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Note to consultants who want a book about your successes: Either write the book in the first person or hire someone to write the book about you.

The story that The Pursuit of Something Better should be concentrating on is the story of Jack Rooney and the transformation of US Cellular. But often the writing gets in the way.

The authors are also characters in their own book. They write about themselves in the third person. When you see a reference to "Kruger," you can be sure of two things. The person referred to is author Myra Kruger, describing herself in a kind of literary out-of-body experience. And she will be doing something wonderful, never something ordinary.

In most cases, that would be reason enough to recommend that you simply pass the book by. But there's a lot of value here, even if you have to slog through the mud of self-aggrandizement and muddled prose to fish it out.

First there is the basic story of Jack Rooney and the transformation of US Cellular. When he took over at US Cellular they were a small, mostly rural cell phone company that made most of their money by charging roaming fees when customers of their larger rivals strayed into their service area.

When Rooney took over at US Cellular in 2000 it could have been a poster child for everything you've ever hated about every cell company you've ever had. He came to the job with a good track record, especially at Ameritech.

Within four years, things had changed. That was when local number portability first allowed cell customers to switch carriers and keep their phone number. The analysts figured that smaller carriers, like US Cellular would suffer the most.

Most of them did. US Cellular was an exception. The new US Cellular, working on Rooney's own concept called the "Dynamic Organization" gained more customers than it lost.

The Dynamic Organization, like many good strategies, is both simple and rooted in common sense. Rooney thinks that customer satisfaction should be the main goal of a business. He thinks that satisfied workers and effective leaders are the way to achieve customer satisfaction.

The company puts it this way: "effective leaders create satisfied associates, who in turn deliver outstanding customer service that produces profitable business results. Leaders provide the tools and training to our front-line associates, who are empowered to make the best decisions on behalf of our customers. We're guided by our core values of customer focus, respect for associates, ethics, pride, empowerment and diversity."

It seems to be working. US Cellular is now the fifth largest mobile phone company is the US. It consistently shows well in both call quality and customer satisfaction surveys.

The story of how Rooney and US Cellular got from there to here has lots of value for any businessperson contemplating or in the midst of a corporate culture change. There's also value in the details about the transformation process, Rooney's own leadership style, communication, rewards, dealing with recalcitrants, and more. You'll get lots of small take-aways, as well as the big picture.

The problem with the book is that it's harder to mine that value than it should be. This is clearly a "we're great, hire us" book published by the authors to grow their business. That's not a problem in itself. There are lots of high value books out there written by consultants who share their triumphs.

But this book is not worthy of the story of US Cellular or even of the authors' part the company's triumph. It's slap-dash. Sometimes the authors write about the past in the present tense. Sometimes they use the past tense. Sometimes there's enough consult-speak to gag a goat. Sometimes the story moves right along.

Things like that bother me because I write a lot. They may or may not bother you.

The big problem is that this story should be about US Cellular and Jack Rooney. It's a good story and worth telling. But on far too many occasions it seems like the story of the consultants and their magical powers.

Bottom Line: Buy The Pursuit of Something Better if you want insight into a significant corporate change. Buy it if you want to know more about how supporting your people can improve service and results. Just be prepared to work a little to get the value from your purchase.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.