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Home > Categories > Books > Business and Corporate > How Not to Do Things - The Corporate Saboteur's Guidebook review
Ever been part of an organisation that's going nowhere fast? Ever wondered how, despite your hardest efforts, nothing ever seems to get done? Then you'll probably relate to the information in How Not to Do Things The Corporate Saboteur's Guidebook by Richard Hollingum and Mario McMillan. You might even suspect that the people around you are known to the authors.
How Not to Do Things takes a light-hearted approach to the serious business of understanding why organisations fail to get the job done, containing eleven infallible ways to ensure no task is ever completed.
How Not to Do Things exposes simple and widespread business practices that make people laugh out loud in recognition. Or squirm with embarrassment.
The authors are the senior team behind The Department of Doing, an organisation dedicated to making ideas happen. They've worked across the globe with government departments, NGOs and companies of every size, to ensure the job really does get done.
How Not to Do Things emerged from the observation that, no matter how different the task in hand might seem, the obstacles to making progress were frequently the same. Reading this infectious little book could be the most useful and productive thing you do all year. A copy on every desk, perhaps?
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Review by: tucker (Karl)
Dated: 30th of July, 2009
This little book, and it is little, is jam packed with 11 guidelines on how to PREVENT effective business growth. As the authors say, sometimes the best way to highlight a problem is to advocate it.
From #1 - "Don't Make a Start" to "The Real Secret" at #11, there are some definite key points of information in here. I found myself reading this book over and again, just to make sure I was getting all I could from it - it was quite absorbing.
Succinct and right to the point, each principle is, at most, 3 pages, and that includes humorous little diagrams. Trust me when I say you can't help BUT get the point of each principle.
At the end of the book is a self-quiz... if you answer it honestly, you could find yourself a little shocked at how good a sapoteur you are, even without realising it. You'll also know exactly where you are going wrong, and thus how to fix the problem and turn your business around.
Overall, this little saviour fits in a pocket, and that's where yours should be... in your pocket. That way, when you suddenly find yourself doing something unproductive, you have a handy guide to remind yourself of how to counter it... and it's also handy to use when you notice your staff, co-workers or (gawd forbid) bosses putting it into practice. 
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"Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs."
Joan Didion (1934 - ), 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem'
