Book Description

Coffee Conversations Ever struggled with poor performing staff and wanted to know the secret of high performance work cultures? Simple, throw out performance appraisals and other punitive performance management processes and introduce Coffee Conversations. It's a no-brainer. A relaxed, casual conversation over a cup of coffee fixes all performance issues and the return on investment is spectacular. That's right, eliminate complex and demotivating control systems, start treating people well, engage them in the decisions that affect their work and empower them to self-manage their own outcomes and the simple secret of high performance will appear. Based on 25 years of practical experience and research by Shane Garland and Dr Grant Donovan, Coffee Conversations explores how high performance work cultures form spontaneously when leaders take time each day to relax with their staff, sip a coffee and discuss better ways of running the business. Unambiguously, managers who do their people work first and their paperwork second, produce the best performance outcomes and the greatest places to work. Coffee Conversations is a storybook of practical examples and supportive data that questions why any organisation would waste precious time and money on expensive and complex leadership training programs, when regular coffee conversations will deliver a trusting work culture and guaranteed performance success. While many leadership books are either full of academic theory, large strategic ideas or curriculum based, directive leadership education, Coffee Conversations is full of short, practical stories from the iconic Australian companies, Qantas and Woolworths, and a myriad of international experiences that will leave you inspired.