Driving Fear Out of the Workplace: Creating the High-Trust, High-Performance Organization

I thought I had purchased this for me but as I read it, I knew a friend was meant to have it .

Driving Fear Out of the Workplace is a seminal work. In the 1990's, I was looking for a workshop to send my clients to. There wasn't one. But this book had just been published, the only one I found on this topic! It's just what the Dr. Ordered! I've used its content for more than 20 years! It works! It also supports one of Dr. Deming's 14 points to drive out fear to transform and lead.

This book is on a subject that isn't discussed openly, the use of fear as a motivational tool. It is a shame that the book is out of print, it should be required reading for all managers and CEO's. Using fear to motivate people is counterproductive, it ends up costing much more in loss of creativity, dissatisfaction, and productivity. A great intro to a taboo subject.

I would recommend this not only to the leadership in all workplaces, but also all institutions of learning.For those of you in leadership positions this can be used in High Power team building and collaborated with the workforce.

Excellent book

Originally published in 1991 and based in part on the pioneering work of ahead-of-their-time thinkers like Dr. Deming and Chris Argyris, this book should be a "bible" for all OD and Change consultants, as well as for all CEO's, executives, and managers.It takes on, directly by the horns, the still-taboo subject of using fear, intimidation, and the threat of reprisals or retaliation as routine management practices, and makes clear how successful they are, however unconsciously they may operate. The above reviewers have summarized the content quite well, so I'll say no more as to what's in this brave and ever-timely book.As a consultant, I always return to this book to learn why change in a client's workplace so easily gets side-tracked or hamstrung ... the only other book that explains as well how fear and resistance to change so effectively harm organizational growth and sabotage success is Argyris's "Overcoming Organizational Defenses," and that's far more theoretical and academically written than this book.If you want to know how organizations REALLY work - and why they are so often so dysfunctional -- get this book and read it.

This is one of my all-time favorite management/OD books. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in learning how to improve manager-employee relationships, trust, and communication in organizations. I think it should be on the bookshelf of every Organization Development specialist, Human Resource manager, executive coach, and leadership trainer. It contains useful, thoughtful, and often unique advice for managers, team members, trainers, and anyone else interested in reducing the climate of fear in their workplace. Some of the ideas translate well to personal and family relationships too.Fear is extremely damaging to organizations. It can harm trust, communication, quality, knowledge sharing, cooperation, innovation, retention, and overall organization effectiveness. Whether you are interested in improving morale, communication, and performance company-wide, or you just need to improve your relationship with one person, you'll find something useful here. This is not just the same old recycled advice you'll see in leadership books. Some of the ideas will be familiar to experienced people in the field, but the authors expand them and put them into a new perspective based on their work. They contribute many new ideas and examples that you won't find elsewhere.Portions of the book are particularly helpful for well-intentioned managers who just don't understand why people don't fully trust them. If you're not getting the level of communication, ideas, and candor needed to bring your organization to the next level, fear may be the problem. If you hear a manager say, "I don't know why they didn't tell me sooner," give him or her this book. Most of us don't realize all the little things we do to discourage good communication.My favorite concepts in this book include the cycle of mistrust and undiscussables. The cycle of mistrust provides a great understanding of how our perceptions and assumptions influence the behavior of other people. It's a great model for leadership, teambuilding and communication workshops. You'll be sure to recognize a few "undiscussables" in your own workplace. An undiscussable might be a sensitive issue that employees whisper about to one another, but not with those who might have the power to do something about it. It's just too risky to speak up. Management might not learn about it until they experience the shock of scathing comments in an anonymous employee survey, or they hear about it from someone in another company! You can prevent this from happening by driving fear out of the workplace and by creating an environment that makes it easier for people to speak up in the first place.