Move Your Bus
Ron Clark
192 pages
hard copy edition
From the Publisher:
New York Times bestselling author and award-winning educator Ron Clark applies his successful leadership principles to the business world in this effective and accessible guidebook, perfect for any manager looking to inspire and motivate his or her team. Includes a foreword by bestselling author and FranklinCovey executive Sean Covey.
Teamwork is crucial to the success of any business, and as acclaimed author and speaker Ron Clark illustrates, the members of any team are the key to unlocking success. Imagine a company as a bus filled with people who either help or hinder a team’s ability to move it forward: drivers (who steer the organization), runners (who consistently go above and beyond for the good of the organization), joggers (who do their jobs without pushing themselves), walkers (who are just getting pulled along), and riders (who hinder success and drag the team down). It’s the team leader’s job to recognize how members fall into these categories, encourage them to keep the “bus” moving by working together, and know when it’s time to kick the riders off.
In the tradition of Who Moved My Cheese? and Fish!, Move Your Bus is an accessible and uplifting business parable that illustrates Clark’s expert strategies to maximize the performance of each member of a team. These easy to implement techniques will inspire employees and team leaders alike to work harder and smarter and drive the organization to succeed.
Review:
A little bit of background before I tell you about this book:
The elementary school that my middle kids attend has adopted a “house system” similar to Harry Potter, is the easiest way for me to explain this. I might have talked about it on here before, I’m not sure. We are huge fans of this system and think it’s pretty awesome. The kids are mixed into seven different houses – each has a different color, a different animal and each house stands for a different characteristic. The kids all have tee shirts that match their houses and they wear them every Friday. We even have house points – and a trophy! I am have been lucky enough to be involved as a “house mom” to one of these groups, we are the Fidus house, we are teal, gorillas and we stand for responsibility, dependability, and accountability. We meet each Friday for a lesson, or games, and it’s been SUCH a cool program…I really could go on and on about it. We kinda LOVE the house system! Back to this book – one of the reasons that we adopted this house system is because of Ron Clark and his academy. Last year and this year – a group of our teachers have gone to the academy and seen how it works…I’ve heard it’s like Disneyland for teachers. It would be SO cool to see!
So I could kinda go on and on about this program, but this summer while I had some extra time (insert crazy laugh, because I NEVER have extra time)…I decided to read through some of Ron Clark’s books. We use his one book, The Essential 55, for our lessons on Fridays and I wanted to have a better understanding of what he was all about. Amazon had a bundle deal, so I grabbed a couple of his books. I really enjoyed them all..but Move Your Bus is one that I really loved and has given me so much to think about and apply in my life.
Basically there are 4 kinds of people in life. This book is applied more towards business, and school, but I think you can see it in any organization or even group of friends. There are Runners, Joggers, Walkers and Riders. The book was fascinating to read and think about who I know and where they would fit into these categories. It was even more interesting to think about where I fit into these categories. It has been interesting to learn from this book and apply it to relationships and how I treat people and see the different results that I get. Clark is easy to read, has a funny sense of humor, and is a good storyteller. And most of all I love that he is SO positive!
“A positive conversation brings positive results. It can empower everyone around you.” Ron Clark, p.90
If you lead a group of people, in the workforce, in church or any type of group and are interested in learning how to get your team to move along and encourage them I suggest giving this book a try. All of Ron Clark’s book that I read this summer were good and I enjoyed them all, but this one has been most helpful in my life right now. Learn what type of bus riders you have, lead your team, and move your bus! I loved it!
Final Score:
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