Economic-assumptions Books

It's Sunday afternoon. Just finished reading "Equity Checking" and am anxious to apply what I have learned. "Equity Checking" is not only applicable to the corporate environment, but also applicable in every interpersonal relationship. How rarely we stop to think about the assumptions we make; why we make them; and the consequences of making them. Our assumptions about people, devoid of a factual foundation, have a powerful impact on our environments in general, especially our corporate environment. "Equity Checking" gives us information to help us recognize the "filters" through which we process information. These "filters" are at the root of the assumptions we make about people we meet. Bringing those filters into the work environment is unavoidable but manageable with the concepts outlined in "Equity Checking". Dr. Mary Stewart and Gary Topchik bring "Equity Checking" to the reader in an easy-to-understand and straightforward manner. Check it out!

Equity Checking is about expanding communication skills by going beyond personal and/or organizational assumptions. This well organized, easy to read book examines the beliefs, biases and attitudes of the people that make up organizations or groups. Each chapter offers step by step discussion of each concept with plentiful examples that address difficult managerial situations and how to manage them. The examples include: hiring, selecting an employee for special assignment, planning career development, performance appraisal, performance problems and selecting an employee for promotion.

I found the concepts and skills taught basic to any human relationship. I think anyone wanting to take their communication to the next level will find this little primer helpful inspite of its strong business focus.

This is one of a tiny handful of truly useful, insightful, and applicable books in commercial intelligence.

Page 1 has the following line that I continue to cite:

"Top manager's information is invariably either biased, subjective, filtered, or late."

True then, true today, and also applicable in government and in the non-profit world.

Ben Gilad, Babette Bensoussan, Jan Herring, Leonard Fuld, Mats Bjore, Arno Reuser, and Steve Edwards are the only minds that I consider to be at the pinnacle of the profession. No doubt there are others, but these are the ones that in all of my reading, have never, ever, been displaced from the top rank once I understood their work.

Buy this book used, it is a CLASSIC of enduring value. Buy anything published by this brilliant practitioner.