{ "item_title" : "Chronicles of a Task Manager", "item_author" : [" Philip Boahen "], "item_description" : "Nobody explains how to be a task manager. You are appointed by email, usually in one sentence, usually on a Tuesday, and by the afternoon you are answerable for procurement schedules, ministerial timetables, environmental safeguards and a project coordinator who has gone to the field and cannot be reached.Chronicles of a Task Manager is a funny and honest insider's account of one of the least understood jobs in international development. That is the person who turns a funding decision into a road, an irrigation scheme or a livelihood. Usually they do it without formal authority, against impossible deadlines, and with a document named Final Final Last Version.Philip Boahen is an agricultural economist who has spent his career designing and managing development projects across Africa. He takes readers inside the work that rarely makes it into official reports: the mission program revised four times before takeoffthe demonstration plot eaten by goatsthe milling plant reported ninety percent complete and standing emptythe irrigation canal redesigned because nobody had accounted for elephantsAcross four parts (Becoming, The Work, Surviving and What It All Meant), the book covers: the accidental way most people become task managersleading teams who don't report to yousurviving field missions and death by PowerPointpleasing everyone, which is impossiblekeeping your sanity during implementationburnout and boundariesthe moments that make it all worthwhileIt closes with a letter to the new task manager and a plain-language field guide to the jargon.This is not a book of complaints. Beneath the humor are practical lessons on judgment, relationships, resilience and respect for local knowledge. It is also a reminder that development is ultimately a human enterprise. The reward is the borehole that ends a six-kilometer walk, or the farmer's son who comes home to farm.Who it's for: New professionals at development banks, UN agencies, NGOs and government ministries will find the guidance nobody gave them.Experienced practitioners will recognize themselves on every page.Readers curious about how aid and development really work will get a rare, candid view from the inside.The work does not become easier. You become better.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/79/816/137/9798161370834_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "17.99", "online_price" : "17.99", "our_price" : "17.99", "club_price" : "17.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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