Stop Spending, Start Managing

Strategies to Transform Wasteful Habits

Leigh Thompson author Tanya Menon author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Harvard Business School Publishing

Published:16th Aug '16

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Stop Spending, Start Managing cover

This insightful guide reveals the costly traps organizations fall into and offers strategies to enhance management effectiveness. Stop Spending, Start Managing provides practical solutions for overcoming common pitfalls.

In Stop Spending, Start Managing, authors Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson delve into the costly pitfalls organizations face when confronted with complex problems. They highlight how ineffective problem-solving can lead to wasted time, energy, and resources, ultimately impacting a company's bottom line. By understanding the underlying reasons for these challenges, readers can learn to navigate away from common traps that hinder effective management and collaboration.

The authors identify five key spending traps that often lead to what they describe as 'action without traction.' These include the Expertise Trap, where outdated solutions are applied to current issues; the Winner's Trap, which involves pouring more resources into failing projects; and the Agreement Trap, where avoiding conflict is prioritized over productive discussions. Menon and Thompson also explore the Communication Trap and the Macromanagement Trap, providing a comprehensive view of how these pitfalls can be avoided.

By combining their extensive research with insights from psychology, Stop Spending, Start Managing offers practical strategies for breaking free from these unproductive cycles. The book encourages managers to reshape problems, embrace failure as a learning opportunity, and foster constructive conflict. Through these approaches, organizations can unlock hidden value without incurring additional costs, ultimately leading to more effective management and improved outcomes.

ADVANCE PRAISE for Stop Spending, Start Managing: Matt Ferguson, CEO, CareerBuilder-- "Stop Spending, Start Managing explores the universal pitfalls managers face and provides practical strategies for enhancing individual and team performance. The ideas in this book are easily transferable to different situations and focus on harnessing the power of multiple perspectives." Gurcharan Das, author, The Difficulty of Being Good; former CEO, Procter & Gamble India-- "This deftly written, highly readable book helps unlock one of the most important issues facing business today: how do you shift unproductive, wasteful behavior inside an organization? It teaches managers to change their mind-sets and thus save time and money and unlock hidden value within their companies." Joanne Segars, Chief Executive, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association-- "Every manager will recognize something of themselves in the traits Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson describe in Stop Spending, Start Managing. Their solutions and advice provide helpful routes out of the habits and behaviors we've all fallen into so that we can start to manage smarter and more productively." Joachim Ringer, Co-Head, Investment Banking and Capital Markets, Germany/Austria, Credit Suisse-- "Menon and Thompson propose a host of smart and novel ways to drive performance in your organization without additional spending. Written in a concise and accessible way, this book is essential reading for leaders." Tom Linebarger, Chairman and CEO, Cummins Inc.-- "Using convincing research and logic, Menon and Thompson demonstrate that successful employee teams avoid waste and create value with specific positive behaviors: recognizing unconscious bias, managing conflict as a healthy dynamic, and engaging in constructive feedback. An important read for leaders who know that talented teams, working effectively together, are the reason companies win."

ISBN: 9781422143025

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

208 pages