Author : Patrick Lencioni

This book is another to add to Lencioni’s great collection and this one tackles employee satisfaction and job fulfillment.  A topic not easy to write a story around I’m sure yet Lencioni does it again with his usual collection of strong characters and an interesting plot to demonstrate that a complex business issues such as employee satisfaction can in fact, be outlined and modeled.  The story itself is about a retiring CEO who finds himself mindlessly bored without some problems to fix in his retirement and ends up committing into a little local restaurant wanting to help turn it around from a place of misfit employees who really don’t care or even like their work to a thriving business and environment where those same employees not only like their jobs, but also learn to excel at them and maintain the desire to do well in their roles on their own.

I think the book is worth reading for anyone leading or managing in a company with employees and for anyone who works in a cubicle environment or any work environment where they really don’t feel a passion for their work, but don’t know why.  This book will help develop that level of engagement needed to excite employees and to teach some basic principles that work at all levels of an organization to make improvements in work culture and environment.

If you haven’t read any of Lencioni’s books, you are missing out on his fantastic fables and story telling he has become one of my favorite authors because of that.  I find I learn so much from his books and he drives home specific models and applications of the model through examples that it is easy to have applicable take aways from his books.  This one covers a simple model to use for recognizing the 3 signs of a miserable job:

• Anonymity - people need to understand their jobs are important and necessary for the business and for other people or clients in the business.
• Irrelevance - a danger when an employee does not know why their job is important, what impact it has or why it matters as some contribution to others.
• “Immeasurement” – when people do not know how or simply do not measure their own outputs in their job, they cannot have a high level of job satisfaction since their is no output realized.

With the high ratio of dissatisfied and unhappy workers in today’s workforce, I think this book is really important for managers, team leaders, executives and anyone with the ability or desire to drive some change, make a better workplace for themselves and colleagues and to understand some of the important factors that do make a job more enjoyable.  Lencioni’s story is one I’m sure many can relate to because of the dynamic characters and I especially like the point of irrelevance.  The way his characters solve this is by looking not at what a person’s job does for themselves, but how it contributes to others people in their work or to clients.  Encouraging people to measure the impact they have on others and empowering them to seek ways to contribute to a clients life in some simple yet impactful way, really sends a strong message about how people work and how they think about people in their roles.  So, I encourage you get this book and any other of Lencioni’s books (here are my other book reviews of Lencioni’s work), as they are all wonderful stories and train each subject very well.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 1 Comment »

How to Change Things When Change is Hard

Author : Chip Heath and Dan Heath

This is a great book, I really loved it!  The authors give incredibly convincing content around a subject that is so hard for many people, that is: change.  I personally love change, drive a lot of change in my own live and those around me and love anything that helps me to be more of a change agent.  I expected the book to be great considering their first top selling book, Made to Stick, I also highly enjoyed and recommend.  The authors take what is such a common problem and struggle in people’s lives and they break it down into pieces that are easier to understand individually yet still highly related and well tied together in the book.

Dan and Chip Heath break the topic down into three simple sections:

1. Direct the rider
2. Motivate the elephant
3. Shape the path

These concepts or sections represent what is necessary for change and are used by comparing to what is needed for a rider on an elephant.  The rider is the logical, rational or thinking body of the system and responds to triggers of rationalization, fact and well thought out ideas. The problem for the rider is then the elephant itself, which cannot be physically controlled and has to be motivated to respond by triggering its emotions or by any short term influence possible.  The idea then of shaping the path is to make changes to the environment and other outside influences easier on yourself and the elephant so the change can be carried through with the least effort.

The authors do an amazing job of breaking down complex situations and examples to these same 3 aspects with concise examples that really demonstrate the ideas well.  I love the authors’ ability to do this and while they do break it down for you, the book leaves a lot to think about in the way of applying the concepts and similar breakdown to your own problems and changes you face in life.  There are 9 steps to examine for handling change and 3 of them I’ve outlined below that really really resonated strongly for me:

• Find the bright spots – This aligns very well with the appreciative inquiry work I’ve discovered this year and I am happy to see the overlap and recommendation here to seek the positive aspects of a change to help drive it.  I agree completely.
• Shrink the change – break down the change into small management parts and deal with them on a scale that makes it easier.
• Tweak the environment – Change the surroundings and environment to influence the change desired and lead people toward the new path, which might include yourself as well in that steering process.

Switch take abstract and complex ideas and breaks them into easy to digest pieces through brilliant examples, memorable points and quotes and enough content to leave you thinking about the book for some time.  It’s one of those books that really needs to be re-read and to some degree studied to fully digest the content.  There are levels of change to consider for any situation including individual, societal and organizational levels of influence that are expanded on with each area of the book as well.

So, I urge you to read Switch, let the authors educate you on how your mind reacts with both a rational side an an emotional one, explore the components of influencing change and to enjoy the perfectly matched examples and stories that both prove the points made and more importantly, teach the content in a powerful and memorable way.  I can assure you its a great book, you will be entertained reading it and it will give you more power in making change happen, wherever you desire it.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | No Comments »

Reinventing leadership for the age of mass collaboration

Author : Emmanual Gobillot

Leadershift is not only about the subject of leadership, but how leadership is shifted from a traditional sense of leadership to one more defined by social media, collaboration and engagement.  I love the subjects of this book and it covers the subject well from various aspects of such a shift.  Four specific areas of leadership are argued to be irrelevent in this new age of mass collaboration.

• Experience
• Knowledge
• efforts
• power

I like the discussions on these and while I can’t say I was all that aware of this new ‘shift’ as it is called, I’ve certainly seen evidence in leadership and learning about leadership where each are true.  These factors do not on their own carry much weight and when it comes to mass collaboration which has been proven time and time again with online content, system for anonymous creation like Wikipedia and massively multiplayer online role playing games.

One quote I love in the book is this:

The key to leaders’ success is not their willingness to accept a day of reckoning and the efforts they make to prepare for this.  Rather, it is their ability to embrace the idea that, given some fundamental trends, each day is a day of reckoning.  This is the difference between mediocrity and excellence.

I just love that as the point of embracing an idea is by far the most important thing to lead change.  There are literally thousands of great ideas that stay as just that, ideas.  it is not until one of these is truly embraced by a leadership that the idea takes form and begins to shape into reality.

The remainder of the book covers how to create the leadershift the book is really talking about.  It focuses on building communities, on engaging a social atmosphere around the shift and building followers that are fully participating in the community.  The four usual suspects of business that are desirable outputs are engagement, alignment, accountability and commitment.  The corresponding leadershift inputs to make these occur are simplicity, narratives, tasks and love.  Completely different from the old school list which is clarity, plans, roles and money.  These fundamental changes force a new kind of leadership, one where engagement happens without structure or hierarchy, where the leader is more involved and equal to the masses with narratives and dialogue to deepen the community and with compassion that bonds it all together.

All in all, the book is very good, I am not sure how to act on some of the ideas in the book or how to make those neccessary changes, but it certainly gives enough examples and stories to get a person thinking about application.  I’ve certainly seen many aspects of the mass collaboration and as a blogger, this is more obvious than it might be to most, since social networks, collaboration and building a community are certainly the success factors of any good blog as well, its interesting to see this in a context of business as well. Its a book that I’m sure you will enjoy if you are a leader, have interest in these mass collaborative efforts or you are simply interested in learning about how business are changing the way they operate to be successfull.  I don’t think the book is a game changer by any means but the information in it, the references, the examples are all solid, informative and very intriguing to any leader exploring collaboration.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 4 Comments »

Get a Grip on Your Business

Author: Gino Wickman

Let me start by simply stating my own praise for this already highly recommended book.  I have read a lot of business books and Traction is definitely my new found favorite.  It packs in so much applicable content around 6 key factors for running a business; it is an excellent handbook to use for growing and leading any small to medium sized business.  It covers these components from the perspective of starting from the top in a business with the leadership team and expanding the concepts throughout the organization as the tools are implemented and proven.

Most books and many that Wickman references are excellent business guides for narrower topics and while agree with many of his references and have enjoyed those books as well, this one covers such a wide scope, yet with an incredibly strong focus on the leadership component itself and with what is called the Entrepreneurship Operating System (EOS).  The EOS is Wickman’s term for the overall system used to run the business and it is what the book teaches very well with example company implementations used throughout the book, with specific tools and implementation strategies and with outlines and samples available for every step of the implementation process.  This is what I like so much about Traction, it is more of a handbook and one that gives an excellent set of steps for implementation.

Wickman covers these 6 components:

• Vision
• People
• Data
• Issues
• Process
• Traction

Inside each component, he presents the strategy of why and how to implement changes to make each step of the EOS a success.  It typically takes anywhere from one to three years to fully implement and realize this EOS in a business and see the resulting change and/or growth as a result.

To give a bit more detail about one of these components, I particularly liked the component on issues as it is a strong area especially in engineering and software areas which I work in.  The issues component is certainly not new to me in my company but it is often an area we struggle with solving.  Wickman gives a framework to use for the issue solving track that is three mains steps:

1. Identify – This step involves examining an issue to discover the real issue that is faced by that can only be discovered by being honest and uncomfortable to peel back the layers to identify what the underlying problem really is
2. Discuss – Everyone involved has their say about the issue with a focused effort to discuss that issue alone (no tangents). Keep the discussion around what is right overall for the company (the greater good) not individuals or individual groups.  Once any discussion becomes redundant, it’s time to move to step 3.
3. Solve – This step is mean to conclude the issue and solve it once and for all.  The whole point is to make the issue go away forever and not come back.  You turn the discussing into one or more action steps and you decide to move forward to finally solve the issue.

So overall, this book is one I will definitely be using in business to implement much of this EOS as I see the value, am excited by the overall focus and approach Wickman has and very much like the components and implementation guide.  I’ll leave you with a final quote directly from the book near the end about putting this system all together.

Many books have been written on the topics of meetings, planning, solving problems, developing people, and prioritizing.  What is new about the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) is the way these disciplines have been assembled into a complete system for running an entrepreneurial organization.  Each individual tool is not as important as the whole, and all six components that make us the Entrepreneurial Operating System and the EOS Model need to be understood and mastered in order to fully gain traction.  You can read more about the process and book at the website, www.eosprocess.com

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 2 Comments »

My Adventure and Awakening in the Australian Rainforest

Author : Robin Easton

I have to say that I didn’t know what to expect reading this book from Robin (I’ll have to use a first name basis knowing her already even though I would normally use an author’s last name).  I’ve known of her for some time through blogging but never really connected strongly with her until this past year where we have spent more time reading each other’s content and commenting back and forth.  And in doing so I have to say, I have learned that Robin is a very expressive and heartfelt person in her responses, compliments and writing.  So, when I had the offer to read her book I was excited to find out more about her through her writing and learn more about her stories through her book.  I’m so glad I did!

Naked in Eden is a book that I would never have picked up myself in a bookstore without having the reference of Robin first because I’ve really not ventured out too much past personal development, leadership, business and Christian book genres.  A few exceptions to that of course for various other interests but this time what I knew about Robin and her interest in nature certainly excited me to explore her book.  I have to say, that I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and found it very hard to put it down as I found myself absorbed in her fascinating and exciting stories of the rain forest, self discovery, fear, love and life.  The writing itself is a journey into the thoughts, discoveries and mindset of the author as a young woman exploring herself and life on her own in the rain forest of Australia.  The book is an overall story of several years of her life but what I really found intriguing was the deep emotional reflection and writing about how she was thinking in those many months of isolation yet deep connection with the forest.  I especially see now how Robin’s deep emotional writing and soul filled content came to life in the forest.  It shows in how the story unfolds and I found that it especially shows in her writing.

The depth at which the stories and thoughts took me were a joy to read.  I just wrote to her in fact saying how the book has me still pondering the content, days after finishing it, which I consider to be a great thing.  I love any book that keeps me thinking.  I also really found the writing to touch a part of my own connection and love for nature and even though I don’t have the same burning desire to escape society and live in the forest, I certainly appreciate her love of nature and desire to have that understanding of oneself and one’s connection with nature to value it, protect it and love it.

The whole story I found quite gripping and I loved how her husband Ian plays such a different yet vital role both in her life at the time and in the story.  I found myself really wanting to know more about Ian’s perspective on life here as well.  The imagery was superb and I found it easy to imagine and escape myself into the forest with them, to see the characters and critters they faced and even the turmoil with their challenges, fears and emotions.  It is a book and story that I definitely recommend to anyone really.  The wildness of Australia and the rain forest add a great dimension to the book and there is actually quite a lot to learn about the area, the many poisonous snakes and critters, and of course the forest itself.  Last but not least, you will certainly learn a whole lot more about Robin Easton and how her life was changed and formed by her time in the forest.  I definitely found that to be the most exciting part.  I would love to hear the rest of the story, more of Ian’s story and how this still affects Robin today, years afterward.  I expect to have that opportunity directly with Robin and am looking forward to it.  You can find out more about the book at Robin’s site and you can order Naked in Eden on Amazon.com here.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 4 Comments »

Put Life In your Leadership

Author : Stephen D. Wood

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book.  I have a few minor points against it but all in all, this is definitely worth your read.  What I especially liked right from the cover of the book is that it is unique and not really what I expected a book about living a great life would look like.  This unique style stems right from the cover through to the text throughout the book and I am quite happy to have read it now.  I am certainly not a cowboy myself even though I am often out riding horses with my wife.  What I found funny was the moment my wife saw the book, she instantly said, “Hey, Bodacious is one of the toughest bucking bulls ever, why are you reading a book about that?”  I had no idea this had anything to do with the book, and was pleasantly surprised to read about the bull, Bodacious in one of the early stories and to learn my wife was right and knew about him already.  I’m not surprised though, as she does love to watch the bull riding on TV.

Anyway, the book is about stepping up to take life on by the horns (pun intended) and to do more than sit around and watch it go by.  Its about being bodacious and bold in everything you can and to make the most of yourself in life.  I especially enjoyed the stories told and then that each of the life lessons are learned from these short stories and they are easy to remember and easy to relate to.  The book itself is quite short and an easy read in 2-3 hours.  It has important leadership lessons to learn from and is told in a way that it inspires you for your life to not settle, but to put your life and leadership together.  The one thing I didn’t like about the book was that a few of the stories and way the stories are referred to become quite repetitive and the language used seams a bit childish.  Looking past that though and the lessons presents from the stories brings it back to the mature topic of life advice.

The whole premise and message of the book are about what are referred to as the Bodacious Secrets.  These are:

• Be Extraordinary
• Be Unrestrained
• Be Bold

These secrets are expressed as the keys to taking grip of your life, leading things to move in the direction you want and to find the dreams you want in life without having restraints in life to limit you.  Each of these secrets are explored with specifics and story examples that make it easy to connect with, which is why the book does it’s job so well.

Each chapter has a summary of its main points about these bodacious secrets and you can easy use these summaries as reference and highlights coming back through it again later.  I’d definitely recommend checking this book out for anyone interested in leadership and especially for those wanting to expand their own lifestyles and lead themselves towards the dreams they have always wished they could have and fulfill.

Posted by Mike King under Book Reviews | 5 Comments »