Who Moved My Blackberry?

I confess that found this book depressing. It made me laugh out loud a couple of times, but on the whole I didn't enjoy it. It consists of a year in the life of an executive, told entirely through emails sent and received by him.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with this book is that half of the readers will not have worked in a large global organisation and to them this book may seem amusing, but absurdly over the top, the other half, including myself, will have seen nothing in it that doesn't happen all around them. For me this wasn't satire, this was reportage.

All the initiatives, the internal self-marketing, 360 degree appraisals and the time-consuming and continuous re-branding. All the diversity training, values alignment and show more behaviour statements are really happening all the time. And we've all seen the external consultants adding value and managing change!

June 21
From: DougRich@!Eureka!Wow!
To: All Staff

Hi! I have two words to say about the first Project Uplift workshop: Big Wow! We all got a lot closer to each other - in the course of the day Roger Wright shared the interesting fact that he collects First World War helmets. Jenny Withers told us that her ambition is to write a novel, and Faith Preston told us about her gold medal in salsa dancing.
From the feedback forms, the power of the role-play exercise to unleash your spirit was phenomenal. It would be invidious to single out the performance of any individual, but Christo Weinberg as Frank Zappa for creovation was inspired. Jenny Withers was a fabulous Pollyanna, and Martin Lukes' Gandhi was unforgettable - as was his Indian accent!
It is now time to move on to the next plank of the project, which is a 36o-degree exercise. I would like everybody to ask three colleagues to grade them on a scale of i to 10 on the six behaviours, and then email the grades to me. Choose one person who reports to you, one who you report to, and one who is a peer. Big Wow!
Doug

I have a dozen exact parallels from the globals I've worked for. For example, the desperate attempt to get a set of behaviours/values that all start with the same letter, resulting in Gnowledge Sharing (I don't jest). The internal branding that insists that departments all branded with the same letter, so that, say, Training becomes GLearn, support staff become GStaff, with the amusing result that the internal intranet A-Z contains almost nothing in it except under the letter G, which scrolls down three screen depths.

We are surrounded by managers with coaches, I've been one of them, and we all are obliged to do this absurd dance around each other just to survive.

This is nothing unusual :

From: Pandora@CoachworX
To: Martin Lukes

Hi Martin!
Thank you for sharing that with me. Even negative thoughts are better shared. What you are going through now is a natural part of the SARAH cycle. When you have difficult news you feel shock, anger, resentment, acceptance and hope. I am here to get you into the second part of the cycle as soon as possible.
I think you're forgetting your mantra - NO FAILURE ONLY FEEDBACK. Say it after me.
One learning I've taken out of this is that you don't like yourself enough. People who like themselves are light-hearted and optimistic. They have magnetic personalities. Do you like you? Are you genuinely grateful to be you? Strive and thrive!
Pandora

In fact, this is way the world ends, not with global warming, but with recycled, half-cocked, Neuro-Linguistic Programming. show less

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3746279.html

Classic novel of corporate life in London, as expressed through the emails of Martin Lukes, both self-obsessed and utterly un-self-aware, working through hubris, nemesis, and just possibly catharsis. You can spot pretty early on what is going to happen - as soon as the attractive new PA comes on the scene, it basically writes itself (her surname is actually Tartt, in case you needed the obvious pointed out to you even more clearly) - but having said that I anticipated the middle part of the book, Kellaway brings in a couple of twists at the end that I admit I did not expect.

A brilliant, brilliant book. It’s so good because it is so true. Anyone has worked within an office corporate setting will be able to identify with this book!

I really like that the book has been written as a sequence of emails. Many authors have tried to pull off this as a storytelling method - and failed miserably. But not this book! The fact that the plot is revealed via email not only makes you think about the story more but also highlights how much of modern life now relies on emailing! The main character even does his parenting via email!

I didn’t like that the end didn’t have any consequences for bad behaviour on the main character’s part. But this only goes to show much true to life the book really is. As well as a good show more read, there were many many pages that made me laugh. It’s safe to say I will be re-reading this book again in the future!

[Review written for my book blog at www.michelleamanda.co.uk] show less

I was pretty disappointed in this book. It tells a year in the life of one Martin Lukes, a middle management employee, through his emails and text messages.

I expected it to be very funny indeed, but at best, it was mildly amusing in places. Martin uses all the boardroom lingo cliches you can imagine - 'blue sky thinking', 'thinking outside the box', and even thinks up an expression of his own - 'creovative' (a mix of creative and innovative).

The main problem with this book is that the main character is completely and utterly dislikeable. One of the reviews in the inside cover says that it is like Bridget Jones....only better. I disagree - Bridget Jones may have been annoying and exasperating, but she was also sweet and endearing, and show more the reader rooted for her. Martin Lukes is tactless, self absorbed, and never thinks about anyone else at all. I actually found myself eagerly anticipating his comeuppance.

Throughout the year, Martin receives life coaching from a mysterious character called Pandora, who clearly knows nothing whatsoever about her subject.

I feel that the main character borrowed heavily from David Brent from 'The Office', but was not as amusing. show less

I've read books before where the story is told via e-mail format, and I much preferred "e" by Matt Beaumont, which is the tale of an advertising agency's bid for the Coca Cola account, probably because the e-mails were between a group of people, not just to and from one person. "Who Moved My BlackBerry?" was quite funny, especially for those of us who work in offices and are exposed to management jargon all day long, but on the whole, I think it probably worked better as a newspaper column than a novel.

I did enjoy Pandora asking about Martin's 'Less Strong Strengths' in her life coaching e-mails. At least Martin wasn't quite so deluded as I had come to believe, since he referred to them as his weaknesses in his reply : )

I surprised myself by enjoying this book. The attitude and the phrases used remind me of just about every boss I've worked for (and this ISN'T a compliment!)

It made me laugh out loud and cringe in equaly measures. Good fun - especially if you;ve ever worked in an office.

A worthwhile read for lovers of British comedy. My husband has followed the antics of Martin Lukes for ages in the Financial Times weekly column; this is a compilation of one year's worth. Many chuckles, but I think it must work better in bits - all in one serving it gets somewhat tedious.