Entries by Engers Fernandez

The Art of Thinking Clearly

May 12, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The Art of Thinking Clearly translates complicated results from cognitive bias experiments, interprets and synthesizes them into short, easy to understand summaries.  Humans experience diverse reasoning patterns out of which many are limitations to logical thinking. Most cognitive errors made by humans are standard and can be identified when you know what you have been and are dealing with.

Knowing these will help you to minimize them, and then you can open yourself up to logical alternatives. The author opens up the reader’s mind to human psychology, reasoning and how to avoid cognitive errors for better decision making.

Among the logical errors, Dobelli explores survivorship bias or systematic overestimation of the chances for success and social proof or feeling that an action or decision is right because a lot of people are doing it. You come across survivorship bias when dealing with money and risk. It becomes especially pernicious when you become a member of the winning team. The author suggests an amazing solution to help clear your mind against survivorship bias, which is a frequent visitation of graves of once-promising projects, career and investment.

Clustering Illusion: When it comes to recognizing a pattern, we are oversensitive. However, it is best to regain your skepticism. If you or someone, close to you, thinks you have found a pattern, first take in consideration that may be pure chance. If it seems too reasonable to be true, see a mathematician and have the data tested statistically.

Social Proof:  It dictates that individuals tend to think they are behaving correctly as long as they act the same as other people.  In other words, the more people follow a particular idea, the better we think the idea is, and therefore support it.

Outcome Bias: Attributing positive outcomes to our capabilities and blaming external issues on external circumstances. This attribute was tested by having two groups of subjects take a personality test then arbitrarily assigning good or bad scores. The students with positive outcome believed the test results were fair and reflected their abilities. The students with the not so good score, on the other hand, found the test was garbage and didn’t reflect their personality. An excellent way to overcome your judgment is to listen to honest feedback and to learn from it without taking it personally.

An illusion of attention:  We often think that we notice everything around us but this couldn’t be farther from reality. As a Harvard study found, it is easier to lose attention than what we think. The experiment had subjects watch a video of students passing balls back and forth while counting how many times the player in white shirts passed the ball.  Later they were asked if there was something unusual that caught their attention. Half of the subjects did not notice anything unusual, unaware of the fact that in the middle of the video, someone dressed as a gorilla walked across the room pounding his chest. We tend to remember things which happen at the beginning and end of a stream of information forgetting what comes in the middle.

Lastly, amongst others is alternative blindness. Whenever people think about an offer, they become blind to alternatives. However, to be able to make the right decision, you have to go out of your mental limit.  

To overcome these cognitive errors in reasoning, we have to be aware of them and take a conscious effort to defeat them.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Cognitive biases cause simple errors in most of our day to day thinking.

Keypoint #2: Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. Therefore, make decisions based on facts, only lazy minds are comfortable with the illusion that perception is reality, perception is perception, reality is reality.

Keypoint #3: We are drunk on our own ideas. To sober up, take a step back now and then and examine their quality in hindsight.

 

One Last Thing

“If you ever find yourself in a tight, unanimous group, you must speak your mind, even if your team does not like it.”

― Rolf Dobelli, The Art of Thinking Clearly: Better Thinking, Better Decisions

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

May 3, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

Patrick Lencioni is an American writer who specializes in business management books, specifically in relation to team management. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team describes a pyramid of five layers which represent the maturity of a team. The maturity in which the team interacts is commonly known as teamwork. The layers are connected in a way that a team becomes more effective when moving  from the bottom layer to the top layer. The author reveals the basics of teamwork by using a leadership story, a fable of a technology company that is scraping to grow and find customers. As the team attempts to work through issues and make progress, the five dysfunctions of their team becomes very clear:

1- Absence of Trust

2- Fear of Conflict

3- Lack of Commitment

4- Avoidance of Accountability

5- Inattention to Results

Understanding these five dysfunctions is the first and most important step to reducing misunderstanding and confusion within a team.

ABSENCE OF TRUST:  The primary cause of the absence of trust is rooted in the inability of team members to show their weakness and be vulnerable with each other. The absence of trust is one of the most damaging traits in team dysfunctionality. A great deal of energy is wasted when team members invest their time in defensive behavior and are hesitant to ask for help or to offer help. Teams can overcome this dysfunction by creating an environment that encourages the sharing of experiences, following through with commitments to demonstrate credibility and developing strong insight into the distinctive characteristics of team members.

FEAR OF CONFLICT: Teams that lack trust are hindered from having a passionate debate about things that matter. This causes a team to replace conflict with artificial harmony. Understanding that conflict can be productive is highly essential when working with a team and can help a team overcome their fear of conflict.

LACK OF COMMITMENT: People are more willing to take on tasks when their opinion is included in the decision-making process. Productive teams make joint and transparent decisions and are confident that they have the support of other team members. It is only natural that when people do not feel committed to the outcome of a result, they feel less responsible for it. The commitment of team members exists when each member has the chance to offer their opinion. This can only be done comfortably when there is a warm environment. People will also be more open to allowing others talk to them about their responsibilities.

AVOIDANCE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: You can’t have accountability when a team doesn’t commit. People rarely hold each other accountable if they haven’t bought into the plan. Considering a well-organized team, it is the responsibility of the team members to hold each other accountable and accept responsibility when necessary. Often, success is measured by the level of progress. The WHAT, HOW, WHEN and WHY must be clearly communicated to the team.

INATTENTION TO RESULTS: When team members are not held accountable, they will often defer to looking out for their own personal interests rather than the team’s interest. A team can only become results oriented when all team members are focused on the team’s results rather than their own. In this regard, the primary role of a leader in overcoming this dysfunction is to set the tone for the team and lead by example. To prevent this dysfunction, you must start from the bottom of the pyramid and build trust between team members. The easiest way to get someone to trust you is to be authentic and reliable. Always do what you say and people will see you as a master of your words.

Patrick Lencioni wraps it up by describing how to improve a team’s result: by celebrating successes, discussing what is most important for the organization and addressing the most critical challenges of the team. In doing so, it encourages team members in a difficult situation to choose the company goal over their own personal goal.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: There are five dysfunctions of a team.

Key point #2: Leaders can overcome these dysfunctions by setting the tone and leading by example.

Key point #3: Successful teamwork is about combining common sense with an uncommon level of discipline and persistence.

One last thing

“Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think. Simply put, politics have no place in a functional team.”

― Patrick Lencioni

Made to Stick

April 27, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , /by

Made to Stick describes why an idea cuts through, gets remembered and most importantly, helps to shift attitude and behavior. The authors focus on the key strategies that help shape an idea into one that can stick. The authors use a clever mnemonic as an illustration: S.U.C.C.E.Ss which stands for Simple Unexpected Concrete Credible Emotional Stories. The principles that make up S.U.C.C.E.Ss increase the odds that your idea and message will stick. Every idea to be communicated must be focused (Simple), create attention (Unexpected), be understood and remembered (Concrete), be agreed upon (Credible), make people care enough ( Emotion) and then do something about it (Story).

Made to Stick provides strategies and techniques to overcome what the Heath brothers refer to as the enemy to stickiness, the  “curse of knowledge.” The presenter of the idea is completely familiar with it while the audience is not. This situation can lead to the presenter poorly explaining core information necessary to make the idea hit home.

SIMPLICITY: Simple ideas are remembered easily. With this in mind, you must find the core of the idea, strip to its simplest form so it becomes easy to digest. With that said, you must  take caution to not minimize it and thereby lessen its importance. Next, you share your idea effectively using the S.U.C.C.E.Ss principles. Schemas can also help simplify concepts. As an example, it is difficult to remember the letters JFKFBI, but easy to retain the same set arranged as JFK FBI.

UNEXPECTED: The first requirement of effective communication is getting attention and, second, keeping it. To get a message across, you need to capture their attention. Sticky ideas disrupt people’s expectations. Furthermore, you need to maintain focus and use the element of  surprise to create attention and interest. In order to do this, you use the unexpected. Humans tend to think in patterns. Therefore, the key is to break the pattern. As an example, think about a flight attendant doing something different and unique with the normally mundane flight safety announcement.

The process of using the unexpected is:

  1. Find the core
  2. Figure out what is counter intuitive about the message
  3.  Communicate your message in a way that disrupts your audience’s ability to guess what’s coming next.

 

CONCRETE: We relate to things that are comfortable and because of that, we understand it, visualize it then link it to our personal life. The better this connection is, the better odds of it being sticky. The Heath brothers also say that our memory works using “hooks”. The more hooks your message has, the more likely it will stick.

CREDIBLE: We often believe ideas when we can base them on authority. This is because we believe the problem of credibility is then easily solved. Credible focuses on how to create credibility when you don’t have an authority figure. This can be done in several ways, such as using anti-authority, statistics, concrete details, the Sinatra Test and the use of testable credentials.

EMOTIONAL: When the human emotion is touched, the receiver becomes more open to the message. Emotional components of stickiness focuses on the goal which is to make people care. Feelings inspire people to act but for people to take action, they have to care.

STORY: The key to making an idea sticky is to tell it as a story. One of the beautiful things about stories is that they allow you to bring the listener along with you. Stories are very good at preventing the curse of knowledge, as they force one to simplify and use concrete language. In fact, stories naturally meet other criteria of making ideas sticky: they are almost always concrete, they are often emotional and have good unexpected elements.

Each chapter of Made to Stick guides you through an essential element to make an idea stick.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point 1: S.U.C.C.E.Ss is a set of principles that helps shape an idea into the one that will stick.

Key point 2: The fundamental requirement to make ideas stick is through stories, so don’t lecture…tell a story!

Key point 3: Emotions are a powerful influencer of thought and behavior.

 

One last thing…

“To make our communications more effective, we need to shift our thinking from “What information do I need to convey?” to “What questions do I want my audience to ask?”

― Chip and Dan Heath, Made to Stick

Principles

April 13, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Ray Dalio believes an idea meritocracy (a system that brings together smart, independent thinkers and has them disagree to come up with the best collective thinking and resolve their disagreement in a weighted believability way) is the best decision-making system because it requires honesty and leads to continual improvement.

 

The first part of Principles, Where I’m Coming From, primarily reflect Dalio’s biography. Here are a few points:

 

  •    Meaningful work and meaningful relationships are better than money.
  •    Bad times with good reflections provide the best lessons.
  •    The most significant success is having others do well without you.
  •    Happiness comes from struggling well.

 

There are fewer types of people than there are people and far fewer types of situations than there are situations. Hence, matching people and situations is vital.  Dalio realized the best way he could succeed was to seek out the smartest people and identify who disagrees with him so he could understand their reasoning. He learned why not to have an opinion, develop tests and systemize universal time principles and balance risks in a  process that keep significant upsides while capping downsides.

 

The second part of Principles focuses on life principles. Dalio views problems as games and puzzles that he must solve. Ray Dalio says he has learned to become such a fan of reality that he loves fact even when it’s cruel. He furthermore added that we aren’t born knowing what’s true, we have to find that out. He claims that the best way to achieve that is to be radically open-minded and radically transparent. We learn with a feedback loop from our actions and beliefs. He feels radical open-mindedness improves those feedback loops.

 

Radical transparency, on the other hand, means facing the truth and speaking the truth freely. It can be difficult because it opens one up to criticism, but fearing criticism can be tragic because, without it, you will not learn.The more you face criticism, the comfortable you will be.

It is evolution and progress itself that makes us happy and fulfilled rather than achieving the goal or the material wealth. But to evolve, remember “no pain, no gain.” Ray Dalio says there is no avoiding pain, especially when you’re after an ambitious goal. What Ray Dalio wants to give people is not what they wish, which ultimately makes them weaker, but the strength to deal with reality to get what they want by themselves, which eventually will make them stronger and more independent.

 

As you gather it all together, to have the best life possible you have to know what decisions aren’t the best ones, which ones are and dare to make them. To acquire principles that work, it is essential that you embrace reality and deal with it as it is.

 

The third part of this book focuses on work principle. Ray Dalio says for groups to function well, the working principle has to be aligned with the members’ life principles. Not aligned with everything but on to the most important ones. To get the culture right, you have to :

 

  • Trust radical truth and radical transparency, i.e., it is always best to shoot straight and be honest even when the news is not positive. Ray Dalio says he believes in a healthier form of loyalty founded on exploring what’s true
  • Cultivate meaningful work and relationships: i.e., develop a meaningful relationship whereby you care about each other and can have a great time together both inside and outside the organization.
  • Create a culture of learning from mistakes, i.e., making a mistake is painful and okay, but it’s not okay to not learn from them.

 

Pulling it all together, Ray Dalio says, we work together to accomplish three things: more leverage to achieve our goals, quality relationships, and money that allows us to buy what we want for ourselves and others.

 

In conclusion, it is important to highlight that all rules have exceptions and you should use your judgment and common sense.

 

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Idea meritocracy is the best system for decision making

Key point #2: Radical mindedness and Radical Transparency are the best ways to find out what’s true.

Key point #3: Work Principle and Life principle are the primary focus of Principles.

One Last Thing

“If you’re not failing, you’re not pushing your limits, and if you’re not pushing your limits, you’re not maximizing your potential”
― Ray Dalio

The CEO Next Door

April 13, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , /by

The authors, Elena and Powell carried out groundbreaking research which reveals the common attributes and counterintuitive choices that set apart successful CEOs. The CEO Next Door draws on the most significant dataset of the CEOs in the world with the real habits of top leaders. Elena and Powell focus on the “four Genome behaviors” that separate great leaders from the rest.

  1. Great leaders are decisive. They make fewer decisions, make them faster and get better every time.
  2. Great leaders engage for impact. They lead with intent, understand the players and build relationships through routine.
  3. Great leaders are radically and relentlessly reliable. They embrace “the thrill of personal consistency,” set bold but realistic expectations, “stand up to be counted on,” and adopt the drills of highly reliable organizations”.
  4. Great leaders adapt Boldly. They ride the discomfort of the unknown, respect but are not a hostage of the past and build an antenna for the future.

Great leaders are women and men who hold themselves to very high standards for personal character and professional achievement. Only then can they hold others to the same very high standards. CEO Next Door debunks a host of popular myths about CEOs which has created a misconception about what a CEO is like. The authors set to eradicate the myth with facts that are derived from an impressive database of intensive interviews with executives. Some of the myths are:

  • CEOs are from Ivy league universities while the truth, based on research, is only 7% of CEOs graduated from Ivy league university. 8% of CEOs did not even have a college education
  • CEOs are destined for greatness from an early age while the truth is over 70% of the CEOs interviewed did not set out to be CEOs
  • CEOs have larger than life personality with enormous charisma and confidence while the fact is a third of the CEOs described themselves as introverted.
  • To become a CEO, you need a flawless resume while the truth is 45% of CEOs interviewed had at least one major blow up or mishap in their career.

The fact is, successful CEOs stood out for decisiveness itself- the ability to make decisions with speed and conviction. They make decisions with only 80% of the information available to them, and they reach out for others perspectives because they realize that all input is not created equal.

Drawing on an exceptional analysis of thousands of current and potential CEOs, they find that the best of the best share some similar traits. They may not come from outstanding schools, but they do know how to make smart decisions, adapt to changed circumstances and work honestly and directly with customers and employees. Culled from the breakthrough study of most successful people in business and illustrated by real-life stories from CEOs and boardrooms, The CEO Next Door offers career advice for anyone who aspires to get ahead. Botelho and Powell, utilizing research, tell us how to:

  • Fast-track careers by deploying the career catapults used by those who get to the top quickly.
  • Overcome the hidden handicaps to getting the job you want
  • Avoid the hazards that most commonly derail those promoted into a new role.

 

This book is recommended not only for the aspiring CEO, but for anyone who aspires to accelerate their career trajectory and looking to raise their leadership to a higher level.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: CEO Next Door uncovers Four Genome Behaviors of a CEO:decisive, engaging, reliable, and adaptable.

Key point #2: One of the greatest myth is that great CEOs are from Ivy league universities while the truth, based on research, is only 7% of CEOs graduated from Ivy league university. 8% of CEOs did not even have a college education.

Key point #3: One surprise is that 70% of the CEOs didn’t intend to become CEOs when they set out on their career paths, or even mid-tenure in their career. It was only when that role became within striking zone for them that it became a relevant career aspiration.

One last thing:

“Every time you make the hard, correct decision you become a bit more courageous, and every time you make the easy, wrong decision you become a bit more cowardly. If you are CEO, these choices will lead to a courageous or cowardly company.” – Ben Horowitz, CEO of Opsware

If… Then… Else….

April 9, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , /by

In “If…, Then…, Else…;”, the authors; Davids, Secor, Farnum, and Lewis offer a practical analysis of typical behaviors and personalities found in Information Technology systems organizations and applicable advice on how to minimize the potential damages these negative influences often assert.

One of the first things every Information Systems (IT) professional learns is that there is a huge difference between data and information. The authors combine to share over 100 years of IT experience and have endured numerous attempts to bridge the “IT Communication Barrier” through “off the shelf, generic teaching materials or let’s say unhelpful data.  These canned training aids far too often soar over the heads of IT professionals who neither relate to nor care for the “psycho-babble” the materials offer.  “If…, Then…, Else…;” offers instantly recognizable, thoroughly applicable, and immediately useful information organized in a format consistent with an IT professional’s paradigms – or what IT folks would call, information!.  This empowers the reader to recognize the negative patterns and communication cravats often associated with common day-to-day IT workplace interactions and transforms that situation from a setback to a constructive, contributing engagement.  Michael Davids says, “The intent is to provide a path to effective and efficient ways to adapt to these real-world use-cases and effectively interact with these common, stereotypical IT personalities.”

The book “If…, Then…, Else…;” focuses on common personalities and situations expressly within the IT world offering career-beneficial insight on navigating those often choppy waters. The authors provide a unique tapestry of character and scenario intersections certain to resonate with anyone involved with IT participants. As personalities and situations “hit home” with the reader the authors provide invaluable guidance on successful interaction in those specific conditions.

Furthermore, the authors collaboratively provide insight and guidance on the best way to identify and respond to the general temperaments and attitudes of IT professionals. This book is written by IT professionals for IT professionals about IT professionals, “If…, Then…, Else…;” proffers a tool to aid professionals in achieving a favorable interaction and the best possible outcome throughout daily IT operations and interactions; a key in attaining overall career success. Also, it identifies how  IT Professionals can focus on specific personalities that represent actual people in which they interact within real-world situations they find themselves in virtually every day. With that, you can extract truly applicable, and immediately useful insight into:

•    How to recognize when a challenging behavior appears

•    How to most effectively respond to the behavior transforming a deterrent into a contribution (or at least minimize the potential damage).

•    How to prepare for and clean up after an ensuing interaction with a person you know has the propensity to fall short of expectations and hopes.

  If you are an IT professional, work among IT professionals, or simply interact with IT professionals, you already know they are “unique”; why not attempt to learn to understand them?

I am a medical doctor by training that happens to have a knack for technology and innovation. I am constantly reading and learning how to help my team succeed. Without a doubt, this is one of the best books I have ever read in my effort to better understand the IT professionals entrusted to me. It creates not only an understanding but also a roadmap on how to help them grow and succeed in their career path. There are too many takeaways from this book and can only be tapped into if you get a copy.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS:

Key point #1:   To gain the “comfort” in the realization that you are “not alone” and the behaviors that challenge you in your workplace are common among virtually every IT organization.

Key point #2:     To learn how to “catch yourself” from falling into the same old reaction patterns which allow these behaviors to escalate into detrimental directions; instead, channel the “gems” hidden within these unique personalities to glean the benefits they have to offer!

Key point #3:  By focusing on specific personalities that represent actual people in which you interact in real-world situations you find yourself in virtually every day, you can extract truly applicable, immediately useful insight into:

  • How to recognize when a challenging behavior appears

  • How to prepare for and clean up after an ensuing interaction with a person you know has the propensity to fall short of expectations and hopes.

One Last Thing:

  “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” –Ken Blanchard

The Radical Candor

April 1, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The author, Kim Scott was the previous Director of AdSense with over 700 direct reports. Now, she is the CEO of Candor, Inc. where she serves as an executive coach for several notable CEOs, including those at Twitter and Dropbox.  Kim perceived radical candor as the ability to care personally about people you work directly with while still challenging them directly. When you care about them, you want to help them get better. Radical Candor is a simple, direct and candid book that puts emphasis on being sincere and putting a stop to beating around the bush. The author gave a formula which is:

Radical Candor = Care Personally + Challenge Directly

The first dimension, care personally, is about being more than just professional. It is about giving a damn, spending  time beyond necessary work, sharing more than just your work self and encouraging everyone who reports to you to do the same. If those that report to you hide behind policies, ethical politics and strict-minded process, they should not be on your team and not join you as part of your leadership team.

The second dimension, challenge directly, involves telling people when their work is not good enough and why. This can include, being honest when they are not going to get the promotion they wanted, when you are going to hire a new boss over them or telling them when the result does not justify the investment.

Radical Candor reveals that most people are afraid to challenge directly and many fail to care personally.  In Radical Candor, the author helps us to understand the essentials of communicating, precisely in terms that drive efficient team performance.  She provides a practical framework to help guide your interactions and help you recognize when you are not challenging directly and caring personally. The framework includes four quadrants:

  1. Manipulative Insincerity: This is not caring or challenging the person at all. It is failing to give needed criticism or giving praise when you don’t really mean it.
  2. Ruinous Empathy: This is caring for the person but in the wrong way. It is worrying about hurting the person’s feelings so you soften the criticism to protect them or giving praise that isn’t specific enough for the person to understand what they did well.
  3. Obnoxious Aggression: This is challenging the person without showing that you care. Giving criticism in an unkind manner or offering praise that in a manner belittling to them or others.
  4. Radical Candor: This is challenging the person while showing them you care. It is being specific in your criticism so they understand how to improve. It is being clear with your praise so they know exactly what you appreciate about them and their work. In essence, giving a damn about your people that you take the time to properly give them the good and the bad when it is needed, even when it is uncomfortable.

The author urges that radical candor should be practiced not only in organizations but amidst teams as well. She said “to be radically candid; you need to practice it “up,” “down” and “sideways.”  Create honest and attainable growth management plans once a year for each person who works for you. Hire the right people, fire the appropriate people, promote the deserving people and reward only the people who are doing great balanced work. Too many leaders focus on being professional and do not care personally. In doing so, we actively avoid crossing lines of friendship and ultimately wind up caring about things that actually stand in the way of our end goals.

We are in a beat-around-the-bush culture; Radical Candor dispels that mentality and helps transition managers into leaders who are able to successfully provide guidance to their people and it provides the framework for a leader to be effective when managing people in uncomfortable situations.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Don’t just work hard at being professional, adopt the radical candor approach.

Key point #2: Don’t triangulate in interpersonal conflict.

Key point #3: Radical candor is about caring enough to speak directly, and as a leader, being honest with yourself and the people that report to you.

One last thing:

“When leaders are too invested in everyone getting along, they also fail to encourage the people on their team to criticize one another, other for fear of sowing discord. They create the kind of work environment where being “nice” is prioritized at the expense of critiquing and therefore improving actual performance.” -Kim Scott

The Steve Jobs Way. iLeadership for a New Generation

March 30, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Jay Elliot served as the senior vice president of Apple; he worked side by side with Steve Jobs which helps him to bring us a deep insider perspective of Steve’s Singular ileadership style which encompasses for major principles which are the product, talent organization, and marketing. There is no doubt that Steve jobs reign supreme in this four domains. Jay Elliot described Steve Jobs success in details. The more he advanced, the simpler his product became.  In some instances, it’s less about the product and more about the user. Every user wants to be successful. When you know how to operate something masterfully, how does it make you feel? More people will buy if customers feel good using your product.”

The Steve Jobs Way describes Jobs as a person who strives to improve the user experience. The vision drove him in every of his creation and Wozniak during their cooperating time.  Jobs believe there is nothing cooler in the world than creating a product that millions of people immediately want and many who don’t have are envious of those who do. He has the ability to create a consistent, positive product image in the mind of his customers. Jobs combines stick-to-itiveness with an intuitive sense of exactly what it takes to get the public enthralled with a product. This is because he understands that it isn’t a question of how well the product is designed and how smoothly it works (although they are critical factors) but of how it is perceived by the user which of course, is the key to product success.

The Steve Jobs Way points out that Jobs regularly spoke about the power of synergy and trust. Sometimes even during the development process in the company, Jobs referred to his Mac engineers as his most trusted associates. Each employee was provided with a T-shirt with Jobs single quote” pirates! Not the navy.”

The Steve Jobs Way also portray Steve Jobs as a man of principle. He is regularly guided by them.  “If you are not satisfied with no for an answer, your engineers will have no other option than to deliver you the technology product that you require.” Jobs seek new opportunities; hire talented people and transfer, their reality in short time.  He believes that a broad set of experiences expands our understanding of human experience. A broader understanding leads to breakthroughs that others may have missed. Breakthrough innovation requires creativity and creativity requires that you think differently about the way you think.  You can have most innovative ideas in the world, but if you can’t get people excited about it, it does not matter. His model of business is The Beatles. “They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other, and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business; great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people” Steve said.

In The Steve Jobs Way, Jay Elliot shares the lessons that come out of Steve’s Intuitive approach to show how the creative and technologically brilliance of ileadership can be utilized to drive breakthrough in any organization irrespective of size.

THE BIG THREE – KEYPOINTS

Key point #1: Innovation takes confidence, boldness, craziness, and discipline to tune out the negative voices.

Key point #2:  You have to focus on improving user’s experience rather than the product design.

Key point #3: Work through your people and celebrate as a unit with every success.

 

One Last Thing

“My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.”

THE SPEED OF TRUST

March 25, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

The speed of trust is coined out of Mr. Covey’s experiences he has seen over the years in leadership and while working with companies. It focuses on helping individuals in building and infusing trust in and around them. The Speed of Trust starts off with the “Economies of trust”. The author uses this formula to demonstrate his point: When trust is low, speed goes down and cost goes up; when trust is high, speed goes up and cost goes down. The author equates trust to paying taxes. As a taxpayer, we know a certain amount of money must be paid to IRS annually as a tax but when it comes to trust or lack of trust, we are paying a tax and we may not be aware of it.

 

The other equation the author offers is the product of strategy and execution.

Strategy * Execution = Results

 

But then he goes on to say the product of strategy and Execution and Trust gives Results

(Strategy * Execution)*Trust = Result

 

Trust is a multiplier. You can have a good strategy and a great execution plan but without trust, the project can get derailed. Trust is a key ingredient for all relationships and it’s one of the most powerful forms of motivation and inspiration. People want to be trusted. The author goes further to break down trust into five waves:

 

  1. Self-trust, which deals with confidence we have in ourselves, in our ability to set and achieve goals, keep a commitment, to walk the talk and also with our ability to inspire trust in others; a person who is worthy of trust.
  2. Relationship Trust, which is about how to establish and increase trust with others, to enhance relationships and achieve a better result.
  3. Organizational trust, deals with how leaders can generate trust in all kinds of organizations like businesses, not for profit organizations, etc.
  4. Market trust, is about reputation, whereby everyone clearly understands the impact of trust; and lastly,
  5. Societal Trust is about contribution and focuses on creating value for others and society at large.

                          

The first wave is about the four dimension of credibility. These are the foundational elements that make people believable to themselves and to others. They are: integrity, intent, capabilities, and result.

 

The second wave is about the thirteen different ways leaders behave. Covey believes that these behaviors are common to high trust leaders and individuals worldwide. These enhance one’s ability to establish trust in all relationships. The first five flow from character, the second five flow from competence while the last three are the combination of both character and competence.

 

These 13 behavior characteristics are:

  1. Talk Straight:  Be honest and tell the truth. Let people know where they stand and use simple English while communicating.
  2. Demonstrate Respect: Demonstrate respect, don’t fake caring and don’t attempt to be efficient with people.
  3. Create Transparency:  create transparency by telling the truth, don’t have hidden agendas or information, get real, be genuine, open and authentic.
  4. Right Wrongs: Make things right when you are wrong, don’t cover things up. Demonstrate humility  and apologize quickly.
  5. Show Loyalty: you show loyalty by acknowledging the contributions of others and giving credit freely. Don’t bad mouth or disclose others private matters.
  6. Deliver Result: this is done by getting the right things done. Make things happen, don’t over-promise or underdeliver. Always be on time and within budget.
  7. Get Better: Don’t assume today’s skill will be sufficient for tomorrow’s challenge. Constantly improve your capabilities and don’t consider yourself above feedbacks.
  8. Confront Reality: Lead out courageously in conversation, address the tough issues directly. Don’t bury your head in the sand instead take issues head-on.
  9. Clarify Expectation: Disclose and reveal expectation, discuss them validate them, renegotiate them. Done violate expectation or assume that expectations are cleared or shared.
  10. Practice Accountability: Hold yourself accountable, hold others accountable. Take responsibility for results. Don’t avoid or shirk responsibility. Don’t blame others or point fingers when things go wrong.
  11. Listen First: Listen before you speak. Understand, diagnose and listen with your ears and eyes and heart. Find out the most important behaviors are to the people you’re working with. Don’t assume you know what matters to others. Don’t presume you have all of the answers or all the questions.
  12. Keep Commitment: Say what you’re going to do or do what you’re going to do.
  13. Extend Trust: Extend trust abundantly to those who have earned your trust. Extend trust conditionally to those who are earning your trust. Don’t withhold trust because there is risk involved.

The speed of trust affirms that to inspire trust is to create the foundation on which truly successful organization/relationships stand. This ability is the prime differentiator between managing and leading.

THE BIG THREE – KEY POINTS

Key point #1: Trust can be efficiently taught and learned, and it can become a leverageable strategic advantage

Key point #2: Trust is one of the most powerful forms of motivation and inspiration.

Key point #3: Trust is a function of character and competence

One Last Thing

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.”

― Paulo Coelho

The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google

March 19, 2018 /0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Galloway, an entrepreneur, and professor at NYU Stern provides a perceptive analysis of the four-horse race to become a billionaire company in THE FOUR: the hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. The author casually uncovers how each of these companies has deployed iconic leadership, technology, storytelling, fearless innovation, lightening execution and blatant plagiarism to devastating effects.

The author expressly demonstrates that despite their brilliance, the Four have not achieved dominance by themselves. They are driven by technology and capital and have thrived within a hyper-consumer de-regulated capitalist culture. Starting in America, then rapidly scaling throughout the world, the Four are the product of a Faustian bargain between weary institutions and evaporating middle class, attention-seeking media, and profit-hungry market. Fundamental to the success of these four great companies is how they used strategy and technology to appeal to basic human needs and desires.

In Galloway thesis, each of them appeals to a particular human organ. Google targets the brain and thirst for knowledge, Facebook leverages on the heart and our need to develop empathic and meaningful relationships, Amazon targets the guts by satisfying the impulse to consume while Apple focuses firmly on our genitals. With their discovery of human desires, the Four have gone about declaring war on what entrepreneurs euphemistically refer to as “friction.”

Friction includes every obstacle in the way of satisfying a given desire. Starting from the synaptic connection in the brain responsible for decision-making processes to the rules issued by regulatory and tax authorities to supply chain all the way down to the manufacturers of products in the developing world. However, the author affirms that this is not bad news. The laws of friction have been an undeniably positive development for consumers. Products are cheaper and the level of customer service has reached new heights. This system is so successful that people grant The Four access into their lives.

The Four are attempting to cement their dominance by becoming providers of public infrastructures. In this regard, Amazon is leading the pack. It is marshaling a global logistics operation that is the envy of most nation-states, including a fleet of Boeing 767s, drones, thousands of tractor trailers and trans-pacific shipping. Google has server arms and is launching blimps into the atmosphere that will beam broadband down to earth. These organizations are committed to becoming a permanent fixture of the future.

For the foreseeable future, Galloway suggests that the four will continue to reign supreme. That is, if they don’t pounce each other. If history taught us something, it is that Gods don’t share power well. And on current figures, Amazon seems the most aggressive and effective at stealing market share. They are even out stealing Google in searches with 55 percent of product searches starting on Amazon against Google’s 28 percent. As the author put it, “The prize? A trillion-dollar-plus valuation and power and influence greater than any entity in history.” In chapter nine, Galloway teases with a possible Fifth Horseman, exploring candidates, from Netflix to China’s famous Alibaba. Toward the end of the book, Gallow advises young talents on how to succeed in a new tech-dominated world. Throughout the book, Galloway pulls a few punches and never holds back any controversial opinion.

The author does not write the book to tarnish the reputation of the four companies but rather to offer a source of encouragement and understanding of the value of business. “I wrote this book for the same reason. I hope the reader gains insight and a competitive edge in an economy where it’s never been easier to be a billionaire, but it’s never been harder to be a millionaire.” Through this statement, Scott Galloway makes his intentions clear.

By far, one of the most exciting books I have read in the last two years. Understanding The Four is understanding the why, what and how of our habits today. I also found this book of value as a guideline for novices in the field of innovation and entrepreneurialism trying to understand the competitive and challenging business ecosystem the four themselves have created.

THE BIG THREE –  KEY POINTS

Key point #1: The Four have not achieved dominance by themselves despite their brilliance. Their similarity is that technology and capital drive them, thriving within hyper-consumer and deregulated capitalist culture.

Key point #2:  The Four used technology and strategy to understand and appeal to basic human desires.

Key point #3: The Four undoubtedly faced threats among each other, the entrance of a possible 5th horse and other forces outside of their industries, such as Google’s ongoing confrontation with the European Commission. However, the Four will continue to reign supreme.