A compelling and confident look at people and organisations
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In a personable and confident style, the authors offer a 360° look at how the best performing teams work and what makes them so. In the words of Victoria Wood, “We’re not flipping hand puppets, you know. We’re not budgies, you can’t shut us up by chucking a flipping cloth over us. We’re not just funny little people with hats on.” At the end of the day, all the work that gets done by a company is done by its people, and the authors tie in all that a company is — its strategy, its culture, its philosophy (and that it should have one), its success, its leadership — to the people that it recruits, develops and retains, that not one part of the company is worth a damn if the people aren’t as valued as the rest put together.

I’ve had great jobs, I’ve had terrible jobs, and for me there have always been three factors about a job: the work itself, the salary, and the people. Any two of these is enough, but the people are what make it stick (and suck), and if the people aren’t considered at every step of the company’s existence and development, you end up with diverging expectations that take even more effort to heal or overcome. The authors give lots of models and demonstrations of what works and what doesn’t, based on consulting with hundreds of companies across the world, as well as the many guests of the eponymous podcast, and that kind of experience is priceless. Although one book could never cover everything about working with people in a company, this book offers a whole load of pointers to what’s most important, especially in a world where the only constant is inconstancy, and where things keep changing on us day to day. I cannot recommend this enough.

Four and a half stars

This is a nice book. Great illustrations and easy to read and understand. It covers a lot - change, culture, being human, leading, developing and more. My only complaint would be that it covers so many areas that it doesn’t go into great depth. That said it’s a great book to get started and there are useful tips at the end of each chapter. Thanks to NetGalley for the early copy.

The Human Factor discusses several important aspects of human resources, the human factor.
The authors talk about organisational culture, productivity, what affects motivation, change and resistance against it, teams, and many other relevant and timely topics about people and culture in organisations.
As a great fit for the topic, the presentation is engaging with some cute illustrations and designs.