Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Author Tom DeMarco presents a compelling case against total efficiency, which - he explains convincingly - can actually slow down work processes, undermine office morale and corrupt positive change. Leave some slack in your system, he says, so people have a chance to do their best and grow, which will result in a more effective organization. He includes some simple flow charts to help illustrate these ideas, along with examples of management methods that work and some that don't. We [...] particularly like his details about managing knowledge workers. The book is divided into almost three dozen short, to-the-point chapters. Each one highlights a different problem caused by lack of slack time, and suggests a solution. This pleasant read will intrigue both executives and managers. If you don't have time to read it, maybe you're being too efficient.
Rating: 
Summary: Can you give me some Slack!
Review: Great general advice about the importance of slack-time and managing the production of schedules. It also has some really startling, yet obvious after-the-fact, advice about the lack of quality that happens when people feel rushed. Even if they're only working their day job hours, if there isn't slack time in their days, it'll affect their output.The missing piece was really, in my opinion, how to measure 'how much' slack time to have. It seemed hard to get a metric for whether it's being used effectively or not. As a warning, this book basically ignored low-level folks (like myself!), concentrating exclusively on middle-level managers.
Rating:
Summary: At least I know I'm not Alone!
Review: I just finished reading Slack by Tom DeMarco, and it's not usual for me to agree with consultants. However, DeMarco hits the mark on a lot of points with me, particularly the issue of burnout. The book's major premise is that companies are so preoccupied with making themselves "lean" that they are overworking the middle management layer that is left to pick up the pieces. I think everyone knows that Wall Street loves the restructuring charges and the layoffs that come with it, but DeMarco illustrates effectively how overworking your "knowledge" base can actually decrease productivity in the long haul. Along with the overworking theme is the basic fact that middle management in an office environment is not like an employee in the factory - if you want to maximize the knowledge base, you need to provide enough support for them. Otherwise, without "slack", management is not able to institute change and a positive work environment. I would recommend this book for anyone who works 12 hour days, weekends and/or can't take a vacation because a day away from the office = two days of work when you get back. It is a quick read - the chapters are brief and it is tailored for those who only want the facts. And when your done, give this to your boss right before you ask for additional employees in your department.
Rating:
Summary: States The Realities Of Knowledge Work
Review: If you are a involved in software management, buy this book. If you are a software developer, buy this book for your boss. Much of what DeMarco says goes against "traditional" management practice, but that is the point of the book. Software development - or the broader term knowledge work - does not present a traditional management problem. Trying to use such an approach robs organizations of their ability to change in response to the situation at hand as well as burning out their developers. Many organizations treat software developers as interchangeable cogs in the machine that cranks out software. The author explains that the people who write software are not such fungible resources. Matrix management is also exposed as not being a great idea for software developers. The author also points out how the overly busy organization is often driven by fear and control. Much of this is a result of the dreaded "agressive schedule" and the pressure that comes with trying to meet it. DeMarco also explains why Taylor's model that helped manufacturing really doesn't apply to software development. Scientific management used for software development is the square peg shoved in a round hole in an attempt to give management a sense of being in control. Then, DeMarco goes to explain what can happen in organizations that have slack. He focuses on the middle management layer as the place where leadership and vision of change for improvement can happen. Sadly, though, this is exactly what many organizations have cut out in the layoffs that have happened over the past few years. The author goes on to relate how trust and safety are necessary for change to happen, i.e. failure cannot always be treated as a bad thing. People learn from mistakes. It takes slack to allow for mistakes and learning to take place. The closing section on risk and risk management were a good conclusion to the book. Building on the notion of the "agressive schedule", he goes on to explain how each risk is assumed to have a 0% chance of happening in these situations. The tradeoffs and payoffs of risk mitigation are also shown. With risk mitigation, the earliest possible completion date moves out by some amount, but the latest possible completion date moves in greatly.
Rating: 
Summary: A great idea...
Review: If you've read _The Goal_ or similar TOC books about discrete manufacturing, you know the hypothesis that at a facility where each step is maximally efficient, the factory as a whole will be minimally efficient. This book makes a similar argument for knowledge organizations: an organization where each employee is 100% utilized will tend to be highly inefficient overall. It's a quick, easy read and gets you thinking, but it lacks enough hard data or case studies to make the needed case. From personal experience I'm convinced, and I plan to read _Peopleware_ next.
Rating:
Summary: Slack is not a dirty word!
Review: In a culture where busyness is lauded and celebrated, where the reminder beeps of a palm pilot are viewed as measures of worth, where "success" is measured by the sole productivity of a person or a system, Tom DeMarco offers a new and refreshing look at life, both personal and professional. The worst thing to be called in this day and age is a slackard. DeMarco proposes that there is something worse in life than slack; it is the myth of total efficiency, the myth which heightens burnout and serves as a nemesis to effectiveness. Tom DeMarco's Slack is not just about doing less; it is about being effective. It is not just about better management techniques; it is about better living philosophies. DeMarco is not introducing a new variable into the management equation; rather, he calls us to give heed to a critical element of organizational and personal life that have been ignored or resisted, which have had adverse consequences so obvious that we cannot or choose not to believe or give credence to. Henry David Thoreau's aphorism to "suck the marrow out of life" has been abused and maligned by people and organizations alike to become the mantra of the current age which calls us to do more, be more, lest we fall behind. Behind what, we don't know. We just don't want to be behind. And so we run faster and do more. Space and rest are to be avoided. We can have space and rest when we die. But as long as we are living, life must be filled to the brim, and even overflowing. The opiate produced by the call to be totally efficient has lulled people and organizations into an unsound belief that if you can produce 100 widgets in 8 hours, then you can produce 300 hundred widgets in a whole day! Ignoring the concept of the point of diminishing return can indeed have profound and hurtful impacts on an organization and those who are a part of it. DeMarco exposes the myth of total efficiency! From the first page to the last, he turns conventional management beliefs and tenets upside down and invites his readers to look at things from different perspectives and with new eyes. He exposes what has been deemed to be "common sense" or rational logic of the do-more-make-more culture to be uncommon and irrational. DeMarco reminds us effectively that carpe diem, seizing the day, does not mean to choke the life out of the day. To effectively seize the day, DeMarco would argue, we must allow time and space for the day to breathe and to flourish. If you think slack is a dirty word, then pick up this book and be ready to be changed. If you long for a 36-hour day, if your life meaning is bound up in your daytimer, if you have ever felt like you cannot afford to be sick for a day, then this book is for you. If you believe that there must be a better way to live and to work besides in an environment that is filled with the fear and a constant call to do more with less without consequence, then spend some time with DeMarco in this book. The profundity in this book does not lie in the newness of a concept; rather, it is in the wisdom that is inherent in slack... since the beginning of time.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent challenge to Taylorism and its offspring
Review: In Slack, I think writer Tom DeMarco delivers a simple and powerful message that bears repeating. The idea that we are actually increasing productivity by driving people in machine-like efficiency is an illusion. The fact is that when we do not give people "slack" in pre-selected areas of a workflow, we may find unplanned "slack" appearing in all the wrong places, at the wrong time and in larger quantities then what the planned "slack" would have been. I found DeMarco's challenge of the theories of Total Efficiency, Management by Objective and Internal Competition especially refreshing. I highly recommend this book especially to people who manage "knowledge workers."
Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: Slack is a must-read for anyone who plays a role in the knowledge economy, whether you are a worker bee, middle manager, or CEO. It is well-written, easily understandable, and sectioned into small chapters for those of us on-the-go. The author brings into play the notion of "slack," which is necessary for everyone to accomplish a project of any size. Slack is when you step back, remove yourself from the pressure of the daily grind and `aggressive timelines' (which - the author notes in the section on risk management - are always doomed for failure), and allow yourself to free your mind - and hopefully this notion is supported by your management (if not, get them a copy of this book). During this slack time is when some of our best thinking happens - it could be while you're at your desk, on the road, or like many of us, laying in bed at 2am. Slack is about removing the proverbial gun from your head, proper planning, and support of initiatives. If you are working on a project with management-imposed `aggressive timelines,' this book would be timely for you and your project team - not to mention your boss!
Rating:
Summary: Good ROI on this book
Review: This book is very humble both in its size and format but contains some true pearls of wisdom. Here are some of the highlights that I will retain from this easy and pleasant read:
* In our constant quest to make our organizations more efficient (reduction of overhead, standardization of processes, overworking management and resources), we have actually made them less effective. The solution lies in (re)introducing `slack'. Slack is the lubricant required to effect change, it is the degree of freedom that enables reinvention and true effectiveness.
* Multitasking and overtime, thought to be ways of getting the most out of the teams, are actually having a negative impact on productivity. Multitasking, specifically for knowledge workers, causes at least a 15% penalty in productivity. It is much higher for tasks (such as troubleshooting or design for instance) that require complete immersion before the resource can actually make progress. Systematic overtime is also proven to be an ineffective way of improving project cycle-time. While it may provide short term gains, the demands it puts on resources quickly reduces their productivity and effectiveness. An alternative to systematic overtime are well calculated and well timed sprints (focused and value-added, yet handled as exceptions).
* Overworked managers also have a very negative impact on organizational effectiveness. It is indeed managers, and more specifically middle managers, that can the most effectively champion and effect change in organizations. The more overworked they are, the less time they have to reinvent the ways of working. Those same middle managers will be most effective in bringing about positive changes if they can collaborate with each other, which in turns requires that organizations stop fostering destructive internal competition.
* Prescriptive processes, pushed top-down, are a form of disempowerment. They are a result of fearful management that is allergic to failure. These processes succeed in dictate every aspect of how you should do you work but fail in providing guidance in doing the `hard parts'. They are often heavy and form an armor that reduces the mobility and agility of teams, hence resulting in less competitive organizations. The solution is to put the ownership of processes between the hands of those who do the work.
* An effective change manager is a person that can remonstrate, repeat, correct, encourage, cajole, motivate, and has great powers of persuasion. He/she is less of a boss and more of a negotiator. Great change managers have a lot of markers to call in. Markers come from favors done and confidence earned in the past. They have built a reservoir of trust and tap into it to entice their people to embrace change. Change managers have to come from within the organization, a stranger has no markers to call in, just a little `honeymoon capital'.
* The best time to introduce change is in a period of growth. Decline causes anxiety and makes people more resistant to change.
Rating:
Summary: a nice light read that will make you think
Review: This is certainly not the greatest management book ever written. It pales compared to stuff like "Good to Great" or even "Peopleware". Nothing is supported by data, and some of the stuff especially toward the back you've already heard a dozen times before. But it makes a fun, quick, read, and it will make you think. Check it out. It's worth investing a few hours of reading.
|
