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The Bottleneck Rules: How To Get More Done at Work, Without Working Harder.
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As featured in The Spectator magazine and The Guardian newspaper.
- 'It’s a great read' - Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- '[Part of] a series of wonderful short books' - Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK
- 'Fantastic book, relevant no matter what sector you work in' - Maria Macnamara, MBE, Founder ...more
- 'It’s a great read' - Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
- '[Part of] a series of wonderful short books' - Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy UK
- 'Fantastic book, relevant no matter what sector you work in' - Maria Macnamara, MBE, Founder ...more
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Start your review of The Bottleneck Rules: How To Get More Done at Work, Without Working Harder.
Old school deep Lean/Agile geeks will be tempted to brush over this. There’s no new concepts in it and really it’s just Goldratt’s 5 focusing steps boiled down with less than a handful of anecdotes to illustrate. You can read it over a single meal or short hop flight.
But that’s its genius. It’s JUST ENOUGH anecdote to strongly convey the ToC heart in an actionable way to its actual target audience: wildly over stretched business leaders with demand far over their capacity.
And deep dyed Lean Ag ...more
But that’s its genius. It’s JUST ENOUGH anecdote to strongly convey the ToC heart in an actionable way to its actual target audience: wildly over stretched business leaders with demand far over their capacity.
And deep dyed Lean Ag ...more
Great little book on identifying and removing bottlenecks. It's a good introduction into Eliyahu M. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints (TOC) and the 5 focusing steps. The goal of the book is to present the 5 focusing steps (rebranded as FOCCCUS in this book) so that anyone can understand them. I think the book achieves this goal through a handful of examples and anecdotes.
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A fairly quick read explaining basic Theory of Constraints concepts such as bottlenecks and the 5FS but in a much more accessible way using anecdotes from the non manufacturing world. If you haven’t read anything from Goldratt yet, you should give this one a shot.
From my blog: https://www.jackvinson.com/blog/2018/...
Clarke Ching has created a new book to try to help people understand what is blocking their work (or life?). The Bottleneck Rules: How to Get More Done (When Working Harder isn't Working) is a quick read and got me thinking more about how I talk about this topic with people. [Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book. And I consider Clarke a friend.]
The book is intended to be a fast read to introduce people to the concept, share a number ...more
Clarke Ching has created a new book to try to help people understand what is blocking their work (or life?). The Bottleneck Rules: How to Get More Done (When Working Harder isn't Working) is a quick read and got me thinking more about how I talk about this topic with people. [Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book. And I consider Clarke a friend.]
The book is intended to be a fast read to introduce people to the concept, share a number ...more
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Very short book explaining Theory of Constraint from a very practical view, with a strong focus on knowledge work (software in particular), even though the content can be applied in all kind of scenarios.
Suggests the FOCCCUS formula as the way to overcome the bottlenecks, instead of the original 5 focusing steps described in the Goal: Find, Optimise, Coordinate, Collaborate, Curate, Upgrade, and Start again (strategically).
The author suggests that his book, being short, is more likely to be read ...more
Suggests the FOCCCUS formula as the way to overcome the bottlenecks, instead of the original 5 focusing steps described in the Goal: Find, Optimise, Coordinate, Collaborate, Curate, Upgrade, and Start again (strategically).
The author suggests that his book, being short, is more likely to be read ...more
This is a great book – easy to read, easy to understand and therefore easy to apply. We are encouraging all members of our team to read this book to help them better understand how to apply Theory of Constraints within our workplace.
The author promised “To help every-day, ordinary people, find then manage their bottleneck quickly, no matter what industry they happen to work”….and I think this book achieves that.
BTW, I also highly recommend reading Rolling Rocks Downhill.
The author promised “To help every-day, ordinary people, find then manage their bottleneck quickly, no matter what industry they happen to work”….and I think this book achieves that.
BTW, I also highly recommend reading Rolling Rocks Downhill.
Great short read and practical application of the Theory of Constraints. Love the real story's and examples Clarke gives and its true, once you start seeing flow problems, you really can see them everywhere. Honestly I wanted more. More examples, stories, and problems where this has been applied. Reading "The Goal" and his "Rocks rolling downhill" are very good, I really like seeing how other people have used these simple steps to solve real world problems.
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Lean for Dummies. This is a short, simple and easy to read book that explains the basic elements of lean thinking for people who know nothing about it. In summary, your work is slow and wasteful because you have bottlenecks in your system. You can find bottlenecks by looking for queues of work piling up in front of a particular person or team. You can remove bottlenecks by increasing their capacity. If you improve things that are not a bottleneck it won't make any difference to the end result.
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A nice collection of narratives around TOC and what can be done one you identify a bottleneck. Yet from my point of view, it's not going into the details enought: the FOCCCUS Model (Find, Optimize, Coordinate, Collaborate, Curate, Upgrade, Start-over) looked like being too "obvious" when I read it. While many things seem obvious in hindsight, I expected a bit more depth on the 3C's.
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2.5 stars. I fall outside the target audience (office workers), but it was still a mildly interesting read. Everything made sense, and I can see it possibly being useful in the future. However, for such a short book, there was quite a bit of fluff, mostly in poor theoretical examples. It also could have benefitted from a concise summary.
An easily accessible introduction to theory of constraints, and finding out what's limiting your team's ability to do more, delivered as a set of example stories, so no jargon, just a relatable idea.
I still think Rolling Rocks Downhill is my go-to guide for large projects, but there's some stuff here for smaller projects, and other industries. Lots of great information packed into one short book. ...more
I still think Rolling Rocks Downhill is my go-to guide for large projects, but there's some stuff here for smaller projects, and other industries. Lots of great information packed into one short book. ...more
A gentle introduction to Theory of Constraints
I recommend reading this book before reading "The Goal." Like the author, I think Dr. Goldratt's use of the terms " exploit" and "elevate" can be confusing. ...more
I recommend reading this book before reading "The Goal." Like the author, I think Dr. Goldratt's use of the terms " exploit" and "elevate" can be confusing. ...more
Very good and practical guidelines to implement TOC
This is relatively small book hence possible to read and implement some of the ideas in practice right away. Very good thought process, although obvious.
Some insight on addressing variations in processes would be even better.
This is relatively small book hence possible to read and implement some of the ideas in practice right away. Very good thought process, although obvious.
Some insight on addressing variations in processes would be even better.
Great distillation of lessons from The Goal
This is a great little book that distills many of the lessons about bottlenecks from The Goal. It even clarifies and expands the steps around using a bottleneck effectively! I highly recommend it.
This is a great little book that distills many of the lessons about bottlenecks from The Goal. It even clarifies and expands the steps around using a bottleneck effectively! I highly recommend it.
Simply well written with simple example of what seems to be ordinary life events to convey the key principles.
I have read many ToC books. This is one of the effective ones as it isn't that long and quick to convey the points across ...more
I have read many ToC books. This is one of the effective ones as it isn't that long and quick to convey the points across ...more
Short and informative. Read it in a couple of hours. I appreciate that it gives some interesting perspectives on how to tackle (and leverage) bottlenecks in your processes. Makes you think are they where they should be and provides some real-world examples and stories.
Bang for the buck
Quick introduction to bottlenecks. Clearly written
. If you are interested in Theory of constraints and The Goal book, this is a short and neat book to help you understand it.
Quick introduction to bottlenecks. Clearly written
. If you are interested in Theory of constraints and The Goal book, this is a short and neat book to help you understand it.
Short and obvious
Easy read, full of simple anecdotes. I don't disagree with the author, but I didn't learn much, either. At least the book is short and can be skimmed very rapidly. ...more
Easy read, full of simple anecdotes. I don't disagree with the author, but I didn't learn much, either. At least the book is short and can be skimmed very rapidly. ...more
A short, clear, compressed read about Theory of Constrains and bottlenecks.
Excellent book
Really good, punchy and to the point. Really good how Clarke explains that the bottleneck needs to be in the correct place. This is something that is often missed.
Really good, punchy and to the point. Really good how Clarke explains that the bottleneck needs to be in the correct place. This is something that is often missed.
This a book that my wife without knowing nothing about flow and bottlenecks could read and understand almost everything.
Quick, easy, thought provoking read.
Nothing new, not worth spending money on it.
Great, insightful, enjoyable read.
Great, insightful, enjoyable and quick read for anyone working with processes that might be optimized - so pretty much anyone!
Great, insightful, enjoyable and quick read for anyone working with processes that might be optimized - so pretty much anyone!
Short, and should be read by absolutely everyone who manages throughput of work. And fun and engaging to boot.
This is a very concise, helpful book that you can read in a few hours. It gives some really good examples and helps you to look with fresh eyes at the processes that go on around us.
A nice short case study on Bottlenecks and why it's important to manage them.
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Helpful, insightful, and short. Could be shorter & just as productive with fewer silly anecdotes by the author but overall a good management book.
Super interesting! Principles initially applied to manufacturing to optimise the production line can be applied to anything (including software development) to improve throughput.
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