So I read about three nonfiction books a week, mostly biggification and self-work (what regular people call business and self-help). Rated on a scale of ducks: 1 duck = Stephen Covey (yawn) and 5 ducks = Malcolm Gladwell (do a little dance). Books worth reading are image-linked to independent bookstores.
The book: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.
The author: Robert Sutton, PhD. (Also: professor of management science and engineering at Stanford, and all-around swell guy.)
The rating: 4 ducks
What I thought.
This is a smart, funny, sweet, interesting and useful book with lots of neat studies, good research and clever ideas. And it’s well-written too, gott sei dank.
Sutton is a thoughtful, engaging writer (who blogs!) and he’s completely like-able.
In fact, I had the feeling that I could happily have a conversation with him on absolutely any subject and find it fascinating (Bob, if you’re reading this and you ever get to Portland, let me know and I will invite you to dinner!).
Also, you have to love how the title (best title ever?) sums it all up so thoroughly that I don’t have to actually tell you what the book is about or anything about the content. Take that, short review.
And … should you be thinking that the title is somewhat distasteful, he discusses that too, as well as the process of deciding that no, this was really the only thing to call it.
Sutton systematically breaks down the patterns of at-work assholeness, if you will, and talks about who these people are, how to recognize them and how to know when whoops, you’re doing it too. Actually, his “we all have an inner jerk, so let’s be honest here” approach is both endearing and refreshing.
Only one caveat, and it’s not a big deal.
The one thing the book is short on is the how-to side, where, of course, I am naturally tempted to jump in and suggest/apply a bunch of my techniques. Or whatever, forget about my techniques. NVC, baby.
Sutton tends to throw up his hands when it comes to dealing with certain difficult situations in a kind of “whaddya gonna do” attitude, whereas I want him to be more concrete, probably because I already have very concrete opinions on exactly what you could do in these situations.
It doesn’t matter though. The book is about mind shifts, and mind shifts are the important part anyway. I enjoyed this book thoroughly, and it gave me plenty of good material to think about.
Cool unintended side-effect of reading this book:
We’ve all worked with that person. We’ve all had uncomfortable confrontations or uncomfortable avoidance of potentially difficult confrontations.
Though it’s a business book, not a self-help-ey book, you can definitely use it for healing.
Reading the book brought up lots of old memories for me of various people I’ve worked for who could have single-handedly justified the need for such a rule. Doing some work and processing around this has helped me release some old pain and helplessness around certain work-related situations*.
*I know you’re all dying for some juicy Moroccan mafia stories from my pre-yoga life, but that will have to wait for some other occasion.
Bonus fabulousness:
One of my favorite business writers (Leigh Buchanan) interviewed Sutton about the No Asshole Rule for Inc Magazine.
Leigh is so freaking great that even in an interview where all she gets to do is ask questions, she’s still a kick in the pants. But more to the point: it’s good stuff.
Bottom line? I love this book.
Well written, relevant, useful. Read it!**
**Yeah, I’m talking to you, Marshall Goldsmith.
Follow