Graham Andrewartha has written a very useful addition to this literature. It is written as a nontechnical guide to help individuals and, above all, working groups to understand their own communication behaviors and to observe, value and adjust to the behaviors of others. The thesis of the book is that this process of building awareness of your own style, and observing and matching your style to that of others (without seeking to abdicate your own) provides major benefits for the individual, the working group and, as a result, the organization.

Like all such guides, the book can be used by itself and by a single individual. With persistence, an individual can obtain value in this way, and the book contains a wealth of good examples and exercises to assist in the process. However, the greatest benefit derives from a working group using the material in a planned way, guided by a skilled mentor and facilitator, "who can also make connections to related factors such as the influence of personal values on communication and response". The book is clearly derived from the experience of the author in this role.

The book is in three parts. The first introduces the issues, identifies the benefits of better communication, and explores the factors that contribute to good (and bad) communication. Particular attention is paid to the importance of clarifying your own purpose, observing and understanding the style of the other(s) and matching not only the message content but your voice tone and body language to their style and expectations. Towards the end of Part 1 the author introduces 'seven evolutionary patterns', each of which is a continuum between alternate styles of observable behavior which derive from our evolutionary experience.

Part 2 goes into the detail of these seven observable patterns of preference. they are:

• Timing: from 'rapid' to 'gradual'
• Emphasis: a tendency to exaggerate or understate
• Thinking: linear or lateral
• Focus: concept or detail
• Evaluation: self-evaluator or other -evaluator
• Relationship: initiator or responder
• Perceptual system: visual, auditory or experiential.

For each dimension the book offers a simple self-diagnosis tool, followed by a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of each extreme, stories and case studies of the interaction between extremes, and exercises. The exercises are designed to improve understanding and the reader's ability to operate effectively with those with a preference elsewhere on each continuum. Note that the self-diagnosis questions in the book are indicative but not statistically validated. Readers can complete a validated questionnaire and receive (for a modest fee) a detailed report on their own style by going to the author's site.

From these seven dimensions, the book also identifies a preferred leadership style (in Part 3) and provides an overview of the observable characteristics of each, and its strengths and weaknesses.

There are many systems, and even more books, devoted to the same end of improving ability to work with difference and personal and team effectiveness. They are mostly complementary, offering somewhat different perspectives on the same phenomenon and somewhat different roads to improvement.

For example, the author's system, which is concerned directly with observable behavior preferences, differs from the well-known MBTI system based on Jungian personality traits, but there are recognizable similarities between the two. Both are complementary with and overlap to some extent with the Belbin approach to team role preferences and to working in groups.

Similarly, all these systems for understanding and working with preference combine well with deliberate use of the tools for selecting between styles of conversation and managing skilled conversation - see for example Senge et al: The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (sections on mental models and team learning) and Isaacs. W.: Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together.

Consistently good communication between individuals and within and between groups is both rare and, when achieved, provides an extremely powerful road to personal and organizational success. be understood or be overlooked is a valuable addition to the guides to better communication, with the particular advantage that it is written in simple and direct language around situations that are directly experienced.