect the behavior of others, specifically in decision-making. Does a person who appears to be highly confident “cause others to participate less, or to suppress their own ideas and opinions’ (p. 42). Studies have suggested that people who appear to be highly confident are more likely to be seen as competent -- people who know their stuff --regardless of whether this is true.

In a series of three different experimental studies Locke and Anderson examined this topic. What did they find?

• On decision-making tasks, participants viewed the highly confident person as more competent and participated less.
• Even when the highly confident person had incorrect opinions, participants deferred.
• When highly confident people sought others’ ideas, the participants were more likely to participate, off-setting the effect of perceived competence.

My take-aways:

1.  We often do see people as leaders, or potential leaders, who carry themselves well, speak with confidence, and look at us while talking. We tend to select and promote these people into positions of power and leadership. Not all perhaps, but many. We may have a stereotype of the leader.  What are the implications for those who do not fit the stereotype?

2.  For leaders recognize you may be perceived as more competent or smarter than you are. You may intimidate others simply by being yourself and suppress participative decision-making. The solution: Genuinely seek others’ opinions and ideas, admitting you do not have all the answers. 

Locke, C. C., & Anderson, C. (2015). The downside of looking like a leader: Power, nonverbal confidence, and participative decision-making. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 58, 42-47.

Image by mwitt337 obtained from https://pixabay.com/photos/meeting-business-architect-office-2284501/

This blog is modified from my blog of February 14, 2015.  © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

How well do you understand what is going on around you in your virtual, hybrid, or traditional workplace? For most of us, there is a lot of information in our work environment to which we do not attend or do not understand. Active learning is built on the premise that we can learn by being more aware of what happens around us and then reflecting on that information. Most of us are not very good at this. I designed my book Decoding the Workplace to encourage introspection and active learning, to help readers understand what is happening around them in the workplace. 

In my chapter in the newly published book The Experience of Leadership by Fred Stuvek Jr., I emphasize the importance of being prepared to lead, regardless of whether you plan or desire to be a leader. One of the rules-of-thumb I discussed is the value in reflecting and being introspective. Here is an excerpt:
_________________________________

Carla was great at her job but did not interact much with her office colleagues. She was often the last to know new information about what was happening in the organization. Every day she brown-bagged her lunch and ate alone at her desk. Others also brown-bagged but ate together in the conference room. After reading about informal networks in the workplace and their impact on work, Carla reflected on the brown bags. She knew that she tended to be introverted and liked the quiet lunch in her office, but she wondered if it might be better to join the others in the conference room. So she tried it and to her surprise through others she became more in the loop at the office. As a result she became even better at her job. 
 
I developed this habit of reflecting and being introspective in my youth and have continued through a lifetime. Emerging from these moments have been insights which I bounced off close friends. I have not always been successful in being a better me but taking the time to think about situations and actions increased my effectiveness. The best leaders have self-knowledge. Know yourself. 
 
There is also a benefit to taking time to reflect and think about where you are going. As an adult I made goals and have reviewed and revised annually. This holds true also in leading organizations. We have a tendency to be reactive, not proactive. 

As a young officer I realized I was spending my days reacting, not planning. I could not get ahead of the curve. One day when I came to work, I told my secretary I did not want to be disturbed, to hold all calls unless from they came from very high in my chain of command. I went into my office, closed the door, and spent the entire day in my office thinking about our mission and what my part of the organization was really about. That day I developed an idea of where I wanted us to go and how we might get there. At the next meeting with my teams, I shared my thoughts, got their thoughts and feedback. Working together, we focused on more effective, meaningful training. With better skill sets came more success at our primary mission. And with that came promotions and recognition for my teams. If you understand your priorities, you make time to reflect – on your work and your life. 
__________________________________

Ballard, J. (2021). Be prepared to lead. In F. Stuvek, Jr., The experience of leadership: Proven examples from successful leaders (pp. 79-94). Triumvirate.  

Ballard, J. (2015). Decoding the workplace: 50 keys to understanding people in organizations. Praeger.

Image modified from media kit for The Experience of Leadership courtesy of Fred Stuvek Jr. 
 
Blog © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

People have informal networks and informal groups at work and elsewhere about which you may or may not be aware.The importance of these informal groups and networks should not be underestimated. In your workplace, physical or virtual, do you know who knows whom well? Do you know where there are relationships away from work? Even if you do not know an informal group exists, it can affect your work or your career. 

I returned to my office on a Monday after a week on a consulting trip. A casual acquaintance dropped by. After some small talk he remarked, “I heard your team did a great job last week. Sweet.” I thought we did but how did he know? Turns out a member of my team attended the same church as my casual acquaintance. They talked on Sunday. I had no idea of their relationship. 

Think about the relationships you have at work. Formal relationships are defined by the organization and are usually involuntary, for example you and your supervisor or the people with whom you are required to work. Informal groups or networks tend to be voluntary. They may or may not include people in your formal groups or networks.

Informal groups and networks in the workplace help get work done. Can you identify your informal groups in your work?

• To whom do you go when you need work-related information? 
• Who comes to you for information? 
• Who can you count on to help you sort out a work-related problem? 
• Who do you need on your side when advancing an idea, initiative, or work-related issue? 

These informal networks naturally arise out of individual strengths, weaknesses, and personalities. They exist on your first day of work but usually no one tells you about them. To identify informal groups and networks you observe, make mental notes, and learn by trial and error. Observe how informal communications flow, who listens to whom. Knowing the informal networks and groups around you can potentially increase your effectiveness and how you are perceived by others in the workplace. 

Image, "Meeting", Peggy_Marco. Obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/meeting-collaboration-meet-people-1015591/ 
 
This blog is modified from Decoding the Workplace. © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

The COVID pandemic has created an experiment in remote work for many employees and employers. Can employees work remotely with no decrease in productivity? Some have been doing this for years. For most it was a new experience. How one views the benefits and costs of remote work depends on whom you ask. Last year The Wall Street Journal published remarks on remote work from 19 CEOs. As I reported in a previous blog, only 3 of the 19 made positive comments; 9 were negative; 7, on the fence. 
 
The personal benefits of remote work, especially working at home, are well documented. I have read less about the costs. The August 16, 2021, edition of The Wall Street Journal included a special report, “The New Workplace.” In an article “Here Comes the Two-Tier Workplace”, Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School addressed some of those costs: 

• “Face time still matters.”
• “On-site employees will get the bulk of the attention – and the promotions.” 
• “Employees in the office get more access to leaders.”
• “On-site employees get first crack at opportunities that pop up because they are likely to see them first.”
• Attending meetings remotely more problematic than physically being present.
• More work for managers to manage remote workers versus on-site workers.
• “Companies will have a two-tier workplace.”

 
Cappelli suggests a key to insure fairness is objective performance outcomes for all workers regardless of where they work. However, as he acknowledges, most organizations have difficulties with objective performance management, eliminating biases “is frankly an impossible task.” He does offer a caveat: if remote workers only do so occasionally, “the differences between in-office and hybrid won’t be all that great.” 

He also makes an important point often overlooked: "The pandemic past isn't a reliable guide to the pandemic-free future." It is one thing to have to work remotely; it is another to choose to work remotely.

My take-aways:
 
1. As I stated in Decoding the Workplace, “we are more likely to interact with others who are around us physically than with people who are farther away.” This is especially true comparing on-site and remote workers. All things being equal, in most organizations managers will be more inclined to favor the on-site worker they see every day over the remote worker with whom they interact virtually. As Cappelli suggests, a two-tier system will naturally develop. 
 
2. In past positions I have had offices close to senior leadership and offices far removed. There were definitely differences in interactions and effectiveness. I once had my teams moved from near senior leadership offices to a location several miles away. Even though our relationships with senior leadership were well established, the more remote location made some daily activities more difficult. Location can matter in many jobs. 
 
3. Cappelli’s comments are consistent with our understanding of workplace dynamics. Will this two-tier system develop for all organizations? Of course not. Some enterprises are more compatible with remote work. However leaders, and employees, should be aware of the potential for a two-tier system developing. 

Cappelli, P. (2021, August). Here comes the two-tier workplace. The Wall Street Journal, R4.

Image by freephotocc obtained from https://pixabay.com/photos/cup-of-coffee-laptop-office-macbook-1280537/
 
© John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell popularized the “10,000 hour rule”, the idea that it takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to become truly expert in an activity. Gladwell suggested the Beatles accomplished this through the many hours they spent in Hamburg, West Germany, and Liverpool, that Bill Gates accomplished this because of his early access to computers at the age of 13 and over 10,000 hours programming. Critics have questioned the validity of the 10,000 hour rule.

In a Forbes post, David Burkus examined the often cited source, a 1993 article by K. Anders Ericsson and associates in Psychological Review. He points out that Ericsson is not talking about 10,000 hours of practice but rather 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice”, specific training activities, not work, not play. Burkus challenges managers to think about their 10,000 hours. Is it business as usual or deliberate activities to grow through news skills and methods? 

Burkus’s post spurred me to read Ericsson, Krampe, and Tesch-Römer’s original article. Here are some highlights:

• The authors talk about 10 years of preparation in the article. This has been translated into the 10,000 hour rule. 
• They credit the “10 year rule” to Hebert Simon and William Chase who in 1973 estimated the time required to attain exceptional performance in chess. Simon and Chase stated that no one had reached the grandmaster level “with less than about a decade’s intense preoccupation with the game”, and estimated a master had spent “10,000 to 50,000 hours staring at chess positions.” (p. 402) 
• The 10 year rule draws support from music, tennis, swimming, long distance running.
• Ericsson et al. studied violinists and pianists.
• People often perform below their potential even on tasks they do frequently.
• Deliberate practice is highly structured, designed to overcome weaknesses, “not inherently enjoyable”, requires access to resources such as teachers, must not be done daily to the point of exhaustion, and performance must be carefully monitored to find ways to improve. 

Macnamara, Hambrick, and Oswald (2014) examined over 9,000 potential articles for a meta-analysis. Only 88 met all criteria for inclusion. Their study looked at 111 independent samples totaling over 11, 000 participants.

Their findings? Deliberate practice overall was positively correlated with performance, but not as strongly as might be expected from claims in the literature – “deliberate practice explained 12% of the variance in performance” (p. 1612). Deliberate practice accounted for different amounts of the variance in performance in different activities:

• Games (e.g., chess) – 26%
• Music – 21%
• Sports – 18%
• Education – 4%
• Professions – less than 1%

They suggested “the effect of deliberate practice on performance tended to be larger for activities that are highly predictable” (p. 1615).

My take-away: 

It is easy to see how the 10,000 hour or 10 year rule applies to elite performance in the arts. 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, as explained above, seems more difficult for leaders and managers to acquire. Practicing the violin is not the same as practicing leadership or practicing management. Where is the carefully monitored feedback, and so forth? 10,000 hours as a manager is not the same as 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. 

But regardless, I find a fundamental truth here: We do not achieve higher levels of performance in most endeavors, including leadership and management, unless we are committed to learning and improving. Being a manager for over 10,000 hours does not necessarily mean that the manager has learned much. Only the person who actively seeks to elevate her or his game, to perform at an even higher level, to seek feedback, to self-monitor, to reflect on her or his own behaviors and observe how people respond, to study both success and failure – in short to deliberately grow – only this person can excel as a leader and manager. 

Burkus, D. (September 25, 2013). Are you wasting your 10,000 hours? http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidburkus/2013/09/25/are-you-wasting-your-10000-hours/

Ericsson, K. A.,  Krampe, R. T. & Tesch-Römer, C.  (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance.  Psychological Review, 100 (3) 363-406.

Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers: The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company

Macnamara, B. N., Hambrick, D. Z., & Oswald, F. L. (2014). Deliberate practice and performance in music, games, sports, education, and professions: A meta-analysis. Psychological Science, 25(8), 1608-1618.

Simon, H. A., & Chase, W. G. Skill in chess: Experiments with chess-playing tasks and computer simulation of skilled performance throw light on some human perceptual and memory processes. American Scientist, 61 (4), 394-403.

Image, "The Wedding Gift".  ©John Ballard, 2013. 
 
Modified from my previous blogs on 9/25/2013 and 8/21/2014. © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook, and CD, are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Management by walking around (MBWA) is not for everyone. Anita Tucker and Sara Singer (2014) implemented an 18-month MBWA-improvement program at 19 hospitals. They found MBWA had a negative impact on performance. They were surprised. I’m not. I wrote about MBWA in Decoding the Workplace:
 
     I had a boss once who was told by his boss to get out from behind his desk and walk around. His boss believed strongly in managing by walking around. My boss asked me what I thought. Should he give it a try?

     I said, “Sir, if you do that, start just walking around, you are going to scare people. They’re going to wonder what they are doing wrong. They’ll think, ‘Why is he here?’ No, sir, you’d just cause more problems and you don’t need more problems.

     He smiled, almost a smile of relief, and said, “Thank you.”

   The good leaders want honesty. My boss was a task-oriented manager to the “nth degree.” He drove his organization but people respected him. He had risen to a high leadership position probably because of his analytical and decision-making acumen, but he did not have strong people skills. 
 
My take-aways:

 The utility of MBWA depends on several factors, such as:

• The likeability or people skills of the leader, especially the ability to actively listen.
• The level of trust in the organization’s culture.
• The nature of the enterprise.
• The effectiveness of the workplace being visited. 

For some it is a good way to lead, learn, and motivate. For others, as Tucker and Singer found, it could have negative consequences. 
 
Tucker, A. L., & Singer, S. J. (2014). The effectiveness of management-by-walking-around: A randomized field study. Production and Operations Management, 24 (2), 253-271.
 
Image by geralt obtained from https://pixabay.com/illustrations/man-businessmen-woman-economy-162951/ 
 
© John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
 __________________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

I am a fan of Herbert Shepard's classic "Rules of Thumb for Change Agents." HIs last rule of thumb, Rule VIII, is "Capture the moment." He suggested that we can handle a situation at work or in life more effectively if we allow ourselves to be more engaged, to approach from different perspectives. He called this the "multiple potential of the moment." For example, apply not only your intellect to a situation but also your heart. He wrote, "One needs to have as many frameworks for seeing and strategies for acting available as possible."  I agree with Shepard. Sometimes we can be too linear in our thinking.

In discussing "Capture the moment" with my students, I put another spin on it. I offer my spin as Rule IX, "Celebrate the moment." In the course of our days, our weeks, there may be small victories, small moments that we should savor -- but we don't. They barely register. We move on to the next task, the next meeting, the next project. Savor that "nice work", "great job". Allow yourself to enjoy the contribution you made to the success of the team, of another person. My guess is that most of us frequently have moments somewhere in our day, that if we let them, would bring a smile to our face, increase meaningfulness of our activities.

Sometimes as leaders we fail to celebrate the successes of our units. I had an older graduate student who led an organization that had a very successful year. After we discussed celebrating the moment in class, he realized that he had not done so with his company, that he barely acknowledged the great year before focusing on the next. The next Monday when he went to work, he corrected that situation. They celebrated the moment. 

Celebrate the moments, large and small, that unfold to you. 

Shepard, H. A. ( 2012).  Rules of thumb for change agents. In J. Vogelsand et al. (Eds.), Handbook for Strategic HR, (pp. 88-93). New York, NY: AMACON.

Image,"Coffee Book Flowers" by Sophkins obtained from https://pixabay.com/photos/coffee-book-flowers-setting-2390136/
 
Modified from my blog of 12/31/2013. © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
_______________________
Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook and CD are narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.

Six years ago in May, Praeger (ABC-CLIO) published my book Decoding the Workplace. I was at the early stage of learning the “book” business and I am still learning. Unlike many career and business books, this book "deals with principles and practices that are timeless" (Riggio, 2018). It has now been released in five formats. Here is a brief chronology:
 
2015  Praeger publishes as hardbound and ebook. 
2016  Next Generation Indie Book Awards honors it as best Career book. 
2018  Gildan Media (Recorded Books Inc.) releases audiobook.
2019  ABC-CLIO publishes as paperback.
2021  Gildan Media releases as audio CD.
 
I am pleased and surprised about the recent release as audio CD. The audiobook narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon has been a popular format. 
 
Why did I write this book? Short version: To help others. The longer answer is here. 
 
In 2019 Pietro Marenco interviewed me for Science for Work. With permission and for more insight about Decoding the Workplace, I share part of that interview:
 __________________________________________________________________________
There are thousands of business books claiming to help people be more effective in the workplace. How is your book different?

Many business books are based just on personal experiences. “This was true for me so it is probably true for you.” The management scholar Stephen Robbins talked about this in his book The Truth about Managing People. He said that a lot of the information in these books tends to be superficial, even wrong. In fact, even the most influential business books may have problems. Back in 2007 Phil Rosenzweig had a “must read” article in the California Management Review that spoke directly to this issue. He analyzed the data supporting In Search of Excellence, Built to Last, and Good to Great and found the quality of the data, and hence the conclusions, questionable.
Decoding the Workplace is not like that. It’s based on decades of management and organizational behavior research. If I give an opinion, I tell you it’s my opinion.

A senior editor at a major publisher told me years ago that as professors we know a lot about workplace dynamics but we mainly just talk to each other and nobody can understand our papers. “I need a book about the workplace that people can understand.” Decoding the Workplace is that book: evidence-based and easy-to-read with over a hundred stories to illustrate the concepts.

And 50 keys. Your book is subtitled 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations. Why keys? Why 50?

I use keys as a metaphor. They unlock things, decode programs. The keys in the book can help you decode the world around you, perhaps see things you had not seen. These new perceptions might suggest ideas to make you more effective. There are ideas in the book for most people to “up their game.”

Here’s an example. One key is “Be aware, as best you can, of the impressions that you create.” The discussion is about impression management and the blindspots we have. I tell the story of Ted, a manager, seen as technically proficient but aloof. Ted’s direct reports just did their jobs but had no desire to go beyond that. He was not approachable. A reader emailed she saw herself in the story of Ted, changed some behaviors, starting joining others for lunch, and became more effective. I thanked her for sharing.

Why 50? There are probably many more than 50 keys in the book. I focused on the 50 I found most useful as a consultant and manager. Readers might find other keys I did not identify as such. For example, I tell the story of Gerald who was not given the opportunity to give high profile presentations because, as he discovers, has an “ehm” problem. I then describe how Gerald overcame that problem. For some people, that might be the key to improving their effectiveness, getting rid of an “uh”, ”um”, “erm”, or “like” problem in public speaking, but I did not identify that as a key.

And publishers of business books seem to like numbers in the title. 7 Habits? 10 Clowns Don’t Make a Circus? 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.

So what topics do you cover? How is the book organized?

You’ll find many of the topics that you’d find in an organizational behavior textbook, just presented very, very differently, topics such as norms, roles, perception, leadership, power, to name a few. I laughed at this question because I wrestled with how to tie all the concepts together. After several months, the model I developed was a pentagram.

Proudly I showed it to my wife who remarked, “So it’s a book about witchcraft?” I had to laugh. That never occurred to me. The pentagram model remains somewhere in my discarded files.

The Kirkus Review of Decoding the Workplace commented that the book “covers a lot of territory” and that’s true. The idea is to give people food for thoughts on a broad variety of topics and foster reflection. My favorite management philosopher is Mary Follett from a century ago. She emphasized learning from our experiences by observing how people respond to us, reflecting on those observations, and then adjusting our behaviors to obtain new evidence and so forth. In a sense the book is a guide to reflecting on our experiences based on what science has found to be relevant factors in understanding workplace dynamics. It’s not a book just to be read. It’s a book to use.

There’s a lot of information around us about us that we don’t pay attention to. Decoding the Workplace makes that information easier to identify. 

Riggio, R. E. (2018). [Review of the book Decoding the Workplace: 50 Keys to Understanding People in Organizations, by J. Ballard]. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 17(2), 229-230.

Image,"Decoding the Workplace audio cover". © John Ballard, PhD, 2020.
 
Blog, © John Ballard, PhD, 2021. All rights reserved.
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Decoding the Workplace “Is this a must-have for managers and would-be managers? Yes.” Academy of Management Learning & Education, June, 2018. Available as ebook, hardback, paperback, audiobook, and audio CD. The best-selling audiobook is narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon.