Stop Spending, Start Managing - by Tanya Menon & Leigh Thompson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Too often, managers spend money to solve problems at work, whether that means hiring outside consultants, investing in new software to fix communication issues, or bribing employees with cash to motivate them. But many managers are surprised when the problem they tried to solve reappears a few months, weeks, or even days later. The money is gone, but the problem is still there. These costs can add up, particularly when you consider the additional loss to your company in wasted time, energy, and resources when you don't solve problems effectively. Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson, experts in how organizations work, have developed a framework to help you understand why you fall into this trap, and how to escape it. Five psychologies--each of which substitutes spending for your own powers of management--lead to wasteful spending: 1. Mindless spending: throwing money at a problem to avoid thinking about it; 2. Ego spending: squandering resources to make yourself look good; 3. Please-like-me spending: wasting time and money to avoid conflict; 4. Talk-to-me spending: buying expensive technologies to help people communicate; and 5. Follow-me spending: using financial incentives to motivate people To break these habits, Menon and Thompson show how you can use your smarts as a manager to find solutions. By consciously observing waste and identifying hidden value, widening your mind-set beyond ego, courageously negotiating with others, encouraging meaningful interaction, and transforming people with positive values and relationships rather than cash, you can overcome these psychological barriers and find the value that already exists in your organization and yourself--for free"--

Book Synopsis

Stop Wasting Precious Time and Money

You have a complex problem at work, and you know the standard solutions: hire a consultant, enlist a superstar employee, have more meetings about it. In short, spend money and hours to dig your way out. But you've been down this road before--the so-called solution consumes your time, dollars, and resources, and yet the problem still reappears.

There is a way out of this cycle. Organizational researchers Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson, experts in collaboration and creativity, identify five spending traps that lead to this wasteful "action without traction"

The Expertise Trap: recycling old solutions on current problems
The Winner's Trap: investing additional resources into failing projects
The Agreement Trap: avoiding conflict to feel like a team player
The Communication Trap: communicating too frequently over too many channels
The Macromanagement Trap: assuming your employees don't need your direction

Menon and Thompson combine their own research with other findings in psychology to provide strategies to break these unproductive habits and refine your skills as a manager. From shaping problems in new ways and learning from failure through experimentation, to stimulating productive conflict and structuring coordinated conversations, you can escape these traps and discover the value hidden in your organization--without spending a dime.

Review Quotes

ADVANCE PRAISE for Stop Spending, Start Managing:

Matt Ferguson, CEO, CareerBuilder--
"Stop Spending, Start Managing explores the universal pitfalls managers face and provides practical strategies for enhancing individual and team performance. The ideas in this book are easily transferable to different situations and focus on harnessing the power of multiple perspectives."

Gurcharan Das, author, The Difficulty of Being Good; former CEO, Procter & Gamble India--
"This deftly written, highly readable book helps unlock one of the most important issues facing business today: how do you shift unproductive, wasteful behavior inside an organization? It teaches managers to change their mind-sets and thus save time and money and unlock hidden value within their companies."

Joanne Segars, Chief Executive, Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association--
"Every manager will recognize something of themselves in the traits Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson describe in Stop Spending, Start Managing. Their solutions and advice provide helpful routes out of the habits and behaviors we've all fallen into so that we can start to manage smarter and more productively."

Joachim Ringer, Co-Head, Investment Banking and Capital Markets, Germany/Austria, Credit Suisse--
"Menon and Thompson propose a host of smart and novel ways to drive performance in your organization without additional spending. Written in a concise and accessible way, this book is essential reading for leaders."

Tom Linebarger, Chairman and CEO, Cummins Inc.--
"Using convincing research and logic, Menon and Thompson demonstrate that successful employee teams avoid waste and create value with specific positive behaviors: recognizing unconscious bias, managing conflict as a healthy dynamic, and engaging in constructive feedback. An important read for leaders who know that talented teams, working effectively together, are the reason companies win."

About the Author

Tanya Menon is an associate professor at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. She is also an associate editor at Management Science, and her research considers how people in organizations collaborate.

Leigh Thompson is the J. Jay Gerber Distinguished Professor of Dispute Resolution & Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Thompson has authored several books, including Creative Conspiracy and The Truth About Negotiations.