2023-02-24
Entrepreneur and consultant Sonnenberg offers a comprehensive plan for increasing workplace proficiency.
“Most teams are drowning in work because they’re using yesterday’s methods in today’s fast-paced environment,” writes the author at the start of this book. “Either they’re unaware of modern tools or they lack knowledge around when and how to best use them, which holds them back from streamlining the way they work.” Addressing this problem is the core concern of Sonnenberg’s book, in which he lays out the tenets of a tool kit he proposes to fix it: the CPR (“Communication, Planning, and Resources”) Business Efficiency Framework. Sonnenberg, a self-described “numbers guy,” is familiar with the importance of seemingly small factors in meeting larger goals; as a trader, he used algorithms and math to trade billions of stocks a day, which he says taught him the value of time: “Shaving even a few seconds off a process that’s done many times per day could provide huge time savings in the end,” he notes, and in these chapters, he uses eye-catching graphs, bullet points, and discussion questions, such as “What are your current business needs?” and “What problem are you trying to solve?” to break down many different strategies for improving team efficiency. Along the way, he touches on everything from team size to the finesse required in planning realistic projects, with a point of view that takes in the grand design as well as the smallest tasks—the latter of which Sonnenberg calls “the bread and butter of any work management platform.” This book is clearly aimed at corporate managers and their team members, so its initial demand of readers—that they believe the notion that such teams are “drowning in work”—won’t necessarily be a problem. Once that demand is met, Sonnenberg’s book offers many sharply written and richly insightful observations about all aspects of office life. He’s particularly engaging when it comes to broader considerations, as when he asks his readers if they’d rather bring more people into a broken system and fix it later or fix the system first. His answer: “Fix the overflowing sink, don’t mop faster!” The clarity of these and other conclusions is always bracing; readers who may feel mired in their corporate teams’ messes are sure to find some of them to be invaluable. This is also true when he advocates for better internal dialogue, in which “communicating is fun, and conversations are focused and flow just as naturally as they would in person.” His more granular and practical points are equally engaging, as when he discusses the notorious “Inbox Zero” movement in the corporate world. It’s important to note, he writes, that “Inbox Zero” is very different from “Unread Zero,” in which the emails’ tasks remain uncompleted: “Even if you’ve read every email in your inbox, they’re still occupying your attention and using your brainpower.” Sonnenberg’s skill at alternating between high-concept and granular content makes his book highly readable, and the well-designed visuals are also helpful.
A brisk and engaging series of proposals for improving corporate team performance.
