BOOK REVIEW - GETTING REAL: THE BOOK

I recently finished reading “Getting Real: the book”, a book from 37signals. I would highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in seeing how a company has successfully implemented business processes that work for them. The authors are quick to note that this isn’t a recipe for success, or a one size fits all philosophy. Their concept of “Getting Real” is all about reducing. Reducing time wasted in meetings or time spent on deliverables that don’t get you closer to a finished product.

Anyone who is familiar with 37signals or their blog, Signal v. Noise, will recognize a lot of the content in the book. It seems that a lot of the concepts, if not the text, was culled from their posts on Signal v. Noise. At first I felt like that cheapened the book, but after getting through the whole book, I appreciate it because it’s a compact resource that is organized into a cohesive book. Of course I could spend hours searching through the archives to find information and posts about particular “Getting Real” concepts, but I think that Jason and the 37signals crew have given us a great example of “Getting Real” by giving us an affordable, valuable resource that doesn’t try to do too much.