Good friends of mine, Stephen and Chris Clement have been working on a new book for the past couple of years. It’s All About Work is now available. Here is why you should buy it.

In 2001, I was introduced to the research of Elliott Jaques, and those of you who know me, describe this research as a near obsession for me. I have collected most of Elliott’s early manuscripts, which, over the decades transformed into more polished writings. One book, in particular, caught my attention, Executive Leadership. It was written almost as a manager’s handbook by Elliott Jaques and Stephen Clement. Elliott and Stephen met during a project with the US Army, under the direction of General Max Thurman. Stephen was assigned to the project from the military side to assist in the compilation and interpretation of data collected during the research period.

Following the US Army project, Elliott was summoned by Sir Roderick Carnegie to travel to Australia to help the CRA Mining Company (now known as Rio Tinto) in its organizational struggles. Because CRA would have access to some of the findings from the US Army project, Max Thurman assigned Stephen Clement to accompany Elliott on his assignment down under.

Knowing that he and Elliott would be spending several months together, parsing data over dinner, Stephen invited his son, Chris Clement to join in the excursion. It was out of these projects, that Executive Leadership was written.

Fast forward a few decades. Elliott passed away in 2003. Stephen Clement is now in private consulting. You can see his client list by reading the testimonials on the cover of their new book, Office Depot, Textron, Con Agra Foods, Ford Motor Company, Pepsi. I can imagine rekindling the conversations between Stephen and Chris revisiting the principles established in Elliott’s research and how they have been applied in both large and small organizations.

While some may think that these principles are only for the large organization, I think they are even more important for the small organization. Standing outside the shadow of this research, Chris Clement has run several small businesses and is able to demonstrate how they apply to the manager in the trenches. Large organizations, when faced with a problem, can throw budget and people at the challenge. Small organizations typically have only one chance to make the right move.

My book Hiring Talent focuses specifically on identifying levels of work in the hiring process. It’s All About Work provides more of the backstory and how levels of work operate in the overall structure of the organization. Here is the link, buy it now – It’s All About Work.