Books

The Game of Work - Book Review

Bill Brelsford — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 20:29:00 GMT

The Game of Work Charles A. Coonradt

In the Game of Work, Charles Coonradt shows us the parallels between business and sport. Scorekeeping and defining the field of play in business are some of the principles explained by the author through the use of instructions, worksheets and real life examples. The author shows how the manager as coach can be more than just a metaphor. The author states that there are three ways to manage; by observation, by judgment or by measurement. This book is about managing by measurement, keeping score.

The author notes the interesting fact that people will often pay money to work harder at recreation than they do at work. He notes several reasons for this (see notes below), one of which is that the scorekeeping is better in recreation. There are five characteristics that are used to explain why recreational scorekeeping is better business scorekeeping. These characteristics form the basics to be followed when setting up a business scorekeeping system. The Results to Resources Ratio (RRR) is the key to improving business results through scorekeeping.

A relatively short book, ~140 pages, The Game of Work is an easy read that is chock full of practical advice on how to use scorekeeping to improve your business. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their personal or business performance. I would love hear from anyone that has personal experiences in applying scorekeeping in their business they would like to share.

Notes:

All organizations rise or fall on the personal goals of the individuals in that organization.

3% of Americans are considered wealthy. The main difference between this group and the other groups is the people in the wealthy group have specific, written goals. That is, they keep score.

People often pay to work harder in recreation than they do at work.

Some reasons:

In recreation, the goals are clearly defined

In recreation, the scorekeeping is better

More objective

Self-administered

Peer audited

Dynamic

Allows the player to compare current personal performance with past personal performance as well as with an accepted standard

In recreation, the feedback is more frequent

In recreation, participants feel they have a higher degree of choice

In recreation, they don't change the rules in the middle of the game

Goals

Goals must be written

Goals must be your own

Goals must be positive

Goals must be measurable and specific

Goals are best stated in inflation-proof terms

Goals must be stated in the most visible terms available

Percentages are too vague, use something you can see and touch

Use pounds, units, calls, boxes, etc

Goals must contain a deadline

Goals must allow for personality changes

"You must first set those goals to become before you attempt to set goals to have." - J. Paul Getty, Being Rich

Goals must contain an interrelated statement of benefits

Idea - buy a cd when you reach a goal, write on the cover why you bought it

Goals must be realistic and obtainable

Individual goals are the foundation of corporate human-resource development and planning

Teamwork is based on great individual execution of assigned responsibilities.

Management by exception focuses on things that are going wrong.

When there is an absence of clearly defined goals and accurate scorekeeping, we are forced to concentrate on activity

Behavior precedes results

Spaced repetition is the powerful force behind conditioning of attitudes.

Success is the result of behavior, which is determined by attitudes, which are formed by conditioning, which takes place through spaced repetition.

The concept of defining the field of play shows us that in business, freedom is greatest when boundaries are clearly defined.

Hiring:

Look for coachability

Willingness to be accountable and scored

Explain the field of play (in detail), ask if they can play on this field

Assess past winning behavior, willingness to learn and grow

Don't abidicate the leadership to the people leaving by having them train the new guy

Motivation - motive and action - balance

What do your customers buy?

Bill Brelsford — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 04:29:00 GMT

I've been reading The Daily Drucker, a book of insights from management guru Peter Drucker. Yesterday's insight is titled “Understanding What the Customer Buys”. Managers often make the mistake of thinking that what they think of as quality is the value that customers buy. Drucker tells us that a customer never buys a product but rather the satisfaction of a want. Different customers (or groups of customers) will have different wants; figuring out the wants is so complicated it can only be answered by the customers themselves.

One area that comes to mind when considering the implication of this insight is sales (and yes, we are all in sales). I have often experienced, from both sides of the table, sales presentations where the sellers launch right into a presentation of their qualities and “special processes“ without spending time to discover the “want” that the customer needs satisfying.

So, what do your customers buy?

BTW - go buy the book.

Accidental Genius - Book Review

Bill Brelsford — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 02:47:00 GMT

Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing

by Mark Levy

This is a great little book (142 pages including the index) that teaches us how to use writing to improve our thinking. The author teaches us how to use "private writing" to be able to produce the moments of genius that we are all capable of on a more consistent basis. Wonderful examples are disbursed throughout the book and each chapter ends with "Point to Remember" and "Try this" sections that help you apply what you have just read.

This book is divided into 4 parts with the meat of the material beginning in Part Two, "The Six Secrets to Private Writing". The chapters in part three expand upon the concepts in part two, offering many practical tips and examples on how to use your writing to expand and improve your thinking. How to change your focus, hold a conversation on paper, "brain-dumping", and how to “extract gold from a business book” are a few of the gems contained in this section. Part four contains useful resources including a bibliography that serves as great reference for further learning.

I highly recommend this book to everyone!

Blink - Book Review and Notes

Bill Brelsford — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 03:26:00 GMT

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell

Blink is a book about rapid cognition; what it is, how it works, how we can use and control to our advantage and the perils of relying on it improperly. The book is written in an easy to read style. It is written as a series of stories about people that used or were affected by the use (or misuse) of rapid cognition.

Gladwell shows how decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately. Also demonstrated is the counterintuitive idea that more information can lead to poorer decision making. He teaches that although we are often not aware of them, our snap judgments and first impressions can be educated and controlled. Once we understand how our minds work in creating these early judgments, we can learn to control these judgments by controlling the environment in which these judgments are made.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Malcolm was in Kansas City to discuss this book. He writes very much like he speaks, in a very easy, conversational style. In my opinion, this book is a very worthy read and I definetly recommend it.

Notes

“Thin-slicing” refers to the ability of our unconscious to find patterns in situations and behavior based on very narrow slices of experience.

Concept of priming

Paul Van Riper – the war games story, too much information can be detrimental. Also the chest pain diagnosis example

“…truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.” The fruits of deliberate analysis can set the stage for rapid cognition. i.e. doing lots of research led to the chest pain diagnosis logarithm.

In good decision making frugality matters. When we thin-slice, our brain edits out information in order to get to the patterns that allow us to make snap decisions. Gladwell posits that we get in trouble when this process of editing is disrupted.

If you get too caught up in the production of information, you drown in the data.

Thin-slicing without context. Aeron chair – when something is new must be careful to distinguish discomfort from dislike.

…experience and passion fundamentally change the nature of our first impressions.

Speed in decision making – priming – more susceptible

Seven seconds in the Bronx

We can control the environment in which rapid cognition takes place, the we can control rapid cognition.

The role of experience

Malcolm Gladwell in Kansas City

Bill Brelsford — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 02:38:00 GMT

Malcolm Gladwell was in Kansas City this evening to discuss his new book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. This event was sponsored by Rainy Day Books. This was my first time attending one of these events and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Rainy Day Books brings in quite a few authors over the course of the year. I highly recommend visiting their web site and signing up for their newsletter. Malcolm spoke and answered questions for approximately 1.5 hours. With a relaxed and entertaining style, Malcolm shared several of the stories in his book as he outlined the four main lessons from the book which I will summarize as best as I can:

People frequently make rapid, split second decisions.
The decisions affect people in a way they are totally unaware of
Better decisions often come from having less information
The fastest way to solve decision making problems is by improving the decision making environment (context).

I will post a more detailed review of the book once I have completed reading it.

Networking Magic - Book Review & Notes

Bill Brelsford — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 16:05:00 GMT

Networking Magic

authors

Rick Frishman & Jill Lublin & Mark Steisel

Paperback 252 pages

ISBN 1593370202

Summary

The authors' stated purpose for the book is "to teach you how to build and maintain networks that will help you get the BEST, where the best is the best doctor, auto mechanic, partner, client, opportunities, solutions, etc. The beginning of the book starts out with your basic, common sense advice about networking. At first, I was afraid that this book was going to be mostly fluff; that turned out not to be the case.

The second chapter tells an interesting story of some folks who started the Board Room Dinners. These were set up to be networking events where the best of the best people in their respective fields are invited to a dinner for the chance to have discussions and expand their networks. Although these dinners are quite elaborate, there are lots of great ideas that anyone can take and adapt to their own situation to create a networking event.

Starting with chapter 3, the authors provide more specific guidance and practical advice regarding building, managing and leveraging your network. Each chapter concludes with questions and action items to help you apply what you have learned. Valuable advice in finding and evaluating networking organizations and events are found in the later chapters. There is also a chapter that reviews how to apply the material to specific situations, such as finding a health care specialist or a lawyer. The book concludes with a good summary be reviewing networking do's and don'ts.

Overall I thought this book provided good, practical information that I can use.

Notes and Quotes from the Book

The authors stress the importance of giving (rather than always taking) when building a network.

Networking is the process of building and maintaining relationships.

Goodwill is the foundation for making great relationships. Building a great network is based on giving and also being mindful of how you can help others. Because of this, networking becomes a way of life.

Board Room Dinners

The invitees were always top people in their respective fields

The host always did a lot of preparation work to make sure their would be great discussions. This includes preparing questions about what the experts are working on and figuring out how the experts work relate to one another. The host is responsible for making sure no one person hogs the floor and changes the topic when a discussion begins to wane.

Chapter 3 - Building the Best Network provides practical information for getting started building your own network. The authors include tips on getting started, including performing a self inventory to determine what you bring to the table for your network. Several practical tips are offered for using software products to help organize your networking information including organizing your contacts be category as well as identifying hurdles you are likely to encounter while developing your network.

Inventory your personal assets to know what you bring to the table

Talents - Natural attributes

Skills - acquired capabilities

Values - objectives you consider important

"Leaders go first" - Mike Litman

“Helping is the best form of networking”

Stephen Burgay

Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications

John Hancock Financial Services

Chapter 4 - Setting Your Priorities

Five Categories of Introductions

Cold Calls

Attempts to call people you don't know and have little information about

Calling names from a telephone directory

Leads

Names that fit a common profile

Little more than a cold call

Cold Introductions

When a person you know tells you to call another

Call my cousin Sally.

You should get permission to use the referees name

Warm Introductions

When a person you know calls a contact and tell them that you will be calling

Personal Introductions

When a person you know personally introduces you to a contact

You should specifically identify and communicate your purpose to your contact.

Create a compelling Vision

See and feel your vision

Prepare for and set goals for networking events

Chapter 5 - Finding the Best

When looking for the best you should use all of the resources available to you to first identify the best in what you are looking for. Then, make a detailed plan about how to go about meeting the best. This plan will include getting help from members of your existing network ( and your network's network ) as well as expanding your network in order to obtain contacts that can introduce you to the best.

Chapter 6 - Positioning yourself for the Best

In order to build a network of the best, you must have something of value to bring to the network. Chapter 6 offers tips on obtaining and maintaining expert knowledge in a particular area. The book then discusses several ways to let potential network members of your expertise and how you will be able to use that expertise to help them.

Chapter 7 - Your Networking Toolkit

All professionals need tools, and the best networkers have theirs. According to the authors, a networkers' tool kit consists of:

A fabulous sound bite

A great description of you, your product, or service

Business cards

An address list

A date book

Writing materials

Expertise

Sound Bite

10 to 15 seconds

Who you are

What you do

Why you make a difference

Express yourself

Quickly

Clearly

Compellingly

Memorably

Your sound bite must be :

INTERSTING enough to attract immediate ATTENTION

POWERFUL enough to be REMEMBERED

CONVINCING enough to STIR overloaded listeners into action

The author give great step by step instructions for creating, refining, practicing and delivering your sound bite.

Chapter 8 - Approaching the Best Targets

Evaluating and preparing for networking events

Know you purpose

Set goals for the event

Financial goals

Number of people to meet

Educational goals

Prepare a list of things to learn

Prepare a list of questions

Chapter 9 - Turning Contacts into Partners

Create a system

Capture information

Follow up

Following up is a critical discipline that is essential in networking

The Rule of Seven

It takes 7 steps, calls, e-mails to actually get a booking

Expect 6 no's before a yes

Chapter 10 - Organized Networking Groups

Chapter 11 - Evaluating Networking Groups and Events

Chapter 12 - The Internet and Special tacticts

Web sites, mailing lists, newsgroups, e-zines

Chapter 13 - Networking for life

Examples for specific areas of networking for the best

Health care

Legal services

Financial services

Real estate

Job hunting

Dating

Chapters 14 & 15 - Networking Do's and Don’t's