A Management Book Suggestion

I think Salman Rushdie, (Sir), is a great writer. I’’m not sure because I don’t understand his books but I think he has a career in writing. I read all 356 pages of “The Enchantress of Florence,” occasionally thought I knew what he was talking about but in the end realized I had no clue. I loved the book I’m also afraid to read another one. Sort of like managing people. You watch them everyday but in the end, you don’t really know what’s going on.

Rushdie reminds me of one of those clear see through wrist watches, where you can look right inside the watch and see it’s amazing, complex inner workings under the glass. Wheels, gears, and tiny ratchets all synchronize according to some strange higher order, a mystery order. Like a Rushdie book. An amazing look inside a brilliant mind, but all synchronized to some higher, mysterious order.

I don’t think the characters in Rushdie’s books know what’s going on, so in the reading, I never feel alone. At times you get a sense Salman may not know what’s going on either but he’s pretty sure no one will notice.

What if all of us, and all our employees are really only actors in a Rushdie novel? Even if I’m wrong, it would explain many things. Maybe the only one who can explain managing people is Salman Rushdie.

Could be? I find books about behavioural economics more helpful in management than actual management books. Books like Ariely’s “Predictably Irrationality, several of Malcolm Gladwell’s books, certainly Freakonomics, and maybe the odd Rushdie book. Books about the riddles of human behaviour, the absurdities of real people. These are the books that will help managers more.

Management books misdirect us with their logic. The books I’ve mentioned tell us the truth. Human behaviour is governed by emotion and self interest. Rushdie understands that. In the real world, truth and logic aren’t as helpful as they’re supposed to be.

We do not manage people. We only manage their emotions. Read a Rushdie book, - if you dare.

See you for breakfast,

Wolfgang

a.) Seperate the candidate’s skills from the skills he’s selling.

b.) How to keep new people from falling off your wagon. First find the right person, keep them focused, very accountable, and always inspired.

c.) Talent is someone on the way up.

d.) Selection. Would you prefer someone with lots of experience or great potential?

e.) Who’s the best person who left recently? What was it about that person that made them exceptional?

f.) Sir Salman Rushdie is one of the top 10 authors in Britain. He is recognized around the world, and his list of rewards for literature ensures him one of the top spots in history.

g.) I don’t think there are any movies made from any Rushdie book. Understandable.