Book Review: The Plugged-In Manager
During August 2012 I read “The Plugged-In Manager” by Terri Griffith as part of the 12 Books Group. This book is a unique perspective to making decisions and creating culture central to balancing the people, technology, and processes in an organization. The basic premise is to train the reader to understand the impact on these three things and outline a process by which the manager can keep continual balance.
I particularly liked the chapter that discussed the practice of Stop-Look-Listen. It seems that we most generally miss opportunities to “plug-in” because we are in such a hurry to execute.
The case studies and examples in the book are both relevant and educational. Sometimes it seems that stories in these types of books are hard to apply to smaller teams or companies but Griffith did a good job of relating the stories to the core principles being taught.
During our Live Q&A webinar with Griffith, she also talked about some of the more common questions about the subject. The book also answers questions about generational differences to technology, application challenges in teams and companies, and the most common reasons people don't plug-in.