Faster Together

PREFACE

The idea for this book came to me at a leadership team meeting of forty global supply chain leaders, who collectively oversaw ten thousand employees. I was scheduled to present a three-hour workshop titled “How the Effective Leader Spends Time.” About thirty minutes before the meeting started, as people were entering the room, chatting and getting coffee, a man came up to me—to introduce himself, I thought. Instead, without even giving me his name or shaking my hand, he leaned in close to me and spoke in a hiss: “I’m really glad you’re here today. I could be so much more productive if it weren’t for all these people.” He looked pointedly at a few in particular, nodding toward them as if to call them out.

“Ah, this is really why they brought ...