Management of the Absurd

An original, contrarian philosophy that challenges today's leaders to look past the quick fix and deal thoughtfully with the real complexities of managing people.

In organizations, as in life, human behavior is often irrational — and problems do not easily lend themselves to the simplistic answers and gimmickry offered in the myriad business "self-help" books and management training programs available today. In Management of the Absurd, Richard Farson zeros in on the paradoxes of communication, the politics of management, and the dilemmas of change, exploring relationships within organizations and offering a unique perspective on the challenges managers face.

• Foreword by Michael Crichton
• Introduction: Embracing Paradox and Absurdity
• PART ONE: A Different Way of thinking
1. The Opposite of a Profound Truth Is Also True
2. Nothing Is as Invisible as the Obvious
• PART TWO: The "Technology" of Human Relation
3. The More Important a Relationship, the Less Skill Matters
4. Once You Find a Management Technique That Works, Give It Up
5. Effective Managers Are Not in Control
6. Most Problems That People Have Are Not Problems
7. Technology Creates the Opposite of Its Intended Purpose
8. We Think We Invent Technology, but Technology Also Invents Us
• PART THREE: The Paradoxes of Communication
9. The More We Communicate, the Less We Communicate
10. In Communication, Form Is More Important Than Content
11. Listening Is More Difficult Than Talking
12. Praising People Does Not Motivate Them
• PART FOUR: The Politics of Management
13. Every Act Is a Political Act
14. The Best Resource for the Solution of Any Problem Is the Person or Group That Presents the Problem
• PART FIVE: Organizational Predicaments
15. Organizations That Need Help Most Will Benefit from It Least
16. Individuals Are Almost Indestructible, but Organizations Are Very Fragile
17. The Better Things Are, the Worse They Feel
• PART SIX: Dilemmas of Change
18. We Think We Want Creativity or Change, but We Really Don't
19. We Want for Ourselves Not What We Are Missing, but More of What We Already Have
20. Big Changes Are Easier to Make Than Small Ones
21. We Learn Not from Our Failures but from Our Successes — and the Failures of Others
22. Everything We Try Works, and Nothing Works
23. Planning Is an Ineffective Way to Bring About Change
24. Organizations Change Most by Surviving Calamities
25. People We Think Need Changing Are Pretty Good the Way They Are
• PART SEVEN: The Aesthetics of Leadership
26. Every Great Strength Is a Great Weakness
27. Morale Is Unrelated to Productivity
28. There Are No Leaders, There Is Only Leadership
29. The More Experienced the Managers, the More They Trust Simple Intuition
30. Leaders Cannot Be Trained, but They Can Be Educated
31. In Management, to Be a Professional One Must Be an Amateur
• PART EIGHT: Avoiding the Future
32. Lost Causes Are the Only Ones Worth Fighting For
33. My Advice Is Don't Take My Advice
• Acknowledgments

Pure rubbish!

Everything is the opposite of what you believe and what you can see. Any new-age guru can write rubbish like this. The only impressing thing about the book is the myriad of people that believes anything in this book. But I shouldn't be surprised, Charles Manson, Hare Krishna, RAF, etc., all have supporters that believe everything that is written/uttered by their "gurus".

If you're into management (or want to be) and belives this is a worthwhile book, my advice is to start a new career in something more fitting to your intelligence, like being a plumber or garbage man…