| Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | We're going to hurt each other ... It's a fact of life, a cost of doing business. On the bright side, we can reduce the odds. Abandon our no harm, no foul approach to criminal liability, initiate meaningful tort reform by retiring the medical malpractice system, rewrite regulations and corporate policies that outlaw human error, reconsider society's perceptions of both wrongdoers and unjustly injured victims, and teach parents to think differently about their children's mistakes. Marx addresses regulators, attorneys, corporate CEOs, public policy makers, the media, and even parents to show that current social perspectives toward our inherent human fallibility have substantially hindered efforts to make the world a safer place to live. While his observations are primarily about American culture, the lessons are universal. Insightful, bold, and told through often humorous tales, Whack-a-Mole pushes readers to rethink accountability at work, at home, at play. | Average Customer Rating: Dings and whacks - spoken like a lawyer? Whacking the mole is a salty metaphor for what we do to one another, either as individuals or as organizations, when we expect perfection. Whacking can get ugly.
Marx has translated legal and engineering language into a fun read. For this reviewer, what resonates the most is Marx's observation that mole-whacking drives problems underground. He suggests that the way people and systems typically respond to human fallibility could stand some inspection and correction. While predominantly aiming at high-risk environments, like healthcare and airlines, Marx provides examples from many layers of our culture. Draw your own personalized conclusions.
On the contrary side, the flow of the narrative is at times a bit stilted. There also seem to be hidden presuppositions that only the author could adequately illuminate. He didn't.
Should you read it? Does your organization expect perfection? Whack-a-Mole will make you think. | |