Three Star Leadership

Here's the review for The Milkshake Moment: Overcoming Stupid Systems, Pointless Policies and Muddled Management to Realize Real Growth by Steven S. Little. See below for Additional Resources.

How this book is different:

This is a short book about a hugely important subject: how company policies, procedures and cultures render frontline workers incapable of doing the right thing.

Strengths:

The book is short and well written so you get the message quickly. I read it on a flight from Charlotte to Dallas. There are twenty-nine chapters and they run an average of less than four pages each.

There are many good stories in here that you haven't heard before. The chapters built around these stories are usually excellent.

Warnings:

Even though this is a short book, it sometimes seems padded. For example chapter 6 is one of the longest chapters in the book. It covers the already-well-covered research of Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram but that research doesn't seem to make a point that moves the book forward.

Mr. Little offers cultural references and puns without explanation. He has a breezy style that can make it seem like he's not taking things as seriously as he wants you to.

The chapters that are not built around stories from Little's personal experience tend to be glib, but not necessarily accurate or complete. Mr. Little often seems willing to sacrifice content on the altar of "cute."

Mr. Little is an exponent of "leadership good, management bad." Actions that he thinks are good, he labels "leadership." Those he doesn't think are good are labeled "management."

There is a promise that what you learn from this book will help your organization grow. There is no discussion of whether this is a good idea or if other goals might be better for you. Little's comment is that "Most are trying to grow something at some level." Perhaps, but addressing how that relates to "Put purpose before profit" would have been helpful.

There is virtually no practical, "I'll-try-that-tomorrow," advice in this book. Most change in organizations requires attention to recruiting/training, processes, reward systems, and supervision. Not one of those is addressed with simple, actionable suggestions.

Bottom Line:

The Milkshake Moment never came together for me. The good parts, building on Little's experience were usually excellently written and chosen. Much of the rest seems thrown together to make the word count and re-purposed from other uses.

The short stories and examples could give you value for the cover price. To see if it will, either page through the book in the store or use the "Search Inside the Book" feature on Amazon.

Additional Resources

I blogged about related issues in a post titled "Put your trust in systems, not in genius."

Steve Little's web site

To see what other folks thought of this book, or to purchase it from Amazon, click here.