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Time, Talent, Energy: Overcome Organizational Drag and Unleash Your Team s Productive Power
Managing Your Scarcest Resources
Business leaders know that the key to competitive success is smart management of scarce resources. That's why companies allocate their financial capital so carefully. But capital today is cheap and abundant, no longer a source of advantage. The truly scarce resources now are the time, the talent, and the energy of the people in your organization--resources that are too often squandered. There's plenty of advice about how to manage them, but most of it focuses on individual actions. What's really needed are organizational solutions that can unleash a company's full productive power and enable it to outpace competitors.
Building off of the popular Harvard Business Review article "Your Scarcest Resource," Michael Mankins and Eric Garton, Bain & Company experts in organizational design and effectiveness, present new research into how you can liberate people's time, talent, and energy and unleash your organization's productive power. They identify the specific causes of organizational drag--the collection of institutional factors that slow things down, decrease output, and drain people's energy--and then offer a pragmatic framework for how managers can overcome it. With practical advice for using the framework and in-depth examples of how the best companies manage their people's time, talent, and energy with as much discipline as they do their financial capital, this book shows managers how to create a virtuous circle of high performance.
Business leaders know that the key to competitive success is smart management of scarce resources. That's why companies allocate their financial capital so carefully. But capital today is cheap and abundant, no longer a source of advantage. The truly scarce resources now are the time, the talent, and the energy of the people in your organization--resources that are too often squandered. There's plenty of advice about how to manage them, but most of it focuses on individual actions. What's really needed are organizational solutions that can unleash a company's full productive power and enable it to outpace competitors.
Building off of the popular Harvard Business Review article "Your Scarcest Resource," Michael Mankins and Eric Garton, Bain & Company experts in organizational design and effectiveness, present new research into how you can liberate people's time, talent, and energy and unleash your organization's productive power. They identify the specific causes of organizational drag--the collection of institutional factors that slow things down, decrease output, and drain people's energy--and then offer a pragmatic framework for how managers can overcome it. With practical advice for using the framework and in-depth examples of how the best companies manage their people's time, talent, and energy with as much discipline as they do their financial capital, this book shows managers how to create a virtuous circle of high performance.
231 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 14, 2017
129 people are currently reading
968 people want to read
About the author
Michael C. Mankins
9 books4 followersMichael C. Mankins is a partner in Bain & Company's San Francisco office and a leader in the firm's Organization practice. He is also a senior member of Bain's Strategy and Industrial Goods & Services practices. Much of his work has focused on the strategic and organizational initiatives that drive performance and long-term value.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
December 18, 2017
Business books are like self-help books. They generally speak to a reader who is looking to find a magical solution to finding a more productive and meaningful set of outcomes. They also have to take a set of complex variables and distill them down to an easily memorable essence that denotes where to focus ones energy. The number of elements can seldom be singular - too simplistic, nor binary - not enough credibility, but three is a perfect number - enough to indicate a degree of complexity whilst also simple enough to be memorable. Alliteration aids attention, and retention of, the core idea too. In the case of this book, the essence is a partially alliterative trio of Time, Talent and Energy. Organizations waste tons of time, create drag (it's "a killer"), fail to recruit, deploy and team employees optimally, and lose energy through lack of engagement. So far, so hard to argue with. But also not news. Despite that, the authors have done plenty of research before landing on (or perhaps to support?) their conclusions, so the content is actually quite readable and better in many ways than so many other books of this kind. There are plenty of interesting statistics and data points, plenty of anecdotes, and plenty of practical recommendations about what to do. To their credit, at the back end of the book they do say "All this seems pretty much like common sense.", followed by a very real and, for any business advisor or leader, critical question: If the predictors of success are just so much common sense, "Why doesn't it [developing a winning culture] happen in the ordinary course of business?" Look at the turnover in the Fortune 500 over the years, skim back over the last 30 years or so of business books proclaiming certain companies as exemplars of best practice (In Search Of Excellence (1982), Good To Great (2001), etc. etc.) and see how they have fallen. It does not inspire confidence in simple solutions. And yet, the very nature of organizations is to take a bunch of human beings, each with their varying motivations and talents, and to somehow hope that a few simple rules of the road will shape them into a relatively conformist and hugely productive whole. Unless a leader believes that can be achieved, they probably should not take on the job. Better than most in this genre.
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July 9, 2022First book club book for Tucson Office - learned a lot of what our company does well & where we can improve.
February 26, 2018
This book was mostly a rehash of things I've read before but was packaged with a large dose of pretentiousness and business lingo. Two Bain guys want to impress you with their erudition and marvel at best practices that in many cases are more gag producing than inspirational.
The point that tipped me over the edge was their description of the Spotify culture of agility. They wrote: "It lowers the cost of failure through a decoupled architecture, so that a failure has a “limited blast radius” and affects only part of the user experience." Perhaps this comes from Spotify, but honestly, how can you repeat that with a straight face? Leave the jargon at the door, please and talk like a normal human being.
That's not to say there weren't a few useful nuggets about organizational drag, the difference between the performance of engaged vs inspired employees and forming teams of difference makers. But honestly, this all could have been covered more succinctly in a Harvard Business Review article.
Skip the book, find a book summary. You'll save a lot of time that way.
The point that tipped me over the edge was their description of the Spotify culture of agility. They wrote: "It lowers the cost of failure through a decoupled architecture, so that a failure has a “limited blast radius” and affects only part of the user experience." Perhaps this comes from Spotify, but honestly, how can you repeat that with a straight face? Leave the jargon at the door, please and talk like a normal human being.
That's not to say there weren't a few useful nuggets about organizational drag, the difference between the performance of engaged vs inspired employees and forming teams of difference makers. But honestly, this all could have been covered more succinctly in a Harvard Business Review article.
Skip the book, find a book summary. You'll save a lot of time that way.
November 5, 2020
An elaboration of a handful of research articles published in the Harvard Business Review, this book is mainly for large organizations that grew too rapidly or too inattentively to reflect on the bureaucratic habits and wasteful processes that often accompany growth. It's therefore also a helpful read for mid-sized organizations that want to understand why they've stalled in the wake of growth, as well as small organizations aiming to grow.
The chapters in this book are unevenly valuable ("Talent" is the weakest section). Even the best sections could have been pages shorter, while some ideas would have benefited from further development. Still, if you're looking for a quick, skimmable guide to "what went wrong" or "what will go wrong unless we course-correct", Time, Talent, Energy is a good beginning.
The chapters in this book are unevenly valuable ("Talent" is the weakest section). Even the best sections could have been pages shorter, while some ideas would have benefited from further development. Still, if you're looking for a quick, skimmable guide to "what went wrong" or "what will go wrong unless we course-correct", Time, Talent, Energy is a good beginning.
November 4, 2017
The concept that is described in this book:
Productive power of your organization = Talents + Energy - Organisational drag
The authors disassemble each of the components in very clear and structured way while supporting the explanation with the examples from the practice of modern companies like Netflix, AB InBev, etc.
I loved the first sentence of the Energy chapter: "No one ever washed a rental car", which illustrates perfectly the reason why a lot of people are not inspired neither engaged in big companies.
Productive power of your organization = Talents + Energy - Organisational drag
The authors disassemble each of the components in very clear and structured way while supporting the explanation with the examples from the practice of modern companies like Netflix, AB InBev, etc.
I loved the first sentence of the Energy chapter: "No one ever washed a rental car", which illustrates perfectly the reason why a lot of people are not inspired neither engaged in big companies.
March 4, 2017
My Financial Times review: https://www.ft.com/content/1ca3d524-f...
March 10, 2017
Excellent advice for minimizing the organizational drag!
Great book with practical advice and recent research to develop solutions in organizations, so that they can implement their productive power and become a more competitive company. A few years ago a new perspective on company success has been emerging and the focus is now on staff as human capital, where it is intended that investing in its development will result in economic gains and benefits for the organization. That is why it is vital that they have a context and a culture of work that is adequate for them to give their best, to compromise and to put their talents at the service of the company, to be effective, efficient and motivated to invest their time, knowledge and skills. The authors provide valuable information to identify the causes that hamper the productive advance and diminish the performance of both the staff and the organization's operating model. Also, through examples, they give details for managers to implement actions and how to achieve the transformation of the company to minimize and manage the organizational drag.
It is admirable the extensive work and the quality of the information that in this book put at our disposal and benefit.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book
Great book with practical advice and recent research to develop solutions in organizations, so that they can implement their productive power and become a more competitive company. A few years ago a new perspective on company success has been emerging and the focus is now on staff as human capital, where it is intended that investing in its development will result in economic gains and benefits for the organization. That is why it is vital that they have a context and a culture of work that is adequate for them to give their best, to compromise and to put their talents at the service of the company, to be effective, efficient and motivated to invest their time, knowledge and skills. The authors provide valuable information to identify the causes that hamper the productive advance and diminish the performance of both the staff and the organization's operating model. Also, through examples, they give details for managers to implement actions and how to achieve the transformation of the company to minimize and manage the organizational drag.
It is admirable the extensive work and the quality of the information that in this book put at our disposal and benefit.
My gratitude to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book
June 23, 2019
Every #organization today is looking at restoring and/or improving #agility. While there are lots of models, tools and techniques, most of them miss the root cause by miles. They don't recognize the cradle of lost agility, and instead mistreat the symptoms by an overdose of more so-called #agile processes. And if the organization happens to be large, then there is invariably a bigger dose of #scaling frameworks. It's almost like bringing a knife to a gunfight! No wonder none of that really works.
Majority of organizational sluggishness could be attributed to over-processes (and not under-processes!) that create the so-called organization drag - create friction in internal processes that make people waste time, effort and energy (and make the best people flight!). Too much structure, underrecognising the destructive power of peanut-butter spreading the #talent, ignoring employment #engagement as just a bunch of touch-feely thingy, and so on.
Key is to recognize the source of these problems and address from its roots. And it all boils down to just three basic factors: time, talent and energy. No #leader or #changeagent can afford to ignore the key messages in this well-researched book.
Majority of organizational sluggishness could be attributed to over-processes (and not under-processes!) that create the so-called organization drag - create friction in internal processes that make people waste time, effort and energy (and make the best people flight!). Too much structure, underrecognising the destructive power of peanut-butter spreading the #talent, ignoring employment #engagement as just a bunch of touch-feely thingy, and so on.
Key is to recognize the source of these problems and address from its roots. And it all boils down to just three basic factors: time, talent and energy. No #leader or #changeagent can afford to ignore the key messages in this well-researched book.
July 20, 2017
Boosting your company's performance cannot just be achieved by throwing money at it, even though capital is relatively cheap and available. Instead it can come by having a great, focussed, empowered and talented team working in unison.
This book tries to turn around common thinking, offering a mix of practical and theoretical advice to great effect, by leveraging collective, quality actions. The authors consider what can slow a company down, as well as what demotivates and disincentives its employees, before offering a simple framework about how things can (or should) be changed. Ideas about implementation fall, however, still to the individual company and its component employees.
There is the potential for this to be beneficial to companies of all shapes and sizes and even, with a bit of work, it could even give some great advice for changing one's own personal life too.
It is a book that requires focus, but the effort can be latterly rewarded in spades. It is quite accessible and readable, despite giving a lot of thought-provoking and demanding ideas to the reader. It is a book you want to reserve "quiet time" for to get the most out of it.
This book tries to turn around common thinking, offering a mix of practical and theoretical advice to great effect, by leveraging collective, quality actions. The authors consider what can slow a company down, as well as what demotivates and disincentives its employees, before offering a simple framework about how things can (or should) be changed. Ideas about implementation fall, however, still to the individual company and its component employees.
There is the potential for this to be beneficial to companies of all shapes and sizes and even, with a bit of work, it could even give some great advice for changing one's own personal life too.
It is a book that requires focus, but the effort can be latterly rewarded in spades. It is quite accessible and readable, despite giving a lot of thought-provoking and demanding ideas to the reader. It is a book you want to reserve "quiet time" for to get the most out of it.
October 29, 2022
3.5 ⭐️ If you’ve never had the pleasure of being a Bain client, I can assure you that this book gives you a very authentic take! The lessons contained herein are actually very aligned with what Bain preaches to their paying clients - the frameworks you’ll find in here are legitimately things I have seen them recommend and reference in past organizations where I worked. I think the book would have been better if it had just focused on the “time” portion - the talent and energy sections were really just ideas about organization structure and culture whereas I took away some very concrete new ideas about how to better optimize my time and that of others from the first section. As others have suggested, this probably could have just been a few long form HBR articles versus a book, but I personally hope that making it a book helped one of the authors check off a bucket list item!
December 13, 2023
Sejujurnya, direktur perusahaan tempat saya bekerjalah yang menyarankan saya untuk membaca buku ini agar dapat “insight.”
Oke, beberapa insight yang saya dapat adalah:
1. Meeting hanya buang-buang waktu. Jadi minimalisir waktu meeting dan fokus pada permasalahan.
2. Organization drags itu membebani jiwa dan raga, termasuk layer dan birokrasi yang bertele-tele dan bertingkat-tingkat.
3. Beri perhatian para difference makers di perusahaan.
4. Jangan over atau under rotasi para difference makers. Tempatkan mereka di key positions, jangan menyebarkan mereka ke seluruh struktur organisasi. Karena percayalah, jika difference makers dijadikan dalam 1 tim, mereka akan membuat perubahan besar.
5. Memiliki karyawan yang menginspirasi, jauh lebih baik daripada karyawan yang engaged dengan perusahaan.
Sebenarnya ada hal lain lagi yang saya peroleh dari buku ini.
Oke, beberapa insight yang saya dapat adalah:
1. Meeting hanya buang-buang waktu. Jadi minimalisir waktu meeting dan fokus pada permasalahan.
2. Organization drags itu membebani jiwa dan raga, termasuk layer dan birokrasi yang bertele-tele dan bertingkat-tingkat.
3. Beri perhatian para difference makers di perusahaan.
4. Jangan over atau under rotasi para difference makers. Tempatkan mereka di key positions, jangan menyebarkan mereka ke seluruh struktur organisasi. Karena percayalah, jika difference makers dijadikan dalam 1 tim, mereka akan membuat perubahan besar.
5. Memiliki karyawan yang menginspirasi, jauh lebih baik daripada karyawan yang engaged dengan perusahaan.
Sebenarnya ada hal lain lagi yang saya peroleh dari buku ini.
July 28, 2024
📕 Why (Not) to read this book (Target Audience)
I was looking for a book that took time, talent and energy from the employee perspective, this is not that book. It looks at it from an organization perspective, but still remains useful to provide support towards leadership in how important people are.
👀 How this book changed my daily live (Takeaways)
Organizational Drag - phantom work = 21%
Simplify who an how time is spend
Meeting
Focus
a. 18 minutes max focus on 1 topic
b. 45 minutes max focus in total
Timing
Prepare
Start on time
End Early
Rule of 7, effectives drops 10% per extra attendee
Mail
• No reply to all
Dunbar: maintain max 150 relationships
⁉ Spoiler Alerts (Highlights)
7 Top values
1. Innovation
2. Ambition
3. High Integrity
4. Accountability
5. Collaboration
6. Agility
7. People Orientation
I was looking for a book that took time, talent and energy from the employee perspective, this is not that book. It looks at it from an organization perspective, but still remains useful to provide support towards leadership in how important people are.
👀 How this book changed my daily live (Takeaways)
Organizational Drag - phantom work = 21%
Simplify who an how time is spend
Meeting
Focus
a. 18 minutes max focus on 1 topic
b. 45 minutes max focus in total
Timing
Prepare
Start on time
End Early
Rule of 7, effectives drops 10% per extra attendee
• No reply to all
Dunbar: maintain max 150 relationships
⁉ Spoiler Alerts (Highlights)
7 Top values
1. Innovation
2. Ambition
3. High Integrity
4. Accountability
5. Collaboration
6. Agility
7. People Orientation
February 21, 2017
This book focused on helping organisations/businesses/leaders manage time, talent and resources with the same care applied to managing financial capital.
There are a number of practical advices given. My attention was drawn to the '3 ways to simplify your operating model'. I read that part repeatedly as it brings to light the complexity involved in making simple decisions.
The writers also made a point of demonstrating how assembling the right people for a task yields more output and productivity than just merely putting random people together.
Rating: 3.5/5
Favourite quote: "The real challenge isn’t to restructure existing units; it’s to identify the minimum number of units required to accomplish the essential work of the company.
This book focused on helping organisations/businesses/leaders manage time, talent and resources with the same care applied to managing financial capital.
There are a number of practical advices given. My attention was drawn to the '3 ways to simplify your operating model'. I read that part repeatedly as it brings to light the complexity involved in making simple decisions.
The writers also made a point of demonstrating how assembling the right people for a task yields more output and productivity than just merely putting random people together.
Rating: 3.5/5
Favourite quote: "The real challenge isn’t to restructure existing units; it’s to identify the minimum number of units required to accomplish the essential work of the company.
June 4, 2017
Por alguna razón llegué aquí y para variar tenia altas expectativas. Me esperaba algo tipo Build to Last o Good to Great, pero tendré que leer otro de Jim Collins.
Entre los libros de innovación y estrategia, queda claro que donde están los recursos está la estrategia. Y el recurso humano casi siempre es el más importante. En resumen, aquí dice qué hay que administrarlo, desarrollarlo e inspirarlo. Pero no hay un rumbo claro, para variar.
Me quedo con dos premisas (aunque este libro no dice cómo resolverlas):
(1) elige con cuidado a tu tribu (especialmente a los más cercanos) y déjalos trabajar si mucho rollo (con principios y objetivos claros y medibles).
(2) asegúrate de darles los medios para crear.
Entre los libros de innovación y estrategia, queda claro que donde están los recursos está la estrategia. Y el recurso humano casi siempre es el más importante. En resumen, aquí dice qué hay que administrarlo, desarrollarlo e inspirarlo. Pero no hay un rumbo claro, para variar.
Me quedo con dos premisas (aunque este libro no dice cómo resolverlas):
(1) elige con cuidado a tu tribu (especialmente a los más cercanos) y déjalos trabajar si mucho rollo (con principios y objetivos claros y medibles).
(2) asegúrate de darles los medios para crear.
March 21, 2020
This business management and strategy book offered some very solid, non-fluffy arguments and techniques for capitalizing on an organization's most important asset- it's people. More than other books and articles I've read, it provides research-backed proof that a company will be more productive and have larger profit margins if you focus on getting rid of bureaucracy, being cognizant of time sucking communication, properly leveraging talented employees and not just engaging people, but inspiring them. If you find yourself in a people manager or leadership position at any company in any sector, you will find value in this book.
September 20, 2017
the book talks about three elements that help achieve the optimum performance of a company and stop what is called "drag" also it touches upon talent, obtaining and maintaining talents and ways to polish them.
it emphasizes the need for engagement and enthusiasm so that people feel ownership and accountability at work.
pretty good book to open ones mind on such concepts but I dont consider it and eye opener to how this is achieved.
it emphasizes the need for engagement and enthusiasm so that people feel ownership and accountability at work.
pretty good book to open ones mind on such concepts but I dont consider it and eye opener to how this is achieved.
March 11, 2018
Powerful book on leadership. It's amazing to look back on my career and the places that were awesome followed the basic idea of this book. The places that weren't awesome ... Didn't follow.
Fair warning: reading this will cause you to question how you can constantly inspire those around you and make you want you work with companies that inspire you since that's a prerequisite to inspiring those around you.
Fair warning: reading this will cause you to question how you can constantly inspire those around you and make you want you work with companies that inspire you since that's a prerequisite to inspiring those around you.
September 10, 2020
Interesting book for those who are at high positions in companies, because the book suggests many ideas that would be great to be applied, but this is only possible for those who have power in the company. But at the same time, the book gives hope for those lower-level employees that someday we will be able to find companies that value our abilities and work to create an environment of development and inspiration for those who really want to work hard for the company.
September 29, 2022
This book came at the right time - was facing some growing pains & productivity issues with the company I work with. I saw this book at my local library and it was a great read. These concepts and examples shined some light on the company's current situation; I am currently discussing with the CEO to see how we can make changes to improve the way the company utilizes our time, talent, and energy. Hoping for the best!
August 5, 2017
Great insight into how to leverage your team
I was recently contemplating writing a business book about how to harness your employees' attitude, passion, and energy to create a radical shift in the company. Now I don't have to because this great book deals with the same issues wonderfully.
I was recently contemplating writing a business book about how to harness your employees' attitude, passion, and energy to create a radical shift in the company. Now I don't have to because this great book deals with the same issues wonderfully.
May 6, 2017
The book helps to bring into focus and be aware of organizational drag and culture. Aspects often neglected by managers. However, would have loved to see a more solid data driven approach to the topics. It would also have made for a more compelling read.
July 5, 2023
Nothing new here for most experienced corporate employees with any nous, however it could be a very useful resource for baby boomers and orgabisations suffering from 'organisational drag' and decreased productivity.
September 30, 2017
Love the clear concept of the book with one simple model that lays the foundation for the whole book. Provides both toretical frameworks as well as very good real life examples.
January 16, 2018
It's not wrong, but there's nothing new and it's way too academic/corporate in its language. Ended up being a boring read.
July 2, 2018
Interesting look at employees and how a company can operate most effectively from a leadership perspective.
August 13, 2018
Awesome book on management.
August 24, 2018
Not bad, couple of interesting passages and insights around Spotify and working models.
Read
December 22, 2018Although it is a good compendium of recommendations, I finished the book feeling I had nothing quite actionable.
March 26, 2019
Lots to process and implement, but sound case for taking action and specific steps to doing so.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews