Slack Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency

by DeMarco, Tom

• ISBN13: 9780767907699
• ISBN10: 0767907698
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-04-09
• Publisher: Currency

Summary

If your company's goal is to become fast, responsive, and agile, more efficiency is not the answer--you need more slack. Why is it that today's superefficient organizations are ailing? Tom DeMarco, a leading management consultant to both Fortune 500 and up-and-coming companies, reveals a counterintuitive principle that explains why efficiency efforts can slow a company down. That principle is the value of slack, the degree of freedom in a company that allows it to change. Implementing slack could be as simple as adding an assistant to a department and letting high-priced talent spend less time at the photocopier and more time making key decisions, or it could mean designing workloads that allow people room to think, innovate, and reinvent themselves. It means embracing risk, eliminating fear, and knowing when to go slow. Slack allows for change, fosters creativity, promotes quality, and, above all, produces growth. With an approach that works for new- and old-economy companies alike, this revolutionary handbook debunks commonly held assumptions about real-world management, and gives you and your company a brand-new model for achieving and maintaining true effectiveness.

Author Biography

<b>Tom DeMarco</b> is an international management consultant with clients in numerous industries. His previous books include <i>The Deadline</i> (a business novel with more than 40,000 copies sold) and <i>Peopleware</i> (nonfiction, with more than 100,000 copies sold). He divides his time between New York City and Camden, Maine.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2002 Edition	xiii
Prelude	xv
Part One: SLACK
Madmen in the Halls	3	(4)
Busyness	7	(5)
The Myth of Fungible Resource	12	(10)
When ``Hurry Up'' Really Means ``Slow Down''	22	(4)
Managing Eve	26	(7)
Business Instead of Busyness	33	(12)
Part Two: LOST, BUT MAKING GOOD TIME
The Cost of Pressure	45	(9)
Aggressive Schedules	54	(5)
Overtime	59	(12)
A Little Sleight of Hand in the Accounting Department	71	(4)
Power Sweeper	75	(5)
The Second Law of Bad Management	80	(6)
Culture of Fear	86	(7)
Litigation	93	(9)
Process Obsession	102	(9)
Quality	111	(11)
Efficient and/or Effective	122	(4)
Management by Objectives	126	(7)
Part Three: CHANGE AND GROWTH
Vision	133	(4)
Leadership and ``Leadership''	137	(5)
Dilbert Reconsidered	142	(4)
Fear and Safety	146	(4)
Trust and Trustworthiness	150	(5)
Timing of Change	155	(4)
What Middle Management Is There For	159	(4)
Where Learning Happens	163	(10)
Danger in the White Space	173	(8)
Change Management	181	(8)
Part Four: RISK AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Uncommon Sense	189	(9)
Risk Management: The Minimal Prescription	198	(6)
Working at Breakneck Speed	204	(5)
Learning to Live with Risk	209	(8)
AFTERWORD
The Needle in the Haystack	217	(4)
Index	221