Book Review

Primal Management

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Review in the Journal of Personnel Psychology:

"The book is clearly written, strongly and convincingly argued, insightful, provocative, stimulating, and interesting to read."

Paul's Blog

Are decisions really 80% emotional?

As some of you know, I'm a graduate of the University of Chicago, a very rational place where, according to legend, "Fun goes to die." I expect to be tarred and feathered at the next U of C management conference for this provocative and contrarian post.

Advertisers, like Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, claim that the buying decision is 80% emotional and 20% rational. According to Roberts, "Reason leads to conclusions. Emotion leads to action." What about other decisions, like the decision on the part of our employees to work hard? Is this also 80% emotional? What is going on here? If emotions are so important in decision making, why was the word never uttered in any of my econ classes?

Review in Publishers Weekly

Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance
Paul Herr. Amacom, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8144-1396-8

It's pure myth that human beings are fundamentally rational creatures—we are sublimely emotional at heart and work best when treated as such, argues consultant Herr, who contends that companies need to take a hard-science approach to the soft side of the business if they want to maximize their gains. He explores the human social appetites—innovation, skill mastery and deployment, goal attainment, cooperation and self-protection—maintaining that these drives are as integral to our biology as our need for food, sex and love. People want to excel at work, and companies that encourage that desire bring out the best in their employees. Arguing against a hyper-rational, bureaucratic management, Herr advocates a “tribal” connected workforce, a corporate superorganism composed of individual human beings who strive toward the same goal. Some fairly heavy theory is backed up with solid practical advice for leaders, including a methodology to create a high-performance workplace. The biological approach lends a fresh aspect to the subject of employee performance enhancement, and the well-researched, entertaining presentation should make this an appealing reference for progressive business leaders. (May)

Review in Foreward Magazine

Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance
Paul Herr. AMACOM, Hardcover $25.00 (288 pp) 978-0-8144-1396-8

In Primal Management, Paul Herr endorses a science-based approach to managing companies. At the same time, he lobbies for managers to accept and embrace the fact that employees’ emotions play a defining role in corporate success. These somewhat opposing viewpoints make for an interesting and provocative book.

Herr argues that a company acting as a superorganism–similar to a colony of army ants–is successful because “it learns how to work harmoniously with human nature rather than against it.” Such a company, he says, relies more on employee empowerment than a conventional hierarchical structure. Herr uses three contrarian business leaders who led non-traditional yet highly successful organizations as examples–Ken Iverson of Nucor Steel, Harry Quadracci of Quad/Graphics, and Ricardo Semler of Semco SA in Brazil.