Customer Reviews

Lessons from the Hive: The Buzz on Surviving and Thriving in an Ever-Changing Workplace

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I think the publishers of this book should create a new dust jacket, change a few pages at the start of the book and take a run at the best seller list with this as a novel. It's really written that well.

Meet Dana Carswell, an old timer with a twenty year old candle company, a teenaged son at home (I could say troubled relationship, but with a teenaged son that goes without saying), and starting out a Monday morning of what promises to be Hell Week. The company has just been bought out and the new president tells her they are thinking of going into the personal care business. "With beeswax," Dana answers.

Dana is just one of the five different characters as they adjust to new jobs, unfamiliar products, perceived threats and unclear loyalties and the brash new CEO who wants to forge a new path to greatness.

Every once in a while one of these little books comes along that while having a lot of fun while opening whole new trains of thought. Wonderful.

I loved virtually every chapter of this book. Just when you think it's going to be a "feel better" book that's totally unreflective of business realities as we know them, the author pulls a pleasant surprise. For those who think they've "got a ping" on business change, you might want to check this book out. I think everyone will find something of use here.

When a company or industry is in major flux, sometimes, as a manager, you may find that your toughest assignment is convincing your team to embrace the new way. Even you might not be certain the change makes sense. But you've got to get the word out. Sometimes a book comes along that says it for you... and serves the role of helping others see that they can either be the barriers or the leaders of necessary change. Lessons from the Hive is that book. Never preachy, filled with realistic human conflict...and a cast of characters that reflects us at our best and worst when the inevitability of change strikes. You'll breeze through it...but the characters and examples will stick with you for a long time.

It takes courage to survive in the workplace today. HIVE invites you to walk through the life of another team and see yourselves. It puts the sensitive subjects on the table, making them safe to discuss. It helped us focus on what we could do together during this time of transition for our company. The discussion questions are very helpful.

Charles Decker is vice president of an electronic publishing company, does work with business publishing initiatives, and has coauthored Beans: Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad. Lessons from the Hive is about a fictionalized organization that is reinventing itself and was created to teach positive ways of viewing changes in an organization, how to deal with fears of the unknown, the importance of trust, and how to deal with conflicting interpersonal relationships. It is of the business-fable genre that uses a week-in the-life approach for five players in an organization including a recently installed CEO, a newly hired employee, and a seasoned director of marketing with personal struggles at home and at work. The junior change agent uses mantras many people call clichés such as Happiness is a choice; Inspire yourself, others will follow; Vanity is not a team sport; Enthusiasm will take you 90 percent of the way; and Change your thinking, change your life. This book can be used in classrooms and in businesses. Many people learn better by stories and examples than by other methods. This is a brief but powerful message. There are questions at the back of the book to assist reflection about each chapter.

This book resonated with me strongly. The main character could have been myself, and it was a relief to understand that many emotions elicited in the business world are quite common. Furthermore, the author demonstrates that by understanding these feelings, we have the ability to be free of negative or self destructive reactions to them.

A fabulous read that is at once insightful, compelling and thought provoking.

In particular, the lessons you can learn about identifying and resolving conflicts are absolutely priceless. This and Corporate Canaries are MUST buys if you are a manager in any sort of capacity!

For books like this to work, they have to have both an engaging storyline and real-world characters. This book has both, and I found myself re-learning a lot about dealing with change, managing difficult people, and understanding how different types of people have different styles of working. The group discussion questions in the back are particularly useful. I will probably suggest that my whole department get copies and read it together. There are some on my team who need a little coaching, and this is a very non-threatening way to deal with difficult issues. Great job!

I have read so many of these "business fables" with skepticism, but I saw this in a Barnes & Noble store and the jacket copy got to me. I have to say, as a staff psychologist for a major telecommunications company, this is the real deal.

I think we all know people who come to work every day with undiagnosed depression, as the main character, Dana, has in this book. Her behavior is absolutely deplorable in the early chapters, and I frankly thought she would be terminated. The self-help book she receives from her assistant (which I suspect is the famous book by Dr David Burns, "Feeling Good") makes a huge difference in her attitude, and thus her behavior. Every employee is reviewed on their behavior, but the "attitude" area is a very scary place for most managers to talk about with their employees. This book addresses attitude adjustment in probably the most non-threatening way I've ever seen. I think any manager with a problem employee (and vice-versa) can safely give this book to that person and let them figure out what the problem really is.

I think we all have known a Dana or two in our lives, and some of us have quit our jobs because they never sought any help. This book is as much a self-help book as a business book (perhaps more so) and I think it absolutely breaks new ground in treating depression in the workplace -- an enormous worldwide problem with toxic repercussions, for employees, customers, and the bottom line. It's also a damned fun story that you can read in two or three hours.