Marti, Jack, and I were in a strat* team meeting last week debating whether to add a bookstore to our next website overhaul, ypcommons.org. In the end, we agreed we wouldn’t make much money on it, but we were in violent agreement to do it, because we consider it a service to our clients and friends. Sort of like those handwritten “Staff Picks” written with blue felt marker on purple construction paper at your local video store, affixed to the shelves next to the recommended videos.
Here’s the deal: we’ll only recommend books we’ve read. Videos & multimedia are fair game, too. And each pick will have a written recommendation by the reader.
My favorite this week? Hard Facts, Dangerous Half Truths and Total Nonsense, by Jeffrey Pfeffer. A total stick-in-the-eye to the groundless management practices lurking at our workplaces. Benchmarking? Pfeffer calls it bunk. Executive compensation plans? Hucksterism. Best yet - Pfeffer uses data to debunk these management myths that come down off the mountain as the ploy du jour. Pfeffer is as good as Drucker ever was (I miss you, Mr. Drucker).
*Strat is short for Strategy. Sometimes we don’t even have time for whole words at our shop!
