Customer Reviews

The Organizational Zoo: A Survival Guide to Work Place Behavior

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This book is seriously humorous. I have tested it out on Masters degree students for a reaction and had an extremely positive response. It makes people think about leadership, followership, organisational culture and stakeholders in an interesting and reflective way. It has some useful exercises in the back that these experienced management students all enjoyed and learned from. I also will use it with my doctoral students and I'm sure that it would also work well with undergraduates. It is also one of those books that a management practitioner can read on a plane and be able to pick up and put down. It operates at both an academic level and if you liked 'the office' TV series you would also find this entertaining. In summary, it is seriously funny!

Professor Derek Walker, Program Director, Doctor of Project Management RMIT University Melbourne Australia

The Organizational Zoo provides valuable wisdom presented in a way that is easily relate-able. Throughout the book I found myself highlighting and making notes to remind myself of many key take-aways. Some of my favorites: "The best ideas, innovations and solutions come from diversity and adversity...People who think like you see the same opportunities and problems that you do and miss the same risks." and "You should not inherently trust those who elect themselves as your guide dog and thrust themselves upon you to provide assistance."

The complexity of other personality profile type books makes it hard to recall the specifics when you need them most. The Organizational Zoo makes it simple to identify the other person and provides useful tips to manage and react to them... and even predict their behavior!

The author uses the metaphor of a zoo to describe the various personalities and groups found in the typical organization. The characterizations are most apt, like hyenas who conspire together to bring down larger animals, to whales, whose strengths often become their weaknesses. The author (a biologist turned organizational change coach), also shows how you can use the habit of identifying which kind of creature a colleague or competitor most resembles to your advantage, by identifying their most conspicuous qualities, as well as hidden ones. He shows how to use the zoo analogy to lighten meetings, identify opportunities, and generally make the workplace experience lighter and more illuminating. If nothing else, you will laugh as you identify the animal habits of your most annoying colleagues!

Excellent use of storytelling, humor and metaphor to define modern workplaces and help to identify that "monster" in the corner! Fun read and highly recommended.

Are you being over run by the 'herd' at your work place? Have a read of this book and work out some 'survival' strategies! If you work in HR and are planning your next 'working together better' seminar, I recommend you read this book and incorporate some of the ideas. A nice analysis of office politics.