Breaking the Mould

Thanks for yet another jewel on performance management, Peter!
Your book 'Breaking the Mould' reaches me so deeply that I have stopped halfway to be able to reflect on its rich messages thus far
-Evelyn Samuel.

A Brilliant book "Breaking the Mould" by Peter Hunter
When I first read Peter's book, I liked the way it was put together, the lead into the story, the travelling into the story, the meetings, the observed problems with the personalities, and part of the draw, part of the need to read the rest of the book was the thought, “How on earth could somebody sort this mess out?”
The solution is revealed nicely, and appears to be very simple, although I don't think it is as simple as it appears! Once it is revealed, you cannot get over the feeling, the urge to wade in somewhere and try it out yourself.
I am very impressed with the "philosophy" if that's the right term for it, Peter has a deep insight into people, and is prepared to share it This is a fantastically insightful book regarding the working environment.
A "must read" book for any manager, boss or employee.
Do yourself a favour, add this to your Amazon wish list now!"
-Tony Hine

I've read your book and enjoyed it immensely
It reminded me more of the James Herriott / Year in Provence style than a management textbook. Regards
-John Couldstone, Capita Learning and Development.

I have read your book and I wrote these notes:

• Peter Drucker said that, from Pappin’s invention of the steam engine in 1680 to modern era, organizations had been based on energy flows from the top downward.
Leaders would get those under them to focus their energy on doing certain things. Now, Drucker says, they are based on information flows. What you did was let information flow upward. You got the workers to teach the leaders.

• You changed organizations from hierarchies where the top people order, to the self-forming structure, where lower people form the organization build the organization upward.

• Your style is alive: the narrative is vivid and simple. Boileau, the French writer, said that he who writes well must first think well. You’ve thought well and written well. Congratulations.

• The greatest change you’ve brought about are in how workers use their minds.
Metacognition is “thinking about thinking”. It's a way of controlling thought to get something done. One thinks about their opinions, prejudices, assumptions, how they solve problems, how they learn and so on. Metacognition is useful to find out how to learn better and to solve problems better. And so, it’s very powerful in the hands of workers.
What you’ve taught the workers was to think about what they are doing. They do it better and are more conscious of what they do. And doing this, they can improve their work.
Metacognition can start with a check list, or a simple plan on how to deal with a problem or just keeping a log book. The greatest thing metacognition does is to get the student or worker to go from a passive, obedient attitude to an attitude of action, continual improvement and exploration. This can’t help but improve productivity.

All the best with the book and business,
-John, Rome

This book was recently gifted to me by my friend. He has been insisting me to read it for last three years. But, I was lazy and not interested. So, now when he just gifted to me, I was caught,
I had to read it. And so I read it.

The book was about the ‘Change Management’. I have myself seen, lot of consultancy projects going on in the companies I worked for. Normally, they are at the top and middle management levels. And rarely at lower management or operator level.
Above all, I never saw actual results being delivered. So, according to me all these change management drives were nothing more than lip service.

With these preconceived notions, under compulsion I picked up this book. But, there was one relief, very small size of the book. So, I started reading. And found its about oil rigs. Now, oil rigs are greek to me. Still, I carried on. And after 20 pages, my interest started building up. Though I was not able to visualize the exact actions going on the rig, but I could very well correlate the attitude and feelings of human beings with the operators in the production department, where I worked.

I carried on. There was one story, then there was another. In each story, there was one technique of change management was described. It was all beautiful and vivid description.

The best part about the stories I liked was the actual results the methodology delilvered and these were the real life stories, not the cooked one’s.

At the end of the book, I was just wondering that ‘Why I didn’t read this book 3 years ago?’ I am sure, had I read it three years ago, it would have helped me and the environment around me in a substantial manner. After I read it, I just called my friend who gifted the copy to me, and apologized for not taking his advice and reading it since last 3 years.

Now, I recommend this book, to all the professionals (irrespective of the field), who want to make the working environment around them to be more conducive and efficient. And if you don’t read this book now, and do read it later on, and you remember my advice, then do mail me and apologize.
-Prabal Aggarwal