A Whole New Mind

Yesterday while waiting in Penn station I bought a book from Craig at Penn Station books. I love the way a small company can compete with a large seller by simply having the right location. And in this case also from the personal touch.

I went into the store and asked if he had a few specific books, and not only did he walk me to the shelf and try to look for them, he called his wife to see if they had a copy upstairs.

Another thing that impressed me was when I asked if he had a business card and he didn't have one with him, he actually ran to the back of the store to get one. I asked him if he was the owner because he clearly was acting like one, and sure enough he was. One of my goals in life has been to try and hire people who act like they are owners.

The book I bought was by Daniel Pink called "A Whole New Mind:Why Right-Brainers will Rule The Future". As the title suggests, the whole theses of the book is that our society, which was once valued a strong back and hands and then moved on to valuing left-brained and MBA-type thinking, is going to be moving to creative, design-type thinkers.

The book has a section on how the brain works, which ties in with some of the other books I have read on the brain.

One reason given for the right brain people becoming the new ruling class is that left brain activities can be globalized. So programming, tax return preparation, legal work, etc., which were all expensive, well-paid jobs in the left brain society can be moved offshore where people can complete the tasks less expensively.

This reminds me of John Naisbitt's book, Megatrends, where he talked about the increase in computerization and mechanization, but there is still a need for a human touch.

"High touch involves the ability to empathize with others, to understand the subtleties of human interaction, to find joy in one's self and to elicit it in others, and to stretch beyond he quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning".

At the end of every chapter is a section on things to do to increase right brain thinking and to help gain an appreciation for right-brained things like visiting a design museum or going to an art museum, listening to classical music, etc.

I am likely more right-brained and creative than much of my left brain success would indicate. I know that because of what I have done I tends to be unconventional and more on the creative end than the logical end.

It is interesting that this book was referred to me by a member of Goldenseeds, which is a group that invests in women entrepreneurs (so of course most of the people in the group are women), and it seems to me that more women are more dominant right brained than left brained. I have always thought that women were already the ruling class, as a matter of fact, the Queen of England is visiting RIM.

When you think of traditional right brained activities you think of things like painting, music and all the creative tasks which I don't generally consider myself to be very good at. As a matter of fact, because of my focus on business through the years I have spent almost no time on any of the "artsy" type things because I figured there were lots of people who could do it better and cheaper then I could. So why would I bother to waste my time on it, so to speak.

I was relieved to find out that right brain activity not only refers to that type of creativity but also refers to the type of creativity that I have used in entrepreneurial situations which has helped me with my business's success and much of what is pointed to is that design helps develop products that are easier to use. The example they use is the voting machines that were so confusing (poor design) to use that people spoiled their ballots.

Although the book over-advocates that the right brained people will be the winners, I think it had to do that to make the point. In reality, my opinion is that we need a healthy balance between the right and left portions of our brains.

Flavor of the Month and Email Commandments

I read a great little book last night by Martin VanDerSchouw called Flavor Of The Month, a leadership fable about management mantras, methodologies processes; practices. Learn what works in the real world.

I normally don't like "storybook" business books, but fairly early on in this I was gripped by a small graph titled "How acquisitions mislead". Although almost half of my growth through the years came from acquisitions I have seen many downsides. Although many people are in love with acquisitions, they are not in love with the success of the business. The gist of it is that often sales go up, but expenses also go up at the same rate so extra profit is not generated.

The sad reality of many acquisitions is that the synergy expected never transpires.

One chapter was called "First define the what, then define the how". I know the power of the How Question.

There was a great set of email rules. I know we all struggle with email volume.

1) E-Mail should be used as a confirmation tool and not as a primary means of communication.

2) Don't use e-mail to have hard conversations. Talk to people. This means in person, whenever possible.

3) Keep e-mails as short as possible. Use bullet points and lots of white space to convey information.

4) Avoid attaching filed in e-mails as it leads to all kinds of version management problems. Use collaboration software, hyperlinks, and references to ensure document consistency.

5) If action is expected from the receiver place ACTION REQUIRED: in the subject heading along with the requested action. Then explain the request following the rules.

6) For complicated requests, contact the receiver using a second channel of communication to confirm understanding.

7) Do not assume receipt of e-mail is the same as understanding.

8) Never reply to all when you receive an e-mail that makes you angry or upset. Everyone can tell someone (you or the original sender) is just covering their tail.

9) If you receive an e-mail that is upsetting try sitting on it for 24 hours. In man cases you will find that people did not intend for it to be interpreted the way you did, and a little cooling off will do everyone good.

There's another chapter titled "Manage deliverables not tasks". I guess this would be the same as saying don't be a micromanager, while at the same time setting appropriate goals.

One of the final chapters was called "Processing won’t get you there. People will". I do believe in many cases that it is the people who will get you there, however I am also a big believer n process, and think that good process helps average people become above average.

I know right now in my current position I am working hard to develop good process.

The final chapter is called "The new reality" and points out 7 ideas:

1) People change easily, but are difficult to change.
2) First define the what, then define the how.
3) Manage deliverables, not tasks.
4) Manage starts not finishes.
5) Performance metrics.
6) Late, over budget technical successes are failures.
7) The need for strategic alignment

All in all a good fast read with lots of gems.

The Way We are Working is not Working

My new favorite book is The Way We Are Working Isn’t Working-The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance.

This book is written by Tony Schwartz who authored another great book called The Power Of Full Engagement.

What I found interesting about the fact that I love this book is that one of my highest values is work ethic, and a lot of what Tony is advocating essentially involves less work ethic. See what he says in HBR in For Real Productivity, Less is Truly More.

The book cited a study that Malcolm Gladwell also cited in his best selling book Outliers: The Story of Success. "People at the very top don't just work harder, or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder". The gist of this is that almost anyone can be good at anything if they work at it hard enough. It does have to do with the number of hours put in provided those hours are high focus.

"A growing body of research suggests that we are most productive when we move between periods of high focus and intermittent rest. Instead, we live in a gray zone, constantly juggling activities but rarely fully engaging in any of them-or fully disengaging from any of them."

There is a chapter entitled We Can't Change What We Don’t Notice. " We are already the most over informed, under reflective people in the history of civilization."

One of the things I loved about the book was that they strongly endorse success habits. I am completely in sync with what the author has to say. "Will and discipline are wildly overrated. That's why we struggle so hard to make changes that last. Even when the need for change is obvious and our intentions are strong we often fall short."

There was an entire chapter called sleep or die. Over the years, I have changed my view, in that I no longer think that sleep is for wimps. I believe sleep is necessary. "No single behavior, we've come to believe, more fundamentally influences our effectiveness in waking life than sleep."

There is a chapter on the poverty of attention. This is very similar to what I view on the myth of multi tasking. "Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking of possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out what seem several simultaneous possible objects or trains of thought...it implies a withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others."

"Once we're distracted by something new, we often forget about the original task. Given the limits of our working memory, out of sight often literally means out of mind."

The book pulls together many of the concepts that I currently believe in. One principle is pulsing from high intensity to low intensity. Another principle is success habits.

There is a chapter on health and exercise and clearly I am a health and exercise guy so resonate with that.

It is a well-researched, well-written book and I highly recommend it.

Cleveland Half Marathon

I ran the Cleveland Half Marathon today. I always want to be in good enough shape to run a half without doing extra training (unlike a full which requires real work)

The weather was perfect. 55 degrees to start. Slightly overcast. Warmed to perhaps 65 during the race. The course was also almost perfect. Largely flat. A few hills on bridges but not much other than that.

I finished in 1:47:03 or 8:10 per mile (a half is 13.1 miles or 21.1 K). Was hoping to beat 1:45 but still it was a good run. I always use the power of 3 goals. I achieved 2 of 3.

I think worse than the marathon was the 9 hour drive back to Long Island. Not real smart after running. Wonder which contributes most to my soreness.

And for those who don't like the race stories and who prefer the book reviews:

I read a cute little book by a Retired Deputy Judge, H. Clark Adams called Your Turn to Judge - Forty Interesting Cases for You to Decide.

The book outlines the facts and the cases (usually 2 or 3 pages) and then in the back of the book has what the judge actually determined with some reasons.

All of the cases are based in Ontario and all of them are small claims court judgments.

I've been to small claims court many times (when I ran EMJ / Synnex, we often had to resort to small claims court to collect money from our customers). I have found in virtually all cases that the judges were fair. I have not always found this to be the case in higher courts and have often found legal battle to be a negative sum game (lots of stress with little return).

Accelerating Out of the Great Recession

I did an aussi carboload today in preparation for a half marathon tomorrow. And of course now that I have told the world, it is tough to not go run it.

I read Accelerating Out of the Great Recession - How to Win in a Slow-Growth Economy- by The Boston Consulting Group, David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter.

Of course my instant "title reaction" was "everyone always thinks these are the worst of times and wish for the good old times".

As would be expected this book contains lots of interesting statistics. One point that I found interesting because people are often saying that China can help us accelerate out of the recession is "This is not going to happen". Facts just do not lie. Even if China doubles consumption, the impact will be minimal.

There was a section on what they thought today's agenda for CEO's need to be; "Reassessing the challenges and opportunities presented by globalization". "Rethinking how businesses are managed for shareholder value". "Reorganizing compensation systems to align with the risk taking". "Regaining public trust in business". "Developing new models for business leadership". "Helping the management team to think ambitiously about growth by looking beyond today's tough economic environment".

There was a chapter on strategies that included the following: "Focus on innovation". "Capitalize on changes in the external environment". "Unleash marketing and advertising power". "Take the flight to your competitors". " Invest in the future through M&A and divestment". "Employ game-changing strategies".

I particularly like the section on leadership during our crisis: " Walk the floor -and be visible".
"Set clear expectation". Employees respond more positively if they have well-defined expectations. Leaders need to establish the measures of success, both for the short term and for the future. They need to provide clarity about what is the most important in this environment.
"Mobilize the extended leadership team". Leaders should not pilot through the difficult times on their own. They need to bring in their broader leadership group, which will provide complementary skills and multiply the personnel power and brainpower available to tackle critical issues. There is strength in numbers.

It's a good book worth reading with a fairly hopeful message.

They also talked about the golden rule of online marketing which of course is permission. I find that blogging is one of those online ventures that is the ultimate permission. People don't have to look at my blog or I don't send people my blog who have not subscribed.

Of course this means you have to keep value high or you will have no readership.

Leadership Under Pressure

Beautiful weekend. Cool enough to plant the vegetable garden. I am feeling healthy. Must be the vitamins. Life is good.

I read a book by Colonel Bob Stewart, Leadership Under Pressure - Tactics from the Front Lines.

Stewart is an ex-politician as well as an ex-solider. He served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia. The life and the death decision's he made are literally life and death unlike the one's I made in business which simply seem like life and death.

He starts with a section on the needs of leadership focusing on three areas: the task, the team and the individual. He points out that there are difference's in requirements and priorities in each of these and the three need to work closer together to achieve their ends.

He talked of being in indeterminate situations where it wasn't clear what the mission was and talked about having clear direction and mission makes for high effectiveness. The same lesson but clearly applying in any business situation.

He lists the principals of war:

1-Selection and maintenance of the aim.

2-Concentration of force. Engage the enemy's weakness with your strength.

3-Economy of effort. Do not waste precious resources.

4-Maintenance of morale. Keep spirits up in your team.

5-Offensive action. Maintain tempo by attacking your opponent.

6-Flexibility. Be prepared for the unexpected and deal with it.

7-Cooperation. Ensure that all parts of the team work in unison to achieve the aim.

8-Security. Keep your secrets just that.

9-Surprise. Ensure your opposition knows nothing of your plans until it is too late.

10-Sustainability. Maintain your capability to operate.

These almost all sound like business rules.

There is a good quote on time and procrastination from Sir Stuart Rose, Chief Executive of Mark & Spencer: Don't do tomorrow what you could today. Quite often you know what you want to do, instinctively or through experience. Don't spend too long analyzing and checking it when you should actually just get on with it. It doesn't matter what business you are in today, they are all so fast moving that time is advantage or money.

There was a section on business creativity: A major executive responsibility is to challenge conventional wisdom in a search for better ways to achieve ends. If leaders do not continually look for different ways to do business then they will get stale or lose their edge.

Surely in this respect business is like warfare-the best side will win in the end. Everyone in a company should be positively encouraged to make suggestions that improve any aspect of business, be it production, marketing, selling, human resources or whatever. I know many companies take positive steps, such as financial rewards, to promote the search for new ideas. But in the truth there is no formula or tool that can really help innovation. That is simply not possible. Invention is very human. No machine has yet been able to innovate in the way a human mind can.

In business, as in the military, the best chance of innovating is to employ good people who are quite prepared to try something different.

I used to think that military leadership differed dramatically from non-military leadership and the military leadership is very title oriented and autocratic where I believe the best leadership in business tends to be consensus building a non autocratic.

I've met several senior military leaders and I've seen that despite the command and control structure they tend not to be autocrats and tend to rely on general leadership principals as much as any one in business.

I count General Rick Hillier as one of my friends and even the short interactions I had with him have convinced me that great military leaders are great leaders in general.

Success Habit - Decide Ahead and Product vs Service Company

One success habit that really works for me is deciding ahead. For example, I want to run tomorrow morning. I decide that tonight. I even set out my shoes and shorts. Then running becomes automatic.

Really all habits are about is making something automatic or mindless.

We all have limited self discipline but by making something a habit, we just do it - requiring no (or very little) self discipline.

I use "decide ahead" for everything from working out, eating right (eg. pack my lunch or have healthy food around), doing a specific task or getting a job done. I decide ahead to do it at 10 tomorrow morning. I set an appointment to just do it.

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The late founder of ATS Automation Klaus Woerner was asked if ATS was a product company, or a custom design company, to which he replied " We are a service company, because we can not say no".

This statement says a lot. Every company wants to be a product company, so they have to learn to say no, in order to truly find themselves. Choose to be a product or a service company.

Worth thinking about.