Work the System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less Book

Preface: It's Just Mechanics ix

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction: The Simplest Solution 1

Part 1 The Mind-Set

1 Control Is a Good Thing 15

2 A System of Systems 26

3 The Attack of the Moles 32

4 Gun-to-the-Head Enlightenment 40

5 Execution and Transformation 58

6 Systems Revealed, Systems Managed 66

7 Getting It 79

Part 2 Critical Documentation

8 Swallowing the Horse Pill 89

9 We Are Project Engineers 103

10 Your Strategic Objective and General Operating Principles 114

11 Your Working Procedures 121

Part 3 Further Considerations

12 Good Enough 138

13 Errors of Omission 144

14 Quiet Courage 150

15 Point-of-Scale Thinking 154

16 Extraordinary Systems Operated by Great People 162

17 Consistency and Cold Coffee 169

18 Communication: Grease for the Wheels 178

19 Prime Time 184

20 The Traffic Circles of Pakistan 199

21 System Improvement as a Way of Life 203

Appendixes

A Ockham's Razor and the TSR 208

B Centratel's Strategic Objective 215

C Centratel's 30 Principles 217

D Centratel's Procedure for Procedures 221

E Centratel's System for Communication 225

References 228

Index 236