Speed Lead® Book
Speed Lead® - faster, simpler ways to manage people, projects and teams in complex companies
Managers can save themselves and their people a day a week of wasted time and improve job satisfaction by discouraging teamwork, reducing communication and relaxing central control
After 14 years working with ever more complex “teams” in over 300 of the world’s leading companies in 40 countries and training over 50,000 people, CEO, entrepreneur and author Kevan Hall reaches some startling conclusions with major implications for management in his new book “Speed Lead® – faster, simpler ways to manage people, projects and teams in complex companies”
Successful companies grow, and as they grow, they become more complex and it takes more time and effort to get things done. Eventually complexity undermines what made the company successful in the first place; the old, entrepreneurial spirit breaks down, bureaucracy increases and progress slows. Management is the problem. The people management techniques that worked in simpler times are no longer working in today’s complex, multi-site companies, traditional management beliefs are actually making things worse in 4 key areas.
- “It’s all about teamwork” - Even great companies are struggling with an epidemic of cooperation –Managers spend 20% of their time in unnecessary meetings. Everyone feels the need to be involved in everything and teams are the answer. Team working is no longer a technique but a corporate value. Yet teams often do not work and are expensive and difficult to run. Speed Lead proposes much simpler ways to cooperate without teams.
- “Communication is the answer” - Lack of communication is a problem of the past – the challenge now is how to disconnect from the mass of trivia and see the few really important messages. The average FTSE Company pays its people to write, send, read and delete over 240,000,000 pointless emails per year. Speed Lead shows you how to streamline communication.
- “We need to be in control” - Decentralized control and information in manufacturing have given us a quality revolution over the last 15 years. Management control in other areas however, has become more centralized and this is causing a damaging cycle of micromanagement and low expectations of people at work. Speed Lead shows why local control works and how to implement it.
- “Corporate values hold the company together” - Community at work has changed, it is more diverse and less based on place but companies still invest in traditional “team spirit” and “corporate values”. I identify the new “keys to community” and show how, whilst changing values is almost impossible, a superficial set of common practices is more inclusive than respecting cultural differences.
Most team working, communication, leadership and meetings training still carry inaccurate assumptions from a much simpler management past.
Managers are spending 80% of their time on cooperation, communication and control and they estimate that 50% of this is wasted. The answer is not working harder with the old skills but implementing faster and simpler ways of working.
Speed Lead offers some challenging but practical alternatives in all of these areas.
Watch our video Is your company too connected to be effective?
See how your organization compares for unnecessary cooperation and communication our why not go the dedicated Speed Lead book website and take the free Speed Test
Buy your copy of the book from our dedicated site or from Amazon or any good bookseller
Read a pdf of an article Less waste, more speed giving an overview of the themes in the book (2MB download)
LIsten to podcasts about 2 of the key themes in the book - Too much cooperation going on? and Dismal meetings, surprisingly useful coffee breaks
What people are saying about Speed Lead®
- An eminently practical book, good at giving pragmatic, realistic tips that can help the reader to reframe and reflect on one's practice, and change behaviour without the guilt from being "stuck" in an outdated managerial mindset. This is a well-organized and enthusiastic synthesis of good managerial practice. People Management
- We all want our companies to be faster, simpler and easier to run - this refreshing blend of challenging ideas and practical tools shows us how. [/Karl Kahofer, Group President, Rubbermaid / IRWIN Group Europe & Asia Pacific
- A much needed new look at managing and leading in complex modern organizations. Practical tools you can implement to speed up your company. Bob Morton, Head of People Development Competence Centre, Europe - MEA. Ciba Specialty Chemicals
- Great management and leadership includes application of a lot of common sense. This book contains the sort of practical help and guidance that you can dip into and refresh your common sense quotient. Keep it close! Christine Betts Senior, Director, Audience Marketing, Microsoft
- SPEED is the key word for companies in Asia Pacific Rims; China, Japan and Korea. Kevan's remarkable new book comes from his long practical experience and is based on Creativity & Innovation, Simplicity, and easiness of applicability for managers of global companies. New tools and techniques from this book can be applied in many different countries without any cultural difference. Professor Jae Ho Park, Chairman, Department Of Psychology of Yeungnam University, South Korea
- Organizations are getting ever more complex. Globalization, technology and scale can lead to growth and success, but they also bring dysfunctional baggage. Kevan shows how to get off the organizational "hamster wheel" and focus on what is important. Geoff Armstrong, Director General, Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.
- Intensely practical. Hall's book is a highly stimulating guide to creating a more efficient business. Any global firm would benefit from the chapter on managing across time zones by organizing continuous 24-hour working. Carol Kennedy, Director Magazine
