One of the best books about making a humane and empowering workplace. At a time when I was about to give up managing others because I didn't see how I could have a positive impact of people, I read this book. It gave me hope that I could have a positive impact on the people I was managing. ( )

Written in 1989 this little book is newly published in the UK. Max De Pree is chairman and CEO of Hermann Miller Inc. (the US furniture manufacturer which brought Charles Eames to your magazines) and the son of the founder. Hermann Miller Inc. has been extraordinarily successful and has operated in a paradigm of leadership and empowerment quite outside the norm for the Western World.

The philosophy developed by the Millers is set out here in a chatty home-spun style that never-the-less It also led Peter Drucker to write “… says more about leadership in clearer, more elegant and more convincing language than many of the much longer books …”. I agree.