Best of Books

When Stress Is the Problem, This Is the Solution

A Summary of Slack by Tom DeMarco

Image: rainbow slinky by Clare Black/Flickr

I first recommended Tom DeMarco’s Slack a few months ago in my Best of Books newsletter (and also mentioned it in this blog post). Here’s my original description of it, edited slightly with some line breaks:

Slack is “the degree of freedom required to effect change.” This concept is key as more businesses and managers emphasize breakthrough creativity and innovation.

Efficiency is the natural enemy of slack, because keeping people efficient — 100% busy — means they have to process work before being able to address new work. This is fine for one employee, but if each employee’s lack of availability creates this lag, organizations tremendously slow down.

Instead of considering slack purely as a wellness perspective, which is also important, DeMarco proposes that it’s an investment in an organization’s own reinvention and human capital.

As with all investments, a penny saved is not a penny earned. When stress is the problem, slack is the solution.

I really enjoyed this book, and understood a lot more about why the way I approached and structured work was creating unnecessary stress. Whether you’re at a corporation or working for…