- ISBN13: 9780470195598
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
When a hurricane warning is announced, everyone’s concerns and actions become focused on that expectation; the hurricane essentially becomes the future which people are “living into.” Similarly, when an organization needs to transform or make the leap to a higher level, everyone involved should be “living into” the vision of the organization’s new, improved future. But in the majority of organizations, the future people are living into is based on past performance a… More >>
The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life
Tags: expectation, Future, hurricane warning, Laws, leap, Life, Organization, Performance, remainder mark, Rewriting, rewriting the future, Three
#1 by Anonymous on May 8, 2010 - 1:46 am
If I’d know this book was written by Landmark Education people I wouldn’t have bought it. Having said that its full of useful info that can be also be discovered in other books, ie many other books. I have a problem with Landmark’s cultish vibe and their relentless drive to recruit new people – thats my issue and I get that, to use a Landmark term.
Rating: 2 / 5
#2 by C. Baker on May 8, 2010 - 2:14 am
If you want a business book that talks in vague generalities then throws in some prescriptive solutions that you should already know, then this book is for you. Most of the book talks in circles around the vague three laws of performance. While some of the real life examples the book provides make sense, this seems more like a self-help book for the stagnant business person, as it mostly provides what should otherwise be commonsense to most.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by A Reader from Chicago on May 8, 2010 - 2:53 am
While the endorsements on the back cover are impressive, that is the only positive impression I got from the book. I imagine this could have been a great three to six page book. Unfortunately six pages of quality information have been diluted to fill 205 pages.
Quote 1:
The First Law of Performance: How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them.
Quote 2:
So what exactly does “occur” mean? We mean something beyond perception and subjective experience. We mean the reality that arises within and from your perspective on the situation. In fact your perspective is part of the way that the world occurs to you. “How a situation occurs” includes your past (why things are the way they are) and the future (where this is all going).
End of quotes.
People are empowered or limited based on their individual perspectives–that is the point of the first law, isn’t it? People respond to their subjective realities. So I found the supposed distinction gained by using the word “occur” to be pointless.
The beginning of the first chapter starts out with a story about a South African black woman telling a South African white woman about suffering under apartheid and how she had hated all white women because of that, and that she apologized for having hated the white woman merely because she was white. The white woman offers to help her deal with her issues by confronting the source of her pain (a white woman who treated her very poorly in the past).
With that opening, we are asked what if interactions like this were common in our companies, families, and lives. That seems to be the takeaway of the story. But what can one do with it?
Perhaps my problem is what I expect of a book. I don’t want to figure out what the points are and draw principles out of the writing that has not been made clear and obvious. I want a book to have a direction and be structured such that I get a good understanding of what the author is talking about and it is fun to read because it is shining a bright light on something important. This book mostly talks and goes nowhere.
This book has as influences both Werner Erhard and est–and both are phenomenal sources of solid lively perspectives for personal growth, and I have read many related books which were really good.
If you like The Three Laws of Performance, perhaps you will like Games Business Experts Play. Both books have very useful ideas that I found to be presented in a very confused manner and completely failed to engage me.
Related books I DO like: The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life written by a big fan of Landmark Education. Also est Playing the Game The New Way. And Getting Real: Ten Truth Skills You Need to Live an Authentic Life.
Rating: 1 / 5
#4 by ServantofGod on May 8, 2010 - 3:15 am
An alternative review title would be: Philosophical, idealistic, inspirational, socialist but not pragmatic. Obviously I had picked another. I do admire the authors for their pitching of those three laws which I truly believe are great for mankind. However, only a handful of gigantic corps can practise so as South West Airways with its famous “Shared vision/goals/knowledge and highly transparent culture”. May be Toyota is another example. Sorry that I cant recall a third one at the moment. Even the authors in pg131-3 admitted, “One of the flaws of management in this day and age is that we fragment accountabilities and then everyone focuses on their own piece.” People often see their role as making proposals and leaving the decision making and implementation to others. Often executives see their jobs as makng the hard decisions. Both sides get frustrated that the other isnt doing enough…We need to have working teams and networks thinking broader. Such networks dont care about who is in charge, and they move seamlessly from proposals to implementation….Perhaps the biggest limitation of businesses is that thier network of converations is managed from the notion Only involve the people that we need to involve or Keep the barbarians outside the gates…..Why doesnt this happen internally in the course of business? The answer is brutally simple. It threatens management.” Pardon me for writing too much about my frustration with the real world (in particular amidst the current financial tsunami). To facilitate change, we really need “heroes” at the top. No matter what, if you really want to read a good book, you will be satisfied. However, if you want to read a book that can change the world (influenced by the many endorsements) or others (not yourself, I bet), please give this a pass.
p.s. Below please find some of my favorite passages for your reference.
The Three Laws/Leadership Corrollaries are: 1) How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them/Leaders have a say, and give others a say, in how situation occurs. 2) How a situation occurs arises in language/Leaders master the conversational environment. 3) Future based language transforms how situations occur to people/Leaders listen for the future of their organisation.
People live into the future they see coming at them, not the actual future they’ll get to someday. Unless people have done something radical to alter their course, the future they are living into is their default future. pg70
Futures exist inthe moment of speaking (by the true leaders). pg87
Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. – Leo Tolstoy pg143
Rating: 3 / 5
#5 by Aldous on May 8, 2010 - 5:34 am
having recently completed the Landmark Education, which created a whole new world for me, i found this book a great revision companion. For first timers it should spark an enthusiasic jolt toward a fulfiling and self-expressed future. Buy it and transform!!!!
Rating: 5 / 5