Author: Dave Esler and Myra Kruger

How an Underdog Company Defied the Odds,
Won Customers’ Hearts, and Grew It’s Employees into Better People

I was sent an advanced copy of The Pursuit and Something Better and while I generally don’t like to read new books until I’ve had them recommended and ravely reviewed by others first but I’m glad I didn’t wait for this book, its absolutely brilliant! I read it back to back with The Adversity Parodox and both books are now in my definite top 5 for business and personal development books.  The Pursuit of Something Better is a story of a CEO who takes a mediocre company with high turnover to a thriving culture rich customer focused success.  Jack Rooney is that CEO of the company, U.S. Cellular and he comes in with a passion and belief in culture change being the cornerstone of the company’s success and that belief drives new systems and focus that is unstoppable.  There is more story and insight and example in this book than many others combined and it shows what can be done not only from top down, but also in other levels of the organization, your life and individual self improvement so don’t think this is an executive book only, its much more than that!

Rooney comes into U.S. Cellular and introduces a new concept known as the Dynamic Organization (the D.O.) which he lives and breathes by example and immediate sets new standards and expectations that all associates in the company will also start living that DO culture.  He delivers these systems with a proven track record and overcomes significant hurdles along the way.  I found these hurdles and ways they were addressed to be most inspiring as I see the same items in my work and often they feel like impossible roadblocks.  This story and book are proof and guidance to get past that!

So, I found there are 4 main themes to the Dynamic Organization in the book  and I’ll cover some specific things from each in this review.

Culture

This book outlines an impressive transformation that is built upon a new culture for U.S. Cellular, one far from the conventional business wisdom.  The culture is one that shifts toward a customer focused, caring and value based company.  One that seeks motivational leadership, provides impressive personal development systems and engages and expects every employees to contribute to these new cultural initiatives.  Among these deep messages built into the company come a focus to always do the “right” thing and expect that of all its associates, especially its leaders.

Rooney puts many stages of culture change into place and he does so with much resistance, as would be expected, but his systems built over time and prove themselves to be valid in building a better company and all of the culture changes become sought after both internally between departments and regions within U.S. Cellular and eventually outside the company as well. All three areas below are embedded into the culture and the core to making it all work is that this culture is actually what defines the business strategy.  In fact, it IS the business strategy.  Everything that is promoted in the dynamic organization and the culture for it, are actually the business focus to Rooney and all of the systems, decisions, leadership, and financing is put towards these cultural aspects.  This was the most exciting part to me, to see how the success of a company can come by focusing strategy on things that matter to the employees and customers, that things are done with moral leadership and that the company can focus on initiatives that lead to profits, without directly being steered by profits.

Customer Service

The customer deserves the focus and the customer gets priority are also embedded into this Dynamic Organization and it is taken to great extremes in many cases with long term benefits that certainly didn’t seem profitable in any way when first introduced.  Much of these initiatives in the story were created at a time when there was huge growth in the cellular industry and most companies were purely after capturing market share quickly to expand and take advantage of the available growth.  While this mattered to U.S. Cellular, it wasn’t a focus and the customers were treated better than competitors, service was of its highest quality and the company had expectations from every employee that decisions and actions were taken to ensure the customer would benefit as a result.  Many of these things were costly in the short term but they slowly saw the market shifting to recognizing this customer service and the loyalty of their customers grew.  It allowed them expand and ultimately hang on to market share while their competitors were still struggling to capture new markets without a loyal customer base.  The long term benefits of this payed off and the book outlines many of the challenges that were faced in doing this and how this customer focus was created and maintained at U.S. Cellular.

Leadership

None of this great change could happen without great leadership and there are impressive stories and systems employed that can be modeled to help companies build stronger more focused leadership.  The Dynamic Organization expected drastic contributing to the new culture and that was reinforced with regular leadership development and feedback systems.  Peer based feedback systems for all leaders drove much of these expectations and it allowed all associates to identify the desired leadership factors which seemed to enable more and more grass roots leadership.

Ethics

I think the sheer volume of attention put to ethics in the Dynamic Organization was impressive and one of the most inspiring aspects of the book.  It shows how a company can still operate (and do so very successfully) with strong ethical boundaries and expectations.  Business competition often stems unethical behaviors and greed that dominate our news and media channels which is so obvious today.  These kind of stories and examples of doing the right thing no matter what the costs and the way U.S. Cellular put ethical boundaries and expectations into a company’s core culture is something to be honored and admired.

So, I’d highly recommend The Pursuit of Something Better to anyone interested in culture change, leadership, ethics and moral leadership and customer service.  I believe some of these changes can occur at any level of an organization but its especially useful for driving systemic changes and strategic change in your company.  I can’t say the book is really a clear guide of exactly how to do this, but the stories are inspiring and many of the systems and actions are described in detailed and will be easy to use as a model for similar systems in your own company.  I know I can use some of these in mine!

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 16 Comments »

Author: Seth Godin

We Need You to Lead Us

I recently read Tribes and its the first book I’ve read by Godin, believe it or not.  I definitely want to get into a few more of his titles now since this book had some real gems in it on leadership.  The message throughout that book is that there are many ways to connect a group of people together for a common purpose and today’s technology, especially the web enable so much of that to happen.  It allows the formation of like minded people or “Tribes” that can collectively work together and create a movement for change.

Godin highlights a few areas of why business has changed and what Tribes enable people to do now.  A few points here really stood out for me and they are about how companies expect more people to lead than they ever used to.  Leaders are expected much more now at all levels than classic organizations where only few were expected to lead everyone else.  This is encouraging to anyone to be more involved as a leader.  Another point is about, how much influence and impact individuals actually have now on areas needing leadership, new products and just the rate that business operates.  Things change much more quickly than ever before in business and this opens many doors for new leadership to exist at all levels.  The final one of these points for me was about how exciting and fun leadership and new innitiatives can actually be and that so many people want to be involved in them.  This leaves many opportunities for anyone to help collect and lead a tribe toward a common goal and common passions and aspirations.  All these points show the benefits and need for more and more tribes and Godin does a fantastic job of calling out his readers to step into these so called “Tribes” and make an impact directly.

If you are interested in leadership and new business practices and in any way wanting to expand your own influence, then “Tribes” by Godin is a worthy book.  It was packed full of good advice and great challenges to help intice you to do more than learn about it, read a book about it and understand tribes, but to actually go and get involved in them and to become more of a tribal leader yourself.  The content of this book is really packed in and condensed as well, which makes for a short read yet there are many key messages and phrases that really deliver a powerful punch to inspire more leadership. Keep this in mind as Godin leaves out any practical advice on HOW to lead or make these tribes a success, he simply puts the challenge out their and leaves the responsibility solely up to each tribal leader, just how it should be.

I definitely recommend this one to anyone looking for more leadership ideas, inspiration and simple to those who wish to explore a bit more of the social media and internet style of communities, as this is explored throughout the book.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 8 Comments »

Author: J. Barry Griswell and Bob Jennings

An Unconventional Guide to Achieving Uncommon Business Success

The Adversity Paradox is a fantastic business book.  It looks at how obstacles and setbacks in life (adversity) can create the experience a person needs to overcome such challenges and development themselves to improve their circumstances and prepare themselves to be better equipped in the future.  It’s a book with stories and a close examination of what are the main contributors to people overcoming tough circumstances in life to be successful.  It specific looks at this paradox of how great challenge and some times suffering can lead to so many later great things.  There are a number of factors in those challenges that if handled well allow a person to overcome it and turn things around.  This of course is not something that happens to everyone, but those that do overcome the paradox seem to have a lot of similarities and understanding them and learning from them allow each of us to better prepare for adversity and to achieve more.

Business Savvy

The book first looks at the term business savvy and explains it as those who understand how to do well in business, consistently achieve their business goals and to be proficient in the realm of business.  This is something you develop through practice and experience and there are a number of core competencies of a business savvy profile:

• Systems and linear thinking: Big picture perspective with ability to execute smaller consecutive tasks
• Continuous thinking: Having forward or visionary skills to steer and react quickly to future events
• Synthesizing: Able to turn data into meaningful and useful information
• Knowing what you don’t know: Seeing gaps, working to fill them through learning and through the help of others
• Communication: Solid skills to communicate at all levels
• Empathy: To recognize and understand the thoughts and feelings of others

“And Then Some”

Throughout the book the stories are shown to have each of the characters practicing an over arching theme where no matter what is expected, no matter what the circumstances and no matter how difficult something is, you should always work to go above and beyond which is described and doing the task or job “and them some”.  Always that little bit more.  Each of the characters practiced the idea of “and them some” and it continually payed off, not immediately, but eventually, it always payed off.  This is big contributor to overcoming these challenges.

This concept is put forth as a universal one where you can practice “and them some” in anything you do, which I personally think is a great message on its own in the book with or without the paradox of adversity.  If you gain anything from the book at all then I hope it is this concept since it is so simple yet so effective. I can’t stress enough how powerfully this is portrayed in the book and the chapter on “and them some” is easily worth the price of the book alone and I’ve already gone back several times to re-read pieces as it truly is brilliant!

Next, this chapter expands to look at the concept of “and them some” in a general sense of self improvement and outlines in text and pictures two main steps.

The first step, that any adversity has two options:

1. Wallowing and pessimism
2. Acceptance and analysis

It takes a step to progress from 1 to 2 and this is the key to overcoming adversity.  Move from 1 to 2 quickly and then get into the next main step of the self improvement process.

The second step requires using introspection (more on that below) to look specifically at the other human capital components to identify what can be done to better oneself.

Human Capital

1. Introspection

This is the practice of observing and evaluating oneself to assess your personality, goals, performance, ideas, capabilities, strengths and weaknesses.  This skills collides with our egos and so an honest assessment is very difficult and this skill takes time to hone.  One cannot truly assess the other human capital components until this skill develops.  However, it must be conducted with the help of what the authors call, “mirrors” or other people who can honestly provide feedback about our character and human capital components.  This understanding helps us grow and realize what we need to change to direct our efforts to improve ourselves.

2. Values

This component outlines the values and beliefs a person has.  What is it that they are founded in and can rely on for extended periods through their life. Matching your behaviors then with these lasting values is what allows you to stay consistent and stay on purpose through your career.  Doing what is right and good is outlined as an important factor to success and moral leadership is hinted at as something that defines true success.  I love that and I definitely agree with the authors that this component ought to have a spiritual foundation where the values steer a person towards a purpose in life and that only living that purpose can deliver true lasting happiness.  Ahh…

3. Work Character

It just keeps getting better and I particularly loved this component as its one that I have changed a lot with (my own introspection) and so now I value this component a lot to how it has impacted me personally and in my career.  Anyway, work character is outlined here as how committed and hard working you are.  Of course it goes deeper than that and to me its a lot about the attitude you have when it comes to work as well and its an easy place to practice the “and then some” concept from above.

4. Purpose and Passion

This one connects with work character because to have a good attitude about work while consistently working hard and always putting in a little more than expected, you really need to love what you do.  You need to find a way to enjoy your work and be passionate about it.  One line from the book that I think deserved far more attention is this piece of great advice:

The trick is to view work as a means to far greater benefits or enjoyment.

This is just brilliant and I hope that you take a minute to really think about that and your own work.  I personally can find joy in my work easily and be passionate about it because of that statement above, not always the work itself.  I find it troubling that people always say they work 1/3 of their lives so you need to love your work as its the majority of your life.  I hate that message and its really not true anyway.  People only work 17% of there entire lives so there is clearly much more to life than work.  Let your work feed your passions and bring your passions and purpose into your work, not the other way around!  Anyway, back to the book, purpose and passions are obviously important to have included in your work and they are definitely an important component in this human capital outline from the book.

5. Thirst For Knowledge

And the fifth component wraps this up well with a look at learning.  How appropriate as the enitre book is about changing from adversity and improving oneself to have business success.  This thirst for knowledge and the power of applying knowledge is transformational and can keep you on an upward success trajectory for life.  Life long learning is obviously something I write about often, I completely feel the same way about it as the authors and I too, have had that shift in my life where I realize life long learning is now a given for me, not some kind of band wagon I am on.  This type of realizating and the transformation it brings can be sparked by overcoming adversity through knowledge but its more than it, it feeds life long change, powers you to be excited about doing what you are asked “and then some” and it keeps you looking for more and more areas of introspection and building your work character.  Knowledge brings on curiosity and these thigns are absolutely essential to great business success.

Summary

So, I don’t have much criticisms about the book.  Personally, I thought that 80% of the content was packed into the first few chapters and the second half had lesser value but overall, the stories and expansions in the second half of the book certainly added more understanding and were still well worthwhile reading.  The first half is simply brilliant and I know I will be recommending this to more people and re-reading sections of it again.  The concepts and messages are realistic and can be applied whether the adversity is experienced first hand or not.  The book states, there are no secret insights, quick success steps or other tricks or promises, its straight forward and offers accounts from those tested with adversity to put those misfortunes to good use and gain business savvy from them.

I certainly learned a lot from the book and as you tell from this review, I loved the content and the message of the book so yes, I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in business success or really, any level of self improvement since the patterns can be studied and learned from in any area of life.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 11 Comments »

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

Why Some People Succeed and Some Don’t

Gladwell continues to intrigue me with his unconventional research, presentation and writing.  I’ve enjoyed both of his other books, The Tipping Point and Blink and so I fully expected another enjoyable book.  I can happily say he delivered yet again as I definitely enjoyed his latest book, Outliers as well.  Outliers is a book not unlike his others, where he presents a collection of findings and stories that uncover a truth that is not your expected outcome.

There are two basic messages that Gladwell outlines in the first half and second half of the book.  First, there are those who have surprising success not by their skills, work ethic and own abilities, but by circumstances, advantages and inheritances from there life and environment that contribute to those individuals’ success.  The notion behind this is explained with various examples of how our environment shapes our lives and behaviors to a large degree as well. One example used is how professional hockey has ended up with a high statistical number of players born very early in year and extremely few players born near the end of the year.  This is caused by how age categories are split from hockey players at young ages when developing their skills.  Those who who born early in year are older and statistically have more months of practice by the cut off point for each age group.  This gives them a serious advantage from an early age and it is these players that get coached the most, move up the leagues and become the superstars more than the players born near the end of the year.  These age categories result in similar distributions in other sports and in other countries where different birthdates and splits are used.  They all seem to have a bias or advantage based on factors outside the skill of the players.

The second message is how an individual’s intended contribution is largely a factor of the time required to become an expert in some area.  He reveals that this time frame is around 10000 hours of practice in order to become an expert.  Those who are considered to be more skilled or even genius are really just evidence of a person who has put in more time to become a 10000 hour based expert sooner than others.   So while it is typically believed that there is a huge difference between very smart or talented students over average, his findings show that this is really just a case of practice.  Students who are initially worse at a skill or expected to be worse develop just as well as the next student who seems to impress others and appears to be a smarter or quicker student.  This implies that anyone, regardless of circumstance can become an expert if the time to practice is applied.

Aligning Expert with Circumstance

Gladwell takes things even further then at examining the 10000 hour expert level.  Not everyone who becomes an expert in something by practice also has the circumstances contributing to them to help them find success.  Therefore, there is a required alignment of expert level practice and contributors from one’s environment that must both occur to truly bring someone into the highest success levels.  The examples in the book not only highlight some of the evidence for these findings but also make evident the problems that many of our societal systems impose limitations on people or put unintended hardships for success in place.  Overcoming this requires that our systems look not at categorizing or classifying people early on, but instead provide equal opportunities for those who do put in expert levels of practice

In finishing this book, you will have a very different idea of what makes a person extraordinary.  It’s not their intelligence or skills as much as it is the circumstances and environment that contributes or triggers them to develop key abilities.  The date a person is born, the social atmosphere one learns their work ethic from or even the attitude one develops from overcoming hardship are key items that shape a person’s behaviors and ultimately their lives.  This is contrary to most people’s beliefs and the book directly challenges some of our political and social development systems which is one of the reasons I really like it.  I see a lot of parallels with problems areas I’ve already been exposed to, especially school systems and this book makes one think twice about the typical success factors we tend to focus on.

For me, it leaves me encouraged to continue to promote expert practice levels as obviously that is important in developing skills but it is also a wake up call to examine systems I’m involved in that form unintended prejudice because of circumstance or environmental influence.  We can’t really impact chance circumstances but in spending more time working towards something, we do increase our exposure to related areas which I think does improve our opportunities, as long as we can recognize them and take advantage of them.  Also, we ought to remove as many limits and boundaries imposed on people as possible and provide equal opportunity to teach, train, develop and coach anyone who is dedicated and committed, regardless of their environment.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 14 Comments »

Author: Norman Doidge, M.D.

Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Well I read this book on several recommendations after a brief bit of research on the plasticity of the mind.  I was definitely not disappointed and to be honest, I really loved this book. It was a fascinating, revealing look at how how thoughts and actions can truly change the structure of our mind and it does so in a hopeful examination of many brain changing breakthroughs.

Doidge is an amazing Canadian author and he simplifies the most complex of sciences into clear, vivid stories and experiments that demonstrate the astonishing changes the brain can make and in turn, transform the people housing them.

Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity has been formed by the discovery that the human brain is extremely malleable. Scientists have long known this is true with infancy, but the science now extends well into old age. In classical neuroscience, the adult brain was considered to be hardwired and a continuous working machine once formed.  Specific brain areas and maps were labeled with a specific purpose and little was known about if or how these areas could be replaced or repaired so it led to the common belief that you can’t easily mold the brain.

Who is the Book For?

This book drives home a paradigm shift in brain study and it has great value not only to those with a neurological disease, but for any human being with the curiosity and willingness to discover more about the makeup of their own abilities to learn, which is what interested me so much!

Doidge has numerous examples of neurologically diseased patients who gain from this revolutionary science to improve their condition.  Cases are studied from many severe conditions:

• Strokes
• Cerebral palsy
• Schizophrenia
• Learning disabilities
• Obsessive compulsive disorders
• Phantom limbs
• many more…

Each of these demonstrate the adult’s innate ability to alter the mind and how specific methods can be applied to reshape the brain.  Whether you know someone with these conditions or are purely interested in the marvel behind this new science, anyone can take away insight about learning and shaping the mind in a positive way.

The Learning Mind

Doidge also covers how the plastic nature of the mind affects not only mental mind maps in trauma but even in every day activities.  Societal differences and behaviors can have as much impact on the mind as a brain injury which he explores several examples of human abilities and specifically, the brain’s ability to mend itself due to social differences or environmental affects.

These implications of rewiring the mind however, are also to be cautioned.  The brain is actually so malleable it is also quite vulnerable to its surroundings and seemingly little impact input to the mind can make a drastic change to the way we perceive and handle the world around us.  The impact of media and television are showing significant impact and damage on the mind leading to disorders become more and more prevalent in today’s young people. This is something to be cautious of as people can highly influence and shape the mind as well.  Parents, peers, and leaders all make a significant contribution to the structure of our brains and while it can be changed, it is not always easy to do so.

Despite these risks of manipulating the mind, Doidge keeps a positive outlook through his fantastic stories of triumph and he walks through cases and ideas on how our thoughts can switch on specific genes and alter our brain anatomy.  He shows how intelligence can be improve with brain exercises, how people can improve their cognition, perception, muscle strength and music talents among others, all by letting the imagination shape our minds for us.  I found these areas and really the whole book, absolutely fascinating, uplifting and amazing to see and put into practice the thoughts, imagination and input for my mind that let me shape it the way I want to.  I can’t recommend this book enough.

Norman Doidge, M.D., is a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst on the faculty at the Columbia University Psychoanalytic Centre in New York and the University of Toronto, as well as an award-winning writer. He has presented his scientific research at the White House.  Website: http://www.normandoidge.com

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 12 Comments »

The Starting Point of Great Companies

Author: Nikos Mourkogiannis

To brilliantly match the title of the book, there is a single strong message through this book, that is: for companies to be successful, they must have a purpose that drives the strategy and values through all levels of an organization.

Purpose is explored with a moral avenue far beyond that of the typical mission and value often on display in companies.  It is presented by looking at four specific examples:

Discovery: Adventure’s Challenge

Mourkogiannis explores the way companies can make purpose and morality rooted in the adventures that they take through intellectual curiosity.  It ties closely to innovation and I love how the author relates discovery to a choice that enables freedom and opportunity to discover a new world.

Company example: Tom Walton’s IBM

Excellence: Virtue’s Fulfillment

Excellence means holding up high standards and great expectations of performance both internally and in the community of the business.

Company example: The Economist, Warren Buffet

Altruism: Empathy’s Justification

When a business exists primarily to serve its customers beyond the normal expectation or obligation tied in by a contract.

Company example: Sam Walton’s Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard, Nordstrom

Heroism: Power’s Effectiveness

Heroism is when a company can demonstrate great achievement and success despite the challenges and setbacks it faces.

Company example: Henry Ford and Microsoft

Final Thoughts

While those are the four themes carried through the book, it is done well with many segments of practical advice and guidelines for discovering purpose and especially for turning that into strategy.  The third part of the book explores the areas that I was most captivated by.  It looks at purpose from each of these perspectives:

• Morality
• Innovation
• Competitive Advantage
• Leadership
• Action

These wrap up the implementation of purpose into strategy very well and give the reader a lot of food for thought on their own business strategies.  There is plenty of wise advice throughout this book and one that you will certainly enjoy if you are planning strategy and guiding any significant portion of a company.  There is certainly a lot of wisdom for an individual perspective as well, even for entrepreneurs, but it is never really explored in that sense within the book, which is something I would have liked to see more of as I think it is much more common with that segment of business on the rise.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 9 Comments »