Customer Reviews

Make It So: Leadership Lessons from Star Trek the Next Generation

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a die-hard Star Trek fan I really enjoyed this book. I think the authors got a real feel for speaking through Jean Luc Picard. The only reason I'm not giving this book a full 5 stars is because of the unnecessary and boring forwards that come at the beginning of every chapter. We don't need to be told at the beginning of the chapter what a great leader Picard is, we find this out from reading the chapter content itself. Also, I'm not sure how someone who is totally unfamilar with Star Trek would respond to this book.

Overall, as someone who has owned two businesses and now teaches, I found much of the advice very helpful, and this book is a great way to re-experience and get a different perspective on some ultra popular Star Trek episodes. I definitely recommend this book to any Star Trek fan whose is interested in not only becoming a better leader, but also performing better in the work place. You're Amazonian friend, Aurkid.

Especially insightful if you are familiar with Star Trek. Each of the lessons picks up an episode and speaks to the leadeship exhibted by the crew of the Enterprise. Easy to read, simple to understand. Check it out!

This book is great for Star trek fans AND for those who have never seen an episode. All the back ground information is available for understanding. But more importantly the book offers prudent leadership lessons and ideas for one to think about and build on. This book really builds a foundation for "outside of the box" thinking.

I bought this book based on how much I love Star Trek. Big mistake. It's not at all insightfull, or true to the spirit of Star Trek.

Each chapter is mostly a summary of a particular episode, written from the perspective of Captain Picard. Disapointingly, the account doesn't sound at all like Picard, and doesn't add anything that we didn't see in the episode.

At the end of each chapter 'Picard' gives a few dot points on leadership. But these sound like generic managerial 'rah rah'...

Really bad book.

This book is so totally unnecessary. And any connections to Star Trek is barely coincidental. It's really a book about being a corporate manager and following corporate rules and procedures and how to be a good little corporate boy. The authors have no background in writing any other Star Trek books. Wess Roberts wrote another book similar to this with Attila the Hun and other "advice" books. Trekkies, don't be fooled by the title or the cover.

This was an entertaining book, combining my love of ST:TNG and my professional career. As an IT project manager, I'm always seeking new ways to understand my job and my people. There are valid business lessons to be gleaned from the stories. It is an easy read, fun to see how the basic concept is wrapped around the context of a particular episode.

I was excited to see this book about one of the most skilled leaders (albeit fictional) I've ever observed. Each episode of Star Trek TNG it seems has extremely valuable lessons in leadership. Over the years, these lessons have added up to a huge knowledgebase of situational leadership. However, this book did not really capture the essence of Picard's leadership skills, nor even provide an entertaining read. It is written in the first person-- which is just plain odd to read -- as Picard makes entries in his personal log explaining why he is the leader he is. I think Picard explaining his leadership philosophy is what really kills this book. I suggest just watching the TV series in re-runs and drawing your own conclusions about the leadership lessons of Picard. This book is fun for the bookshelf, but it won't unlock any key insights into the art of leadership.

When I read that this bookm was coming out, I was extremely excited. I have always thought that the Picard character was a wonderful model of a leader. I also have received much from other management books using metaphor.

When I purchased the book I was very disappointed. The topics were obvious at best. I was expecting the author to draw conclusions based on many episodes. Instead, only a handfull of episodes were covered.

Maybe it's just me, but I found the "leadership lessons" in this book painfully obvious... one does not need to be a born leader to understand, for example, that "if one fails to listen to what another is saying, one will often fail to properly respond to what has been said".

Additionally, I found the Star Trek metaphor used rather clumsily, from the continual references to "the Starfleet" (which got on my Trek nerd nerves) to the ending of each entry with "Make it so". I would have preferred more insight into leadership and less attempts to sound like Picard.

While this book was pleasant to read, I simply do not find it that useful. One would be advised to look for leadership lessons in the past (perhaps from Confucius or Sun Tzu), rather than in a fictitious 24th century.

Although I enjoyed Roberts's previous book in this genre (Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun), I found this book tedious and disjointed. The sorry retelling of some Star Trek episode in each chapter seemed flat and the lessons drawn from it arbitrary.

This is one of those books that strikes someone as a good idea -- and maybe it is. But the implementation is lacking. Maybe "Perseverance" and "Judgment" will be chapter titles in some future tome.

Annoying, but not fatal, is the complete lack of understanding of military organization and language by the authors. There is only one commanding officer on a vessel; Riker is no one's commanding officer. Particulary egregious is the "Make it so" that comes at the end of each chapter:

Indeed, competence is a force mulitplier. Make it so.

Indeed, the sky is blue. Make it so.