If you’re like most managers and things keep you up at night, now you can turn to a reserve that’s designed especially for you! Nevertheless, you won’t find talking rabbits or princesses here. (There is a cow, but it doesn’t jump.) Henry Mintzberg has culled forty-two of the greatest posts from his broadly read blog page and switched them into a deceptively light, sneakily severe compendium of sometimes heretical reflections on administration.

The moral here is this: managers have to leave their castles and find out what’s actually happening in their kingdoms. And like actual bedtime tales, these essays have metaphors galore. So prepare to grow strategies like weeds and organize like a cow. Uncover the maestro misconception of managing, discover the smooth underbelly of hard data, and find out why downsizing can be bloodletting and your board should be a bee. Mintzberg writes, “Simply do not become outraged by anything you go through, because a few of my most outrageous suggestions turn out to be my best. They just take a while to be obvious.”