What Were They Thinking?: Unconventional Wisdom about Management

According to Jeffrey Pfeffer, there seem to be three themes that unify many of the ideas he shares in this volume: "(1) the importance of considering feedback effects - the ideas that actions often have unintended consequences; (2) the naïve, overly simplistic, almost mechanical models of people and organizations that seem to dominant both discourse and practice; and (3) the tendency to overcomplicate what are often reasonably straightforward choices and insights." Pfeffer provides an abundance of examples of these and other especially common errors of comprehension and, worse yet, errors of judgment. "The message...is that we ought to think before we act, taking into full account feedback effects and using the insights of not only the large body of evidence on behavior but our own common sense and observations. It turns out both common sense and careful thought are in short supply. But that means there are great opportunities for those people and organizations willing to spend the effort to get beyond conventional management wisdom." In one of his previous books (Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense), Pfeffer and his co-author, Robert I. Sutton, examine what they call "the doing-knowing gap": doing without knowing, or at least without knowing enough. "People kept telling us about the wonderful things they were doing to implement knowledge - but those things clashed with, and at times were the opposite of, what we knew about organizations and people. Upon probing, we soon discovered that many managers had been prompted by a seminar, book, or consultants to do things that were at odds with the best evidence about what works." Pfeffer and Sutton identify some of the barriers to what they call "evidence-based management" and recommend specific steps that leaders can take to overcome those barriers. Whenever I read one of Pfeffer's books, I am reminded of Ernest Hemingway's observation that every great writer has "a built-in, shock-proof crap detector." For years, Pfeffer has challenged conventional management wisdom that is not supported by sufficient evidence. Consider this composite quotation from Chapter 25, "Don't Believe the Hype About Strategy," throughout which Pfeffer explains what is wrong with strategy as it has come to be known and defined: "First of all, there is often much too much emphasis on the quality of the presentation and the pitch rather than the quality and business acumen of the ideas...Second, there is often a lot of emphasis on talk - on sounding smart - in the strategy formulation process and a lot of time sitting around thinking and planning instead of going out and trying some stuff, seeing what works, and learning by doing...[Despite] all the emphasis on strategy at the board and senior executive level, there is precious little evidence that it really is a source of success. The research on the effects of strategic planning generally finds it has no effect on corporate performance...[In fact] mos

MTW, a software company serving the insurance industry, pushed employee turnover from 30 percent (standard for their niche) to an amazing four percent. Like many innovative companies that pay attention to their corporate culture, they understand that compensation--alone--is not the big deal in attracting and retaining quality people. For example, MTW awards "Road Warrior" points to their traveling executives and often showers gifts on families of road warriors--thanking them for their sacrifices back home. This is just one of dozens of nuggets in Pfeffer's fast-reading book. No wonder Jim Collins describes him as "one of the sparkling gems in the field of management." Pfeffer packs a punch in each of his 28 short chapters. He applauds "noisy complainers" who point out errors so the systemic problems will get fixed. He champions IDEO's belief that "failing early and failing often is better than failing once, failing at the end, and failing big." He writes, "The principle is simple--learn and fail on a small scale." Pfeffer's chapter on New York's Orpheus Chamber Orchestra will rattle your notion of leadership: there's no leader, nor conductor! And you'll reach for the Maalox when you read that "most people bring only about 20 percent of their talent and energy to their jobs." Buy the book. He has some ideas for all of us.

Jeffery Pfeffer takes the material in is recurring column in Business 2.0 and expands them into short vignettes on management and leadership topics. Normally, this approach does not work as either the book becomes a trite reiteration of previous material or the ideas that were good for a column are not robust enough for treatment in a book. Pfeffer does a superb job avoiding both as each chapter/thought is concise fully developed and warrants a couple of page treatment. A summary of each section and chapter highlights is at the end of this review. This book has the consideration and wisdom to be the true direct support managers need for managing their people, business plans, and ad hoc situations. Pfeffer's focused and comprehensive treatment provides wisdom that every manager should have access to and frequently reference. I would suggest that executives and managers use this book as a cost effective tool for management development by followng three steps: First, I would have every manager read the book now. Second I would make it part of your planning process by requiring managers to re-read the book prior to doing their plans and budgets for 2008. Finally, I would make sure the book is used in executive and corporate governance processes when many of the suboptimal decisions Pfeffer discusses get made. In that way executives will be informed and make a business decision rather than one that 'makes the numbers work'. The book is good, but there are a few weak spots. Pfeffer is a world renowned organizational design and Human Capital expert and this shows in the book. The book can be a little people heavy to the exclusion of other considerations such as strategic, market, financial etc. Pfeffer raises issues of corporatepolicy issues that are often outside the power of individual managers to change. Pfeffer addresses this issue in Chapter 20 - No more excuses so I would recommend reading chapter 20 first or at least right after the first section of the book. Overall the book contains wisdom that every manager needs because so often we become `autistic' in business, by that I mean that we look at employees as things rather than people. This book is valuable to every manager and executive and will them keep things in balance and be a better manager. The book is divided into the following parts and I have highlighted a few of the best chapters. Part One People-Centered Strategies concentrates on issues related to insights into how the organization works with its people. Specific topics include: Chapter 2 People as the face of your business -- a clear statement of the obvious but overlooked truth that people are central to the business Chapter 3 Making companies work like communities provides human view on the issue of culture, not as an abstract concept but as the human interactions inside the company that make it tick Chapter 5 How companies get smarter through taking chances and making mistakes providing a definition of

In the tradition of Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense and The Knowing-Doing Gap, What Were They Thinking? is a great addition to the Jeffrey Pfeffer collection. Covering five important themes in the corporate world (People Centered Strategies, Creating Effective Workplaces, Leadership and Influence, Organizational Strategy, and Public Policy), Pfeffer gives us plenty to chew on. Since each chapter stands alone, the book can be read in the order of interest or need. If you'd rather carefully think through an issue than simply respond based on what you've always done before (or the textbook solution), you'll enjoy the thoughtful approach that you find here. In wrestling through some of the today's most pressing issues, Pfeffer offers the kind of thinking that sets him apart from most other writers in the management genre. Regardless of your arena, this will be a valuable addition to your reading list.

Jeffrey Pfeffer is an exceptional management author, who has written twelve great books, among which The Knowing-Doing Gap, Hidden Value, The Human Equation, and Hard Facts. This book, What Were They Thinking, is based on a series of columns Pfeffer wrote for the magazine Business 2.0. In it, he covers a wide range of topics, from people centered management strategies to creating effective workplaces, using power strategies, thinking differently about success, executive pay and corporate ethics. The great thing in all Pfeffers writing is that whatever he says is so well argued and facts-based. If you're familiar with his earlier books, you will surely recognize many of the points he's making in this book. At the same time, however, there is a certain freshness in this book, maybe due to the fact that it is based on columns. Another reason is there are new examples from the corporate world, and there are many new research references. Friend and colleague of Pfeffer, Bob Sutton, has said this about him: "And no matter how strongly you disagree with him, he has this annoying habit of basing his arguments on the best theory and evidence in peer-reviewed academic publications. Plus when he writes about an unstudied topic, his logic is often so compelling that refuting his arguments is extremely difficult." When reading this book (and practically anything else he has written) you'll find it easy to agree with Sutton: it is very hard to disagree with Pfeffer once you follow his reasoning and evidence. Some of the chapters I liked best in this book were: The courage to rise above, Dare to be different, More mister Nice guy, Curbing the Urge to Merge, In praise of organized labor, Stopping corporate misdeeds. A great book. Every student of organizational effectiveness should read it. Coert Visser