Boom! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-As-Usual

HR consultant and author of 13 bestselling business books Carol Hacker reviews the book Boom! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-As-Usual by Drs. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg. Review highlights the choices employers must make to create a workplace environment that works for both employees and customers.

Dr. Kevin and Jackie Freiberg are out to make a difference! They are the co-authors of the international bestsellers, Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Successand Guts!: Companies that Blow the Doors off Business-as-usual.
Boom!: 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-As-Usual addresses the problem of a disengaged workforce and an epidemic of indifference. While there is a substantial amount of material, it reads quickly because it engages the reader immediately. It also has great photographs, graphics, and quotations to break up the text.

The authors describe their book as “a wakeup call for every person who wants to make a difference and every business leader who wants to change the DNA of an organization doing business as usual.” They have definitely succeeded in their goal; they successfully move the reader from a “life stuck in neutral to the freedom of seeing work as an exciting and passionate adventure.”

This book is about creating a workplace environment that your employees are drawn to and your customers walk away from feeling energized and eager to do business with you again and again. It’s a cross between a self-help book and a business guide for HR professionals, managers, supervisors, and business owners. This valuable resource will help you meet the challenges and experience the rewards associated with your freedom to choose. The authors believe that choices determine whether you become a person who is indispensable or one who is rarely missed.

My favorite quote from the book “There is an adventure with your name on it, waiting for you to step in and assume your role.” (Page 241)
The seven chapters, entitled “Choices” provide the reader with plenty of thought-provoking ideas for how to become a force for positive change in the lives of others:

Choice #1 Be a Player, Not a Bystander
Choice #2 Be Accountable
Choice #3 Choose Service Over Self-Interest
Choice #4 Your Future Isn’t in the Rearview Mirror
Choice #5 Play to Your Genius
Choice #6 Get It Done
Choice #7 Risk More – Gain More

This book is definitely successful in moving toward solving the problem. It’s a call-to-action type of book that’s jam-packed with reminders as well as new ideas for taking accountability and sharing what we know, and some of who we are, with the people in our lives. I liked the energy brought forth in this book! It has dozens of real-life examples to support their points. I also liked the way the graphics were integrated with the text.

Weak Points: Three of the seven “choices” had self-assessment surveys at the end of the chapter. After answering the questions the readers are supposed to be able to tell where they fit into their work environment. I didn’t find this kind of “pop psychology” helpful or necessary. I would have eliminated it and used the pages for more information on the subject matter for each of those chapters.

As a writer myself, I didn’t like the jacket cover. I thought it did little to entice the buyer to pick up the book and flip through it, much less purchase it. The content of the book is great. However, if a friend hadn’t read it first and told me about it, I probably would not have read it. If you can see beyond the cover, it’s definitely a worthwhile read. And of course, if you are familiar with the authors’ other two bestsellers, you know what you will be getting in this book – more of the same.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Carol Hacker is an HR consultant and seminar leader who ranks among the experts in the field of recruiting and retention issues. For more than two decades, she’s been a significant voice in front-line and corporate HR management to small businesses as well as Fortune 100 companies. She’s the author of thirteen highly-acclaimed business books including the bestsellers, Hiring Top Performers-350 Great Interview Questions For People Who Need People and 450 Low-Cost/No-Cost Strategies for recognizing, rewarding & retaining good people. Carol can be reached at 770-410-0517 or carol@carolahacker.com.