The Book They Just, Don't Get It! is about those times when you're trying to tell something to someone and they just don't get it; and what you need to do to transform their resistance into understanding.
If that sounds familiar, it should. Study after study shows us that the two most common problems in business are communications and resistance to change. In other words, most issues and problems in nearly every organization come down the same thing: They Just, Don't Get It!
In our role as change management consultants, we have observed thousands of leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, parents, and vested individuals dance the "I don't get it when they don't get it" tango. They Just, Don't Get It! puts this real-life situation up for discussion using the parable format, illustrated with fun, clever line drawings by Ben Dewey.
They Just, Don't Get It! gives owners, entrepreneurs, and managers insight into the reason their ideas don't get accomplished in the manner they expect; provides some behavioral suggestions that might help achieve those goals in the future; and allows each of us to become aware of our personal responsibility in helping others understand our intentions.
When it seems like they are not getting it, it is our responsibility to look at ourselves and our approach in a different light, suspend our judgment on their inability to understand, and look at the situation as an opportunity to grow, stretch, learn, and teach. Once we discover how best to engage them with the information, we need to believe passionately that they will be able to get it and succeed.
They Just, Don't Get It! provides the reader with personal insight into how to become a better communicator of ideas and an inspired motivator of people, both personally and professionally. So get comfortable, remove those distractions that might not let you focus on what you're reading, and get ready for a story that just might be more about you than it is about them.
They Just, Don't Get It! helps each of us see that when they don't get it, the solution is really with us. As Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
The Authors
Leslie Yerkes is President of Catalyst Consulting Group, a change management consulting firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of Fun Works, and
co-author of 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work (with Dave Hemsath) and Beans (with Charles Decker).
Randy Martin is the owner of martinDESIGN, an advertising and public relations agency, and co-owner of ACE Delivery Network, Inc., an alternative postal system. He is an award-winning television writer-producer-director with more than a dozen local Emmys to his credit.
Ben Dewey is a freelance illustrator and graduate of The Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA). He is the recipient of the CIA's Mary C. Page Traveling Scholarship for the top student of the year) and the Sue Wall Painting Scholarship.
The Reviews BJ Gallagher (Co-Author, A Peacock in the Land of Penguins & Who Are "They" Anyway?) :
"A brilliant topic - with important implications for how we all work and live together. Read it and reap the benefits!"
Geoff Bellman (Author, Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge):
"They Just, Don't Get It! offers a few profound pointers worth building into your life. You will get it when you finish reading this clever little book."
Peter Accorti (Partner, Talan Products):
"In complex times we sometimes overlook simple solutions. This book is entertaining and relevant in its approach to communication."
William Brake (V.P. & General Manager, International Steel Group, Inc.):
"Replacing force and frustration with humility, openness, and responsibility is key. This book illuminates a common problem with powerful insight."
James J. Kennedy (President and Chief Executive Officer, Ohio Mutual Insurance Group):
"This parable easily leads the reader on a journey of discovery. How much easier things would be if we all understood 'IT'."
Debbie McCann (President, Vocon Design, Inc.):
"Every so often, a book comes along that is simple and filled with useful information. This is that book."
Bryan W. Sickbert (Executive Director, Council for Health and Human Service Ministries):
"They Just, Don't Get It! is a fun, yet powerful reminder that personal humility inhabits the soul of great leadership."
Disarmingly simple, surprisingly effective
Here's another one of those books with few words, large type, lots of illustrations, and a whole lot of white space. For those who read "serious" books with full page after full page of text, this may look like a throw-away. They said the same thing about "Who Moved My Cheese" and .best seller!
My forecast is that many people will buy this book like an expensive greeting card to send a message to people who don't get it. Even at a price of twenty bucks (remember inexpensive books?), this book will be purchased in bulk and distributed to all those employees who need to make some ever so subtle shifts in their behavior if they want to survive in the corporate jungle.
The story, as easy to read as a fairy tale, begins with the main character being irritated because other people don't get it. Ever feel that way? Ever NOT feel that way? As the reader is lured through page after page, the tables turn and Main Character has been had by the moral. Sometimes other people don't get it because YOU don't get it! Zap! Right between the eyes when you weren't even looking. The book was well-constructed to set you up and then whack the message right at you.
After you get it, the authors share some normal text explanations of what it all means. They take the fable into management-speak or consultant-speak - your choice - to give the reader the explanation of what they just got. Again, however, the pages are barely filled with ink, so the book is anything but intimidating.
Sound bites. Object lessons. Small, non-threatening. Cute title. Recipe for success.
As a Certified Management Consultant striving to help clients get it, I gained some valuable lessons from this book. I'll think more about the messages of this book next time I interact with people who need to get it. I'd bet you will, too.
__Roger E. Herman, The Herman Group
(Two excerpts) In comments about her book They Just Don't Get It! Changing resistance into understanding, author Leslie Yerkes of Catalyst Consulting Grou wrote the following:
I discovered five behaviors for turning resistance into understanding. The behaviors are like the 'aikido' of communication. It is so simple but these insights run counter to what has been taught and modeled as leadership behavior for decades.
It was the reference to Aikido that caught my eye. For many years now, I've applied the underlying philosophy and practical aspects of Aikido to business activitiesand relationships. (Luckily, I've never had the need to use it in a self-defense situation.) My curiosity was piqued.I have to admit that I very rarely make it all the way through business books. Even the really good ones to me seem to get a bit repetitious, if not monotonous, in what they are trying to tell me. (I like to think that it is because I'm a quick study and can connect-the-dots without having to get to the end, but who knows.) That was not a problem with this book.
Following the story is a more conventional description of the lessons from the story. More than once while reading through this conclusion I thought, Well, of course, that's obvious! But of course, it is only obvious in hindsight. Like most stories with a moral, it takes a good story teller to take the things we should know (and think we know) and make them make sense. --Brett Miller
full review
Brett's Blog
[Two excerpts]They Just Don't Get It! (Changing resistance into understanding) by Leslie Yerkes and Randy Martin is a quick and entertaining read. It is written as a how-to manual, not unlike the top-seller Who Moved My Cheese? I could see it being used to engender discussion within an organization about "changing resistance into understanding."
The important aspect of this book with respect to conflicts is that I must offer to make the change before I can expect you or someone else to make the change. In They Just Don't Get It, the solution is to see that when I think they don't get it, it is really that I have not taken the time to see their point of view and their needs. --Jack Vinson
full review
Jack Vinson's Blog
Approximately 138 pages, this is an easy, one-sitting, read. Jane read it while on her way to visit family in Binghamton. Short, pithy, to the point -- and full of fun. Not to dismiss the value -- no, not at all. This book should be handed out to new employees, everywhere, all the time. Right now -- today. Or, on Monday. But, soon.
One thing we especially liked about this darling little book, was the way Leslie (we assume it was Leslie, she of the Dr. Seuss surname) brought her Mom into the book. Well, Julie's Mom. The story is told from Julie's point of view.
Julie's Mom, as all Moms are, is one smart cookie! Julie's Mom could tell Jane a thing or two about marketing to women, online and off, no doubt. Julie's Mom reminded Julie that as a child, the old Chinese handcuffs game was frustrating, until one figured out that relaxing one's fingers was the ONLY way to get free. And so it is with life.
Full review by Yvonne DiVita Lip-Sticking-Yvonne's daily must-read blog
