1.
The McKinsey Quarterly announced that
my article based on The No Asshole Rule was their most popular article in 2007
(I think this means it was the most downloaded). It is a somewhat censored version, called
“Building the Civilized Workplace.” You
can go here to get the article (registration is free). The Quarterly has very wide distribution and
is read by many people who have the influence to actually implement the rule,
so I am delighted that the message is being heard by their clients as well as
within McKinsey, because they have so much influence over senior executives of
large organizations throughout the world. Here are there top 5 articles for 2007:
1. Building the civilized workplace
2. How businesses are using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global
Survey
3. The CEO’s role in leading transformation
4. The halo effect, and other managerial delusions
5. Investing in sustainability: An interview with Al Gore
and David Blood
2. Fast Company announced their list of
the top 10 business books of the year, and I was happy to see that, in addition
to The No Asshole Rule, Chip and Dan
Heath’s Made to Stick was on the list as well. As I have written here many
times before, if there ever was a book that deserved the label “instant
classic,” Made to Stick is it.
3.
The India Times, which they tell me is one of the leading newspaper in India,
also named The No Asshole as one of their top 10 business books of the
year. I can’t find the URL but here is a pdf:
Download times_managing_25_dec_2007_best_business_books.pdf
4.The
Russian version is about to appear. I have no idea what the above cover says,
but it sure is wild.
5. As I blogged about a few weeks ago, the new issue of the complete lawyer will be on workplace bullies. But you can get the articles already, as
Victoria Pynchon tells us on her
blog. Victoria’s article is stunning, scary, brave, and remarkably
insightful. Perhaps the most honest and
compelling piece I’ve ever read about how the pressures that lawyers face can
provoke asshole poisioning. Check it out, here is how Victoria describes it:
“My article Why
Lawyers Are Unhappy… And Make Others Unhappy, Too is a
personal confessional of workplace misbehavior. In fact, it’s just about
as personal as you can get without committing professional suicide.
But hey! Somebody had
to fess up and when you’re the
jerk in the workplace, it’s you who
is usually the last to
know. As my regular readers know, however, there is a happy ending to
this one.”
6.
Indeed, if you want some brand new evidence about why lawyers are so uptight,
check out this story about the lawyers from Morrison & Forester (aka MoFo) who cost their client 1 million dollars
for filing some papers 1 minute late. (I
suspect that the firm will be paying, not their clients). See this WSJ
story. I also think it is
interesting that the MoFo lawyers aren’t getting much sympathy from some of the
commentors.
7.
I have also had readers point me to some interesting stories in the media about
workplace assholes, including one on called “Easing Angst”
in Business Today (published in
India), a well-crafted story by Jane Leder (who interviewed me months ago) in
North Shore Magazine called Emergency
Exit, a story in Voir
about the French Canadian version of the No Asshole Rule, Objectif
Zéro Chien Sale (which means, roughly, “no more dirty dogs”). Finally, The New York Post listed The No Asshole Rule as one of their notable books of 2007, but were careful to say that they weren’t all good books. I am not quite sure how to take that!
More
is happening. In particular, I am developing a version of the ARSE (Asshole
Rating Self-Exam) that will be used to assess if, in fact, the client you are
working for is a certified asshole. If
you have any ideas about sure signs that a client is, or is going to become, an
asshole, please let me know.
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