Reading List: Move Your Bus

As a newbie teacher in New York City, Ron Clark gained fame for taking a class of low-achieving students and turning them into star pupils whose test scores exceeded those of gifted students. In 2006 he founded his eponymous academy in inner city Atlanta, where his innovative approach continues to inspire students and teachers.

Clark believes that academia and business have a lot in common and that his education approach works equally well outside the classroom. As a good teacher, Clark came up with the visual metaphor of a bus to illustrate his theories and tactics. The bus symbolizes the company. The distance it travels represents the company’s progress, while employees provide the fuel that keeps the bus moving. Of course, a bus needs a driver or the bus goes nowhere. Clark shares the qualities of an effective leader (credibility, reliability, trustworthiness, passion, confidence) and of someone who has a clear vision. By the time he reminds readers that a good driver/leader needs to “clean the windshield,” the bus analogy has, well, run its course.

Move Your Bus is a good primer on management style and technique for newly minted managers and small-business owners, and for employees looking to find their footing or crystallize their roles in a new company. Seasoned business folk will find themselves craving a more advanced curriculum.

by Ron Clark
June; Touchstone; $20