Managing accomplishment, especially cooperative enterprises, is demanding. When all goes well, humankind can build the Great Pyramid and keep the Mir Space Station aloft. But when cooperative, collective enterprises fail; depressions, famine, widespread poverty and dark ages ensue. Much depends on the quality of a nation's managers.
The Zen Manager begins by realistically describing the stakes of the game, the challenges and adversity, and the risks posed by the ever present playing conditions of reality, always ready to foil human endeavor, no matter how well inspired. Sometimes reality is too much for even the best human efforts.
The first key to an effective strategy to counter hard reality is learning how to manage you. The Zen Manager teaches the discipline of the natural mind and explains the paths that lead to Zen Mastery. A special chapter is devoted to strategy and tactics as the language and method of accomplishment.
Using the approach of the natural way, the classic concerns of management are considered in turn, from planning, organizing, and control, to the higher callings of the sage, the overseer, and the leader. Special attention is given to the business of handling and developing other people, the people who work for you, with you, around you, and above you.