Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work
Nick Sonnenberg
HarperCollins Leadership/An Imprint of Harper Collins (February 20123)
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent, not enough time on what is important.”
Nick Sonnenberg agrees with Stephen Covey and so do I. He provides “the most important concepts you need to know to set yourself, your team, and your entire organization up for success so you can stop drowning in work and focus on what matters.”
He introduces The CPR® Business Efficiency Framework, a unique approach that “focuses on eliminating the pain points most teams experience by optimizing the three operational areas foundational to every organization: Communication, Planning, and Resources. In this book, I’ll be showing you the tools that will boost efficiency in all three of these domains and providing you with a detailed blueprint for the most effective way to use them.”
Sonnenberg makes brilliant use of several reader-friendly devices such as these at the end of each chapter: “Key Takeaways,” “Pro Tips,” and “What’s Next?” He also includes mini-case studies, mini-commentaries, checklists, and other brief, hard-hitting perspectives on multi-dimensional efficiency throughout any organizational enterprise, whatever its size and nature may be.
For example, Snnenberg helps to prepare his reader to achieve specific strategic objectives that include these, each with HOW TO MASTER serving as its prefix:
The CPR® Framework
Principles of Efficient Communication, Cooperation, and Collaboration
Planning and Conduction of Efficient, High-Impact Meetings
Principles of EfficientcWork Management (Workloads, Capacities, Goals, and Planning)
Solid, Sufficient, Efficient, and Dynamic (Interactive) Knowledge Base
Process Documentation
These are among the passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Sonnenberg’s coverage:
o CPR® Framework (Pages 1-33)
o Complexity (11-14 and 241-242)
o The Efficiency-Driven Mindset (16-23)
o Automation (20-22, 128-129, and 247-248)
o Systems (18-19, 190-191, and 223-225)
o Principles of Efficiency (31-32)
o Efficient communication (37-53)
o External communication (55-76)
o Archiving (60-6! and 63-66)
o Getting Organized: Channels for internal communication (84-94)
o Planning (!03-!05)
o Meetings (107-131)
o Agendas (120-1@6)
o Principles of Efficient Work Management (133-163)
o Tasks and Projects (143-8 and 148-154)
o Sprint planning (167-185)
o Formula for bandwidth (172-!76)
o Objectives and results (191-206)
o Knowledge resources (209-212 and 231-258)
o Checklists (234-235)
No brief commentary such as mine could possibly do full justice to the quality of the information, insights, and counsel that Sonnenberg provides in abundance but I hope I have at least indicated why I think so highly of him and his work. Years ago, Peter Drucker observed, “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” Sonnenberg thoroughly explains HOW teams as well as individuals can leverage the systems and tools needed to avoid the operational inefficiency to which Drucker refers.
I conclude with two suggestions of my own when reading Come Up or Air: Highlight key passages, and, keep a lined notebook near at hand in order to record your comments, questions, page references, and responses to the aforementioned end-of-chapter “Pro Tips.” These two simple tactics will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of the most important material later.