From Publishers Weekly Lencioni (The Three Signs of a Miserable Job) makes an eloquent case for applying business tools to manage scattered and stressful home lives. He observes that even successful people who apply strategies and long-term thinking at work neglect to implement plans and goals for their own families, noting that family chaos is just part of life and so we accept levels of confusion and disorganization and craziness at home that we would not tolerate at work. Lencioni invites readers into the lives of a fictional family, describing how overwhelmed stay-at-home mom Theresa brings greater serenity into her home by integrating business pointers into a three-step plan in which her family identifies what makes them unique, their top priority or rallying cry (a big project that can be worked on in two to six months) and a regular time to discuss their progress, preferably 10 minutes a week. Although Lencioni admits that his own family's experience using these tools has been limited, his book is a worthwhile if brief attempt to grapple with a particularly thorny problem facing overextended families. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. A singularly relevant application of organizational leadership to the home and familyIn this unique and groundbreaking book, business consultant and New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni sets his sights on the most important organization in our lives-the family.As a husband and as the father of four young boys, Lencioni realized the discrepancy between the time and energy his clients put into running their organizations and the reactive way most people run their personal lives. Having experienced the stress of a frantic family firsthand, he and his wife began applying some of the tools he uses with Fortune 500 companies at home, and with surprising results.In the book, you’ll learn to answer questions like:What makes my family unique?What is my family’s biggest priority-its rallying cry-right now?How can my family use the answers to these questions today, next week, and next year?An indispensable resource for busy professionals with full family lives, The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family belongs on the bookshelves of anyone who has ever struggled to balance leading people at work with leading a family unit. Review Memo to mom: "if my clients ran their companies the way we run this family, they'd be out of business." So says the management-consultant dad in this slim but thought-provoking volume. BlackBerrys are blurring the line between work and home. Why not apply business principles to "the most important organization in your life"? It's hard to argue with the idea that family goals should be carefully articulated. Likewise, a weekly family meeting can only help team spirit. But please, let's draw the line at pink slips. From the Inside Flap THE 3 BIG QUESTIONS for a Frantic FamilyTheresa Cousins had never been so mad at her husband. Ironically, the comment that sparked her anger wasn't really directed at her specifically, and certainly wasn't meant as criticism. In fact, he said it without maliceor emotion."If my clients ran their companies the way we run this family, they'd be out of business."In this unique and groundbreaking book, business consultant and New York Times best-selling author Patrick Lencioni turns his sights on the most important organization in our lives-the family. As a husband and the father of four young boys, Lencioni realized the discrepancy between the time and energy his clients put into running their organizations and the reactive way most people run their personal lives. Having experienced the stress of a frantic family firsthand, he and his wife began applying some of the tools he uses with Fortune 500 companies at home, and with surprising results.Like Lencioni's other books, The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family
