Managing By Storying Around

This is one of my favorite business books. It communicates the ethos of one company in a captivating way. 75 stories, taken from personal experiences of the company founder. The format: a business situation poses ethical and procedural questions followed by a response (the moral) that reveals the company's philosophy. In one story, the sale team has an opportunity to bill the client a much higher rate on a rush order. The president insists that they charge the standard price--even though the buyer would surely agree to the higher price. Thinking for the long-term, let's make a life-time customer, not just a one-time sale. Don't screw your customers even when you can. It's good advice for any sales team in my view. In your company, do you have a procedures manual? Have you read it? Do you have periodic ethics briefings? Is this wasted effort? Instead, maybe you should communicate to your team the reasoning behind your rules rather than the rules themselves. These are not stories that you can reuse. Go buy "Chicken Soup for the Soul" if you want to regurgitate someone else's story. Instead, "Managing by Storying Around" illustrates a novel approach to instilling your philosophy into your company's DNA.

This is a very powerful book that is just one in four of a series of books already penned by David Armstrong. Armstrong lives the stories and his passion for his people and company are clearly second to none. We can all learn a thing or two from this very successful businessman -- it's important for CEO's from around the globe to delvge deeper into the mind of Armstrong and his unique management style. The world would certainly be a better place from a business perspective, if everyone would take David Armstrong's lead. WOW!! This is really motivating stuff and certainly worth applying NOW in your business! I know that I am going to!!

This is a wonderful and original management book. I happened upon it in my library by chance, and am really glad I did. I think it should have been a best-seller. It's better than many management books that became best-sellers. One thing about it not having sold well, is you can be sure a lot of your competitors won't be familiar with what's between these pages...and you can use what is against THEM!

I read David Armstrongs book when it first came out. It convinced me to put lots of stories in my own book: Local Government Dollars & Sense. I recently reread Armstrongs book for a training seminar. Managing by Storing Around, is still relevent. Armstrong comes across as privileged, but competent and insightful. As a former City Manager and practicing trainer and author, I find his message about storytelling timeless. It is a shame that this powerful book is relegated to the 2 to 5 week used bookstore market. Len Wood.