I just finished reading Willie Pietersen's book, Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance
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Pietersen first sets the stage for the rest of the book by underscoring the need for organizations to be adaptable. He paraphrases Charles Darwin, concluding that is it not the largest, the strongest, or even the most intelligent of species that survive, but the most adaptable to change. He explains that corporations need to start thinking beyond doing things right, to thinking about doing the right things.
He explains that vision is different from insight. Vision is what the leader has in mind for the group. Insight is what the group learns about their customers needs, through studying their customers.
Pietersen describes a four-step process he calls the "Strategic Learning Process:"
- Situation Analysis (Learn)
- Strategic Choices (Focus)
- Align the Organization (Align)
- Implement and Experiment (Execute)
This process provides the basic toolset for gaining insight, and turning that into vision. Continuous learning is essential, Pietersen says, and he quotes Arie de Geus's observation that a company's "ability to learn faster than competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage" they have.
He continues, "Nature, in effect, suffers from two massive learning disabilities. When nature fails, it doesn't know why; and when it succeeds, it doesn't know why...therefore strategic learning is at the heart of successful adaptation"
Pieterson's goes on to offer a formula for initiating change. His formula is:
D x V x P > C
D = Dissatisfaction with Current State
V = Clear Vision for Change
P = Process for Getting it Done
C = Cost of Change
His formula suggests that if D,V, or P are not strong enough to collectively overcome C, change will not occur.
Pieterson concludes his book by suggesting Strategic Learning can be applied to our personal lives to enable personal growth. Appling it to such topics as Emotional Intelligence, and Personal Renewal, the Strategic Learning process can help us throughtout our life.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com
What is a value system?
As of late, corporations have discovered that mission-statements are only somewhat helpful in providing direction to a company. Being strategic in nature, they don't provide enough detail to govern tactical decisions made by the corporate employees on a daily basis.
To answer this need, value-statements, and value-systems have come into vogue. Many companies have value-statements to underscore their mission statements.
Just as some mission statements are more effective than others, some value-systems are more effective than others.
The simple approach to establishing corporate, department, or team values is to get everyone together in a room and have them suggest values the team should adopt. Voting happens, and the group committs to their agree-upon values.
After one of these sessions, the group might come up with a list like:
- respect
- trust
- excellance
- high performance
This list is a start, but only representative of a one-dimentional value system. These values, by themselves, realy don't project any context or weight.
A more effective approach would be a two-dimensional value system. A two dimensional value-system provides a greater context fabric. For example, you could say your group values:
- respect over cynicism
- trust over hope
- excellence over heroics
- high-performance over sub-optimization
These comparison value statements proved direction and context. This represents a two-dimensional value system, and is more effective that a simple list of values.
A three-dimensional value system is a prioritized list of these comparison statements. For example, you could say your group values these statements in this order:
- trust over hope
- excellence over heroics
- high-performance over sub-optimization
- respect over cynicism
This list shows that trust is the highest factor in inter-departmental dynamics. It shows that excellence is more important than high-performance (so no cutting corners!), and that the group values trust, excellence, and high-performance more than respect.
Every group will have their own values and differences in priorioties, but putting a three-dimensional value-system in place with your team is a great step forward in building functional team cohesion.
Once in place, a reward-systems can be built around your value system to promote it' ectivness.
Mike J Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com
I just finished reading Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, by Jim Collins. This #1 bestseller is the best business development book I have ever read. In fact--I would even say--I can recommend it with every fiber of my being.
Collins takes a team of 20 graduate students from the University of Colorado and dedicates roughly 15,000 hours of research to this book.
Collins's team explores why some good companies become great companies, and why the rest never do. Their research subjects were companies that outperformed the stock market index by an average of seven times during a fifteen year span. Their findings are novel and counter-intuitive.
The first major takeaway I got from reading this book is that great companies have learned to say "no." They don't pursue opportunities that don't meet certain internal criteria.
The second takeaway is that achievements, although seemingly "sudden" when viewed by outside groups, are really a long set of disciplined decisions made over time by these companies.
The third takeaway is that leaders of these great companies were not magnanimous superstars, instead they consistently seemed to have a compelling modesty about them.
A forth takeaway is that these companies seemed to consistently put their best people on new opportunities, not on their biggest problems.
Another concept Collins introduces is the Hedgehog Concept. This concept is that companies are most successful following opportunities that have three criteria:
- The team or corporation has a deep passion for the subject matter of the opportunity.
- The team feels they can become the best in the world at it.
- The opportunity is in-line with what drives the corporation's economic engine.
I think I could write a twenty-page review about this book. Let me just say you need to go and read it. If you read any business-development book this year, read this one.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.comWith a forward by Zig Ziglar, John C. Maxwell's book titled The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is an assured home run.
Maxwell breaks down leadership into 21 categories. He then goes to great lengths to explain each category and give real world examples.
He describes the progression of leadership by highlighting great leaders who have created momentum in others around them. For example, he explains that early in Michael Jordan's basketball career, he relied heavily on his personal talent to win games. But as he matured, he turned his attention more to being a leader and making the whole team play better.
Jordan is quoted in the book as saying, "That's what everybody looks at when I miss a game. Can they win without me? ...Why doesn't anybody ask why or what it is I contribute that makes a difference? I bet nobody would ever say they miss my leadership or my ability to make my teammates better." Yet, that's what made him such a great teammate.
Some of Maxwell's principles are predictable and conventional, but some of them are quite novel. I enjoyed reading about the Law of Magnetism and the Law of Connection.
The Law of Magnetism states that you are who you attract, and the Law of Connection states that you must touch people's hearts before they will trust you.
This book is a great reference for leaders in all stages of their career. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week bestseller, I highly recommend you buy it, read it, and consult it often.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com
With a forward by Zig Ziglar, John C. Maxwell's book titled The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is an assured home run.
Maxwell breaks down leadership into 21 categories. He then goes to great lengths to explain each category and give real world examples.
He describes the progression of leadership by highlighting great leaders who have created momentum in others around them. For example, he explains that early in Michael Jordan's basketball career, he relied heavily on his personal talent to win games. But as he matured, he turned his attention more to being a leader and making the whole team play better.
Jordan is quoted in the book as saying, "That's what everybody looks at when I miss a game. Can they win without me? ...Why doesn't anybody ask why or what it is I contribute that makes a difference? I bet nobody would ever say they miss my leadership or my ability to make my teammates better." Yet, that's what made him such a great teammate.
Some of Maxwell's principles are predictable and conventional, but some of them are quite novel. I enjoyed reading about the Law of Magnetism and the Law of Connection.
The Law of Magnetism states that you are who you attract, and the Law of Connection states that you must touch people's hearts before they will trust you.
This book is a great reference for leaders in all stages of their career. A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Business Week bestseller, I highly recommend you buy it, read it, and consult it often.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com
Despite it's brash title, Dr. Robert I. Sutton's book, The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't, is a valuable text that effectively treads where few business authors have treaded before.Sutton makes a case for the need for insight and direction in handling Bullies, Creeps, Jerks, Tyrants, Tormentors, Despots, Backstabbers, Egomaniacs, and any other kind of workplace employees who never learned to play Sandbox 101.I found the book to be an inspiring read and found that it was full of great advice. Two interesting management take-aways I got from reading the book were:
- Corporations loose money due to unbridled "jerkism" and the author suggests that the cost should be tracked in terms of a "TCA" (Total Cost of jerks) metric.
- Due to #1, progressive companies need to have instilled in their corporate values, policies, and hiring processes, the sentiment that being a jerk is incompatible with the corporate culture. Interestingly enough, companies like Google actually have anti-jerk clauses in their employee handbook.
If you find yourself working with a jerk, you can do the following:
- Minimize your time spent with the jerk. Don't pick projects they are on, don't attend optional meetings they are in.
- Another tactic is to lesson the influence the jerk has on your department and in the company in general. Try to steer new obligations and assignments that effect you away from that individual.
I found Robert I. Sutton's book to be an interesting read. Sorry about the title, Mom.Mike J www.RedRockResearch.com
I finished reading Product Development for the Lean Enterprise: Why Toyota's System Is Four Times More Productive and How You Can Implement It, by Michael N. Kennedy. This book explains why Toyota's internal product development process has enabled them to surpass the Detroit auto manufacturers production in both volume and quality.
If you haven't heard already, Toyota now sells more cars in the U.S. than General Motors, as of 2007. It's also no secret that Toyota makes the highest quality cars you can buy today.
In his book, Kennedy contrasts the Detroit product development models with Toyota's model. He explains that the Detroit manufactures have concentrated on improving the manufacturing process by incorporating JIT (Just-In-Time) Assembly, and investing in Robotics. He points out that although gains have been made, the Detroit manufacturer's have really been missing the core of product development--the customer.
In contrast, Toyota has focused on the development process, not only the manufacturing process. He explains that Toyota invests much more time up front studying customers and getting their insight about product features. Moreover, Toyota product managers "catalog" various component options and make them available for other product managers to pick from and learn from. Ever wonder why basically every Toyota and Lexus model car has the exact same window-up/down buttons? This is why.
These tactics give Toyota both the flexibility and the insight to be able to deliver higher relevance and higher quality in their products. Not only does Toyota now sell more cars in America, in terms of volume, but also has more vehicle models available for consumers. This is a direct effect from successfully gathering the voice-of-the customer.
You can't help but commend Toyota for getting it right. You should always gather customer insight with any product being developed.
I think the Toyota model translates well to software development in the following ways:
- Gathering customer insight about a software product should be mandatory.
- Structuring code in re-usable formats (classes) will improve the effectiveness of the development group over time.
- Keeping a library of UI artifacts and ideas can help a development team make decisions faster, and have a more consistent look and feel across a large project, or across multiple projects.
- In the software industry, we often make the same mistake that the Detroit manufactures make by supposing quality is our final endpoint (ie: "Quality is Job One!"). We need to understand that relevance is different from quality, and we need to structure our processes to maximize and measure relevance, along side of quality.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com
The First-time Manager, 5th Edition, by Loren B. Belker and Gary S. Topchick is an excellent book on management.
Although it has been titled for "The First Time Manager," there are enough gold nuggets in this book for seasoned managers as well. Now, in it's 5th edition, you can be assured it has been refined and reality-tested.
Belker and Topchick present guidance to many areas that managers need to navigate when managing people. From building trust, to building team spirit, to managing problem employees, to hiring and firing, and so on.
They point out that managing is not about directing people, it is about getting people to become self-directed. They talk about personal style and communication, dealing with stress, and finally having an effective work-life balance, and a touch of class.
I would recommend this book to any manager. It makes a great reference to consult from time to time.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com
I finished reading Results: Keep What's Good, Fix What's Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance, by Gary L. Neilson and Bruce A. Pasternack.
I have to admit this book seemed much like many of the other "improving business performance" books that I have read, except that this book kept me confused through most of it.
The authors discuss seven different types of organizational profiles, some functional, and some dysfunctional. After reading the book, I'm still not quite sure which was supposed to be which. I even found the diagrams in the book to be confusing.
Here and there, the authors have little nuggets of good advice. For example, they remind the reader that strategy doesn't bring results, execution does. And, that execution won't happen successfully until the right people have the right information and the right incentives.
Despite the confusing text, I can tell the book had a lot of research behind it. I wish the authors would have simply summarized all of their findings and presented the material with a "how to" model.
Unfortunately, I would not recommend spending time reading this book. I think for the time invested reading all 279 pages, there are other books in this space that will off re valuable take-aways.
Mike J Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com
Jack Welch, together with is wife Suzy, have a Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller with their book titled Winning.
Following Jack Welch's direct, no-holds-barred style, he presents quite plainly the road-map to successful management.
He talks about constructing corporate values and effective mission statements. He talks about the importance of candor, respect, and effective reward-systems. He continues with topics on Crisis Management, Change, Strategy, Budgeting, People Management, and finally Work-Life Balance.
This book is full of take-aways and insight. It's a real wonder to be able to take decades of Jack Welch's experiences and have them condensed into a single book. If you haven't read this book, you should. Soon.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com
Recently I read Debra Boggan & Anna VerSteeg's book titled Confessions Of An Unmanager: Ten Steps To Jump Start Company Performance By Getting Others To Accept Accountability.
This is an interesting book that speaks to the great "divide" in corporate America. The divide, they say, is the distinction between how management conducts themselves in relation to their teams they manage.
The authors suggest corporations function better with a "flat model." Their suggestions are:
- Leaders should never command or dictate change.
- Employees should always be involved from the very beginning.
- Executives should not get privileged parking spaces.
Well, OK, the third point was not emphasized heavily, but was mentioned.
The flat-management approach emphasized in this book relates well to Agile Development team dynamics. In an effective Agile team, input and influence from all are needed to produce superior customer value in the software product. In fact, this book is listed as a favorite read on the ScrumAlliance.org leadership reading list.
The most valuable takeaway I got from reading this book was to think in terms of how my actions, as a manager, can either emphasize or minimize the space between management and the team. A great suggestion they gave was to hold a team meeting directly after the executive meetings, thus symbolically minimizing this divide.
I think this is a good book to read once.
Mike J Berry www.RedRockResearch.com