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Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less
OUT OF PRINT. Do NOT buy this 2nd edition. It has been replaced by the much more comprehensive 3rd Edition, most recently revised in August 2014.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published May 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
April 22, 2014
I really hated this book, and every bone in my body is telling me to give it one-star. I've decided to give it two stars, and I'll explain why later.
This book is about an epiphany the author had that everything in the world is a system. He says, once you "get it," your whole life will transform, and you'll never look at things the same way again. You'll start seeing systems everywhere you go. His way of making the readers "get it" is to keep repeating the premise in different ways, using anecdotes from his life. There's only so many ways you can say that everything in the world is a system, and it feels like this book exhausted them. Half the book is so repetitive that I wanted to throw it at the wall. The second half is about how he applied it to his business and personal life, followed by a sales pitch for his seminars. The book is also poorly written, and his anecdotes make him sound like an anal-retentive jerk.
All he really means by everything in the world being a system is what every engineer knows about problem-solving: isolate the problem and make incremental refinements to it until it performs optimally; then document your changes to prevent duplication of effort; fix problems pro-actively and focus on maintenance rather than fixing bugs. This is like problem-solving 101. There's no epiphany here. This is what I hate about the business self-help genre: they try to bottle common sense and cliché wisdom and sell it to business people who prefer to receive their wisdom from other business people.
But after reading it, I realized there is an element of epiphany here: problem-solving strategies can be applied to everything, not just engineering problems. They can be used in your daily life and business. It was an epiphany I had years ago, so this book didn't do anything for me, but I can see how it might be transformative for others. That's why it gets two-stars.
The best example I have is my sleep patterns. For decades, I suffered from insomnia. I was so exhausted each day that I could barely keep my eyes open. I figured I was just a night owl. In college, I would stay up all night, squeezing in naps between classes. When I started working full time, it became a serious problem. Then I realized I could solve this problem the same way I solve my programming problems: isolate the sleeping habits that tend to exacerbate the problem, incrementally refine them, and document my discoveries. I started keeping a sleep log and building a list of rules. Currently, there are 17 rules. My insomnia is completely gone, and I feel great every day. I no longer waste time waiting for sleep, so I've also gained a couple hours of productive time every day.
This book is about an epiphany the author had that everything in the world is a system. He says, once you "get it," your whole life will transform, and you'll never look at things the same way again. You'll start seeing systems everywhere you go. His way of making the readers "get it" is to keep repeating the premise in different ways, using anecdotes from his life. There's only so many ways you can say that everything in the world is a system, and it feels like this book exhausted them. Half the book is so repetitive that I wanted to throw it at the wall. The second half is about how he applied it to his business and personal life, followed by a sales pitch for his seminars. The book is also poorly written, and his anecdotes make him sound like an anal-retentive jerk.
All he really means by everything in the world being a system is what every engineer knows about problem-solving: isolate the problem and make incremental refinements to it until it performs optimally; then document your changes to prevent duplication of effort; fix problems pro-actively and focus on maintenance rather than fixing bugs. This is like problem-solving 101. There's no epiphany here. This is what I hate about the business self-help genre: they try to bottle common sense and cliché wisdom and sell it to business people who prefer to receive their wisdom from other business people.
But after reading it, I realized there is an element of epiphany here: problem-solving strategies can be applied to everything, not just engineering problems. They can be used in your daily life and business. It was an epiphany I had years ago, so this book didn't do anything for me, but I can see how it might be transformative for others. That's why it gets two-stars.
The best example I have is my sleep patterns. For decades, I suffered from insomnia. I was so exhausted each day that I could barely keep my eyes open. I figured I was just a night owl. In college, I would stay up all night, squeezing in naps between classes. When I started working full time, it became a serious problem. Then I realized I could solve this problem the same way I solve my programming problems: isolate the sleeping habits that tend to exacerbate the problem, incrementally refine them, and document my discoveries. I started keeping a sleep log and building a list of rules. Currently, there are 17 rules. My insomnia is completely gone, and I feel great every day. I no longer waste time waiting for sleep, so I've also gained a couple hours of productive time every day.
July 4, 2013
I almost stopped reading/listening to this book... I'm glad I didn't. Up until chapter 5 I would have given it a 1 star. My advice is to skip to chapter five and start reading there. The first four chapters a plenty of fluff and don't really help you in terms of defining and creating a system.
September 26, 2015
This book was recommended, amongst others, at a talk I went to at a conference, and, since I found what the speaker said interesting, I thought I'd check out the books he gathered ideas from. However, his 2-sentence summary of what's important from this book was way better than the book in its entirety.
The most interesting takeaway (and there are other points made in this book which I will not reiterate) is: When you think of everything as a system, often made up of subsystems, you can investigate them in an organized fashion, fixing each little part one at a time, until you improve the whole system, becoming more efficient.
Or, in other words, use your brain and thinks through logically, always trying to improve, rather than being reactionary and chaotic.
It's not really a huge revelation (despite how many times the author, who is a self-admitted relentless repeater of information to "help it sink in", claims it to be. Part of the problem, is that he's awfully abstract about it all, and when he's not abstract, he's talking about his old-fashioned seeming message-center business. I mean, there's something there... being mindful and approaching things systematically is a good idea — but there is nothing compelling about the way this is spun out into a dull, repetitive book with tangential trips into prosaic and obvious topics like making a point to work at the time of day when you feel biologically most on the ball.
I think the liner notes to Robert Fripp's 1984 record "Let the Power Fall" are way more useful than this book (reproduced here for your convenience):
I
1. One can work within any structure.
2. One can work within any structure, some structures are more efficient than others.
3. There is no structure which is universally appropriate.
4. Commitment to an aim within inappropriate structure will give rise to the creation of an appropriate structure.
5. Apathy, i.e. passive commitment, within an appropriate structure will effect its collapse.
6. Dogmatic attachment to the supposed merits of a particular structure hinders the search for an appropriate structure.
7. There will be difficulty defining the appropriate structure because it will be always mobile, i.e. in process.
II
8. There should be no difficulty in defining aim.
9. The appropriate structure will recognize structures outside itself.
10. The appropriate structure can work within any large structure
11. Once the appropriate structure can work within any large structure, some larger structure are more efficient than others.
12. There is no larger structure which is universally appropriate.
13. Commitment to an aim by an appropriate structure within a larger, inappropriate structure will give rise to a large, appropriate structure.
14. The quantitive structure is affected by qualitative action
III
15. Qualitative action is not bound by number
16. Any small unit committed to qualitative action can affect radical change on a scale outside its quantitative measure.
17. Quantitative action works by violence and breeds reaction.
18. Qualitative action works works by example and invites reciprocation.
19. Reciprocation between independent structures is a framework of interacting units which is itself a structure.
20. Any appropriate structure of interacting units can work within any other structure of interacting units.
21. Once this is so, some structures of interacting units are efficient than others.
The most interesting takeaway (and there are other points made in this book which I will not reiterate) is: When you think of everything as a system, often made up of subsystems, you can investigate them in an organized fashion, fixing each little part one at a time, until you improve the whole system, becoming more efficient.
Or, in other words, use your brain and thinks through logically, always trying to improve, rather than being reactionary and chaotic.
It's not really a huge revelation (despite how many times the author, who is a self-admitted relentless repeater of information to "help it sink in", claims it to be. Part of the problem, is that he's awfully abstract about it all, and when he's not abstract, he's talking about his old-fashioned seeming message-center business. I mean, there's something there... being mindful and approaching things systematically is a good idea — but there is nothing compelling about the way this is spun out into a dull, repetitive book with tangential trips into prosaic and obvious topics like making a point to work at the time of day when you feel biologically most on the ball.
I think the liner notes to Robert Fripp's 1984 record "Let the Power Fall" are way more useful than this book (reproduced here for your convenience):
I
1. One can work within any structure.
2. One can work within any structure, some structures are more efficient than others.
3. There is no structure which is universally appropriate.
4. Commitment to an aim within inappropriate structure will give rise to the creation of an appropriate structure.
5. Apathy, i.e. passive commitment, within an appropriate structure will effect its collapse.
6. Dogmatic attachment to the supposed merits of a particular structure hinders the search for an appropriate structure.
7. There will be difficulty defining the appropriate structure because it will be always mobile, i.e. in process.
II
8. There should be no difficulty in defining aim.
9. The appropriate structure will recognize structures outside itself.
10. The appropriate structure can work within any large structure
11. Once the appropriate structure can work within any large structure, some larger structure are more efficient than others.
12. There is no larger structure which is universally appropriate.
13. Commitment to an aim by an appropriate structure within a larger, inappropriate structure will give rise to a large, appropriate structure.
14. The quantitive structure is affected by qualitative action
III
15. Qualitative action is not bound by number
16. Any small unit committed to qualitative action can affect radical change on a scale outside its quantitative measure.
17. Quantitative action works by violence and breeds reaction.
18. Qualitative action works works by example and invites reciprocation.
19. Reciprocation between independent structures is a framework of interacting units which is itself a structure.
20. Any appropriate structure of interacting units can work within any other structure of interacting units.
21. Once this is so, some structures of interacting units are efficient than others.
March 29, 2010
Achieve your goals by managing your systems
Author and project engineer Sam Carpenter owns Centratel, a now-profitable telephone-answering company that spent 15 years barely surviving. When Carpenter was working 80-hour weeks struggling to make payroll, he was a basket case – nervous, tense and depressed. He got by on a lot of coffee and very little sleep. Then, he had a eureka moment. He suddenly grasped that many different systems directed his life and work. He saw that if he could control and perfect these systems, he could solve many complex issues. This realization changed his life. Now, Carpenter enjoys himself and works only a couple of hours weekly. He has time for everything he wants to do, and his business hums along. The refreshing thing about this book is Carpenter’s personal perspective as a business owner who figured things out for himself. It’s not just another volume reflecting the theoretical ideas of a management consultant or professor. Carpenter explains his systems-management approach so well that you can use his accessible methods to improve your operations and your personal life. getAbstract recommends this logical book to small-business owners and all those who want to improve the way they run their lives. The caveat: You have to get to work.
Author and project engineer Sam Carpenter owns Centratel, a now-profitable telephone-answering company that spent 15 years barely surviving. When Carpenter was working 80-hour weeks struggling to make payroll, he was a basket case – nervous, tense and depressed. He got by on a lot of coffee and very little sleep. Then, he had a eureka moment. He suddenly grasped that many different systems directed his life and work. He saw that if he could control and perfect these systems, he could solve many complex issues. This realization changed his life. Now, Carpenter enjoys himself and works only a couple of hours weekly. He has time for everything he wants to do, and his business hums along. The refreshing thing about this book is Carpenter’s personal perspective as a business owner who figured things out for himself. It’s not just another volume reflecting the theoretical ideas of a management consultant or professor. Carpenter explains his systems-management approach so well that you can use his accessible methods to improve your operations and your personal life. getAbstract recommends this logical book to small-business owners and all those who want to improve the way they run their lives. The caveat: You have to get to work.
February 15, 2011
Like most books of this style then content is really common sense but in many cases it is easily overlooked. This book focuses on the concept of breaking everything down into individual systems, then documenting and improving each part.
It is a simple message that after you finish reading the book you wonder how it could fill that many pages but there is plenty of other good information in and around the concept. In many cases it takes an outside perspective to actually help you see what needs to be done and make things plain. This book certainly achieved that for me.
The book is easy to read and contains plenty of examples that keep you engaged but I did feel that things were becoming a little drawn out towards the end. After I finished the book I felt that if I had simply read the conclusion I would have received most of what the rest of the book was saying. However, on reflection I think this book is one of those that you can put up on the shelf and revisit on a regular basis to help keep you on track.
Overall this book is a worthwhile read for those people running their own business who want to understand the process of constant improvement. It help open you eyes to fact that everything is a system and can therefore be taken apart, examined and improved. It can seem daunting at first glance having to do this but the book does say this should be an ongoing process that you don't have to get right on the first pass.
Again, a great business reference book to have in your reference library and revisit regularly to help you understand that things can usually be made much simpler than they appear.
It is a simple message that after you finish reading the book you wonder how it could fill that many pages but there is plenty of other good information in and around the concept. In many cases it takes an outside perspective to actually help you see what needs to be done and make things plain. This book certainly achieved that for me.
The book is easy to read and contains plenty of examples that keep you engaged but I did feel that things were becoming a little drawn out towards the end. After I finished the book I felt that if I had simply read the conclusion I would have received most of what the rest of the book was saying. However, on reflection I think this book is one of those that you can put up on the shelf and revisit on a regular basis to help keep you on track.
Overall this book is a worthwhile read for those people running their own business who want to understand the process of constant improvement. It help open you eyes to fact that everything is a system and can therefore be taken apart, examined and improved. It can seem daunting at first glance having to do this but the book does say this should be an ongoing process that you don't have to get right on the first pass.
Again, a great business reference book to have in your reference library and revisit regularly to help you understand that things can usually be made much simpler than they appear.
December 28, 2009
Do your days flow smoothly? Do you have plenty of time to do your work and play too? No? Then, likely your days go something like this: putting out fires all day at work, trying to keep up with family responsibilities in a very short amount of time each night, then trying to get a little sleep before the day starts all over again.
Work the System tells us that the answer isn’t working harder or sleeping less. The problem is that we are looking at everything in one huge whole. We are trying to fix everything all at once but we aren’t really making any real changes. No wonder we are overwhelmed.
Work the System looks at each aspect of work and life in generally as distinct systems. Each system has specific components. If these components are in working order and are properly maintained, the system works fine. However, one missing or extra cog can bring the system crashing down. The key is to find the problems and fix them. Then, you can spend your time doing other things.
Work the System tells us that the answer isn’t working harder or sleeping less. The problem is that we are looking at everything in one huge whole. We are trying to fix everything all at once but we aren’t really making any real changes. No wonder we are overwhelmed.
Work the System looks at each aspect of work and life in generally as distinct systems. Each system has specific components. If these components are in working order and are properly maintained, the system works fine. However, one missing or extra cog can bring the system crashing down. The key is to find the problems and fix them. Then, you can spend your time doing other things.
February 17, 2015
After reading some of the other reviews I decided to power skim this book instead of do a thorough reading and I'm glad that I did that. The book was not awful, but I personally didn't find it enlightening or the vehicle through which a great epiphany was delivered. As other comments have said, this book can be boiled down and simplified into: everything is a system, so go improve it instead of reacting to the symptoms. The concrete examples provided to help guide the inexperienced along the journey is rather generic and bland. Perhaps, readers who are not already engineering geared and see the world as some incarnation as a multitude of systems will find the book more useful
May 7, 2015
I was considering reviewing this book for my blog, but it never seemed to deliver on its promises. I was going to give it three stars, but I dropped a star after reading how the author tips less when a waiter serves him and then says, "Enjoy." A waiter can't learn anything from that, for one thing, but for another, it's arbitrary and mean. What are they supposed to do, read your mind? At least a negative review gives an author some constructive feedback.
Incidentally, I'm a professional organizer and I fully endorse the concept of having a system for everything.
Incidentally, I'm a professional organizer and I fully endorse the concept of having a system for everything.
April 8, 2015
Stopped listening to it about 2/3 of the way... interesting concept, but not something that really applies to my business of two people all that much. I just couldn't grasp how I'd take his systems mindset and translate it to a business that small. For a huge corporation, though, I can see how this insight (that every process should be broken down into systems so that it can become turnkey) would be critical and make all the difference in the world.
March 27, 2013
Interesting ideas, but with hindsight I'd put the book down as soon as you get the systems thinking notion and are prepared to give it a go.
The rest of the book was redundant and slightly patronizing.
The rest of the book was redundant and slightly patronizing.
January 25, 2015
I was expecting a clear, concise-actionable way to identify, order and optimize systems as an entrepreneur. Instead I found a 33,000 feet "big picture" analysis full of anecdotes...
July 30, 2019
Split your life in microservices and improve them one by one. Write all those algorithms.
June 9, 2020
I give it 5* for the ideea and motivation to do your own systems. Sadly the writing is not great, but it doesn't have to be.
May 15, 2018
Good ideas, mediocre writing.
September 22, 2023
I will review Work the System the same way its author tips his servers:
“My female companion and I sit down for a meal in a local restaurant. At this point, even before saying a word, the waitperson, in this case a female, has earned a 25 percent tip.”
I sit down and open my new book. As I open the cover, the author, in this case a male, has earned a 5-star book rating.
“It can be downhill from this point forward. If she greets us with ‘How are you guys today?’ there is an immediate 5 percent reduction in the future tip for offhandedly yet confidently referring to my date as a male. Now the tip can be no more than 20 percent.”
It can be downhill from this point forward. If he spends the entire first part of his three-part book repeatedly explaining how results are produced by procedural systems, wasting line after line on the page and minute after minute of my time explaining the same thing over and over again while periodically acknowledging that he is being repetitive intentionally, there is an immediate one-star reduction in his rating. The book rating can now be no more than 4 stars.
“If the waitperson delivers the food and walks away with a semi-pretentious airheaded ‘enjoy,’ there is another 5 percent deduction.”
If, during the course of the book, I become uncomfortably aware that the author is not a person I would ever want to meet, thanks to his bombastic self-aggrandising, his unempathetic ani-drug politics, and his casual assumption that it is his wife’s job to clean his house, there is another star deducted from his book’s rating.
“If she delivers the check along with the food (workingman’s diners excepted), there’s another 5 percent off the top.”
If, while describing his recommended communication style, he encourages a harmful sexist viewpoint by claiming that “It’s unnerving to see a father down on all fours, goo-gooing with an infant” there’s another star off the top.
“If she checks in to see how we are doing at midmeal and blatantly interrupts one of us in midsentence, yes, there is another 5 percent markdown. Now we’re approaching no tip at all.”
If, as I am nearing the end of the book, the author reveals his nauseatingly imperious system for lording a living wage over an underpaid worker, yes, there’s another star taken off. Now we’re approaching no stars at all, but Goodreads doesn’t allow a 0-star rating, so I’d better stop here.
“My female companion and I sit down for a meal in a local restaurant. At this point, even before saying a word, the waitperson, in this case a female, has earned a 25 percent tip.”
I sit down and open my new book. As I open the cover, the author, in this case a male, has earned a 5-star book rating.
“It can be downhill from this point forward. If she greets us with ‘How are you guys today?’ there is an immediate 5 percent reduction in the future tip for offhandedly yet confidently referring to my date as a male. Now the tip can be no more than 20 percent.”
It can be downhill from this point forward. If he spends the entire first part of his three-part book repeatedly explaining how results are produced by procedural systems, wasting line after line on the page and minute after minute of my time explaining the same thing over and over again while periodically acknowledging that he is being repetitive intentionally, there is an immediate one-star reduction in his rating. The book rating can now be no more than 4 stars.
“If the waitperson delivers the food and walks away with a semi-pretentious airheaded ‘enjoy,’ there is another 5 percent deduction.”
If, during the course of the book, I become uncomfortably aware that the author is not a person I would ever want to meet, thanks to his bombastic self-aggrandising, his unempathetic ani-drug politics, and his casual assumption that it is his wife’s job to clean his house, there is another star deducted from his book’s rating.
“If she delivers the check along with the food (workingman’s diners excepted), there’s another 5 percent off the top.”
If, while describing his recommended communication style, he encourages a harmful sexist viewpoint by claiming that “It’s unnerving to see a father down on all fours, goo-gooing with an infant” there’s another star off the top.
“If she checks in to see how we are doing at midmeal and blatantly interrupts one of us in midsentence, yes, there is another 5 percent markdown. Now we’re approaching no tip at all.”
If, as I am nearing the end of the book, the author reveals his nauseatingly imperious system for lording a living wage over an underpaid worker, yes, there’s another star taken off. Now we’re approaching no stars at all, but Goodreads doesn’t allow a 0-star rating, so I’d better stop here.
February 4, 2019
What an odd book! Half of it is business-book boilerplate, to the point of being trite, but the other half is divided into a really fascinating personal story (culminating in a sort of business vision quest, where the truth of the world is revealed to the author during what sounds like a very serious Dark Night of the Soul) and a series of quite beautiful musings on the ways that order can bring peace and joy to a person's life. Carpenter's spiritual cousins include Marie Kondo and Cal Newport.
Something like 3.9 stars sounds right for an average reader, but if you've read a lot of business books or you're just good at skimming in general, you may rate the book higher, since you can absorb the good and zip through the meh. In so doing, you'll get to watch the mind of someone with peculiar-but-effective views on life and work.
(I wouldn't usually give five stars to a book of such uneven quality, but something about the simplicity of the author's language, the success of his business, the specificity of his stories, and the way that his system echoes in the creation process of the book -- it all combines to make something more real than I've seen in almost any other book on business, and I suspect that I'll remember it for many years to come, with a tiny Sam Carpenter emerging from a part of my brain to remind me when it's time to make a system. Any book that implants a shard of its author in your brain is a solid candidate for Goodreads' highest rating.)
Quotes I especially liked:
"99.9 percent of everything works fine: Look around! There is a penchant for efficiency in the world. The systems of the world want to work perfectly, and 99.9 percent of them do."
"For some undocumented processes our analysis suggested that creating a Working Procedure wasn’t necessary, and in fact we had been wasting our time performing the process at all! Eliminating the system of storing paper records of customer contacts was a good example of this purging action. In analyzing the system from outside and slightly above, we discovered that after years of carefully storing hard-copy evidence of every client interaction, no staff member had ever gone back to those files for information! Not once! When these obsolete systems occasionally appeared, we dumped them with a flourish, a collective grin on our faces. In reinventing Centratel, there was nothing more satisfying than discovering and then discarding useless processes."
"If an owner or manager begins with the premise “all employees are lazy” or “there is no work ethic anymore” or “I can’t pay enough to find and hold quality people,” where will that lead? If these are your fundamental beliefs, you must change them. If you don’t, you are doomed."
"Business is art. It's a heroic undertaking, and within it lies two superb by-products: tangible value to others--employees and customers--and personal income for the creator.
Something like 3.9 stars sounds right for an average reader, but if you've read a lot of business books or you're just good at skimming in general, you may rate the book higher, since you can absorb the good and zip through the meh. In so doing, you'll get to watch the mind of someone with peculiar-but-effective views on life and work.
(I wouldn't usually give five stars to a book of such uneven quality, but something about the simplicity of the author's language, the success of his business, the specificity of his stories, and the way that his system echoes in the creation process of the book -- it all combines to make something more real than I've seen in almost any other book on business, and I suspect that I'll remember it for many years to come, with a tiny Sam Carpenter emerging from a part of my brain to remind me when it's time to make a system. Any book that implants a shard of its author in your brain is a solid candidate for Goodreads' highest rating.)
Quotes I especially liked:
"99.9 percent of everything works fine: Look around! There is a penchant for efficiency in the world. The systems of the world want to work perfectly, and 99.9 percent of them do."
"For some undocumented processes our analysis suggested that creating a Working Procedure wasn’t necessary, and in fact we had been wasting our time performing the process at all! Eliminating the system of storing paper records of customer contacts was a good example of this purging action. In analyzing the system from outside and slightly above, we discovered that after years of carefully storing hard-copy evidence of every client interaction, no staff member had ever gone back to those files for information! Not once! When these obsolete systems occasionally appeared, we dumped them with a flourish, a collective grin on our faces. In reinventing Centratel, there was nothing more satisfying than discovering and then discarding useless processes."
"If an owner or manager begins with the premise “all employees are lazy” or “there is no work ethic anymore” or “I can’t pay enough to find and hold quality people,” where will that lead? If these are your fundamental beliefs, you must change them. If you don’t, you are doomed."
"Business is art. It's a heroic undertaking, and within it lies two superb by-products: tangible value to others--employees and customers--and personal income for the creator.
February 12, 2017
This book is a great introduction to the Systems mindset, a vision of the world as an orderly collection of processes, not as a chaotic mess. In our lives everything is a system: a set of parts that come together to accomplish a goal. When a system follows a series of repeatable steps it will cause a specific outcome. Some systems are obviously more complex than others and the ones that most of us grow up learning about include biological, mechanical and social systems. The author spends most of his time showing you how systems thinking can offer radical improvements in running a business. The idea that you identify, document, optimize and then put other people in charge to run your systems is what allows one to spend more time working on their business instead of in their business. He advocates for writing Working Procedures, an easily repeatable process that anyone can follow to produce a clear outcome.
The first 50 pages or so of this book is kinda salesy. You might be able to skip the long winded introduction about what systems thinking can do for your life but at the same time it’s probably through getting the mindset drilled into you that you’re able to better implement the practical steps he offers later in the book. Ultimately this book is a powerful tool that I can see making drastic improvements to how I run my own projects and businesses. If you want to 10x your output you need to optimize your systems.
The first 50 pages or so of this book is kinda salesy. You might be able to skip the long winded introduction about what systems thinking can do for your life but at the same time it’s probably through getting the mindset drilled into you that you’re able to better implement the practical steps he offers later in the book. Ultimately this book is a powerful tool that I can see making drastic improvements to how I run my own projects and businesses. If you want to 10x your output you need to optimize your systems.
December 30, 2020
If there is anything I learned in 2020, it's the need to have different streams of income and with this in mind- Ii was reading this book looking for insights on how to run a business.
The author promises that in reading this book you'll learn how to:
1. Make a simple perception adjustment that will change your life forever.
2. See your world as a logical collection of linear systems that you can control,
3. Manage the systems that produce results in your business and your life.
4. Maximize profit, create client loyalty, and develop enthusiastic employees.
And above all, "Design the life you want—and then, in the real world, create it!" and what he succeeds at the end of it, is simply unraveling what is and what is not when it comes to the process of getting things done- and I find this way better than most books I've read on this topic- because of the what he shares at the very beginning about systems- and this includes the personal life, social, business, spiritual and how to take care of all these to be able to fulfill our goals.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
The author promises that in reading this book you'll learn how to:
1. Make a simple perception adjustment that will change your life forever.
2. See your world as a logical collection of linear systems that you can control,
3. Manage the systems that produce results in your business and your life.
4. Maximize profit, create client loyalty, and develop enthusiastic employees.
And above all, "Design the life you want—and then, in the real world, create it!" and what he succeeds at the end of it, is simply unraveling what is and what is not when it comes to the process of getting things done- and I find this way better than most books I've read on this topic- because of the what he shares at the very beginning about systems- and this includes the personal life, social, business, spiritual and how to take care of all these to be able to fulfill our goals.
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
March 21, 2021
I’ve been running my own business for almost 30 years now and I can tell you, seeing things from another’s point of view is essential to keeping your business successful. You can’t only take your own advice and run things your own way without feedback from others.
Sam Carpenter’s “Work The System” has some interesting ideas. Not all of them are new, fresh or unheard of, but any business owner or self employed person will find some good ideas in here.
I first listened to this as an audiobook. I then realized I wanted to have the Kindle version to make some highlights and notes to go back to. You never know when you may want to incorporate something new.
Keep an open mind, especially in business. Try out other’s successful tools if you haven’t already and see how they work for you.
Special thanks to Greenleaf Book Group Press, Sam Carpenter and NetGalley for this ARC.
#WorktheSystemFourthEdition #NetGalley
Sam Carpenter’s “Work The System” has some interesting ideas. Not all of them are new, fresh or unheard of, but any business owner or self employed person will find some good ideas in here.
I first listened to this as an audiobook. I then realized I wanted to have the Kindle version to make some highlights and notes to go back to. You never know when you may want to incorporate something new.
Keep an open mind, especially in business. Try out other’s successful tools if you haven’t already and see how they work for you.
Special thanks to Greenleaf Book Group Press, Sam Carpenter and NetGalley for this ARC.
#WorktheSystemFourthEdition #NetGalley
December 9, 2015
Written procedures will improve productivity and if you are a small to medium business owner struggling with chaos this might be the book for you. This may not work for larger cases, it's very top-down oriented. I would also caution people using it in a corporate environment that some company cultures reward their firefighters and not their quiet, competent counterparts, you may need to add act out emergency to your procedures!
Nothing earthshaking here if you've ever read Taylor, Deming or countless others but companies that aren't in chaos are a minority so it must be hard to figure out. Author took about five years to convert his company over and that seemed realistic. If your personal life's a mess, some of it might be cured by a bit of organizing as covered in this book.
Nothing earthshaking here if you've ever read Taylor, Deming or countless others but companies that aren't in chaos are a minority so it must be hard to figure out. Author took about five years to convert his company over and that seemed realistic. If your personal life's a mess, some of it might be cured by a bit of organizing as covered in this book.
February 2, 2017
1. Perceiving system (subsystems that govern those systems) that govern your work and life
2. Come up with some preventive systems.
3. The pathway to control is to discover, examine & optimise your mechanical & biological system
4. Methodology : Strategic Objective, Operating Principles, Working procedures
5. Written documentation is important
6. Applications: Conferences, Seminar/Workshops, Guest Lectures, Magazines, Yearly Celebrations & Events, Admission & Examination process, Meetings, Assessment of teacher's performance, Recurring issues & problems of teachers (leave) & students ( medical leave)
2. Come up with some preventive systems.
3. The pathway to control is to discover, examine & optimise your mechanical & biological system
4. Methodology : Strategic Objective, Operating Principles, Working procedures
5. Written documentation is important
6. Applications: Conferences, Seminar/Workshops, Guest Lectures, Magazines, Yearly Celebrations & Events, Admission & Examination process, Meetings, Assessment of teacher's performance, Recurring issues & problems of teachers (leave) & students ( medical leave)
October 22, 2017
Excellent insight into focusing on the boring parts of business to make it work properly.
Anyone who has had a few jobs knows that some places are nice and neatly organized and at other places day-to-day processes become fire-fighting. Sam Carpenter worked in the latter for many years, and then had an epiphany about how to fix his failing business: reorganize every procedure.
His company went on to be one of the top companies of its class and now he only has to work a few hours per week because everything is organized.
The book is available free on his website in both AudioBook format and electronic formats.
Anyone who has had a few jobs knows that some places are nice and neatly organized and at other places day-to-day processes become fire-fighting. Sam Carpenter worked in the latter for many years, and then had an epiphany about how to fix his failing business: reorganize every procedure.
His company went on to be one of the top companies of its class and now he only has to work a few hours per week because everything is organized.
The book is available free on his website in both AudioBook format and electronic formats.
May 3, 2015
The author is advocating that one should work on the underlying "mechanics" of a system, instead of firefighting outcomes. Having more control of your system is the only way to live more happily. The book provides a few actionable ideas: system documentation, point-of-sales principle, quiet courage, etc.
Some of those ideas may sound common sense at first, but we all know common senses are hard to apply sometimes. What I appreciate most are those stories/practical examples in the book.
Later chapters are much more concise and more interesting than early ones.
Some of those ideas may sound common sense at first, but we all know common senses are hard to apply sometimes. What I appreciate most are those stories/practical examples in the book.
Later chapters are much more concise and more interesting than early ones.
June 30, 2014
I never, never read books such as this. I read it for work. How to create a more organized, systematic approach to work, by really breaking down the systems we already use to accomplish our goals and then rebuilding them in more efficient ways. Who doesn't need that, both personally and professionally!? It's well written, helpful, and something I should have read a long time ago. Thinking of my friend Linda, who reads this genre frequently.
January 22, 2016
I've been applying quite a bit of this already- i.e. developing and tweaking the systems that comprise work and personal life - and this book was full of interesting ways to look and act on this. I also happened to read it at a very relevant time in my career. I would only recommend this to a reader if he/she was the leader of a company; otherwise, if not I think there is a new book by this author coming out soon which focuses on personal life applications.
October 4, 2012
I love this book and the author. Visit my blog for a free copy and a one hour interview between Sam (the author) and myself. And, reading the book won't change your life... you have to apply it and that might take a year.... but then you have freedom. BART BAGGETT http://bartbaggett.com/blog/work-the-...
December 10, 2014
Didn't like the book. I scanned it, read a few chapter, it was really boring. The audio-book was much, much better for some reason. Loved the "hippie" context set-up in the beginning. Overall great message. Implemented many things immediately into my life and business.
March 31, 2014
Story telling used to share business experience. Enjoyed reading more than most business books
December 24, 2017
Можно было бы уместить всю книгу в 10 страниц
July 19, 2018
Systems.
If you work (anywhere), they're important.
Isolate a problem.
Document the discovery.
Refine and iterate steps to solve the problem.
And then, work that system.
If you work (anywhere), they're important.
Isolate a problem.
Document the discovery.
Refine and iterate steps to solve the problem.
And then, work that system.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews