THE PERFECT COMPANY: A Simple Four-Step Process for Creating a High-Performance Workplace [Paperback]

Richard S. Gallagher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2004

The Perfect Company is a simple but powerful business fable that looks at high performance through the eyes of a children's software company. Based on best practices of leading organizations, it shows how values succeed far beyond rules and metrics.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

The Perfect Company is a humorous fable about a children’s software vendor, but it is also much more than that. It uses a fictional framework to discuss real business practices that currently drive high levels of success at many of today’s leading companies. Most importantly, they show us how the very best performance isn’t the kind that is driven by rules and procedures – it has its roots in the relationships you build with the people who work for you.

This book is much more than a story for me – it is a passion. I have been fortunate to have been part of some great workplace cultures in my life, and have personally watched many of them literally create great things out of thin air. And in researching and writing my previous book The Soul of an Organization (Dearborn, 2002), I was privileged to research and interview many of the world’s great corporate cultures. Those who share my Christian traditions will understand a term I often use to describe them - they sanctify the workplace.

For each of us, The Perfect Company is closer than you might think. It just means thinking a little differently than we are used to thinking - and reaping rewards that we could never have imagined. My hope is that these fictional characters and I will help you build the real-world success of your organization, and your personal growth and success as a leader.

From the Inside Flap

The Perfect Company is a successful children's software company, named after its founder Steven Perfect - and for Tom Barnham and Kathy Wong, beleaguered managers at nearby PeopleFirst Software, a visit to The Perfect Company helps them see their problems in a light that they have never seen them before - one that ultimately transforms the morale and performance of their organization.

At The Perfect Company, Tom and Kathy discover four secrets that drive their operations: Perfect Teamwork, Perfect Coaching, Perfect Performance, and Perfect Communications. But they also learn the core value that is central to their business - to think like a child. This principle ultimately affects Tom and Kathy's company in ways that they never imagined.

This simple but powerful story will teach you the real secrets of creating a high-performance organization, by unlocking your own team's motivation to build self-sustaining levels of success that no amount of rules or policies will ever create. Based on the real life best practices of leading organizations worldwide, The Perfect Company represents a clear game plan to create your own perfect company, in organizations of any size.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Booklocker.com, Inc. (May 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591135168
• ISBN-13: 978-1591135166
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,350,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My specialty is teaching people how to communicate in difficult situations. As a former customer service executive - and now as a speaker, trainer, and practicing therapist - my books and training programs explore the mechanics of how we communicate, based on recent principles of behavioral psychology.

I am perhaps best known for my book What to Say to a Porcupine (AMACOM, 2008), a national #1 customer service and business humor bestseller on Amazon.com. My most recent book How to Tell Anyone Anything (AMACOM, 2009) explores how to have painless discussions on your toughest interpersonal situations at work, using techniques from strength-based psychotherapy.

If you are looking for "smile training" or basic advice on communications skills, there are lots of books out there. But if you want to learn what to say to someone after you've just towed their car away - or how to talk to a co-worker who needs to shower more often - or what will defuse a toxic boss - you've come to the right place! Enjoy my books, or Google me to learn more. Welcome!