LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - October 8, 1999 - A Review of "Working Without a Net: How to Survive & Thrive in Today's High Risk Business World" By Morris Schechtman
Job security, care taking, blind loyalty, independence, and autocracy are OUT. Adaptability, responsibility, reciprocal loyalty, interdependence, and conflict are IN. Simply put, Morris Shechtman gives us "a clue" on how to successfully "play" today's radically changed corporate game. Just the title, "Working Without a Net", gave me the jitters. As each chapter, from "An Alternative to Working and Living In a Fantasy World" to "Doing the Right Thing," unfolds, entrenched ideas of "how things work" in the workplace are shattered, first by a values clarification test, (oh, yes, most of us have some very interesting value conflicts when it comes to the old career), and then a series of growth and success strategies, powerful exercises, and the revelation that paradigm shifts are necessary to assist in our surviving and thriving in our new "net-less" environment.
The rationale for the paradigm shifts?: an ever-changing global economy that increases competition, decreases profits and margins, and heightens the emphasis on human resources as the key to gaining the competitive edge. Far from advocating a cold-hearted Darwinian approach to business, "Working Without A Net" celebrates the capacity of people within an organization to resolve their differences, pursue corporate goals, and successfully met the challenges of today's high-risk business world.