Product Description

IS IT ME OR IS IT THEM?

Maintaining control in today's hectic workplace is a challenge -- everything is lean, competitive, and uncertain. What does it take to survive?

Making Work Work is Julie Morgenstern's most important book yet. Through the mastery of brand-new strategies, Morgenstern shows you how small changes in your thinking and behavior will help you achieve the seemingly impossible -- boost your value, increase your job security, and afford you the time to still have a life.

Morgenstern has helped clients of all levels take control of their work lives in every industry: from corporations and nonprofits to government agencies and small businesses; from executives and assistants to educators and salespeople. She's learned that no matter who you are, happiness at work involves feeling appreciated, in control, successful, and in balance. And achieving that is possible.

People rarely look at their jobs from a psychological and practical perspective at the same time, but Julie Morgenstern does. This book mirrors the individual consulting services she provides by showing you how to start with yourself and then tackle the more complex external issues of working relationships and the job. For every obstacle you encounter along the way, Morgenstern diagnoses the source of the problem (is it you or them?), and with insight and warmth, she provides simple grab-and-go strategies. These are small changes anyone can make to improve performance and efficiency at work.

At its core, Making Work Work is about your relationship to your job. With the reliable, methodical process taught in this book, you will:

• feel less trapped and more in charge • be able to make a bad situation better • search for a job that's a better fit for who you are.

This is a provocative and life-changing book that will help you boost your clarity, confidence, and performance in any economic climate. With Morgenstern's guidance you can find a way to make work work.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #819996 in Books
• Published on: 2004-08-31
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Whether in the executive boardroom or a windowless cubicle, the key to a more balanced, productive existence, according to organizer extraordinaire Morgenstern, is PEP (physical health, escape and people), the four Ds (delete, delay, delegate and diminish) and a healthy dose of reality about what is doable, and what is impossible, at work. Written in the same to-the-point approach as her Organizing from the Inside Out, this volume espouses a combination of philosophies that not only makes a whole lot of sense but is practical and applicable to the real world, no matter what the job or office setting. Each "competency" (as the chapters are called) includes scenarios taken from actual clients, bullet-pointed tips known as "grab-and-go-strategies," from getting away from wasteful e-mails to planning your day better and always dancing "close to the revenue line." Morgenstern promises readers a significant change in their workload, productivity level and all-around confidence if they refrain from reading, replying to or even perusing e-mail in the first hour of the day. This may be a hard sell for some desk-based professionals, but it's clear that Morgenstern knows her stuff. The habits of workaholics and perfectionists, she argues, are impractical and will render one unproductive. In accessible, encouraging prose, Morgenstern helps readers learn their boundaries, limits, strengths and weaknesses.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
Pat Riley, President, The Miami Heat

Until you change the way you work at things, the things you work at will never change. Julie teaches how to change those things and become more energetic and efficient at work. This book is a must for anyone who loves to work.

Customer Reviews

As usual, Julie Morgenstern does NOT disappoint!
I've long been a fan of Julie Morgenstern . . . her other books, ORGANIZING FROM THE INSIDE OUT and TIME MANAGEMENT FORM THE INSIDE OUT, had a big impact on me--and contained much useful information that I still use.

So it was with great anticipation that I obtained and devoured her latest, MAKING WORK WORK . . . it did not disappoint!

Morgenstern presents ideas and suggestions that apply to just about any situation . . . what she writes may sound basic, but it is the type thing that you need to read more than once . . . then begin to use.

For example, she urges you to begin conversations with:
"What can I do for you?" not "How are you?" As she notes:
"How are you?" is an open invitation to chat and warm up. "What can I do for you?" immediately focuses your interrupter on getting straight to the point. It's professional and gets you both down to business. This enables you to handle the interruption in the least amount of time possible.

There were several other memorable passages; among them:
The only real chance you have at choosing the most important tasks begins with keeping a complete list of everything you need to do in one place. After all, prioritizing is a matter of relativity--the true question is, What's most important in relation to the other things on your list? Taken one item at a time, everything can mask itself as a critical task.

Control Lateness: Use odd start times, such as 27 or 41 minutes after the hour, to control lateness. People are far less likely to be late for a meeting that starts at 11:27 than one at 11:30. Designate an official timekeeper to watch the clock for every meeting, and rotate that role among attendees. It's their responsibility to regulate the meeting so it doesn't go overtime, and they'll have an invested interest in doing a good job-they could be on the other side of the clock the next time around.

Change "but" to "and." What a difference a word makes, implying a can-do, take-charge approach to problems rather than an argument. For example, a client tells you they want to bring the budget down. Instead of saying, "But that's going to compromise quality," try saying, "Okay, and that's likely to compromise quality. Where would you be most comfortable shaving costs?" Or you boss asks you to have something on his desk in two hours. Instead of saying, "But then I won't be able to meet tomorrow's deadline," try, "Okay, and if I need to do that, what should I do about tomorrow's deadline? Can someone else finish it off?" Focus on solutions, not obstacles.

It works!
As a career consultant, I often find myself frustrated with mindless career advice. So it's a treat to open this book and find some truly original ideas that I can recommend to my clients and ezine readers. And, amazingly, Morgenstern's book will be appropriate to a variety of readers and career stages. It's not just for entry-level beginners or senior vice presidents. We can all read and learn here.

Happiness, says Morgenstern, means "liking what you're doing and being good at it, feeling connected, in control, successful and balanced." Now there's a realistic definition that we can work with!

I like Morgenstern's listing of nine competencies. Most are straightforward and you're heard some before, but they're presented insightfully. For instance, "organize at the speed of change" and develop an "entrepreneurial mindset" have become essential in today's world; you probably know you need to delegate and work well with others, but we can never hear this message too often.

Perhaps the most striking insight is, "Sometimes it's not you! Sometimes it's them holding you back." In working with live clients, I find that identifying this difference can be key to long-term career success, not to mention santiy.

Other messages I support wholeheartedly: "Your personal life is an investment in your work."
"Try neglecting one small task." (So true! Often nobody notices even when you neglect the big tasks!)
and
"Own your career so you're not a victim."

Well said.

This book's layout could be more visually appealing; it's not the author's fault, but the pages sometimes seem crowded. However, it's worth digging. I will be recommending this book on my ezine page and will encourage many of my clients to give themselves this book as a gift.

A Broad Set of Useful Tips

We spend a lot of time, a lot of our lives working. As such it makes sense to progress at work, get as much out of your job as you can, and above all else to enjoy working so that you are not spending so much time in an unplesant atmosphere.

At first glance this book appears oriented to the female employee. As you read it, it is just as applicable to the male worker. The techniques, hints and tips are not gender specific. Most of them are oriented around work, but there is a chapter on the work/life balance. You don't want to grow older wondering where your life went. As the old saying goes, no one would want their tombstone to to read -- I should have spent more time at work.

The book is filled with short and direct tips that say do this one thing. Later you can move to the next step having accomplished the first step.