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Book Review

The Thing in the Bushes -
Turning Organizational Blind Spots into Competitive Advantage
By Kevin Graham Ford and James P. Osterhaus

"...I took every people management course at Harvard Business School and frankly I should have just read this book..."

- Joel Manby, CEO of Greenlight.com, former CEO of Saab USA

Companies see it over and over again. There are signs of trouble in the organization: conflict, turnover, low morale, lack of motivation, status quo bureaucracy.  So a consultant comes in with a series of recommendations.  Managers and employees rally around a vision of the way things could be.  The consultants leave and their report sits on the shelf.  Nothing happens.  Cynicism rises.  Morale plummets.  Managers argue.  Another consultant creates a new plan that looks a lot like the old one with a new cover and a new name.  And still nothing happens.

 

Leadership knows something is seriously wrong, but they can't see it.  Something unidentified and insidious is lurking in the shadows like a "thing in the bushes" and it has the organization in a death grip.  It hates change.  It's the very thing that managers, consultants, employees, and board members all avoid.  Its presence is palpable but nobody knows what to do about it.  Avoiding it will kill the company.  Facing it honestly and dealing with it unleashes a power that will propel an organization into a new realm.  But it takes courage to face The Thing in the Bushes.

Even the best-run companies with great products, talented personnel, and superior systems can flounder if they are not relationally healthy.  Companies today face "people" issues that didn't exist only a decade ago.  Yet those same issues are often ignored and left prowling, waiting to destroy the company.  Ford and Osterhaus show business leaders how to face "The Thing in the Bushes" and turn it into a competitive advantage for their company.

"...A critical book for business leaders who need a new frame for viewing and improving organizational performance...I highly commend it."

- J. Frank Harrison III, President of Coca-Cola Bottling, Inc.

Lots of highlighted text and multiple dog eared pages are my measure of a great book.  This has lots of both!

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