Another read this summer, Karmic Management, by Roach, McNally and Gordon. 150 pages that can be read in 1 or 2 hours at the hairdresser or on the beach, in the evening in bed.

Okay let’s tread carefully here. This is about applying Buddhist precepts to management. Gasp. re-gasp. If I read this book it’s because one of my partners recommended it to me. He partially finds in these precepts our way of doing things. I can’t contradict him. If he himself read this book it’s because one of our clients advised him: “you’re doing Karmic Management!”. Before feeling honored he had to take a look at this thing.

If I exclude the mystical but amusing aspects, notably the ancient wisdoms that open the chapters: “Not this, nor that either”, “the line that separates us is artificial”, “your problems are your path”, “no action is ever lost”; or the mercantile aspects that finish the book (such seminar, such book, such session, even a karmic hot-line, etc.), I find interesting things in it. Notably the strong idea of Karmic Management which holds that all the successes that you will be able to promote, generate, achieve around you will increase your own success.

I don’t know if this “works”. I know that I function this way and that I have often had the pleasant surprise of seeing successes flow from these commitments. Another idea formulated in an interesting way: problems are your friends. Because they highlight the obstacles that will prevent you from succeeding in your projects. You must therefore embrace them fully and as soon as they present themselves. This point should be compared to the introduction of Scrum in an organization: it’s a revealer of the underlying problems of the company (I’m trying to be agile enough to land on my feet…).

amazon ?