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You Don't Have to Do It Alone
Book

You Don't Have to Do It Alone

How to Involve Others to Get Things Done

Richard H. Axelrod, Emily M. Axelrod, Julie Beedon and Robert W. Jacobs
Berrett-Koehler, 2004
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

This book is great reading for anyone who wants to get more done through team or group efforts, from peer or cross-functional work teams to groups of volunteers. If you initiate or lead a project, this thorough guide takes you all the way through, beginning with your first decision: determining whether you should do your project alone or involve additional people. It helps you consider the trade-offs involved and the advantages and disadvantages. Then the four authors - Richard H. Axelrod, Emily M. Axelrod, Julie Beedon and Robert W. Jacobs, all organizational development consultants - lead you step by step through the process of finding the right people, inviting them to participate, getting them excited, keeping them involved and celebrating successes both along the way and when the project is done. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone who has to coordinate a group effort, from managers to corporate presidents. Almost anyone who does not work alone could benefit from applying the concepts in this book.

Summary

Involving Others Creates Energy

Involving numerous people in projects or initiatives rather than just doing everything yourself has both advantages and disadvantages. Advantages often include:

  • Efficiency - You will save time and get things done faster.
  • Ease - Several people can share the workload.
  • Creativity - A team can generate more new ideas. The old "two heads are better than one" theory really works.
  • Support - If you create a supportive team of people who believe in your project, they will help champion it and will support you and your efforts. The group also provides positive publicity or buzz about what all of you are doing together.

The disadvantages may include:

  • Delay - It takes time and effort to contact others, explain the project to them and solicit their involvement.
  • Extra work - You have to keep everyone informed and coordinate their work.
  • Slower decision making - If you have a team, you cannot just make decisions alone.
  • Lack of control - You may loose control of the project’s outcome because group members will have evolving ideas of their own, and may not...

About the Authors

Richard H. Axelrod, Emily M. Axelrod, Julie Beedon and Robert W. Jacobs are organizational consultants. Richard H. Axelrod, the author of Terms of Engagement, co-founded The Axelrod Group, Inc., with Emily M. Axelrod. Beedon, co-author of Meetings by Design, is CEO of VISTA Consulting Team Ltd. Jacobs, author of Real Time Strategic Change, is president of Robert W. Jacobs Consulting, Inc.

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