The Art of the Blurb


What People Are Saying about TECHNO-CRAZED

----> Omaha Public Library

Business Books, June Review

http://www.omaha.lib.ne.us/~bst/jun96.htm
Techno-Crazed: The Businessperson's Guide to Controlling Technology-Before It Controls You

by Michael Finley.

A fun book that gives support to the computer skeptics who are intimidated (but afraid to admit it) by the all-knowing attitude of the computer true believers. The book encourages ordinary people to insist that techies make computers truly user friendly. After all, computers are a means to an end-not the end itself. Also some good practical advice. 200 pages. 658.4038 Finley


Techno-Crazed: The Businessperson’s Guide to Controlling Technology—Before It Controls You Michael Finley

An insightful, quirky, readable book for both technozealots and technophobes. The author focuses on the work issues brought on by computer and communications technology: those things that cause us much unhappiness, frustration, and tension, even while they improve our productivity.

Peterson’s, 1995, ISBN: 1-56079-570-0, Paperback, 212 pp., $14.21 members, $14.95 non-members.

Project Management Institute 1996 SourceGuide

Business Books, June Review

http://www.pmi.org/pmi/publictn/infoguid.htm

Teaching the Techno-Estranged

When you train staff to use new technology, you may have to deal with these problem types described by Michael Finley in his book Techno-Crazed:

* Questers. These brilliant but odd types learn best on their own by doing something that they consider fascinating and fun. One possibility: Encourage them to surf the World Wide Web. Fuzzies. These warm people persons don't relate well to cold computers. Try to win them over by stressing the technology's power to communicate person to person – especially by e-mail.

* Worriers. They're sure that even one wrong command will cause a hardware meltdown. To help them overcome their fear, let them put commands on cards they can refer to often. Also, force them to hit buttons until they're convinced the hardware is hard to kill.

* Skeptics. Call them the technologically prejudiced. Their narrow-minded view: "Everyone knows computer technology causes headaches." The best approach -- as when fighting any prejudice -- is to have them really get to know what they're prejudiced against.

* Technophobes. They view embracing technology as a sellout of values they hold dear, so they won't persuade easily. You can try to get them to at least admire the technology's craftsmanship. But you may have to settle for a peaceful coexistence between them and the computer.

Around the world in the Bangkok Post

Next time you are ever in even a halfway good library, look to see if they have the Bangkok Post. It is a wonderfully readable, newsy newspaper from the other cheek of the world. I have always enjoyed it, and so this review in its pages is very special to me:

Graham K. Rogers
Dateline: Bangkok
January 1996

Book review: Finley, Michael. Techno-Crazed: The Business Person's Guide to Controlling Technology--Before It Controls You. Peterson's/Pacesetter Books; Princeton, 1995. 192 pages. $14.95. ISBN 1-56079-570-0

Once in a while, the columns of Michael Finley appear in the Post Database. I happened to find one in a newsgroup which I liked, wrote to him and mentioned what we do here. As a result, he sends us his columns and he got his publisher to send me his book, Techno-Crazed, which takes a pragmatic look at computers. I write this, slightly tongue in cheek.

Finley has been using computers for several years and is neither a starry-eyed novice nor a computer ace spreading the gospel of office automation at all costs. He is, if anything, a realist with a twinkle in his eye.

I am in no doubt that he loves his computers, while he is at pains to point out that he also loves his wife. He also fosters a careful relationship with his local repairman because he has no delusions as to the shortcomings of these machines. The book is, among other things, a careful balance between the pluses and the negatives.

We have had books like this before. Indeed, Clifford Stoll, in Silicon Snake-Oil attempted to take a similar stance earlier this year. In my opinion, this is the book that Stoll should have written.

Although the columns have provided meat for his ideas, Michael Finley has resisted the temptation to simply make this a "Best of" book. Instead he splits his approach to technology into ten easily digested chapters. Each is written in a simple style, which is not at all patronising, and is split into brief sections.

Unfortunately, while this is a strong point, the fact that it is easy to put down and resume later, was a disaster for me. I kept putting it down and going off to do something else. When I did return, sometimes days later, I had no problem in picking up again right where I left off. As this fits in exactly with Finley's expressed hope, "that readers do not zip through . . . in one sitting," I do not feel the slightest tinge of guilt.

In addition to the text, almost every page has a sidebar with highly usable quotes or snippets of information which are a pleasure to come upon, such as this one from John Sculley: "Computing gives us every incentive to be skeptical." One presumes that was before Sculley left Apple.

I found I could pick the book up at any time, glance at a page, smile and put the book down again. Usually with a smile. There are scores of these bit of information, and they are all properly cited and noted. Some are quite funny. Others deserve serious consideration: "We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we created to serve us" (John Kenneth Galbraith). Perhaps Finley has taken this warning as his guiding philosophy when creating this pleasant book.

While Finley writes in a style which is fairly light, he is not flippant. Many of his ideas and comments have a lot of sense behind them. I was particularly impressed with his chapter, "How Technology is Turning the Office Upside Down." In this he discusses the way we measure output in terms of "productivity." He suggests that this is a basic error. Technology has changed the world. There is often no end product, although the use of a computer will make it possible for a secretary to produce 50 letters in a day where 10 might have been possible with the typewriter, or 2 with a quill.

The one chapter I did not enjoy was the final one in which he tries to predict the future by painting a scenario of the world in the next century. I always have doubts about such attempts, especially when they border on science fiction, although I am sure some would take this in good spirit.

At the end of the book is a proper "notes" section and a comprehensive index. Both of these are unusually long for this type of book and Michael Finley is to be applauded for this.

While not yet available in Bangkok, I am hopeful that it may one day soon arrive here. I would recommend looking out for it if you are traveling abroad. Failing that, do what I have begun to do with the unwillingness of local booksellers to order for me: I have found a bookseller in the USA and when I want a book, I simply send e-mail.

The publishers of Techno-Crazed also have an Internet link through a web page at http://www.petersons.com and they respond fairly quickly.

Michael Finley himself has a web page at http://mfinley.com on which are selections from Techno-Crazed, other books and some of his columns.

Mention of TECHNO-CRAZED on "Byte This"

And in my own home state of Ohio, in the Columbus Dispatch ...

"Finley teaches the importance of knowing one's limits and warns of the perils of taking technology too seriously. Lost time, money, peace of mind, even health are the tolls taken on the unwary businessperson investing too much time and money in computers.

"The author, Michael Finley, is a computer journalist who writes with a style and substance that should attract both the technically competent and technophobic.

"With tongue-in-cheek, Finley suggests that office designers should have degrees in industrial engineering, occupational medicine, industrial psychology or occupational or physical therapy.

"Avoid degrees in mortuary science," he writes.

"A 36-question test can place you among the power users or technophobes, to whom the author suggests "you must find the interface that is least off-putting, that transports you out of computing and into the realm of work or play that you do not object to. In short, you must buy a Mac."

"Chapter 3 details how to communicate with computer people, including a short glossary of essential terminology.

"Finley's book has a thorough explanation of ''netiquette,'' the rules and protocol for Internet communication, including how to create the most effective E-mail messages: Sound human, write clearly and briefly, avoid jargon.

"When mechanical failure strikes, a chapter on finding the best repair person includes the advice: Find someone who speaks on your level of understanding and understands your size of problem and budget. "Some of the best material is in margin notes, irreverant quotes and comments about computers:

'Never let the computer know you're in a hurry.'

'If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside.'

"'At the source of every error that is blamed on the computer you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.'

"This breezy guide is a grab bag of essays meant to be read nonlinearly. You won't find many computer books with such a free spirit and yet with so much to say, especially to those who may feel like bystanders in the technology revolution."

Dean Narciso, Columbus Dispatch


And in Computer User, which I write for ...

"ComputerUser's own Michael Finley is out of the paddock with his latest book, Techno-Crazed, based in part on his musings in these very pages, but with extra dollops of wit and insight applied liberally throughout.

"Finley observes the relationship between human beings and computers tends to either begin as 'giddy delight' and mutate gradually into 'the behaviors of addiction' or begin as a 'mild resistance to an idea,' and mutate quickly into 'mindless denial.' He argues that 'neither side is safe ground.' He gets us to rethink our relationship with technology so that we can welcome its benefits, deal with its costs (both personal and societal), and master ourselves as well as our computers.

"Finley examines the issues of 'computer mania' with clarity, comedy, and comradeship, making us feel that normalcy is within reach. I highly recommend this book to every compulsive computer user -- and to anyone who knows one."

Steve Deyo, editor, ComputerUser (Twin Cities edition), January 1996, p. 58 Phone: 612-339-7571


To order TECHNO-CRAZED, call Peterson's/Pacesetter Books, of Princeton, NJ, at 1-800-338-3282, and ask for ISBN #1-56079-570-0. Or special order it from your bookseller using that number.

(Most B. Dalton's and Barnes & Nobles stores currently carry TECHNO-CRAZED).




What People Are Saying about WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK

----->"Teaming has been a craze in modern organizations. This book is neither a condemnation of teams nor an in-depth look at the history of teams in organizations.

"It is more about people. In their epilog, Robbins and Finley write, 'Teams are trouble, because they're made of people, and people are trouble.'

"Indeed, after the authors give an accounting of all the the things that can go wrong with teaming, the reader might marvel that they still have hope for the process.

"After all, there are so many uncontrollable variables at work just below the surface, not least of which are the hidden agendas of team members. As the authors demonstrate, teaming is actually an extremely complicated, sometimes painful process that can take years to refine.

"This book is for the millions of workers who either volunteered or were enlisted by a team, gave their honest best to the cause, and then wondered why."

RECOMMENDATION: FOR ALL PUBLIC LIBRARY BUSINESS COLLECTIONS. -- Library Journal



WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK: What Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right

by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley; Pacesetter Books (221 pages, $21.95).

----->"Finley is a business columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Robbins is a clinical psychologist. If that sounds like a dangerous combination, you're right.

"But this book is a masterpiece of explanatory journalism. It does exactly what the title says. Work teams are a good idea, but the people who implement them usually have no idea how to lead one, and team members are not supplied with the training to do their jobs.

"The failure of teams has not been a failure of a system, but the failure of people. As Finley says:

'Downsizing forced a false introduction of teams to industry in this country -- it was a kind of Trojan horse that looked great on the outside, with its promises of empowerment and re-engineered process. But inside was the enemy of teams everywhere -- reduced resources and diminished job security.'"

- John Bicknell, New Orleans Times Picayune, Knight-Ridder Newspapers


----->"The secret's out: Many organizations have turned to a team structure and waited for the magic that never came.

"Robbins and Finley explain what goes wrong and what to do about it. The main problem is that teams are made up of humans, each of whom is unpredictable and has his or her own agenda.

"The authors start at the beginning with the stages teams go through, how teammates can work together most effectively, team monsters and how to deal with them, how to ratchet up group productivity, and more. With its slant on the psychological, this one's a gem."
Soundview Hands-On Reviews


WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK has been nominated for BEST BUSINESS BOOK of the year in the GLOBAL BUSINESS BOOK AWARDS competition.

It was also named "One of the best 30 business books of 1995" by Soundview Executive Summaries.

It is an alternate selection for Macmillan Business Book Club.
And a Portuguese-language version will be published next year!



To order WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK, call Peterson's/Pacesetter Books of Princeton, NJ, at 1-800-338-3282, and ask for ISBN #1-56079-497-6. Or special order it from your bookseller using that number.

WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK, being a hardcover title, may have to be special ordered. Or order from Peterson's WWW site: Peterson's Education Center You can even order it from Soundview Hands-On Reviews.



To contact Mike Finley ... mfinley@mfinley.com


Visit Amazon.com

"A masterpiece of explanatory journalism!" - New Orleans Picayune
"Fast, funny, and highly stimulating!" -Business Book Review

Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!
Get your signed copy of
The NEW Why Teams Don't Work
by Mike & Harvey Robbins
from Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Just click on the book cover!

Click Here!

HOME | ALL STORIES