Quick Read

The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up By Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher
Anybody who's ever had to cope day after day with a gloomy workplace will warm to the idea of having more fun on the job. Veteran business-book author Gostick and humorist-actor Christopher provide convincing evidence that a lighthearted work environment improves productivity and lowers employee turnover, too. What they're less successful at is explaining how to create a credible culture of levity in an existing organization. Their real world examples come from too few sources (though you'll learn quite a bit about Canada's Boston Pizza) and it's impos-sible to read advice like "give out plastic handclappers on dead-line day" and "hire a comedian" without envisioning Ricky Gervais's pratfalls on "The Office."

Hug Your People: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results By Jack Mitchell
The organizational morale-boosting advice dispensed by clothing-store CEO Mitchell comes not from breezy consultant-speak, but from the author's decades of leading a chain of high-end retailers. Mitchell's principles—have faith in your employees, involve them in decision making, recognize their accomplishments— are clearly laid out. Mitchell dwells on what he knows best, managing so as to produce top-class customer service, but his methods for hiring, motivating and retaining high-performing employees should resonate with anyone who manages their fellow human beings.

Flip: How to Turn Everything You Know on Its Head—and Succeed Beyond Your Wildest Imaginings By Peter Sheahan
Should Mitchell's lifetime worth of lessons prove too ploddingly earnest, this self-consciously Generation Y Australian offers just the opposite. Sheahan's successful consulting career owes more to the style of television evangelists than to the substance gained from running a company. Casual readers could therefore mistake his buzzword-choked tome for an Onion-style parody of a management book. In the end, think of "Flip" as merely short for "flippant."

© 2008