The wide appeal of RPS

Thanks for everyone’s feedback to date on our new #Leadership book: “Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Instant Leadership Solution”. It has been very interesting and humbling to hear your stories on the application of the RPS framework to help in both work and life.

One interesting story that I thought would be of value to share involves a middle school history teacher, Eric, using RPS to help him manage a volunteer project at his local library.

When I was approached by Eric, he shared the story of how he was leading the library sale in his town and that the collation of volunteers he assembled at times had difficulties working effectively. In particular, there was one colleague who was very opinionated and challenging to work with.

This colleague had a specific way of working and did not believe he needed to change – or – in the RPS framework, this colleague is a Rock.

Further Eric shared with me, “I needed to work with this total Rock. After reading the book, I decided to change my working style from Paper to Rock, and make it clear that I had the authority to declare what we needed to do in order to make the sale work. And do you know what? It worked!”

When Eric and I spoke further about it, he relayed that generally he operates as a paper –always seeking consensus – and this worked generally well for the volunteer organization, but not with this particular colleague. So instead of addressing his colleague with his usual style, Eric rather simply and firmly told him that the library board took a decision and mandated Eric to carry out their request to dispose of the books not sold in the Library sale.

"By speaking from a position of authority, my Rock colleague fell into line."


"This was a reaction my Rock colleague didn't expect", Eric said. Normally he would have tried to counter with detailed reasons why this was in the best interest of the group. Unfortunately he was not able to wrap the Rock up with his answers. "My Big Rock reaction was exactly what was needed to get the job done, and fast!", said Eric.

I was delighted to here that we could help Eric out. I was even more pleased that Eric chose to share a review on Amazon. Here is an excerpt from the review:

“This easy and enjoyable book provided me (someone who often-for better or worse-finds himself as part of a team in my work environment or managing people as part of some civic volunteer organizations I participate in) with a number of great insights into how to be a better team member and manager”


Thank you, Eric, for sharing your story.

How do you collaborate with non-hierarchical groups to get things done? We would love to hear from you!

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Interested in learning more? Please check out our book: Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Instant Leadership Solution available now on Amazon.

And / Or follow us on our LinkedIn Business Page or at RPS.Academy

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