It has been a long while since I reviewed a book here. A few weeks ago Tony Schwartz’s agent asked me if I would be interested in reviewing his new book The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. I remembered reading his book The Power of Full Engagement back in October of 2003. In fact, it was probably one of the earlier audio books I read then during my hour-and-a-half commute each day. Before I discovered audio books I hated my commute and after I discovered audio books I realized that could be productive time. Tony taught me in The Power of Full Engagement that the time was also a good break before and after work that helped me to maintain balance in my home life and work life so that I could be fully engaged in both. So when he made the offer, I certainly wanted to go ahead and read it since I knew that I would be reading it eventually anyhow.

The book was waiting for me when I returned home from a vacation in early May. Both Tony and his agent was probably expecting me to read the book in a few quick days since that’s how most reviewers review books. Sorry guys, but I just don’t read that way, especially things in the personal development genre; and when a book challenges the way I’m doing things I tend to read it even more slowly and methodically so that I can begin making changes to the way I conduct my work and life. So, here we are nearly three weeks after the launch date and I’m just now writing my review after finishing the book earlier this week.

Short-short summary review: This is an excellent book to read and work through and I predict it will become the First Things First (by Stephen Covey) for this decade.

Longer Summary: The book probably could have been titled The Way We’re Living isn’t Working. Although the book does talk about work a lot, work is part of our life and not our entire life. I’m hesitant to say the book is about work/life balance though as that implies that larger separation of the two as though work isn’t part of our life. The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working makes the case that the things we do when we aren’t producing for our employer affects the way we produce for our employer and the way we produce for our employer also affects the quality of everything else in our life.

The book begins by taking a look at the current way most people work and how work fits into our lives. He then explores the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual facets of how we live our life. He provides numerous examples throughout the book on how people have worked (or rather lived), how his organization The Energy Project, has helped people to make adjustments (often small and seemingly minor), that has produced huge benefits in all areas of their life.

Book Organization and Structure: I normally wouldn’t have much to say about the way a book is structure. However, Mr. Schwartz and his team did a few things in this book that I found especially noteworthy and I hope that many other authors in the personal development genre make use of these techniques in their books.

One of the things I liked the most was a one-page summary of each of the twenty chapters in the back of the book in a section called “The Big Ideas.” I really wished I had skimmed the back of the book and found this earlier so that I could have read these 20-pages first. I’m one of those people who likes to have my journeys well-planned out and to know where I am during the journey and where I’m going, not just blindly following a leader. If I had read this section first, I would have had the overview and road map I’ve always wanted for a book.

I’ve found that The Big Idea pages also provide a wonderful way to continue savoring the book after you’ve finished reading it. Where it may take me a half-hour to read a chapter, I can read a Big Idea page in a minute or two. It is great to read one of these each day to remind yourself of the principles Tony discussed and taught in each chapter. This will allow the book to continue challenging the way you work without requiring a lot of time. If reading the Big Idea page sparks a desire to re-read a chapter, you certainly can.

The second thing I really liked about the book was that each chapter concluded with a list of Action Steps–these challenges of ways to apply the material presented in each chapter. I think that application is where real learning takes place. As adults, we too often just read something and then feel that we’ve got it. However, we need to work with what we’ve learned and apply it to get the most out of it. A couple years ago I realized this and started adding a section to the computer software courseware that I write that I called “Extra Credit” or “On Your Own”–these were ways for students to explore on their own and apply what they had just learned to real-world problems instead of just using them in a lab under the instructor’s direction. The students who do the extra credit exercises in my classes always seem to get far more out of the class than those who don’t. The same is true of this book–you’ll get far more out of it if you do the Action Steps than if you skip them.

The last thing I found especially noteworthy was the use of the 2×2 matrix. If you’ve read much of anything in the personal development genre, then you’re certainly already familiar with Stephen Covey’s use of the urgent/not-urgent and important/unimportant matrix. Throughout the book, Mr. Schwartz utilizes the 2×2 matrix to help us see how the amount of time and energy we spend in certain areas and the type of energy (think positive and negative) we expend in those areas affects our lives. I found these graphs to be especially useful in understanding and applying the concepts he shared. It is a technique that should be used in both personal and business planning more than it already is, and certainly more than the one 2×2 matrix most of us are familiar with.

Conclusion and Summary: I encourage each of my readers to read The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working. Don’t make it a quick read, but read a little each day and allow the book to challenge the way you work and live. Read The Big Ideas in the back first if you want to get the general overview first and then work through the Next Action steps as you read. I think you’ll discover some ways to make the way you live, not just the way you work, much more enjoyable and effective.