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281 pages
ISBN 9780071739351 Published May 2010
McGraw-Hill
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Posted June 24, 2011 10:15 a.m. by dylan
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
➻ Kathy Sierra had one of the better posts I've read recently on Hugh MacLeod's gapinvoid site earlier this month. It was about Pixie Dust and The Mountain of Mediocrity, or how companies go about representing themselves online.
The answer has always been there: to make the product, book, service that enables, empowers, MAKES USERS AWESOME. The rest nearly always takes care of itself.
Which brings me back to, why are so many so convinced that [insert favorite buzzword] is the answer vs. just making a product that helps people kick ass in a way they find meaningful?
And then someone I trust said this: these [insert favorite new buzzword] approaches are not about saving a crap product or marketing an awesome one… where these tools really DO make a difference for a brand is when the brand has little or no other compelling benefit over the competition. If the product is mediocre, or even really good but with too many equally good competitors, these things can make a difference. If you have little else to compete on, then out-friending/out-viraling/out-gamifying can work.
At least until your competition out-hires a good social media strategist or compelling extroverted social media star and out-friends you.
You do not want to be That Brand. You do not want to be That Product. That Book. That Consultant. You do not want to be in that arms race because it is an exhausting and fragile place to be. You want to use social media not because you *must* but because you can add even more value for your users by doing so. You do not want to be the guy that must ask constantly, “how can I get more comments on my blog? how can I get more followers and fans?”
The real pixie dust is when you ask yourself, “how can I help my users get more comments on THEIR blog?”. You want to be the guy who asks, “How can I help my users get more followers and fans?” And that is why I have always been such a fan of Hugh and Gary V and Tim Ferris, for example. Not for the comments their followers make about Hugh, Gary, and Tim… But for the comments their followers make about themselves. In a nutshell: Hugh, Gary, and Tim might well be the people you want at a dinner party, but what matters is that they help people become more interesting at their OWN next dinner party.
That resonates with us here at 800-CEO-READ because—although we're obviously in business to sell books and make money—our mission, our reason to exist, is to help you find the right books, ideas and resources that will propel your business and make you more money.
➻ And speaking of finding the right books, Neelima Mahajan-Bansal has a piece over at Poets and Quants about the Great Books That Shaped The Business School Elite. The post asks nine separate business school professors the same five questions:
- Which book has influenced you the most?
- What do you plan to read next?
- How do you usually like to read — real books or digital devices?
- Apart from management books, which genres do you like best?
- If you are stranded alone on an island which is the one book you would like for company and why?
The interesting thing about the responses is the lack of business books on the list that "influenced them most." I suppose it may be that business as a popular publishing genre isn't quite old enough to have heavily influenced the current generation of professors, but only one professor—Why of Work author Dave Ulrich—seems to be a big fan of (or heavily influenced by) the genre.
I read for professional and personal growth and for pleasure. Professionally, I like to read authors, not books. An author comes to life through the books they write and I like to spend time with the authors through their books. My professional author list includes Ed Lawler, Steve Kerr, Lynda Gratton, C.K. Prahalad, Gary Hamel, Bob Eichinger, Ram Charan, Jac Fitz Enz, John Boudreau, Marshall Goldsmith and Dick Beatty. I have probably read every book these people have written. Personally, I find comfort and insight from reading scriptures. For pleasure, I read escape novels that you would find on the top sellers list.
The bible was the most influential book in the survey, with three professors citing it as influential. The second was a book of near-religious significance to some, and the only actual book on the list that could be considered a business book, Michael Lewis's Moneyball, which was mentioned by two professors.
➻ David McCullough, author of the recently released history of The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, often gets to know the subjects of his books more intimately by spending time reading their favorite books. It's a fabulous idea that led him to read Don Quixote while working on his biography of John Adams. So revealed Danny Heitman in his conversation with McCullough about The Greater Journey and some of McCullough's own favorite books in The Christian Science Monitor. But perhaps the most important part of his writing process takes place on his early morning strolls.
People always ask me, "How much time do you spend researching, and how much time do you spend writing?" That’s a good question ... But what they don’t ask me is "How much time do you spend thinking?"
Good old fashioned walking and thinking, and he still writes all of his books on a used typewriter he bought in 1965.
➻ In response and homage to Studs Terkel's classic oral history Working, OR Books has launched Not Working, a multimedia project that will lead to a published book in 2012.
In dialogue with Terkel’s book, DW Gibson has organized NOT WORKING, a project that will produce a book-length oral history. The book will be accompanied by a film, which Gibson will produce with MJ Sieber. [...] It will provide the names and faces, the pulse of the Great American Recession. [...]
Interviews will be centered on the exact moment when the job was lost, the conditions that led to that moment, and the consequences that followed. The moment-to-moment details rupture with emotion, tension, humor, and absolute horror. These close-ups are the essence of this project.
These are workers who have lost their job because of economic considerations. They have been let go by forces beyond their will, ability, and sense of commitment. They come from all levels of responsibility and income: hourly wage earners, executives, and every tax bracket in between.
I am really looking forward to seeing how this project progresses. (Tip of the hat to GalleyCat for the story.)
➻ Sometimes, Milwaukee is a magical place to live. Especially when accompanied by a Group of the Altos.
3x3 for June
Posted July 2, 2010 4:38 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Hot on the tail of the recent Inc./800-CEO-READ Business Book Bestseller List, we're launching a series of blog posts called '3x3' - where we'll ask the top three authors from each month's bestseller list three of the same questions.
June's top three authors are: Dave and Wendy Ulrich (The Why of Work), Jim Champy (Reengineering Health Care), and Gregory Salsbury (Retirementology). Congratulations to them!
Let's see how they answered our questions:
Dave Ulrich and Wendy Ulrich:
What's the most influential book you've read?
Wendy: To Destroy You Is No Loss … a true story about a family trying to escape Cambodia during the regime of the Khmer Rouge. Their resilience in the face of unimaginable obstacles has been a source of inspiration.
Dave: Bible … hard to top for a moral and guiding philosophy that has shaped how people have thought and behaved for millennia.
Who in business had the most profound effect on you?
Wendy: Bonner Ritchie … Bonner is an innovative and mind bending teacher who taught me that organizations don’t think, people do.
Dave: Co-authors on books. I like to co-author so I can learn from those whose ideas inform and inspire me.
If your business philosophy were on a bumper sticker, what would it say?
Wendy: If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly … my mother taught me that things worth doing were worth doing well, but I have since learned that some things are so important to do that they are worth doing badly so that we can learn to do them well.
Dave: Ideas with impact … this was the outcome of our learning research (since picked up by others) and connects to the value theme that has driven my work.
Jim Champy:
What's the most influential book you've read?
Alfred Sloan’s book, My Years at GM. It’s a wonderful story of leadership and renewal and sound management practices.
Who in business had the most profound effect on you?
In business, my closest friend and advisor was Peter Drucker. He was a great pragmatist and thinker – and wrote so clearly. He really understood business and management.
If your business philosophy were on a bumper sticker, what would it say?
“Believe in the Human Potential”
Gregory Salsbury:
What's the most influential book you've read?
The Hero in History by Sidney Hook. It explores leadership in the modern world and distinguishes between "eventful" and "event-making" heroes. It is a distinction most observers have historically and currently remain unwilling or incapable of making.
Who in business had the most profound effect on you?
It’s a toss-up between Steven Covey (author: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) and John Bogle (founder and retired CEO of The Vanguard Group). The latter more specific to the financial services industry, while the former pertained to my approach to business in general.
If your business philosophy were on a bumper sticker, what would it say?
"Execution trumps concept"
Why do you work?
Posted June 15, 2010 4:56 a.m. by jon
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
I'm sad to admit that I've had jobs in the past that were difficult to get out of bed to go to. Once at the job, I would try my best to find something interesting about the things going on to occupy some mental space; imagination playing a big role. I would create stories, I would plan projects, and I would accomplish all sorts of things in my head while my body went around completing totally mundane (and sometimes downright unpleasant) tasks. That's a lot of mental space being used up for things that have nothing to do with the work at hand.
Last night, I met a bunch of people at a Seth Godin inspired Linchpin Meetup who each left great companies to focus on their own endeavors. Inspiring stuff, as I pictured each of them likely sitting in these great companies imagining their own stories, their own projects, etc.
Then I sat down at my desk today and picked up a book called The Why of Work by Dave and Wendy Ulrich, and it all came full circle. As the book poses: "Before you ask, 'Why aren't my employees working harder?" ...ask yourself, 'Why are my employees working?'" An interesting statement, and likely a question many leaders and managers have a lot of assumptions about. As the book points out, it's not all about the money.
From there, the authors explain what it is about, and how leaders can address the needs of employees (and customers), make work personal to motivate, and create a team of passionate people that make the work (and the results) the type of situation anyone would want to be involved in.
All those imaginary stories, projects, and other day dreams might actually be useful to a company. The Why of Work discusses how to first understand why we do what we do, and then develop the situation to make it as fulfilling and successful as possible.
I wish I could have passed this book to some of my old bosses!
Do You TED?
Posted June 14, 2010 5:24 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Cruising Twitter this morning, I read a quick mention of a talk on TED ("TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free.") The Tweet recommended Dan Pink's talk on motivation--needing a little motivation myself these days, I clicked. And spent an enjoyable 18 minutes listening to Dan Pink's entertaining and convincing argument that "there is a mismatch between what science knows and business does." In this case, Pink is talking about motivation, about how money as motivator only works for the simplest tasks, and autonomy works better as a motivator than money for many other more creative or fluid tasks which predominate our work culture in the 21st century.
Listening to his argument about science v. business brought to mind how many "business" books I've been reviewing lately that use science to illuminate the behaviors and motivators of people. It's what has, all these years, intrigued me most about business books: business books are about work, and work is about the people who do it. Business books help improve the working conditions of the people who make up business. I'm not terribly interested in profit margins and day trading, or whatnot, but I am interested in people.
Recently, we've recommended a handful of books that are more about the why than the what.
Switch by Chip and Dan Heath combines "psychology, sociology, management, and case studies [to] tell stories of people and organizations who have successfully implemented significant changes--even when change is hard."
Click by Ori and Rom Brafman is described as "a fascinating psychological investigation of the forces behind what makes us click with certain people or become fully immersed in whatever activity or situation we're involved in."
The Upside of Irrationality by social scientist, Dan Ariely (watch his TED talk here) "exposes the surprising negative and positive effects irrationality can have on our lives. Focusing on our behaviors at work and in relationships, he offers new insights and eye-opening truths about what really motivates us on the job, how one unwise action can become a long-term habit, how we learn to love the ones we're with."
Happiness at Work by Dr. Srikumar Rao (watch his TED talk here) isn't so much a research-based book as a guidebook subtly influenced by Eastern philosophy meant to "show you that it isn't the negative thing that happens to you that causes your unhappiness, it's how you see it."
New June books like Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz, which "explores why we find it so gratifying to be right and so maddening to be mistaken, and how this attitude towards error corrodes relationships--whether between family members, colleagues, neighbors, or nations," and The Why of Work by Dave and Wendy Ulrich, which is an excellent extension from Dan Pink's talk because it explains that "according to studies, we all work for the same thing--and it's not just money. It's meaning." Nicholas Carr's The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains looks at "technology's effect on the mind," asking, "Is Google making us stupid?"
It is easy to lose track of time surfing TED and watching the oodles of video talks (a little like spending some time reading thought-provoking manifestos on our ChangeThis.com) site), but it is time well-spent, particularly if you have a company that allows for autonomous learning and development time, like Dan Pink argues for. Business books (and their surrounding media) are no longer strictly about doing business, but are instead include explorations in learning about what motivates and engages us as workers which is key to improving our performance and our satisfaction in our work.
