What Got You Here and the Zombie Survival Guide

Last weekend I had to read the book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There for a managerial communications class I am taking as part of the MBA program. I have to admit, when my copy arrived from Amazon.com I immediately judged the book by its cover. The exclamatory claims and raves, including “How successful people become even more successful!” and “Marshall’s proven improvement process rocks!” immediately conjured up images of every self-help dust jacket I had ever seen- Lose weight fast! Improve the way you look and feel! Earn more money! Improve your sex life!

I feared the book would advocate manipulation and duplicity to climb over coworkers and grab the top spot in an organization. I was wrong, sort of. Boiled down to its most basic ingredient, WGYHWGYT preaches respect for others. It does this by highlighting the most common ways we disrespect our coworkers: not giving our full attention, adding our two cents to every idea, not sharing information, overestimating our contributions to projects, failing to express gratitude, etc.

It’s a good message and the book is worth skimming to find out what a jerk you’ve been without realizing it, but I still have one major beef. All of the anecdotes about executives changing their behavior as a result of coaching from the author indicate that the people made the changes so they could rise higher in their organization or strengthen their business. With maybe one exception, none of them wanted to change just because they realized they were being assholes and disrespecting their coworkers.

On a more fun note, a friend lent me the Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks (son of Mel Brooks). From the dustjacket:

The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now. Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.