Book review: It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do » Slacker Manager

Book review: It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do

It’s Not What You Say, It’s What You Do: How Following Through at Every Level Can Make or Break Your Company by Laurence Haughton.

Wow. This is a great book—it’s immediately vaulted into that short list of books that I’ll spout off when people ask me my favorites (right up there with Block’s Flawless Consulting, Senge’s Fifth Discipline and Allen’s Getting Things Done). I’m into my third reading and I know I’ll be going back for more. Let me say up front, and with all honesty, this book deserves more than just this single review. Each chapter is so rich with good information and detail that each could have stand alone reviews themselves.

One thing I really appreciate about the book is that it’s (unintentionally) a great tie-in with David Allen’s Getting Things Done. GTD is the desktop-level approach to doing what you say you’ll do, and this book is similar but at a higher elevation. Make no mistake, there are plenty of actual “things-to-do” in It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do, but at some point you’re going to need to manage all of those “things-to-do” so that you’re as effective as you can be. That’s where GTD steps in. These two books would be a nice combo for just about any manager.

If I understand correctly, Haughton took a couple of years to research and write this book. It shows. There are so many great ideas in here, that I keep going back to both the book and my notes to make sure I don’t miss anything. Before I get into the meat of the review, let me just say that I actually have one gripe: I really wish there was some kind of wrap up at the end of each chapter that pulls together, in a concise way, the essence of what we’ve just been through. Or at least a mini-index of the chapter to make it easier to find those ideas. Otherwise, the execution of this book is near flawless. The organization of the book is simple: just four “building blocks” which are explained early on, then expanded within their own chapters. The beginning of each chapter makes clear what’s coming up and, of course, the follow through is right on target.

The book is organized into four building blocks:

1. Clear Direction: Having a clear direction so everyone understands where they’re headed in no uncertain terms.
2. The Right People: Matching the right people to every goal.
3. Buy-In: Getting off to a great start with plenty of buy-in.
4. Individual Initiative: Making sure everyone maintains their momentum by increasing individual initiative.

Each building block consists of three or four supporting chapters. Of course these four building blocks are elementary and unoriginal ideas, but Haughton manages to squeeze extra juice from each. The result, for me at least, is a new perspective on some older ideas, and a whole bunch of new tactics to take back to the office (insert insane cackle here). Here are a few of my favorite ideas…

Matching everyone’s agenda. This one comes from The Right People building block. The big idea here is that matching up your agenda with those of your staff is a path to success for all. What often happens, and I know this is true with me, is that we dig in and create some strategy and then roll it on down the line, expecting everyone to understand its importance. Of course that dream rarely comes true. Haughton advises the following for matching agendas:

1. Get each team member’s individual expectations via one-on-one conversations. Two earlier chapters, “Clear Expectations” and “Read Between The Lines” help with these conversations. Haughton provides a bunch of good questions to get these talks rolling.
2. Reality check by assessing what it will take to achieve their expectations and factoring in the whole team’s commitment to making targets. This takes yet more talking and more questions about what it’s worth to reach their goals. Again, Haughton provides some good starter questions, as well as an alternative exercise for those managers less comfortable with talking about personal goals with staff.
3. Put the pieces together. Some folks may need to be reassigned, some goals may need to be adjusted. Haughton lists some grim statistics on why this last piece is critical, including this gem: Forty-eight percent of employees and managers have no clear idea of the link between their daily efforts and the company’s goals.

Keep the CAVE people out of the Wow! event. This comes from the Buy-In building block. This particular insight is just a small part of a larger four-part strategy used for creating buy-in. The first of the four steps is to “Kick off your change with a “wow!” event. This just means that whatever the change is all about, get an easy win and maximize it. While you’re doing that, keep the CAVE people out of the event. CAVE means “citizens against virtually everything.” (The term was coined by Anand Sharma of TBM Consulting.) It’s probably safe to say that we all know a few CAVE people. The point here is that CAVE people will poison your wow! event, so keep them out of it. Select people who will really “get it” and allow them to have amazing success with the wow! event. This particular insight makes absolute sense to me, yet is still counter-intuitive. I tend to be a manager who doesn’t put up any walls, but I can see how keeping the naysayers out of a new project would increase the liklihood of success.

Creating a HOT team. This is also from the Buy-In building block. I’m still not sure why ‘HOT’ is always capitalized in the book, but Haughton lays out several guidelines for creating HOT teams. These mostly come from Tom Kelley of IDEO. There are three “Don’t” guidelines and four “Do” guidelines. Don’t become rule-bound; don’t be unfair; don’t be mean. The do’s: Like your people; believe in them; listen to them; make teamwork engaging; let them decide. Each of these guidelines has several paragraphs explaining them in further detail.

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p>Show more respect. This one comes from the Individual Initiative building block. There is more in this chapter than can be easily summarized, but Haughton looks at a couple of case studies to establish the idea that respect, in every direction, is good for business. One key takeaway for me was the idea that unquestioned deference to a particular leader can be a bad thing. Seems like that makes sense, but I’m often the “tech” leader in offices where I work, and so people defer to my opinions on things they view as “techy.” That’s fine, but I’ve got to be aware of the times when my leadership in a particular area might be so set in stone that others are afraid to say anything counter to my opinion. I certainly don’t actively stifle dissent, and I’ve been fortunate to work with folks who are happy to speak their minds, but I can still see how easy it would be for someone to feel uncomfortable speaking up in the face of apparently overwhelming expertise.

These few ideas barely scratch the surface of what It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do has to offer. One last thing I liked about the book was that each building block and each chapter seemed to piggyback well on the previous one. That’s great, but it also presents a huge challenge when faced with this huge new “to do” list of ideas and actions to take back to the office. Not sure how to deal with that yet, but I’m not complaining. There’s no question that this book helps me be a better manager, and that’s what I’m looking for.