It’s a shame — and a strategic disadvantage — that so many modern companies have made life so pointlessly hard for the employees upon whom their future success depends.

I thought of the style as “sloppy thinking”, but the term “pop psychology” also comes to mind. It’s great rhetoric for a rally or to get the choir riled up, but when you sit down to think, “Okay, how would this work here? Where does this take us,” you realize it needs polishing. That would be fine, but they seem to vehemently disagree. They seem afraid that any hole poked in the boat will cause it to sink instead of showing them where the woodwork might be a little shoddy, even though it’s a boat that’s worth repairing — it doesn’t have to go to the junk heap.

The one point I would disagree with you on is that there were only 95 words worthwhile in the book. But even on that point, I wouldn’t fight too hard. I hope this paves the way for better books, but I think it’s great that, however egregious its faults, it got published if just to get thicker heads to reconsider outdated or illogical paradigms.

It’s like, “Dude, this meeting is NOT mandatory! Whadoo I need to do, write you a BOOK?!”

In the end, I was hugely disappointed. “Cali and Jody” have put their consulting careers ahead of the ROWE idea itself, and handicapped ROWE’s development. The book is a 10-page memo in a 200-page form. The tagline for the book is ““No Schedules, No Meetings — No Joke”, but due to the complete lack of detail, the tag line should be: “No Tips, No Detail — No Help.”

More of my thoughts on the ROWE book can be read here: http://www.whyrowesucks.com.

Cheers,
Scott

You find the right people and empower them (seriously, not “empower” them in corporate-speak), then reap major benefits.