Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have always enjoyed Ken Blanchard's management books because they deliver simple and straightforward management principles in an easy-to-learn style. For example, The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey is a classic of proper delegation.
Unfortunately, the Last Minute Manager was not up to the usual standards of this series. The book was not compelling and did not really teach the reader a solution to the problem of procrastination.
*The basic problem was that the book did not have a simple system to teach. Though the system was called The Three P's these were really headings for a complex variety of questions, ideas and principles that made the execution process more complex than it needed to be. The fact that the third "P" started with C was a bit jarring. The book claimed this was a mnemonic device but I see it more as an symptom of the fact that the whole model needed more work.
*The main character is a doofus. I didn't find myself cheering for his success, I simply found myself annoyed with him. The descriptions of him as "Bob the last-minute Manger", "Bob the suddenly-surprised Manager", "Bob the newly-focused Manager" etc were also annoying.*The book had too much theory and not enough tactics. It presented you with high levels questions and ideas about your priorities but it was light on examples of how to use them. For example it shows you a "triage" form but we never see Bob use it.
*There were no examples of how Bob the-highly-annoying Manager used his new found skills to improve his work or productivity. The book did not clearly tie the process in the book to the problem of lateness, poor-quality, and stress.
There is definitely room for a Blanchard book on the problem of time management. I'm afraid that I can't recommend this one. Instead I recommend "First Things First" by Steven Covey for those struggling with this issue. It is much more work to read, but I think it solves the problems that afflict Bob in this story in a more straightforward manner.
Finally there is a pet peeve. Why do all these management book use married men as examples of people who need to be fixed? I agree that the problem of choosing a sex for someone with a problem is vexing, and its most likely that married men will be the least likely to complain. That said, I think there is room for some originality in this realm. The work world has a much wider constituency than married men named "Bob". I hope we see it reflected in future books.
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