Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More Kindle Edition

This was interesting book. I've read quite a bit of productivity books but this was still helpful. A lot of books I've read mostly focused on mindset. This one focused more on practices. The most notable advice I took from it is, work less then obsess. You minimize the amount of things you work on and then obsess over the one task or topic. I've learned from work experiences that it's better to work on one item at a time vs multiple. They had a studies proving that working longer hours didn't result in more work done. If only all managers in this world knew this.

Redesigning your workflow can also help you be more productive. The example of flipped learning in schools was intriguing. Having students learn their lessons at home by watching videos and then doing the work in class where teachers could help. Makes me wonder how many schools actually practice this method and how successful are they with it.

If you are looking to have that work/life balance, that's the last topic they cover. Too often have I thought about work while at home rather than spending it with my family. We all need that balance regardless if you have kids or significant other or just yourself.

I love books like this that are:

1. intuitively correct
2. you never would have thought of it
3. you can use it today to make your life better

Why is that?

Because the three main sections hit the very core of being successful at work and in life:

I. Mastering Your Own Work - you really do need to be competent and if possible, excellent (i.e. consistently better than very good) and using the "10,000 hours to become an expert" is a great way to accomplish. One reason for this is that when you internalize those skills and abilities so that they become hard-wired, you can turn to the next section.
II. Mastering Working with Others - given the complexity of this world, there is very little that you can get done on your own without relying on and working with others. And to do that, you need to be someone that other people want to work with. The difference between your putting a smile on others faces vs. dreading seeing you will spell the difference between great success or great failure.
III. Mastering Your Work-Life - it really is difficult to give your best to your job, when you have to go to divorce mediation in the afternoon, or attend a family therapy session with you drug addicted teenager. At the end of your life don't be someone who too late realizes that everything you thought was important, isn't and everything you thought was unimportant, is. No dying man or woman, wishes he or she spent more time at the office.

One final value add:

If you want to improve company culture, do a pilot program at your company using this as your guide. You may discover it is all you need to create a great corporate culture, because the appreciation and gratitude you employees will feel will translate into:

a. higher performance
b. loyalty
c. unpoachability

There is lots of overlap between Great at Work and High Performance Habits. They both take a research approach to figuring out what it is that helps people do awesome work. They both did a bunch of research and are written in an understandable format.

Where they distinguish themselves is that Great at Work provides better resources for someone managing a team. If you manage a team start with Great at Work and then look at High Performance Habits.

In three days, I devoured this book, and it has changed my life and how I work. It is filled with data-driven, highly-effective and often counter-intuitive practices, expressed as 7 fundamental keys to working to one's greatness. It will transform how you work, how you can be most effective, and how you succeed. Highly recommended.

I thought the author did a good job attempting to support his perspective with data. I think the broad nature of the research in terms of the jobs of the people used in the data set was good "general" information. However, I think the book lacked an understanding of the nuance that exists in executive jobs that require an understanding not only of the culture of an organization, but the general culture within a niche industry.

Though I do not doubt the research, this book supports the notion that contrived conflict and emotional manipulation should be practiced and accepted to achieve goals. While these tactics can be successful to "complete an initiative", "get the next job" or "move up the ladder", in the long run my experience indicates these tactics alienate and distract competent and well intentioned staff from superior long term performance. Organizations that reward these tactics lead to internal cultures that lack transparency and reward manipulation. As the manipulators rise to positions of influence their behaviors are repeated and re-enforced by ascending leaders that are mirroring their managers path to the top. To me this is not in the best interest of the organization's long term interests.

The author seems to equate short and mid term financial performance with success. Even in a commercial organization, success to me is the value the organization and it's products brings to the customers and markets it serves. Financial success is important for the continued health of the organization, call me naive but for me, long term financial viability often competes with short term market success.

I liked the book because it challenged my vision for the best way to succeed at work in subtle ways.

The notion that all jobs provide the option to enact some of the recommendations will result in poor performance in jobs that require one to focus on many things at once. I'd like to see the author expand on ways for people whose job responsibilities are defined in a manner that does not allow one to "focus" on the important things. As an operations executive that serves many stakeholders, the individual tactics for focusing on high value activities resonated as a slogan but fell short in terms of providing examples relevant to my role in my organization in my industry.

There were many things that I agreed with and a few I disliked and would not encourage in my organization even if the presented data has been interpreted correctly.

I felt there was a subtle bias in the authors perspective based on his history as a management consultant and author. Extrapolating assumptions about top performers without significant (or at least I missed it) adjustments to roles is a generalization that could unintentionally have well meaning people perform in a manner that is inconsistent with their organizations culture - leading to less effective performance.

I shared with my extended management team the fact that I was reading this book. I stopped short of recommending it, because I was concerned that it would be disruptive if they adopted some behaviors that were advocated for and supported with data, but were in conflict with my values.

Second to final, it seems a bit like, a management consultant, product developers myopic perspective on the work of others.

Finally, I must admit this book challenged me in a way few others about effective work habits have. I will continue to ruminate on this book and the authors points. To be clear, I found this book thought provoking and agree with many, perhaps most (90% I would guess) of the observations. It distressed me not because it was inaccurate, but out of fear that it will influence people to adopt the 10% I find objectionable and inaccurate based on my career.

Morten, I'd enjoy discussing this with you at some point, just to see if I misunderstood the parts that I interpreted as inducing artificial levels of stress to promote change. To me, the stress induced should be metered by the value of the opportunity to the organization not to the unit or individual's definition of success.

Most of all I want to thank you, as a 50+ year old executive - I enjoy a read that challenges my understanding of good management and personal work styles. You sure have made me think!