The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't | Robert I. Sutton | A timely tome on topical issue (but lacking in breadth of solutions)

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The No Asshole Rul...

	The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't Robert I. Sutton Business Plus, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 112 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Thank you Robert Sutton

Interestingly, I wrote a review for this months ago. It never got posted, I think because I referenced the title. Amazon must reject unsavory terms. So, let's just call the people to whom Robert Sutton refers "jerks."
The reason why this book is so wonderful and groundbreaking is because we have all had to deal with jerks, have seen the negative effects and have wondered why those who are ostensibly in control don't do something about it.
This is not about coddling whiners. This is about acknowledging the importance of healthy, decent, productive behavior so that it is not subordinate to whatever is easy or whatever gives an immediate payoff. It is about establishing standards and having the courage to uphold them. Sutton is the strong wise leader who says "Not on my watch" and calls to everyone else to follow his lead. Bravo.
Everyone who has even a modicum of responsibility should read this book.

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A timely tome on topical issue (but lacking in breadth of solutions)

With the growth in numbers of legal claims being brought for either bullying or bad treatment at the hands of superiors, the book catches in a timely manner the mood of the issue of declining mutual respect in the workplace.

Written by a co-author of "The knowing-doing gap" one of the best books on knowledge sharing, Sutton brings his same practical no nonsense approach to this subject. Given he accidentally hit a deep vein of feeling in surfacing the topic in a Harvard Business Review article, he has he admits been helped by the vast unsolicited contributions made to his website on the subject. As a result the book has many good examples of how it can go wrong (including the author's own) plus analysis of the costs both financial and indirect with demotivation and staff leavers resulting.

Where the book fails for me is in the range of workable practicable solutions and strategies which is why I give it 4 stars. The key ones seem to be getting the tone from the top right and more importantly enforced daily which is inevitably dependent on the bosses "getting it", or if you at a lower level and on the receiving end, either get up and go to a new employer or learn to switch off and disconnect when experiencing such behaviour or form a group of similarly abused employees to support each other.

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I bet a lot of aholes read this.

When I first heard of this book I thought "oh great, a bunch of people will read it believing they ARE NOT the ahole". People tend to overestimate their own skills, morals, and behaviour. For example, the majority of people believe the other drivers are the bad ones and they themselves are rarely if ever at fault. So naturally I believed people would read this and point the finger at others. I was glad to see effort by the author to help people realize they may be the "certified" a-hole and he acknowledged that we're all temporary a-holes at some point.

I have a degree in what makes bullies and criminals tick and I know how to push their buttons right back. I can say with confidence that I can definitely be an a-hole (temporary a-hole) but I really try to make sure it is always directed at an antagonist a-hole. "Never instigate, RETALIATE!".

This book was humorous and shocking in many regards. For one, people certainly seem to be weak minded when it comes to the behaviour of others. Granted I may be biased; since school I have never been one to let a bully get away with much. These stories of bosses ripping up projects and making people pick them up, screaming constantly, and ANY unwanted touchings or intimidation tactics made me laugh out loud and shake my head.

This topic is primed for a sequel covering the ways to combat bullies and certified a-holes in more detail; when you just can't escape them. As alluded to briefly in this book, revenge against such an a-hole is sweet but can also lead to a-hole poisoning and the behaviour is contagious so one needs to know how to turn it on and off when opposing such a person.
There is something to be said for remaining in control of one's self and presenting yourself as someone not to be bullied or intimidated. Being able to remain in control and push the buttons of a bully right back is an art form that one is partly born with and partially taught growing up but there are definitely some ways to cope with a-holes that everyone can benefit from.

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Good blueprints for building, short on bricks (survival aspects)

The premise of the book is great. Everyone will identify with a good proportion of the anecdotes and situations although many of them come with a head-shake; you wouldn't believe the things basically successful people will do and apparently can get away with. And probably everybody needs a certain proportion of a**h** behavior in them if they are going to get anything accomplished.

Much of the book deals with identifying a** behavior. Of course, this is the easy part for most of us (as applied to others, of course). The fine line is identifying the point where being a tough, results-oriented boss (or henchman) degenerate into being just an ordinary a**h**.

The latter half of the book does address how to DEAL with an inappropriate workplace, but the bulk of it is really done from the senior executive level (maybe the manager of a group that is physically separate enough that it can have its own personality). There really is not much in here for how YOU can cope with a peer group, for instance, that has discovered that acting like an a** is a highly effective tactic. Or maybe the organization just rewards people that behave like that, so that is who floats to the top. If you are even lower in the hierarchy, there really isn't much here for you either, other than the expected advice as to whether the extra paycheck that must be keeping you in such an organization is really worth the psychic damage.

But, if you are an executive in an organization that appears to reject team play and maybe even doesn't seem to respond to your own leadership initiatives, it may be that you have created or inherited a bias toward a** behavior. In that case, the book provides some interesting food for thought about things you can do to turn things around. Beware, of course, that the a** who are de facto running things will not hesitate to try and keep things just the way they like it, and you may find yourself under the bus rather than driving it.

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