Title: First, Break All the Rules
Author(s): Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
ISBN: 0-684-85286-1
Published: 1999, The Gallup Organization (Simon & Schuster)
Reviewed: March 12, 2010
This book is a discussion of research performed by the Gallup Organization. Specifically, it is the product of two “mammoth research studies” that were run during the last 25 years (from 1999). The surveys asked the questions “What do the most talented employees need from their workplace?” and “How do the world’s greatest managers find, focus, and keep talented employees?”
The authors found that the strength of a workplace can be determined by the answers to 12 questions which “measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees.” The twelve questions can be broken into five areas of focus (described using the analogy of a mountain climb):
Base Camp: “What do I get?”
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
Camp 1: “What do I give?”
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
Camp 2: “Do I belong here?”
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
Camp 3: “How can we all grow?”
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?
The analogy of a mountain climb is appropriate because the lower questions must be met before one can work on the upper ones. The authors state, “the key to building a strong, vibrant workplace lies in meeting employees’ needs at Base Camp and Camp 1. This is where you should focus your time and energy.” Management training in the 90s focused on Camp 2 and Camp 3 while missing significant lapses in Base Camp and Camp 1. Managerial success is, in the opinion shared in this book, found in questions #1-6.
The remainder of the book focuses on what managers can do to ensure success (defined as employees strongly agreeing (5 on a scale of 1-5) with questions #1 through #6. To create this environment, managers must: select based on talent, define the right outcomes, focus on strengths, and find the right fit.
Takeaway Questions:
- Am I focusing on the process or the outcomes?
- Am I focusing on excellence or failure?
- Are my reports in the right role?
- Am I trying to be a catalyst or a controller?
- With whom do I spend most of my time?





Entries (RSS)