Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

During a recent conversation with friends recently, the topic of building a business to create change in third world countries came up -- I guess the United States presidential election has led to some intense conversations about the state of the world.

Naturally, I thought of a fantastic book I read earlier this year: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan & Al Switzler (click here to view the table of contents). Influencer was written by the authors of the best-selling books Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior and Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.

I highly recommend these three books. Communication is important in all aspects of life -- personal and business relationships -- and these books provide readers the tools to become better communicators.

I'm certainly not an expert -- I still fly off the handle when people needle me, and I could still improve on my tactics for getting my points across, but I'd like to think I'm much improved.

Sadly, I read these books before I started this blog so I don't have comprehensive notes on them. Though this excerpt from the book sums up Influencer quite well:

Influencer takes you on a fascinating journey from San Francisco to Thailand where you'll see how seemingly “insignificant” people are making incredibly significant improvements in solving problems others would think impossible. You'll learn how savvy folks make changenot only achievable and sustainable, but inevitable. You'll discover why some managers have increased productivity repeatedly and significantly-while others have failed miserably.

...

In Influencer you’ll meet change geniuses who have used the principles of Influence to solve some of the world’s most profound and catastrophic problems. You’ll meet:

• One woman who has turned 14,000 thieves, prostitutes, and murderers into upstanding citizens without therapists, a professional staff, donations, grants, or guards.
• A health advocate who has nearly eradicated a debilitating disease without traditional medicines or vaccines.
• A healthcare professional who has helped save more than 120,000 lives in America’s hospitals without a medical degree.

And many others who have lost weight, saved a struggling community, improved damaged relationships, secured bottom-line results, revamped corporate culture, etc…

The stories from Influencer are heartwarming and educational. The authors teach their theory of vital behaviors (high-leverage action that will directly lead to the results you desire that are behaviors and not results and are recognizable and repeatable) and six sources of influence to effect change:

• Personal Motivation
• Personal Ability
• Social Motivation
• Social Ability
• Structural Motivation
• Structural Ability

You know, I liked this book so much that I may add it to my list of books to purchase.

Click here to visit the authors' comprehensive website for this book, where you can download a pdf excerpt of the first chapter, download a pdf of the Influencer Self-Assessment, download a pdf of the Influencer Worksheet, download a pdf of the Influencer Discussion Questions, and much more!

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

Many of my friends idolize Warren Buffett.

Truthfully, I don't know much about him so I'm happy to hear that Alice Schroeder, former managing director at Morgan Stanley, has just written a biography of Warren Buffett after spending approximately two thousands hours interviewing and observing Buffett.

The book is titled The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life and refers to one of Buffett's folksy sayings about success: "Life is like a snowball. The important thing is finding wet snow and a really long hill."

As usual, I heard about this book from the New York Times -- Janet Maslin's "The Richest Man and How He Grew (and Grew His Company, Too)."

I have no doubt that my local library will carry this unprecedented biography of "The Oracle of Omaha" (after all, even Walmart is selling this book) but I may want to purchase a copy anyway.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

-Howard Aiken

This was quoted by Jessica Livingston in the introduction of Founders at Work: Stories of Startup’s Early Days, which I recently read (click here to read all my posts on this book).

I found this quote both humorous and fascinating and it makes me wonder how much truth there is to it.

I would guess that with early-stage technology, which the companies featured in Founders at Work were known for, terrific life-changing ideas would easily be dismissed by critics.

But in other situations, I would guess that the inventors' and founders' fear that someone might steal their idea isn't that far off.

Another quote that got me thinking in this book was the idea that "Companies take shape based on the personality characteristics and human interaction characteristics of the founders" -- Ray Ozzie said this in Chapter Seven but the idea was echoed throughout the book. Just one chapter back, in Chapter Six, Mitchell Kapor said, "These types of companies tend to reflect the personalities and interests of their founders. Microsoft is very much cast in Bill Gates's images; and Apple, Steve Jobs; Borland, Phillippe Kahn."

I wonder how accurate this observation is.

Anyway, lots to think about after having read this book. No interest in starting a tech company, even after reading the success stories from this book.

In case you're curious, here's the Table of Contents:

Foreword ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii

1 Max Levchin: Cofounder, PayPal 1
2 Sabeer Bhatia: Cofounder, Hotmail 17
3 Steve Wozniak: Cofounder, Apple Computer 31
4 Joe Kraus: Cofounder, Excite 61
5 Dan Bricklin: Cofounder, Software Arts 73
6 Mitchell Kapor: Cofounder, Lotus Development 89
7 Ray Ozzie: Cofounder, Iris Associates, Groove Networks 103
8 Evan Williams: Cofounder, Pyra Labs (Blogger.com) 111
9 Tim Brady: First Non-Founding Employee, Yahoo 127
10 Mike Lazaridis: Cofounder, Research In Motion 141
11 Arthur Van Hoff: Cofounder, Marimba 153
12 Paul Buchheit: Creator, Gmail 161
13 Steve Perlman: Cofounder, WebTV 173
14 Mike Ramsay: Cofounder, TiVo 191
15 Paul Graham: Cofounder, Viaweb 205
16 Joshua Schachter: Founder, del.icio.us 223
17 Mark Fletcher: Founder, ONElist, Bloglines 233
18 Craig Newmark: Founder, Craigslist 247
19 Caterina Fake: Cofounder, Flickr 257
20 Brewster Kahle: Founder, WAIS, Internet Archive, Alexa Internet 265
21 Charles Geschke: Cofounder, Adobe Systems 281
22 Ann Winblad: Cofounder, Open Systems, Hummer Winblad 297
23 David Heinmeier: Hansson Partner, 37 signals 309
24 Philip Greenspun: Cofounder, ArsDigita 317
25 Joel Spolsky: Cofounder, Fog Creek Software 345
26 Stephen Kaufer: Cofounder, TripAdvisor 361
27 James Hong: Cofounder, Hot or Not 377
28 James Currier: Founder, Tickle 387
29 Blake Ross: Creator, Firefox 395
30 Mena Trott: Cofounder, Six Apart 405
31 Bob Davis: Founder, Lycos 419
32 Ron Gruner: Cofounder Alliant Computer Systems; Founder, Shareholder.com 427

Index 447

Don't be surprised if I post about this book again. I might even buy myself a copy.

Founders at Work: Stories of Startup’s Early Days by Jessica Livingston

I've really enjoyed Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work: Stories of Startup’s Early Days -- one of many library books I borrowed last month.

This book tells the story of startups like Firefox, TiVo, WebTV, Craigslist, Hotmail, Adobe, and others through interviews with their founders or creators.

Initially, it made me think of If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers (click here to read all my posts on this book) in that both books seek to shed light on what makes entrepreneurs tick.

While Livingston interviews individuals who founded or created dot-com or other technology start-ups, Bowers talks with founders of small businesses from varied fields that include jam making, cosmetics, manufacturing and more.

The main difference in the book lies in the way each author organizes his/her book. Where Bowers organizes his book into chapters based on eight traits of entrepreneurs with stories from 40+ entrepreneurs sprinkled throughout the book, Livingston spends just her two-page introduction discussing the patterns of entrepreneurs and then spends a chapter on each person with an in-depth interview.

Call me crazy, but I much prefer the way Livingston organized her book. It is easier to follow and you learn more from each individual.

And, as you know by now, I love primary sources. so I appreciated how each chapter was an interview with a founder or creator of one or more start-ups.

Here are the patterns that Livingston found for comparison to the list by Bowers:

1. Uncertainty that they were actually onto something big.
2. Determination, especially to build things that work.
3. Perseverance through uncertainty, isolation, and sometimes lack of progress.
4. Adaptability and mental flexibility to understand what users/customers want and to change and develop their original idea.
5. Empathy for users/customers.
6. Desire to change the world and to keep building things.

Livingston doesn't assert this list as a steadfast rule (where Bowers does); she merely states that these were some of her observations from interviewing the 32 entrepreneurs featured in her book.

Back to reading!

The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You

In addition to books, magazines and newspapers, I also read ChangeThis.com.

Since ChangeThis.com was bought by 800-CEO-READ in Summer 2005, I get email updates from both companies.

Those of you who love business books may want to read the latest email I received from:

Hello Changethisers,

Hope you're well. You may not know us at 800-CEO-READ by name, but we are the folks that maintain and care for ChangeThis. And, we have news to share.

The heads of 800-CEO-READ, founder Jack Covert and vice-president Todd Sattersten, have spent the last year writing a book entitled THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME which will be available in February, 2009.

To celebrate the book's release and help you gear up for the book, we're hosting a six-month book club culminating with the release of THE 100 BEST BUSINESS BOOKS OF ALL TIME. For six months, September ’08 through February ‘09, you will receive a book a month. The first five books will be one of Jack and Todd’s picks from The 100 BEST and will cover a range of business topics, from Management and Leadership to Entrepreneurship and Marketing.

The sixth and final book will be THE 100 BEST, landing in mailboxes in early February.

To learn more, check out Todd's blog post about the about the book club:
http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/008375.html

Or, go directly the following address to sign up:
http://800ceoread.com/products/?ISBN=COUNTDOWN100

Many thanks & best of days,
ChangeThis and 800-CEO-READ

http://www.changethis.com/
http://800ceoread.com/

Hmm, I don't know -- The Countdown Book Club: Six Months To The 100 Best Business Books of All Time gives you six books for $99. Doesn't sound like too much of a deal to me.

Still, I'd like to browse through a copy of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time. Guess I'll just look for it when it comes out in February 2009.

If at First You Don’t Succeed by Brent Bowers

After reading If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers (click here to read all my posts on this book), I've updated the list of the magic eight entrepreneurial traits:

1. An aptitude for spotting and seizing opportunities that nobody else has noticed.
2. Compulsion to be in charge, a gift for leadership, a strong belief in the importance of integrity, and a hypomanic personality. A "hypomanic is fast-talking, is witty and gregarious, and has a natural self-confidence that can make him charismatic and persuasive."
3. A history of innovative activities and salesmanship dating back to childhood, usually in a family environment that encouraged that bent. Being a male with an absent father seems to help.
4. A talent for improvisation and multi-tasking, a tolerance for ambiguity, and openness.
5. Doggedness - fierce drive, energy, and tenacity (the combination of patience, persistence, and perserverance). Also, the ability to live on just four hours of sleep per night and the drive to work ninety-hour weeks.
6. Lofty ambition, optimism, idealism, passion, and enthusiasm that borders on the delusional for a product.
7. Unfailing pragmatism and a good eye for taking calculated risks.
8. Self-confidence and a knack for "falling upwards" - viewing setbacks as opportunities.

Bowers also ends his book with these lessons from other entrepreneurs:

• Know when to fold 'em.
• Try harder next time.
• Stick to what you know best.
• Make pleasing customers your number-one priority.
• Analyze what you did wrong.
• Maintain your self-respect.
• Keep a lid on spending.
• Expect no sympathy for your snafus.
• Don't assume that all publicity is good publicity.
• Realize that success isn't as important as being in the game.

While I think both these lists are useful, these two quotes that Bowers used may sum up the entrepreneur in fewer words:

If an idea does not at first seem insane, it has no hope.

-Albert Einstein

Entrepreneurs are dreamers who do.

-Judith Cone

One thing that surprised me about If at First You Don’t Succeed was the number of other books mentioned throughout the book:

• The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot of) Success in America by John D Gartner
• The Monk and the Riddle by Randy Komisar
• Integrity is All You've Got by Karl Eller
• The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack
• The Stranger by Albert Camus
• The Plague by Albert Camus
• One Man's Leg by Paul Martin

Of these, I've read The Monk and the Riddle and the The Plague (and I've been meaning to re-read The Plague and read some of Camus's other works) but will have to take a look at the others. Back to reading!

The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin: Chapters 5 - 8

As promised, here are my thoughts on Chapters Five through Eight of Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking (click here to read all my posts on this book).

In the second half of this book, Martin mentions some of the same people from the beginning of the book and continues to write about people from a wide range of disciplines:

• Victoria Hale of the Insitute for OneWorld Health
• K V Kamath, ICICI Bank
• Meg Whitman, eBay
• Nandan Nilekani, Infosys Technologies Limited
• Ramalina Raju, Satyam Computer Services
• Bruce Mau, Bruce Mau Design
• Taddy Belcher, CIDA City Campus
• Gerry Mabin, The Mabin School

Chapter Five, Mapping the Mind, is when Martin begins to teach readers how to hone their integrative thinking skills. Martin puts forth a model of "your personal knowledge system" (which is "highly path-dependent") broken down into three parts:

• Stance: Who You Are and What You're After - further discussed in Chapter Six
• Tools: Knocking the World into Shape - further discussed in Chapter Seven
• Experiences: Where Stance and Tools Meet the World - further discussed in Chapter Eight

The example stances that Martin discusses are all varied and interesting in their own right.

Within experiences, Martin defines skills and sensitivities that are built through experience as follows:

• Sensitivities: capacity to make distinctions between conditions that are similar but not the same
• Skills: capacity to carry out an activity so as to consistently produce the destined result

Chapter Six, The Construction Project, is all about the integrative thinker's stance and the six key features they have in common:

1. Integrative thinkers believe that whatever models exist at the present moment do not represent reality; they are simply the best or only constructions yet made.
2. Integrative thinkers believe that conflicting models, styles, and approaches to problems are to be leveraged, not feared.
3. Integrative thinkers believe that better models exist that are not yet seen.
4. Integrative thinkers believe that not only does a better model exist, but that they are capable of bringing that better model from abstract hypothesis to concrete reality.
5. Integrative thinkers are comfortable wading into complexity to ferret out a new and better model, confident they will emerge on the other side with the resolution they seek.
6. Integrative thinkers give themselves the time to create a better model.

In my opinion, these six key features could really be condensed into fewer points but it's still useful as it is.

Martin goes on to describe three stances about the world (first three) and three about the self (last three) that he believes are the foundation of a personal knowledge system that will lead to integrative thinking:

1. Existing models do not represent reality, they are our constructions.
2. Opposing models are to be leveraged, not forced.
3. Existing models are not perfect; better models exist that are not yet seen.
4. I am capable of finding a better model.
5. I can wade into and get through the necessary complexity.
6. I give myself the time to create a better model.

Strangely, Martin uses the movie Crash to illustrate a need for integrative thinking. But what I found most interesting from this chapter was that Bruce Mau, one of Martin's integrative thinkers, meditates when faced with complex problems -- it's not everyday that a business book advocates meditation!

Chapter Seven, A Leap of the Mind, breaks down the tools required for integrative thinking as generative or modal reasoning (as opposed to declarative reasoning), causal modeling, and assertive inquiry. The aspects of "multidirectional feedback loops" are also discussed. And Martin's use of Taddy Belcher's successful creation of CIDA City Campus as a model of integrative thinking is both educational and inspirational.

Finally Chapter Eight, A Wealth of Experience, concludes the book by detailing A G Lafley's experiences starting from the Navy Exchange to Harvard Business School and finally to Procter and Gamble. The key experiences an integrative thinker strives for are ones that deepen mastery and nurture originality.

You know, having written my thoughts on each of these chapters, I feel like I've learned more from this book than I initially realized. I love when that happens!

Click here to view an excerpt of this book.

If you'd like to learn more, click here to listen to a podcast by Roger Martin about this book, courtesy of businessweek.com or click here to view the whole January 2008 Special Report on the book.

Enjoy!

The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers

Still getting through the stack of library books I borrowed -- I'm about through reading If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers.

In Chapter Four, Bowers concedes that he is attempting the near impossible with this book:

With the help of some nationally recognized experts on the topic, I am dissecting into a observable parts something that in reality can't be stripped apart: the human personality.

I feel like because the goal of the book was so ambitous, Bowers went overboard with his examples. Where five good stories would do, Bowers provides twenty -- leaving the reader feeling dizzy and overwhelmed. The book would be more successful if it focused on fewer entrepreneurs and/or was half as long as it is.

Here's a list of the interesting people featured in just the first chapter:

• J. Robert Hillier, Hiller Architecture & Obit magazine
• Greg Herro, LifeGem & Anything's Possible
• Farnam Jahanian, Arbor Networks
• Peter Amico, Airtrax, Martin Divisions Steel Products, American Consolidated Steel Foundations, Centurion Securities Services, & Titan Detective Services
• Frank Landsberger, CRT Capital
• Mark Hughes, Buzzmarketing
• Josh Kopelman, Half.com
• Sig Anderman, American Home Mortgage
• Gary Doan, Intradyn, Transition Networks, & Neo Networks
• Umang Gupta, Gupta Technologies
• Timothy Mahoney, vFinance.com
• John Heagney, Heagney Public Relations
• Charlie Horn, Promirus Group & Affordable Medical Solutions and HealthTrans
• Michael Huddy, Barrier International
• Herbert Jian, US Import & Export Company
• Cameron Johnson, SurfingPrizes.com, CertificateSwap.com, beaniebabywholesale.com, cheersandtears.com, myezmail.com, zablo.com, & trueloot.com
• Alex Lidow, International Rectifier
• James Poss, Seahorse Power Company
• Karl Eller, Eller Media
• Paul Brown, Metropolitan Pathology Laboratory Inc (MetPath) & HearUSA
• Joe Macchia, Macchia General Agency & Early American Insurance Company
• Kevin Plank, Under Armour Performance Apparel
• Luke Visconti, Diversity.com & DiversityInc Magazine
• Liz Ryan, WorldWIT
• Richard Wellman, International Airline Support Group
• Myke Templeton, Owensboro Christian Church

That's 26 people featured in fewer than 40 pages!

Some of the other folks mentioned:

• Pete Newman, Gotham Software, Inc.
• Kerry Sulkowics, Boswell Grups LLC
• Lara & Lisa Helene Meiland, Lara Helene Bridal Atelier
• Martin G Klein, Electro Energy
• Laura Gasparis Vonfrolio, Revolution: The Journal of Nurse Empowerment, CPR Associates, Oh-la-la Caterers, & Education Enterprises
• David Weistein, Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center
• Ross Levin, Accredited Investors, Inc.
• Peter Gyenes, Ascential Software Corporation
• Joan Schweighardy, GreyCove Press
• Craig Aronoff, Family Business Consulting Group
• Kirtland Poss, VisEn Medical
• Nadine Thompson, Warm Spirit Inc
• Jeff & Richard Sloan, StartupNation
• Dot Smith, Pepper Patch
• Scott Cook, Intuit
• Jack Stack, Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation

The sheer number of anecdotes doesn't add weight to Bowers arguments; instead it makes his eight traits seem like arbitrary and that he's filling pages with stories so you won't figure it out!

Still, the eight traits appear to be a useful measure if you are considering going into business for yourself. And even if the nine to five lifestyle suits you best, you'll enjoy these inspirational entrepreneurial stories -- just as long as you can keep the names straight.

Here are some of the passages I have enjoyed the most:

From Chapter Three, Nurture vs. Nature:

So which is it that makes for a successful entrepreneur? Genes or family? Nature or nurture?

Not surprisingly, the experts take a nuanced position on the matter. They remind me a bit of Franklin D. Roosevelt's comment about economists: He wished he could find one with only one arm, because all the others he had met were forever saying, "On the one hand this, on the other hand that."

From Chapter Four, Turning on a Dime:

Vonfrolio wasn't averse to making exaggerated claims to get deals done. When she came home from nursing duty one night exhausted and decided to start a business, she wrote letters to E. F Hutton and Merrill Lynch, advertising herself as a CPR instructor and sprinkling her prose with made-up statistics about death rates from heart attacks in high-pressure industries.

A few weeks later Merrill Lynch called, and Vonfrolio asked her roommate, "Do you know anybody named Merrill Lynch?" It sounded familiar, but she couldn't picture the face. Then she remembered the letters. She arranged to teach a class two weeks later. The next day, E. F. Hutton phoned. This time, she was ready with the crisp announcement, "CPR Associated." When E. F. Hutton requested classes for 500 people right away, she said she was booked solid for several weeks but could set up an appointment after that.

Then the scrambling began. Vonfrolio took a two-day course to obtain certification to teach CPR. Refused a business loan by a male bank manager, she returned a few days later and talked a female manager into approving a $10,000 personal loan by saying she had just lost 150 pounds and needed $10,000 to buy a new wardrobe. She bought mannequins and other equipment, hired ten instructors, and got her business up and running with time to spare.

From Chapter Five, Tenacity:

Brown's training schedule demonstrates an elevated form of doggedness. To succeed, he says, you have to have patience, persistence, and perseverance. "Patience is discovering that you don't have the key to your house and so you wait for your wife to arrive. Persistence is circling the house and checking all the doors and windows to see if you can get in through one of them. Perseverance is removing the hinges from the door.

"That is the bulldog mentality," he says. "The entrepreneur has to have all three of those qualities."

And from Chapter Six, Delusions of Grandeur:

If you are thinking about starting a coffee shop or Christmas tree farm because you think it might be a rewarding way to make a living, you might have a great future as a business owner, but you aren't an entrepreneur. If you are planning to open a Dunkin' Donuts franchise, you may end up selling millions of doughnuts, but you aren't really an entrepreneur. If you are hoping to amass a stable of a dozen Applebee's restaurants, you might make some serious money, but that will not make you an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs have grand ambitions.

Looking forward to more!

If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers

Still getting through the stack of library books I borrowed -- just read If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers.

I've read a few chapters of this book and I have found it entertaining if not substantive.

Bowers starts out his book with a bold statement:

This is not an ordinary business book.

And I would agree. While I've read many articles that attempt to help a bright-eyed person with a business idea determine whether he or she should go ahead and start a small business, I've never seen a whole book devoted to this topic.

And it is certainly a worthwhile topic. As Bowers tells us of our "grassroots capitalist culture":

• There are 24 million entrepreneurs in the United States -- that's 11% of the adult population.
• Fifty percent of those entrepreneurs have started their venture as a side project and the other fifty percent devote their full-time attention to their venture.
• Small businesses account for 51% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and two-thirds of new jobs.

The eight traits of entrepreneurs sound great but there's just simply no way to know if they really are the characteristics you need to successfully start your own company. Bowers certainly tries to prove the accuracy of his list of eight by devoting an entire chapter to each trait. And to prove his point, Bowers spends a paragraph to a page and a half on stories of successful entrepreneurs after successful entrepreneurs, each story embodying the spirit of that chapter's trait.

It is less than convincing.

Here are the magic eight traits, if you're curious:

1. An aptitude for spotting and seizing opportunities that nobody else has noticed.
2. Compulsion to be in charge and a gift for leadership.
3. A history of innovative activities dating back to childhood, usually in a family environment that encouraged that bent.
4. A talent for improvisation.
5. Doggedness - fierce drive, energy, and tenacity.
6. Enthusiasm that borders on the delusional for a product.
7. Unfailing pragmatism.
8. A knack for "falling upwards" - viewing setbacks as opportunities.

Still this business book is worth reading. The stories are inspirational (particularly those of the entrepreneurs who aren't widely known) and finding out if you've got these eight traits can't hurt -- even if Bowers doesn't convince you that his list is accurate.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Expect to hear more from me as I read more of If at First You Don’t Succeed . . . The Eight Patterns of Highly Effective Entrepreneurs by Brent Bowers.

The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin

I've finally gotten through yet another one of my library books -- The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin (click here to read all my posts on this book).

Will write more in detail about Chapters Five through Eight (just as I did for Chapters One through Four) but just wanted to write down a few of my thoughts now.

While I enjoyed this book and the stories and examples of integrative thinking, I didn't feel like it was substantive enough.

Call me a scientist, but I much prefer business books like Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins for the hard data and proofs.

Still, I would recommend this book as it does provide insights to becoming a better thinker and thus a better decision maker.

The Opposable Mind by Roger Martin: Chapters 1 - 4

So far I've read the first half of Roger Martin's The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking (Chapters One through Four) which focus on examples of CEOs succeeding through integrative thinking (defined as the ability to hold two opposing ideas in your mind at once, and then reaching a synthesis with elements of both while improving on both). Some of the people featured were quite varied:

• Michael Lee-Chin, AIC Limited
• Isadore "Issy" Sharp, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
• A G Lafley, Procter & Gamble
• Bob Young, Red Hat (and now Lulu.com)
• Tim Brown, IDEO
• Piers Handling, Toronto International Film Festival
• Marta Graham, Denishawn School dance company
• Moses Znaimer, CityTV

In Chapter Two, No Stomach for Second-Best, Martin discusses the process of thinking and deciding and isolates four key parts to this process: salience, causality, architecture and resolution. He further defines the differences between integrative and conventional thinkers:

1. Integrative thinkers take a broader view of what is salient.
2. Integrative thinkers don't flinch from considering multidirectional and non-linear causal relationships.
3. Integrative thinkers don't break a problem into independent pieces and work on each piece separately. They keep the entire problem firmly in mind while working on individual parts.
4. Integrative thinkers search for creative resolution of tensions, rather than accept unpleasant trade-offs.

Chapter Three, Reality, Resistance, and Resolution, focuses on the concept that how each of us filters the world around us (which we do to protect our brain from being overloaded) determines how we see the world; that none of us experiences reality as it is but simply a model of reality.

Chapter Four, Dancing Through Complexity, condemns simplifications and specialization in clear terms:

Truly creative resolutions . . . spring from complexity.

Simplification makes us favor linear, unidirectional causal relationships, even if reality is more complex and multidirectional.

...

Simplification also encourages us to construct a limited model of the problem before us, whatever it might be. The alternatives we perceive are meager and unattractive, closing any remaining avenue to an integrative resolution. The simplifying mind has no choice but to settle for trade-offs, also known as the best bad choice available.

...

Specialization is a variant of simplification. . . the specialist attempts to preserve depth and thoroughness by masking out all but a few square inches of a vast canvas.

Hmm, seems a little harsh to me but Martin does show some convincing examples of integrative thinking at work.

Slowly getting through these library books -- must keep plugging away!

The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin

These past few weeks I've been so slow at getting through my library books.

I did start reading The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking by Roger Martin (published by the Harvard Business School Press).

Roger Martin has been dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto since 1998 and is also professor of strategic management at the Rotman School focusing his research in the areas of global competitiveness, integrative thinking, business design and corporate citizenship. During his 13 years with Monitor Company (a global strategy consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts), Martin founded and chaired Monitor University, the firm's educational arm, served as co-head of the firm for two years, and founded the Canadian office.

Martin starts off his book with this appropriate F. Scott Fitzgerald quote:

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.

Interestingly, Martin mentions three top selling business books in the first chapter, Choices Conflict, and the Creative Spark:

• Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Honeywell CEO Larry Bossidy and consultant Ram Charan
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by professor-turned-guru Jim Collins.
• Jack: Straight from the Gut by Jack Welch, the former super-CEO of GE General Electric Company

Martin appears to mock the ineffectiveness of these books, though he does state:

I don't wish to denigrate any of th books mentioned. They were best sellers for a reason: businesspeople want to know what makes a great leader because they themselves would like to be better leaders. Each book offers a particular perspective, and each perspective is valuable. But to approach every business problem with the question, "What should I do?" is to foreclose options before they can even be explored.

Sounds to me like he's just covering himself.

The Political Mind by George Lakoff

Just read William Saletan's "Neuro-Liberalism" published June 22, 2008 in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, a review of The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics With an 18th-Century Brain by George Lakoff.

George Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Rockridge Institute, a think tank in Berkeley, and The Political Mind sounds like a guide for progressive politicians.

As Lakoff explains:

American values are fundamentally progressive, centered on equality, human rights, social responsibility, and the inclusion of all. Yet progressives have, without knowing why, given conservatives an enormous advantage in the culture war. The radical conservatives seek and have already begun to introduce: an authoritarian hierarchy based on vast concentrations and control of wealth; order based on fear, intimidation, and obedience; a broken government; no balance of power; priorities shifted from the public sector to the corporate and military sectors; responsibility shifted from society to the individual; control of elections through control of who votes and how the votes are counted; control of ideas through the media; and patriarchal family values projected upon religion, politics, and the market.

Lakoff's suggestions for progressives, according to Saletan, are also interesting:

What should progressives say? That conservatism is “fundamentally antidemocratic.” It “tells us to save your own skin and not to care about your neighbor,” so “conservatives don’t pay that much attention to injured veterans.”

I don't know how much I buy into all of this but I'm certainly curious to hear more about Lakoff's theories!

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse

Last month, I wrote about Steven Greenhouse's latest book The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker after reading this NYTimes.com article adapted from the book.

I thought of this book again when I visited the New York Times Book Review and read Robert H. Frank's review titled "Labor Pains" published May 25, 2008.

I haven't checked it out at the library yet but after reading David Cay Johnston's Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) (click here to read my other entries on this book), I'm even more interested in The Big Squeeze.

Will write more when I get around to reading this book!

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Transactional Flaws

Yesterday, I wrote about What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break by Marshall Goldsmith and said:

I found the list of “transactional flaws” so interesting that I really want to share it with you all, but I’d be spoiling the book for you if I did that and this book is fantastic and really worth reading. I’d hate to rob you of that experience.

Well, I've had so many request to share them that I realized the least I could do is point you to the URL on author's website where you can find the list of transactional flaws. So here ya go, click here to read Marshall Goldsmith's list of 20 transactional flaws that cause interpersonal issues and may prevent us from reaching our personal and professional goals.

I don't know about you but I am absolutely guilty of 60% of these flaws at least some of the time.

Number 17, failing to express gratitude, Number 10, failing to give proper recognition, Number 11, claiming credit that we don't deserve, are three of the flaws that I very rarely commit. I go out of my way to thank people and recognize their efforts, both privately and publicly, and I enjoy giving credit where it's due. In fact, I probably give too much credit in an effort to prevent committing this flaw.

Similarly, Number 18, punishing the messenger, Number 15, refusing to express regret, Number 12, making excuses, and Number 13, clinging to the past, and are flaws I'd like to believe that I seldom commit. I try my best not to blame people and I'd like to believe that I take full responsibility -- publicly if necessary -- for my actions (and do so without deflecting blame to the past), though I'm sure I could improve.

Number 1, winning too much, I don't do too often either. I'm pretty much anti-competitive so while I like to do well compared to my own internal standards, I generally don't feel a need to "win." Same goes for Number 19, passing the buck, and Number 20, an excessive need to be "me." I try to work on my faults, and realize that I'm still a long way from fixing them all, but I certainly try not to claim that my faults are just part of who I am, take it or leave it. is the same.

Number 4, making destructive comments, and Number 8, negativity, or “let me explain why that won’t work," I'd like to believe are not part of my modus operandi though I would guess that unfortunately my desire to find the truth can sometimes come off as a "let me explain why that won't work" kind of attitude.

Number 9, withholding information, and Number 16, not listening, just sound totally ludicrous to me! I believe that people have these flaws but would like to believe that I am not among those people.

Number 2, adding too much value, I commit frequently. I try to refrain from providing advice unless I am asked, but when I am asked I probably give more advice than is necessary. Number 5, starting with “no” “but,” or “however,” I absolutely do all too frequently. I hadn't realized until reading this book how destructive this can be, even with the best of intentions.

Number 6, telling the world how smart we are, I probably do commit more frequently than I should. I can think of several occasions when I've said something and then immediately realized how arrogant I probably sounded.

Number 14, playing favorites, and Number 3, passing judgment, I want to believe I don't commit but I know that I do. No matter how "fair" we all like to think we are, we subconsciously if not consciously continually pass judgments play favorites. I absolutely need to work on these flaws.

Number 7, speaking when angry, I certainly do in personal situations though I would like to believe that I very rarely commit this flaw in professional situations. Still, I could stand to work on this.

The One Thing You Need to Know: … About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success - Personal Notes

The table of contents and my personal notes from reading:
The One Thing You Need to Know: … About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success

by Marcus Buckingham
ISBN: 9780743261654
Publication Date: January 2005
Publisher: Free Press

Table of Contents

1: A Few Things You Should Know About the “One Thing“
“Get me to the core”: “If you dig into a subject deeply enough, what do you find?”
A lifetime of “why”s: “What drove this book?”
The tests for the “one thing“: “Why are some explanations more powerful than others?”
One controlling insight: “What is the One Thing you need to know about happy marriage?”

Part I
The One Thing You Need to Know
Sustained Organizational Success

2: Managing and Leading: What’s the Difference?
A vital distinction: “Are they different? Are they both important? Can you do both?”
A view from the middle: “What do great managers actually do and what talents do you need to do it?”
A view from the top: “What do great leaders actually do and what talents do you need to do it?”

3: The One Thing You Need to Know: Great Managing
The basics of good managing: “What skills will prevent you from failing as a manager?”
Great managers play chess: “What is the One Thing you need to know about great managing?”
A walk through a Walgreens: “How does one truly great manager do it?”
Great managers are romantics: “What are the benefits of individualization?”
The three levers: “What are the three things you need to know about a person in order to manage him or her effectively?”
The most useful questions: “How can you identify these levers?”

4: The One Thing You Need to Know: Great Leading
A leader wins our loyalty: “What did Giuliani say to calm our fears?”
Five fears, five needs, one focus: “What are the universals of human nature?”
The points of clarity: “Where are your followers crying out for clarity?”
The disciplines of leadership: “How do the best leaders achieve this clarity?”

Part II
The One Thing You Need to Know
Sustained Individual Success

5: The Twenty Percenters
Dave, Myrtle, and Tim: “What does sustained individual success look like?”
The early contenders: “What explanations seem like the One Thing, but aren’t?”
What is sustained success?: “It’s a broad term. How do we define it?”

6: The Three Main Contenders
Contender 1: “Find the right tactics and employ them.”
Contender 2: “Find your flaws and fix them.”
Contender 3: “Discover your strengths and cultivate them.”

7: So, How Do You Sustain Success If…?
You’re bored
You’re unfulfilled
You’re frustrated
You’re drained

Conclusion: Intentional Imbalance

Acknowledgments

The Most Useful Questions.
For strengths:
1. What was the best day at work you’ve had in the last three months? What were you doing? Why did you enjoy it so much?

For weaknesses:
2. What was your worst day at work in the last three months? What were you doing? Why did it grate on you so much?

For triggers:
3. What was the best relationship with a manager you’ve ever had? What made it work so well?
4. What was the best praise or recognition you’ve ever received? What made it so good?
And for unique style of learning:
5. When in your career do you think you were learning the most? Why did you learn so much? What’s the best way for you to learn?
I recommend asking these questions of each new hire. You can also ask them of each existing employee at the beginning of your financial year. This mini-interview will take only about half an hour, but it should be a rich half hour. Ask these five questions, listen closely, and then act on this information in the same way that Michelle, Judi, Russ, and Alison did, and you will see extraordinary results. You will discover the power of capitalizing on what is unique about each of your people.

Five Fears, Five Needs, One Focus
Below, I’ll briefly describe the five [human universals] - al lof them have some relevance to your efforts at leading people - and then identify which of the five should command your greatest attention as a leader.
1. Fear of Death (our own and our family’s) - The Need for Security.
2. Fear of the Outsider - The Need for Community
3. Fear of the Future - The Need for Clarity
4. Fear of Chaos - The Need for Authority
5. Fear of Insignificance - The Need for Respect

The Points of Clarity
1: Who Do We Serve?
2: What Is Our Core Strength?
3: What Is Our Core Score?

Gallup’s Q12 survey to measure employee engagement (used by Best Buy, Ann Taylor, etc)
Do you know what is expected of you at work?
Do you have the materials and equipment you need ot do your work right?
At work do you have an opportunity to do what you do best every day?
In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?
Does your supervisor, or someone at work seem to care about you as a person?
Is there someone at work who encourages your development?
At work do your opinions seem to count?
Does the mission/purpose of your company make you feel your job is important?
Are your associates (fellow employees) committed to doing quality work?
Do you have a best friend at work?
In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?
This last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

The Disciplines of Leadership
1. Take Time to Reflect
2. Select Your Heroes with Great Care
3. Practice

What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith

I read What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: Discover the 20 Workplace Habits You Need to Break by Marshall Goldsmith in January 2008, but strangely reading about positive psychology has made me think about the ideas in What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

This can probably be explained by the fact that the books I read about positive psychology and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There both discuss how to improve yourself and your life. Just using very different philosophies and techniques.

Personally, I found What Got You Here Won’t Get You There to be one of the best books I've read about becoming more successful in business as well as life.

Goldsmith, an executive coach, educates us about 20 "transactional flaws" (bad habits) that may prevent us from accomplishing our professional and personal goals. What I love about this book is that it does not talk down to the reader; in fact this book is aimed towards already successful people who want to become even more successful!

While I haven't made much of an effort to apply the principles of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There to my own life yet, it was eye-opening to read about what my flaws are and how they prevent me from accomplishing even more.

I found the list of "transactional flaws" so interesting that I really want to share it with you all, but I'd be spoiling the book for you if I did that and this book is fantastic and really worth reading. I'd hate to rob you of that experience.

Also, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There includes an appendix of the Global Leadership Inventory, which was developed as part of a research project (sponsored by Accenture) involving 200 specially selected high-potential leaders from 120 companies around the world. To apply it in your own life, you would rate yourself (or another person) on each of the 72 characteristics leaders on a five-point scale, ranging from Highly Satisfied to Highly Dissatisfied. The characteristics are organized into the following groups:

• Thinking Globally
• Appreciating Diversity
• Developing Technological Savvy
• Building Partnerships
• Sharing Leadership
• Creating a Shared Vision
• Developing People
• Empowering People
• Achieving Personal Mastery
• Encourages Constructive Dialogue
• Demonstrates Integrity
• Leading Change
• Anticipating Opportunities
• Ensuring Customer Satisfaction
• Maintaining a Competitive Advantage

If you're curious about What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, you may be interested in the Table of Contents:

Acknowledgments xi
The Trouble with Success
You Are Here 3
Enough About You 11
The Success Delusion, or Why We Resist Change 16
The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back from the Top
The Twenty Habits 35
The Twenty-First Habit: Goal Obsession 99
How We Can Change for the Better
Feedback 111
Apologizing 136
Telling the World, or Advertising 142
Listening 147
Thanking 157
Following Up 161
Practicing Feedforward 170
Pulling Out the Stops
Changing: The Rules 179
Special Challenges for People in Charge 199
Coda: You Are Here Now 221
Appendix 225
Index 231

Click here to download the 800-CEO-READ Podcast interview with Goldsmith.

Or click here to watch Goldsmith's talk at Google in October 2007 about What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

And if you really want to learn more, visit the author's website by clicking here; you'll find an abundance of high quality free articles, videos, audio files, and other advice by Goldsmith.

Fish! books

Before I forget, a few weeks ago I spent the afternoon with a friend who knows I love to read and that I've been reading lots of business books recently and she recommended the Fish! series of books by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen and Philip Strand.

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results - this is a management parable that draws its lesson from the fun-loving fishmongers at Seattle's Pike Place Market. It's supposed to be like Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard. The Fish! philosophy is based on these four principles: Choose Your Attitude, Play, Make Their Day, and Be Present.

Fish! Tales: Real-Life Stories to Help You Transform Your Workplace and Your Life - stories of how real life people and companies have applied the Fish! philosophy to improve their workplaces

Fish! for Life: A Remarkable Way to Achieve Your Dreams - Using the Fish! philosophy this book has advice on life issues such as weight loss, personal finance, and relationships and promises to be a road map for achieving personal happiness and well-being in all areas of life.

Fish! Sticks: A Remarkable Way to Adapt to Changing Times and Keep Your Work Fresh - this is another management parable, this time with a fictional sushi bar that is always two steps ahead of the competition

Schools of Fish! - this one is for educators and recommends using the Fish! four simple principles -- Be There, Play, Make Their Day, and Choose Your Attitude -- to build more effective, fulfilling relationships that lead to better learning.

I usually don't like these management parable books so I'm skeptical of these books. Still I'm sure they'll be easy reads so I'll at least give the original Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results a shot.

The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse

Just read this NYTimes.com article adapted from Steven Greenhouse's new book The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker. Chapter One is available here on the NYTimes.com website or here on the author's website.

Greenhouse, a labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times, examines the stresses and strains faced by workers at companies like FedEx and Wal-Mart (as wages have stagnated, health and pension benefits have grown stingier, and job security has become virtually nonexistent), and points to Patagonia and Costco and even the casino-hotels of Las Vegas as models for corporate America.

Patagonia sounds like an awesome company to work for! Isn't that everyone's dream to be able to go to work wearing whatever you want, take long lunch breaks or leave early to enjoy life, and to get paid to do volunteer work? Okay, probably not, but it certainly is part of my dream.

On the other hand, FedEx has hired most of its drivers as "independent contractors" to increase the company's earnings. If the same people were employees, they'd have to pay benefits, social security, and would not be able to fire people simply for missing work due to illness.

Reading about this book makes me think of Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2001). The author left her usual journalist job and spent 1999 and 2000 working jobs paying $7/hour (less than half of a living wage and what millions of low-skilled Americans make). She worked as a waitress in Key West, FL, as a cleaning woman and a nursing home aide in Portland, ME, and in a Wal-Mart in Minneapolis, MN and found that it is nearly impossible for such Americans to lift themselves to middle class.

It also makes me think of Small Giants: companies that choose to be great instead of big by Bo Burlingham, which describes several privately held businesses that have become "giants" in their field without becoming huge corporations. These companies all seemed to honestly care about their employees and the community. I think that many publicly traded companies are focused too much on growth and return -- rightfully so since they are obligated to do what is best to increase returns for shareholders -- and I think the world would be a better place if companies instead aimed to do what's best for the community (owners, employees, existing customers, and potential customers).

I highly recommend Small Giants and plan to add The Big Squeeze to my list of books to read.

Funny, even Wal-Mart sells The Big Squeeze.

Library Book Sale

I just got back from my local library's Annual Book Sale and wow, I got 24 books in almost new condition for $1.00 each (except for two hardcovers for $2.00 each). What a deal!

So these are the latest additions to my large personal library:

• The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama


• The Best American Spiritual Writing 2005 by Barry Lopez (Introduction) and Philip Zaleski (Series Editor)


• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis


• Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America by Thomas J. Fleming


• Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert


• Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham


• God In All Worlds: An Anthology of Contemporary Spiritual Writing by Lucinda Vardey


• The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy


• High Tide: The Truth About Our Climate Crisis by Mark Lynas


• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer


• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison


• The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker


• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards


• Naked by David Sedaris


• Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces


• Personal History by Katharine Graham


• Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver


• Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi


• The Road by Cormac McCarthy


• Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs


• The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright


• The One Thing You Need to Know: ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success by Marcus Buckingham


• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) by Betty Smith


• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

That's about $440.00 worth of books for just $26.00! Can't beat that, even at the local used bookstore!