Member Reviews
When it comes to business books I always like to understand what the author is trying to help you with. Is it a practical book with actionable items? A research paper crammed into a book or a review of theory? Or is it their own ideas put on a page for you to pick what works for you?
In this book it is mostly Swann putting his ideas, based on his experiences, together and allowing you to try and synthesise them into how it may work for you. For some people I'm sure this is fine, but I'm always interested in a bit more of a deep dive. -What Experiences? Why? What's the alternative?- and I felt he was quite light on in that department.
I did like the definition of a human workplace and why it matters and I think for many people this may be an eye-opener, especially if they have businesses which have grown quickly or where they have been more focused on numbers than people. So if the point of the book is for you to "reframe your perspective" then it may just do that.
The biggest take-away for me was that a human workplace considers employees as end-users. They can have the same characteristics as customers (e.g. loyalty, brand ambassadors), but only if you set up a workplace that understands and nurtures them as you would a customer.
I would recommend this book for small business owners or anyone that wonders how they can develop and grow their business while bringing their people along in a positive way.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Nonfiction books, especially books about the workplace can get a little dry. This book was very readable and eminently pragmatic. Definitely a British book, I think there are still applications for those of us in America. My personal takeaway was that you need to have the right person in the right place doing the right actions to make a successful workplace. This is a little more touchy-feely than most of the work-related books I've read and a little bit more than I really wanted in a workplace book but overall a nice read.
Four stars
This book comes out October 3