This month's book has a permanent place on my bookshelf. That means I've read it several times over the last couple of years and I find myself, yet again drawn to its pages. The book is Slack by Tom DeMarco and in this current business environment I find its lessons are again very relevant to our success. Tom Demarco defines slack as "-the degree of freedom in a company that allows it to change". As with business alignment its meaning is universal across companies and organizations of all size and industry. In the first part of the book, he focuses on what slack is and how organizations many times sacrifice their ability to change in their unending search for efficiency.

However, it is the middle two sections (out of four) that I believe are the most compelling for the readers of this newsletter. He spends an entire section on the effects of stress on organizations and how it can cause them to not only speed up but also veer off course at the same time. The third section is on change, growth and how businesses learn as the foundation for growing and changing the right way. In this recession, the lessons from these two sections alone can set us apart from our competitors whether we are entrepreneurs or corporate management.

Enjoy the book!