Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek the Next Generation [Hardcover]

Bill Ross (Author), Wess Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1995 | Series: Star Trek: The Next Generation

This work takes its inspiration from "Star Trek". It delivers lessons on leadership, effective communication, teamwork, honour and the ability to focus on a single mission. The examples are taken from the on-screen adventures of Captain Picard and the Starship Enterprise, but the lessons and the benefits are real and can be applied to everyday situations where the goal is the kind of high performance organization embodied by the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This vision of encounters hundreds of years into the future, based on the current Star Trek: The Next Generation television series, is aimed not only at fans but-believe it or not-at students of management and idealists seeking a model for principled leadership. Roberts (Victory Secrets of Attila the Hun) presents Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, commander of the starship USS Enterprise, the TV protagonist, as a role model par excellence. The author stays within the fictitious framework of the series in getting his message across. Capt. Picard keeps a journal of his adventures (familiar to Star Trek viewers) in which he analyzes the leadership qualities required for a successful outcome. They include the ability to focus on a mission, purposeful action, effective communication, teamwork and honor. By using the captain as a role model, Roberts makes no allowances for human frailty. Alleged readers of the journal are candidates for the Starfleet Academy, where potential space age leaders are groomed and trained.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

T he fast-changing business world of today is far different from just a few years ago. Success in today's marketplace requires new leadership techniques, new thinking, and an eye on the future . . . .

In Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation^®, Wess Roberts and coauthor Bill Ross take their inspiration from today's most striking and most popular vision of the future -- Star Trek -- an unprecedented television, feature film and publishing phenomenon. From the top-rated television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Roberts and Ross find a new symbol for successful leadership: Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

As entertaining as it is useful, Make It So captures the mythos of Star Trek: The Next Generation as it delivers dramatically rich lessons on leadership, including the importance of the ability to focus on a single "mission," effective communication, teamwork, honor . . . and other important concepts. The examples are taken from the on-screen adventures of Captain Picard and the Starship Enterprise^TM, but the lessons and the benefits are real -- and can be applied to everyday situations where the goal is the kind of high-performance organization embodied by the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise^TM 1701-D.

Sure to appeal to Star Trek enthusiasts and serious students of leadership alike, Make It So is the most exciting business book on the shelves -- the one book that shows the future of modern leadership while giving managers the tools they need for success today! --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books; 1St Edition edition (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671520970
• ISBN-13: 978-0671520977
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #422,567 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unnecessary, May 19, 2000

By 

Timothy Walker (Orlando, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek: Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paperback)

Maybe it's just me, but I found the "leadership lessons" in this book painfully obvious... one does not need to be a born leader to understand, for example, that "if one fails to listen to what another is saying, one will often fail to properly respond to what has been said".

Additionally, I found the Star Trek metaphor used rather clumsily, from the continual references to "the Starfleet" (which got on my Trek nerd nerves) to the ending of each entry with "Make it so". I would have preferred more insight into leadership and less attempts to sound like Picard.

While this book was pleasant to read, I simply do not find it that useful. One would be advised to look for leadership lessons in the past (perhaps from Confucius or Sun Tzu), rather than in a fictitious 24th century.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good for the bookshelf, but not a great book, October 8, 2001

By 

Schrade (Glendale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paperback)

I was excited to see this book about one of the most skilled leaders (albeit fictional) I've ever observed. Each episode of Star Trek TNG it seems has extremely valuable lessons in leadership. Over the years, these lessons have added up to a huge knowledgebase of situational leadership. However, this book did not really capture the essence of Picard's leadership skills, nor even provide an entertaining read. It is written in the first person-- which is just plain odd to read -- as Picard makes entries in his personal log explaining why he is the leader he is. I think Picard explaining his leadership philosophy is what really kills this book. I suggest just watching the TV series in re-runs and drawing your own conclusions about the leadership lessons of Picard. This book is fun for the bookshelf, but it won't unlock any key insights into the art of leadership.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars more of an episode summary than leadership insight, April 28, 2004

By 

Mark Brown - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek: Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Paperback)

I bought this book based on how much I love Star Trek. Big mistake. It's not at all insightfull, or true to the spirit of Star Trek.

Each chapter is mostly a summary of a particular episode, written from the perspective of Captain Picard. Disapointingly, the account doesn't sound at all like Picard, and doesn't add anything that we didn't see in the episode.

At the end of each chapter 'Picard' gives a few dot points on leadership. But these sound like generic managerial 'rah rah'...

Really bad book.