A review by vtchris
QBQ! the Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability at Work and in Life by John G. Miller

2.0

This book was given to each new-hire in the IT department in my organization. I was interested to read it given that I liked books such as Who Moved My Cheese, and the One Minute Manager.

This however. Ugh, where to begin.

This is about going the extra mile, whatever it takes, no excuses!

What really annoys me about it is that two employees are held up as shining examples: front-line workers that pay (out of their own pockets) for something in order to please a customer. One off anecdotes that make a nice story but would be impractical for these employees to repeat on any regular basis, nor should they be expected to do so.

Okay, maybe if you had management buy-in to back you up... but I refer you back to the prior statement: no excuses! These are things the reader is encouraged to do on their own even without management buy-in... for every customer.

Always go the extra mile, even if you're paying out of pocket...

The author states that it is okay to 'define boundaries' so you don't end up doing other peoples work for them (p100)... there is NO discussion about how to achieve this balance in a 'no excuses' manner.

No discussion on unreasonable expectations that may be created with your customers... expectations that your co-workers may not be able to match next time.

No discussion about the burn-out that can happen when you're work queue gets longer and longer as you catch more attention (even the author returns to the same restaurant and asks for the same server again... this isn't hypothetical... this is what happens... I have been there.)

For myself, a phrase from a different book made all the difference: Do a good job because you want to, not because you have to. This puts you in charge instead of your boss. Notice there is no requirement to pay anything out-of-pocket (nor a limitation preventing you from doing this, it's YOUR choice.)

On a parting note with QBQ:

Chapter 37: We Buy Too Many Books

I couldn't agree more!