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There’s Got to Be a Better Way: How to Deliver Results and Get Rid of the Stuff That Gets in the Way of Real Work
“The most useful book on creating enduring organizational change I have ever read” (Robert Sutton, author of
The No Asshole Rule
)
The chaos of everyday business forces people into an exhausting, ineffective, seemingly never-ending cycle of work-arounds, firefighting, and Whac-a-Mole. The irritatingly urgent crowds out the lastingly important.
There has to be a better way.
And there the game-changing discipline of dynamic work design improves productivity, reduces costs, and increases efficiency, ensuring that all parts of a company can work in concert. It has been used in organizations around the world to close the gap between results promised and results delivered.
The five principles of dynamic work design—solve the right problem, structure for discovery, connect the human chain, regulate for flow, visualize the work—have yielded breakthrough results in settings ranging from biotech labs and hospitals to oil refineries, homeless shelters, and casinos.
Large-scale change initiatives, reorganizations, and productivity programs are costly, rarely improve productivity, and always add a lot of busywork. There’s Got to Be a Better Way is an antidote, transforming how you understand your own tasks and your organization’s workflow, allowing you to redesign your work to boost productivity, profit, and genuine engagement.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
The chaos of everyday business forces people into an exhausting, ineffective, seemingly never-ending cycle of work-arounds, firefighting, and Whac-a-Mole. The irritatingly urgent crowds out the lastingly important.
There has to be a better way.
And there the game-changing discipline of dynamic work design improves productivity, reduces costs, and increases efficiency, ensuring that all parts of a company can work in concert. It has been used in organizations around the world to close the gap between results promised and results delivered.
The five principles of dynamic work design—solve the right problem, structure for discovery, connect the human chain, regulate for flow, visualize the work—have yielded breakthrough results in settings ranging from biotech labs and hospitals to oil refineries, homeless shelters, and casinos.
Large-scale change initiatives, reorganizations, and productivity programs are costly, rarely improve productivity, and always add a lot of busywork. There’s Got to Be a Better Way is an antidote, transforming how you understand your own tasks and your organization’s workflow, allowing you to redesign your work to boost productivity, profit, and genuine engagement.
PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
- GenresBusinessNonfiction
Audible Audio
Published September 2, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 10, 2025
I took System Dynamics and Organizations Lab from Nelson Repenning at MIT and have eagerly been anticipating the release of this book for over 4 years.
In the vein of lean manufacturing books like Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno and The Goal by Eli Goldratt, There's Got to be a Better Way takes a close look at work and how we can complete work better.
This book avoids the fatal flaw many books in this category fall into - they are either written by a practitioner who has only their own experience to rely on, or by an academic who has done research and consultation but has little firsthand experience in the topic. Nelson and Don blend extensive first-hand experience, decades of consulting experience, and academic rigor in this book.
As the book states near the beginning, all methodologies of this type are some flavor of the scientific method. This book is no different. In fact, you may look at Dynamic Work Design and say "I've seen this before". You probably have.
Dynamic Work Design builds on 30 years of operational and work design. It is a distillation of things that work in practice, on the job.
The authors do not suggest launching this as a massive improvement program, rather, this is akin to untying a large knot by finding the first loose string. Start where you are, start small, and make a measurable improvement.
The stories which stood out to me most are the ones where a leader spent time on the factory floor, in the hotel lobby, or following the flow of work as it got done. As the leaders got out of their offices and experienced the work getting done, they noticed issues and inconsistencies, and learned things they never would have expected.
Successful change involves ensuring we have an accurate view of the world, and that is one of the best ways to achieve it.
The book isn't perfect. I would have liked a summary visual with all of the principles of Dynamic Work Design clearly laid out. The framework could have benefited from a more memorable name. A memorable acronym also could have helped. There were a few too many examples from the same domains (Broad Institute, oil fields). The examples and stories came heavily from Don and Nelson's own experiences - I believe a mix of other stories could have been added that would have strengthened the book. The examples skewed heavily towards work involving physical items such as manufacturing or drilling or processing samples. Although there were some knowledge work examples, they were in the minority.
I read a lot of books, and one of my main goals for reading is to be inspired to take action. This book left me inspired and with a drive to start improving things. Is it 5 stars? No, but I'm one of the early reviewers and I want to help this get traction. The concepts here are important.
In the vein of lean manufacturing books like Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno and The Goal by Eli Goldratt, There's Got to be a Better Way takes a close look at work and how we can complete work better.
This book avoids the fatal flaw many books in this category fall into - they are either written by a practitioner who has only their own experience to rely on, or by an academic who has done research and consultation but has little firsthand experience in the topic. Nelson and Don blend extensive first-hand experience, decades of consulting experience, and academic rigor in this book.
As the book states near the beginning, all methodologies of this type are some flavor of the scientific method. This book is no different. In fact, you may look at Dynamic Work Design and say "I've seen this before". You probably have.
Dynamic Work Design builds on 30 years of operational and work design. It is a distillation of things that work in practice, on the job.
The authors do not suggest launching this as a massive improvement program, rather, this is akin to untying a large knot by finding the first loose string. Start where you are, start small, and make a measurable improvement.
The stories which stood out to me most are the ones where a leader spent time on the factory floor, in the hotel lobby, or following the flow of work as it got done. As the leaders got out of their offices and experienced the work getting done, they noticed issues and inconsistencies, and learned things they never would have expected.
Successful change involves ensuring we have an accurate view of the world, and that is one of the best ways to achieve it.
The book isn't perfect. I would have liked a summary visual with all of the principles of Dynamic Work Design clearly laid out. The framework could have benefited from a more memorable name. A memorable acronym also could have helped. There were a few too many examples from the same domains (Broad Institute, oil fields). The examples and stories came heavily from Don and Nelson's own experiences - I believe a mix of other stories could have been added that would have strengthened the book. The examples skewed heavily towards work involving physical items such as manufacturing or drilling or processing samples. Although there were some knowledge work examples, they were in the minority.
I read a lot of books, and one of my main goals for reading is to be inspired to take action. This book left me inspired and with a drive to start improving things. Is it 5 stars? No, but I'm one of the early reviewers and I want to help this get traction. The concepts here are important.
Displaying 1 of 1 review