Book Summary Preview : Moose on the Table

The Big Idea

Have you heard of the ‘Moose-on-the-Table’ metaphor? The moose symbolizes a communications problem that grows larger, breeds and increases the size of the herd when left unaddressed. Failure to address "moose issues" results in waste and additional work, reduced productivity, workplace accidents, and plummeting morale. They cripple workplaces across the globe, sapping energy from staff and weakening entire organizations. Does your team or organization have moose?

This book explores the fear-courage continuum through the struggles and experiences of the central character, Pete Leonard. Moose on the Table is one manager’s story of finding and overcoming fear, one little step at a time.

Why You Need This Book

In this “edutaining” organizational fable, you'll get realistic scenarios and solutions, showing how individuals and organizations should address communication issues that cost organizations millions or even billions of dollars in wasted effort every year.

This book will help everyone at all levels within an organization deal with the moose around the office.

Running on Empty

Thanks to the poor health, poor relationships, and poor choice of career path being suffered by our protagonist Pete, he’s going through the lowest moments of his life. He’s been diagnosed with high cholesterol levels and constantly elevated blood pressure, and to make things worse he’s fifty pounds overweight. He rarely gets to see his wife and his kids have been stubborn and immovably ill-natured.

In a recent conversation with his boss, the Senior Vice-President of client services at Newton-Millbank Tech Services, Pete’s been informed that trust and communication has been really quite low in the operations department of a certain division – a division he heads.

Morale is down very low; as a result, absenteeism is rife and client service levels are down the drain. Pete’s challenge is to get his people to start talking to each other and communicate more and better, or else they all might drown together when the ship finally sinks.

As Pete’s doctor explains, research is now showing that a person’s emotional state is a major factor in heart disease and a host of other illnesses; a study of over ten thousand heart-attack victims from dozens of countries shows that in the year before their heart attack, most were under much higher levels of stress from work, family, financial, and other factors than a comparable control group.

After having heard this, Pete decides that he really needs to get his life in order.

The Call of the Riled

A client service management meeting is set for Pete’s group to address the reasons why their sales are in free-fall. During the meeting, the following reasons were determined:

• Delayed decision making
• Lack of accountability
• Lack of urgency
• Lack of openly sharing information
• Departmentalism and turf wars

During the meeting, it becomes apparent how laid-back Pete’s people are. When their boss pushes hard for an explanation as to why a particular project is late or not completed at all, he’s given quiet, monotone explanations, such as factors beyond the control of that group, how hard everyone had been working on it, and how the project was being researched further.

The meeting ends with the boss trying to motivate them to get their act together and start getting along. They really have to start working together as a team.

After the meeting, Pete contemplates on what transpired as he slouches in his chair. Moments later, he goes wide-eyed as he sees what seems to be a large cow or horse nibbling on the lower branches of a small tree. They lock eyes and Pete feels that he’s really beginning to lose it this time.

The Dread POETS Society

After that unsettling meeting, all the staff decide to grab a few drinks and seek solace in what they call the POETS society, the Piss-On-Everything-Till-Sunrise Society, as they humorously refer to their after-work drinking group.

During the session, they try to motivate Pete into finally putting some leadership into the team, and even tell him that despite his obvious failings, he’s still a lot better than their big boss, Doug, the Senior VP who’s apparently just good at kissing up to those above him and kicking down those below.

As it turns out, Pete really used to pull his weight at work (if you’ll pardon the pun). He was the initiator of many growth plans for the company. He made waves as the man behind SCORPIO – an innovative new client service plan and a stunning success by any standard – and became one of the key contributors to NMTS’s steep growth curve.

In the end, Pete is invited to join a workshop and get ideas for leadership improvement. On his way home, strangely enough, he again sees the strange animal he had seen the night before.

 

Want to read the rest of this summary? click here >>