Getting It Done is a wonderful book for helping each of us see ourselves as part of the problem and part of the solution in situations when many people must cooperate. That's a first in my experience.

The book builds on that valuable perspective by suggesting what skills we each need to improve, and how we can implement a process that will lead to genuine, effective progress. That is very critical, because most improvements occur because someone has designed an effective process to ease their implementation. In new areas, by definition, there is seldom such a process. My suggestion is that you try this one if you have no other.

I also liked the way the authors went on to generalize about how lateral leadership (influencing peers) provides lessons for when you are the boss. The same lessons apply here as well. Influencing people through genuine involvement leads to both better solutions and to better implementation.

If you only read and learn to apply one book this year, Getting It Done should be that book. My reasoning is simple. If you cannot help those you work with to make successful collaborations, you and everyone around you will always operate at a low level of effectiveness. Also, your work day will be filled with stress, conflict, pressure, too much to do, and worry. That's not the way you want to live. Getting It Done can help you develop the skills to get the benefits of how all of us know and can do more than any one of us. When you are able to get that benefit from being in an enterprise, life becomes very interesting, rewarding, and meaningful. You will also feel good about living closer to your potential as a person.


Indispensable   January 20, 2002
 30 out of 32 found this review helpful

Packed with useful advice, techniques and plans for collaborative working and altering the way your colleagues and organisation works. Useful section on analytical thinking: how to make those unstructured, going nowhere meetings more productive. They're also willing to say when trying to change your colleagues' attitudes you won't get it right or be successful all the time, but they make a great case for sticking at it. Very useful, I'll be referring to this for some time to come.


Stirring and self-developing book   November 17, 1999
 23 out of 23 found this review helpful

I read and read this book as an IT professional and really learnt about most of the problems I've been encountering. I hence moved from complaint to contributive proposition and got self-confident in any further action taken since. Moreover, most of the examples produced are common to major enterprises. I am convinced things could be better in some enterprises, had the management read this sort of best-practice-minded book. I have started disseminating the book around me and hope it'll help go ahead solving problems and sharing knowledge. It's clear problems mostly arise due to a lack of managerial culture.