How to Read The People Zoo DOC

My first book, The Business Zoo, was intended as a primer for people moving up in organizations. It reviewed through short, fun stories, the major activities of business such as selling and human resources as well as covered critical events that occur along your path such as mergers and crisis management. Its overriding and concluding theme was the unique role that a firm’s culture and leadership has on its success or failure and especially on its people. That book ended with a quote that Business may be a Zoo, but it is also a giant circle of people. Which brings us to The People Zoo. This book will go into more depth on the key aspects of how people deal with their organizations and each other. And we will drill into the impact that these activities have on an individual’s personal life. We will look at how we learn, grow and lead, and how we deal with crises, failures, transitions and exits along the way. This book is much more personal and focuses on my own stories: some good and some bad. This is not meant to be an autobiography but rather an attempt to guide others by showing situations that were embarrassing and/or extremely stressful, in my own career. And in some stories, I may come out looking good, but there will be other ones where I believed I failed or let others down. We will also focus in on the important subject of mentoring. There will be stories on how I benefited, at a critical moment in my career, from the efforts of others. And, a series of stories where, hopefully, I helped others advance. Since leadership is such a critical people activity, we will look at it in several chapters and by examining some larger than life leaders who make a return engagement by popular demand. We also have a chapter named, transitions and exits. People are constantly faced with these events and we will try to bring some light to these sometimes dark and often stressful occurrences. The last chapter has a strange name, circles and bridges. Here we will look at two things: developing a personal philosophy for your career and your life; a moral compass, so to speak, and learning to read signs and connect with others. Hopefully readers will find lessons in this array of people stories to help them along their own path. To help tell these stories, I am reaching back over the past millennia to seek guidance and wisdom from our country's Native Americans or First People. These people endured terrible conditions from nature and their fellow mankind. The early people knew that without guidance and values, people behave badly and chaos will occur. Their trials and deeds can provide us with critical wisdom, even in our current uncertain times. I have read a lot about our First People and have gained increasing admiration and respect for them. The conditions in which they lived were severe. But, they had the same challenges we do with governing, establishing leadership and maintaining culture. Hopefully the reader will appreciate their contribution as well. And, as in The Business Zoo, all of these stories actually happened, although some are even hard for me to believe. So that’s what you can expect in The People Zoo!