Joy at Work

 

Issue No. 7 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Oct. 9, 2006) features radical “Water Cooler Wisdom” from Dennis Bakke who writes, “We have made the workplace a frustrating and joyless place where people do what they’re told and have few ways to participate in decisions or fully use their talents.” For more resources, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies). 2006 BOOK-OF-THE-YEAR! Dennis Bakke writes, “We have made the workplace a frustrating and joyless place where people do what they’re told and have few ways to participate in decisions or fully use their talents.”   THE JOY OF DECISION-MAKING: Get Advice Before Making a Decision—or “You’re Fired!” The paperback edition of this national bestseller was published this summer.  The book describes Dennis Bakke’s radical approach to bringing joy into the corporate and nonprofit workplace. Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun On The Job  by Dennis W. Bakke (March 7, 2005) Have you ever annnounced this to your staff? Water Cooler Wisdom #8: “Everyone must get advice before making a decision. If you don’t seek advice, ‘you’re fired.’” Bakke is no believer in workplace decisions by consensus or majority vote.  Hire great people and let them have the fun (the joy) of decision-making.  If that’s not revolutionary enough, shake-up your team with Water Cooler Wisdom #9: “A ‘good’ decision should make all the stakeholders unhappy because no individual or group got all they wanted.”  Trust me. Your team members will love this book! I had the privilege of writing an endorsement for this book. Here's what I said: "Finally! Here's a truth-telling CEO, with years of in-the-trenches experience, who practices what he preaches.  Dennis Bakke thoughtfully dispels popular business myths, and he'll persuade you to think differently about your workplace.  People are not 'our most important asset.' (People are people, not assets.)  Customers are not always No. 1. (It's not that simple.) Gutsy CEOs will buy Joy at Work for every co-worker--and feed a revolution of joy in the workplace."  Rule #3 in Bakke's Water Cooler Wisdom Top-10 List is my favorite: "Attempt to create the most fun workplace in the history of the world." Bakke is waging war on leaders and managers who keep all the fun (that is, decision-making) to themselves. I share his aspirations for fun. "The Hoopla! Bucket" is one of 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit. Managers who thrive on power, prestige, and phony empowerment will hate Bakke's book. I hope Joy at Work becomes a movement! TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun On The Job, by Dennis W. Bakke.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) How effective are we in seeking advice from other team members? Do we give the point person the joy of making his or her own decisions? 2) What would it take for “fun on the job” to be a core value here? 2025 UPDATE: Bonus Book! Also from Dennis Bakke, The Decision Maker: Unlock the Potential of Everyone in Your Organization, One Decision at a Time. Order from Amazon. Read my review on Amazon.  IMPORTANT NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to this website. New book reviews will also be archived here at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. And/or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.