Customer Reviews

How Come Every Time I Get Stabbed in the Back My Fingerprints Are on the Knife? : And Other Meditations on Management

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In a discipline filled with pseudo-scientific gurus, Dr. Harvey offers a fresh perspective through his insightful 'meditations'. If you're still looking for technique and how-to, you may not find it here. Dr Harvey critical and funny analysis give insights for you. You really got to read his experience after his heart surgery!

Jerry Harvey is great. The Abiline Paradox was wonderfully insightful and helpful and this one is also wonderful. His insights into spirituality, morality and human psychology are profound and helpful. This book is easy to read, it is fun and funny, but it is not a cookbook that tells you to do A, B, and C. It just helps you think deeply. If you want a cookbook there are a thousand books out there, I'm tired of them. Even the title of this book is thought provoking as is the rest of the book. Think for a change!

The book centers on a key concept - we victimize ourselves. Work is a political place, but most of the time, we see problems coming. If someone stabs us in the back, usually we get a warning, but are complicit by not assertively contacting the person doing us in. This idea of defeating poor office behavior through open and honest discussion is developed in depth throughout the book.

There are two downsides. First, this book perhaps has too much text for such a simple concept. Although this is good reading for a fan of Jerry Harvey (I am one!) the Abilene Paradox is a much more efficient (more ideas, less words) introduction to his material. Second, Jerry is perhaps oversimplifying the world. Office politics is best beaten by open book confrontation of problems, but life sometimes is more complex than that.

That said, this is still a worthwhile read.

I don't know what posessed me to pick up this book at the library. I'm not an avid reader and I was doing research on an unrelated topic. I suppose the title just grabbed me and I needed a break from my regular study. When I started reading this book, however, I didn't want to put it down. At age 39, I'm only just beginning to appreciate the wisdom 50+ years develops in some people. So when I started reading this very easy-to-read book, filled with "smart" humor and just the right amount of antedotal support, I was just soaking in everything I could. Maybe you have to be older to appreciate this book...but wouldn't it be great if you were smart enough to learn from it much younger....

Pulls together concepts from well beyond organisational theory to connect dots that you didn't know were there. Not a book for those who want instructions but for those who want to sit back and say "now tHAT makes sense"

Although the early part of the book was quite entertaining, interesting and thought provoking, the author eventually took the reader down a long, circuitous path that left not only me, but the two others on my team perplexed as to what on earth he might have been thinking.

Sadly, the value of the learning was a huge disappointment to us and this book remains one of the only ones from my studies that I will be happy to see sold back to the bookstore.

Sorry folks.

I've had the privilege of hearing Jerry Harvey share the wisdom of this book in a small group, and the greater joy of having lunch with him. He writes like he speaks...with humor, clarity and unflinching honesty. This is the book about personal responsibility. Don't read it if you still think someone else is responsible for your happiness, your success, or is holding you back in any way. Take a deep breath and dive in.

A must read! Harvey begins the book by relating and analyzing an event that happened when he was six years old. At once, the windows of my mind opened, and I began to be able to understand a lot of what has happened in my own life. I laughed out loud after reading on page 36 about the organizational back stabbing victim: "Blood flowing, he [ the Potential Victim] continues his journey into Real Victim status by retreating to the security of the organization's infirmary, which usually is located in the Human Resource Department, for an extended period of recovery." Been there, done that!

Jerry Harvey is sharp, quick witted, and perceptive. Anyone who interacts with other people at all should read this book. It is a rare combination of good writing and good lessons.

As you've probably noticed from the other reviews, J. Harvey does a good job raising questions about morality related management decisions, e.g. backstabbing or betraying a co-worker.

My own enjoyment of the book suffered because there are no answers to the questions posed. Morality is not the sort of topic where one expects to the THE answer. However, I do require a speaker/writer to at least propose their answers, so I may compare and contrast them to my own views.

I recommend this book if you prefer an open-ended discussion with no suggested or implied solutions.

For new managers with their first inkling they might have a few misconceptions about what they've just gotten into, I recommend "Becoming a Manger: How New Managers Master the Challenges of Leadership" by Linda Hill.