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Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
by
"This is the management book of the year. Clear, powerful and urgent, it's a must read for anyone who cares about where they work and how they work."
--Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing
"This book is a breath of fresh air. Read it now, and make sure your boss does too."
--Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with ...more
--Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing
"This book is a breath of fresh air. Read it now, and make sure your boss does too."
--Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with ...more
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Hardcover, 304 pages
Published
February 19th 2019
by Portfolio
(first published 2019)
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Start your review of Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?
If you are a leader or change agent who is fired up to drive actual change in your organization, this book is for you. Not only will you nod your head to the fact that our current way of working isn’t fit for today’s world, you’ll be inspired by brave organizations that work in better ways. Most of all, you’ll leave with a clear idea for how to facilitate an organization towards its continuous evolution.
I agree with a lot of the practical advice (located in the last third of the book)
BUT IT WAS REALLY ENFURIATING TO HAVE TO READ THE YAWN-INDUCING FIRST SECTION. ugh the whole point of the book is that people won't come round all at once and that it may take a few cycles or hands on work to prove this will work for you org so WHY did the author feel it was necessary to talk ad nauseam about how right he was.
getting away from that: the stuff about complex vs complicated was great. systems thinking ...more
BUT IT WAS REALLY ENFURIATING TO HAVE TO READ THE YAWN-INDUCING FIRST SECTION. ugh the whole point of the book is that people won't come round all at once and that it may take a few cycles or hands on work to prove this will work for you org so WHY did the author feel it was necessary to talk ad nauseam about how right he was.
getting away from that: the stuff about complex vs complicated was great. systems thinking ...more
Monumental book on the future of work that everyone should read.
This book does an incredible job of laying out an inspirational and rational future for what work could and should be like. Dignan clearly shows how the old ways of working (bureaucracy, command-and-control, rigid hierarchy, etc.) emerged from a particular time and place (the Industrial Era) that no longer applies to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world in which we now find ourselves. It makes no sense for our organizations to be running an operating system developed and
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Improving how work gets done is a supremely interesting question. The work most of us are engaged in represents the primary economic value creation mechanism in society. So why does it feel so staid? Why are we not constantly questioning our approach, constantly tinkering in order to eke out improvements and constantly throwing ourselves at experiments to discover better ways?
Perhaps Taylorism has landed us in a local maximum whence we look to far away peaks to admire the 37Signals, Slack, Gore ...more
Perhaps Taylorism has landed us in a local maximum whence we look to far away peaks to admire the 37Signals, Slack, Gore ...more
One of my top books of the year. If you’re interested in working differently, you should read this book.
I loved this book. Inspirational and practical all at once. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the Future of Work and organizational design.
It’s an inspiring, encouraging and highly recommended read for those wanting to reinvent their organisation. Let’s create workplaces that are more adaptative, vital, human and fun!
Another book that generated mixed feelings during various parts. I very much identified with the problems and challenges that were raised in the beginning (how organizations are stuck in their inefficient ways of working and the natural tendency is to apply more controls continuously to aim to control risks and make the output more predictable which leads to a downward spiral). The history of work (which could not get around Taylor and scientific management of course) following chapters
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Think about your job and your average work week for a moment. How much time would you estimate is wasted in unproductive meetings or endless emails, reports, and documentation? Just imagine what you could do with all that lost time.
In his new book Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?, Aaron Dignan presents detailed case studies of organizations that have moved beyond imagining and actually asked that question of their employees. Declaring an open season on anything that ...more
In his new book Brave New Work: Are You Ready to Reinvent Your Organization?, Aaron Dignan presents detailed case studies of organizations that have moved beyond imagining and actually asked that question of their employees. Declaring an open season on anything that ...more
Brave New Work, by Aaron Dignan, is that wonderful mix of aspiration and “down in the trenches” practicality which gives a sense of both what can be achieved how to get there.
His approach is compelling. He talks of the death by a thousand (paper) cuts of bureaucracy, and how this virus that pervades our organisations came about through an inability to accept that people can decide for themselves, and a pernicious belief in the organisation as a machine. Complicated, but predictable nonetheless.
...more
His approach is compelling. He talks of the death by a thousand (paper) cuts of bureaucracy, and how this virus that pervades our organisations came about through an inability to accept that people can decide for themselves, and a pernicious belief in the organisation as a machine. Complicated, but predictable nonetheless.
...more
This book is full of wonderful ideas on what's possible at work, mostly presented without balance or moderation. It's a book full of extreme work examples. So, I loved how it stretches the definition of what's possible. I've heard most of these examples before (or seen them myself in my years of working with some of these example companies). I not only like them, I have used them as teaching points myself.
But when it came to the application of these ideas, it felt like an all-or-nothing kind of ...more
But when it came to the application of these ideas, it felt like an all-or-nothing kind of ...more
Dignan digs into what some organizations are doing to change the rules, then walks through a set of chapters on evaluating "the operating system" of your own organization and possible alternatives (this is the strongest part of the book in my opinion) and closes with a section on how to run a change process. Bear in mind that this is his own work, which means it's based on actual experiences in helping places change. I've got a bunch of sticky notes to review for the future as our company grows;
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This management book is worth around a thousand others. Instead of giving you a grand plan with which to improve profits 1000% through top-down approach, it advises to think for yourself and let the others think for themselves too. Ever tried to stop micromanaging and just give your people a purpose and resources? Well, this book is about that but on steroids and crack. And at scale.
Handling a complex ever-changing system which has a central place in your life is not an easy or intuitive thing ...more
Handling a complex ever-changing system which has a central place in your life is not an easy or intuitive thing ...more
I was left wondering about the purpose of this book. It does not address the real issues with the modern workplace such as the increasing specialisations in roles and functions which leads to isolation and narrow perspectives, or the sheer scale and size of some corporations which necessarily leads to much administration and coordination. Instead we are given a template for the psychotherapy of the organisation as if they are in a mid-life crisis.
To be fair, work related problems of employee ...more
To be fair, work related problems of employee ...more
Maybe I’ve read too many books of this kind, but I felt like the book talked down on me like it assumed I was a little slow in the head. I think I’ve read most of the 30 or so books that the author summarized and this book added little to the mix.
There were many positives, too! The book has a nice flow and the content _is_ interesting, even if much of it was repetition. The third star in my review comes from the uplifting last chapter on the future of corporations, competition, social justice ...more
There were many positives, too! The book has a nice flow and the content _is_ interesting, even if much of it was repetition. The third star in my review comes from the uplifting last chapter on the future of corporations, competition, social justice ...more
This book is amazing! Must read. I have rarely read a book with such impeccable timing and it was so scarily spot on. I've recently become a change agent at work for a initiative very much like OS transformation, but which we've called differently. I feel so energized and inspired. This book has given me new tools and the vocabulary to communicate the vision and the modus operandi to teams coming on the journey with us. It has comforted me by showing me that I've been asking the right questions
...more
Very strong read. While some of it closely matched things I've learned in leading teams, there was a lot of thought provoking material as well. As someone else mentioned to me, the awareness can be an uncomfortable thing. Expect I'll now notice things with my teams which won't sit well with me or how I believe we can be most effective and engaged.
Ended up with a lot (a lot!) of notes, so that's something. Will take some time to think through how I may be able to put some of this into practice. ...more
Ended up with a lot (a lot!) of notes, so that's something. Will take some time to think through how I may be able to put some of this into practice. ...more
This book started out strong describing how the current operating system for companies is broken and the improvements that are possible. Then is got into the weeds and the book slowed down. It ended with descriptions of how to make change happen but it felt like this fell short. Everything had an "it will be different for every company disclaimer". Also, real change seems to require upper management buy-in so for lower level employees there was no clear path to change.
Excellent!
I don't know whether to tell the author "Thank you!" or "!$% you!". Why? Because if I were inspired to write a book, I think this is (roughly) the book I would write. Now Aaron has done it, filling a rare gap in the market with an insightful and readable book.
If you're looking to learn more about reinventing organizations, this is the book to read in 2019!
I'm not going to add any spoilers here -- I encourage you to read the book for yourself.
I don't know whether to tell the author "Thank you!" or "!$% you!". Why? Because if I were inspired to write a book, I think this is (roughly) the book I would write. Now Aaron has done it, filling a rare gap in the market with an insightful and readable book.
If you're looking to learn more about reinventing organizations, this is the book to read in 2019!
I'm not going to add any spoilers here -- I encourage you to read the book for yourself.
Compelling, engaging & (rarest of all for a book about the future of work) eminently actionable. Great ideas, great writing, great book. In addition to proving concise insights on how we got to now and why it needs to change, there are many, many useful ideas & things you can try here. I especially appreciated that they're offered not as The One Solution but as ingredients in your own recipe for change.
At its best in the early pages, where Dignan does a fantastic job of painting a compelling picture of how we need to rethink organizational structure. Far weaker (and less interesting to read) as he gets into his ideas of a new operating structure, where there's simply not enough guidance to help those needing guidance and where those of us already on board will find little that's new.
Impactful
Moved and inspired by this inlets this work of nonfiction. Learn by doing. Take the ideas here and run forward. Don’t walk, run. But get participation and experiment hard and fast. Be empathetic and focus on shared goals.
Loved the book. Going to buy this as gifts for colleagues. Thank you, Aaron.
Moved and inspired by this inlets this work of nonfiction. Learn by doing. Take the ideas here and run forward. Don’t walk, run. But get participation and experiment hard and fast. Be empathetic and focus on shared goals.
Loved the book. Going to buy this as gifts for colleagues. Thank you, Aaron.
Yes! This is the way forward, the ‘new work’. The ‘brave’ part is that there is no plan. The book is a broad investigation in new models and tools, but is not
A how-to book. However I do recommend it to people that want to upgrade the ‘OS’ of their company.
A how-to book. However I do recommend it to people that want to upgrade the ‘OS’ of their company.
The book spends 80% time explaining why you should reinvent your organization when I already agreed with them. I was really hoping for more real-world scenarios. It lacked in this area since they are trying to get you to hire them to come in for consulting.
Fantastic book. Everything my organization is experiencing today. Aaron spoke at our all associate meeting last week. He was hilarious and spot-on. I have recommended this book to all of my leaders and others in my organization as we work to remove the bureaucracy and reinvent our entire way of work.
Good. Will recommend it to the team.
Great book on future of work.
I love the ideas in this book for transforming workplaces worldwide. Looking forward to progress.
OMG. I hope nobody else wasted their life reading this fluff piece of megalomania.
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