Book Discussion: 3/15/09
Attendence: Chris, Saad, Roger, Mike
I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion of Peter Drucker’s Effective Executive. The overall theme of the book is to help the reader understand what a person can do to make his or her contribution to the organization more effective.
The content of the book was well suited for discussion, but we also tried a new discussion technique. Instead of reading the questions out-loud myself, we each took turns reading the questions. This really seemed to keep everyone involved in the discussion and contributed to the overall flow.
Here are the questions we used for discussion:
1) Why do you think Drucker felt it was necessary to write a book on the topic of effectiveness?
2) Does the Effective Executive offer a central idea or premise? What are some of the problems or issues are raised?
3) Paraphrasing Drucker, “the realities of an executive’s situation can easily push their efforts into futility.” What realities do you think the modern knowledge worker deals with that pushes efforts away from effectiveness?
4) One reality Drucker discusses is the notion that many activities in an organization are often time wasters getting in the way of effectiveness. What time wasters commonly pull against you, and how could you go about reducing them?
5) An excerpt from the book:
When asked“And what do you do that justifies your being on the payroll?” The great majority, he reports answer: “I run the accounting department,” or “I am in charge of the sales force.” Indeed, not uncommonly the answer is, “I Have 850 people working under me.” Only a few say, “It’s my job to give our managers the information they need to make the right decisions,” or “I am responsible for finding out what products the customer will want tomorrow,” or “I have to think through and prepare the decisions the president will have to face tomorrow.”
What is the difference between looking downward and looking upward? Looking at your own job, do you tend to focus downward; can you think of how you would perform your job differently looking upward?
6) As a crucial step in becoming more effective, it is suggested that an executive ask ones self “what can I contribute?” Can you or the author offer solutions to answering the question?
7) Drucker has noticed that many times an organization tends to deal with “the problem of the day”, spending more time focusing on putting out fires than on developing real strategy. He advises us to instead “feed the opportunities and starve the problems.”
Do you think this is a realistic goal? Who’s responsibility is it to achieve this?
In the chapter first thing is first, Drucker says if there is any secret to being effective, it is concentration. What does he mean by using the word concentration, and what are some suggestions for obtaining it?
9) The latter part of the book discusses decision making. How do you think people can make better decisions? Do you think organizations are effective at making decisions?
10) Do the issues raised in this book affect your life? How so—directly, on a daily basis or more generally?
11) What did you learn from this book that you can apply this Tuesday?
