Six Silent Killers, Second Edition

Dr. Thomas Brown, in The Wall Street Journal's Across the Board magazine states in reviewing Six Silent Killers: Management's Greatest Challenge: All top executives should read this book: Invest the time, really read the book, and you'll probably agree the central reason for an unhappy workplace are some well-defined ""killers."" And, ever so handily Fisher will lead you to one more (albeit unstated) conclusion: that there's a seventh killer somewhere here. It's a management profession failing to move forward with the times, that talks endlessly about ""visions"" and ""empowerment"" while refusing to loosen ""the command-and-control screws"" even one turn. Fisher ends precipitously, but only the manager who reads it can write the next chapter. Six Silent Killers is a frontal attack on why American workers cannot get their work done. It starts with the failure to ask the right questions. We have scores of books on institutional system failures from government to commerce and industry, from religious institutions to the Ivy halls of academia, and always cited is the failure of people to perform, not the systems in which people are asked to perform. We can design ergonomic systems to provide comfort and efficiency, but we cannot or are unwilling to design ergonomic systems conducive to people as persons in the work environment. Perhaps that is because we have never been able to escape treating people other than as things to be managed instead of as persons to be led. The evidence is overwhelming in that when push comes to shove people in the end are to suffer. We have seen this in a regiment of downsizing, reorganizing, reengineering, merging, outsourcing, restructuring, and always with workers being made redundant when they have had little voice in the decision making that led to this inevitable selective surgery. We have gone through a socioeconomic meltdown that nearly led to another Great Depression, but once the dust had settled the offenders who orchestrated this calamity returned to exercising the same hierarchical infallible authority and business as usual practices that caused the meltdown in the first place. Six Silent Killers doesn't stop there. It systematically explores the silent war that continues in organizations in passive behaviors of highly qualified workers who bring their bodies to work but leave their minds at home, who unwittingly destroy the infrastructure of their place of work. They do this like social termites, invisible, burrowing from within until, once discovered, it is too late for damage control. These are professional knowledge workers who have the answers but are not leveraged to display them. They are workers suffering distress or angst. They are management's greatest challenge as they cost $billion in lost revenue as the ""six silent killers"" are allowed to go on the rampage. Six Silent Killers is written in a friendly and personal manner by a recognized leader in the field. Dr. Fisher illustrates effective methods to engage professionals and demonstrates how the more suitable culture can neutralize the impact of these passive and reactive behaviors. He takes the reader through the reality of the times with candor and care and resolute resolve.