Monthly Archives: November 2019

Book Notes: The Four

The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google by Scott Galloway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book looks at the bussiness model for:

  • Amazon where it is all about investing in removing barriers so that you can get products quicker triggering gratification,
    • Story telling -> Cheap Capital -> 100x risks (loop infinitely…)
    • Amazon is destroying the significance of brands
  • Apple which is all about people wanting to make themselves feel good
    • Wealthy people are surprisingly homogenous in their buying habits
    • Apple are premium products and price with mass production costs
    • Selling the products as an experience in their stores not just a product
  • Facebook having such a large network of people thus being so valuable as a result
    • An average of an hour a day is spent on Facebook’s digital “properties”
    • Data on billions of identities allows micro targeting
    • Polarised opinions are better views and click bait
    • It claims to be a platform, not media, abdicating responsibility for content
  • Google which is a god in the sense that it gives bussiness and it takes it away
    • Huge amounts of trust by users
    • A change in their algorithm can spell the end for a company (e.g. about.com)
    • Search -> pages -> advertising revenue can be bed for publishers

T Algorithm

  • Product Differentiation
    • Great products break through the clutter
    • Don’t just think about adding, think about what you can remove/simplify
  • Visionary Capital
    • Storytelling is key
    • A bold vision gives you cheap capital
  • Global Reach
  • Likability
  • Vertical Integration
    • Own the whole experience
  • AI
  • Accelerant
    • Attracting talent is key to succeeding
  • Geography
    • You need to be based near the tallent, they won’t come to you

You

It’s never been easier to be a billionaire and harder to be a millionaire

You have to be great, it’s now a global world and there are so many average people. Emotional maturity is key – self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills are not optional but essential.

One thing which was quite interesting in this book was the suggestion to go to a university and transfer to the best university you can after the first year when people drop out meaning it is easier to get into than in the first year.

You can’t win without stepping on the field. Hire A people because they hire As, Bs hire Cs.

Go to a city, the network effect is key, remote working will not give the advantages co-location will. Get equity in the companies you work for a live within your means. Stay loyal to people, not organisations. Don’t follow your passion follow your talent. When you leave, leave graciously as you never know when you might meet these people again. We regress to the mean sometimes we are up and sometimes we are down – if you are up don’t expect to stay there if you are down look up. Ask for and Give Help.

The author presents a company like an alphabet, when it starts it is at A –

  • Entrepreneurs here you need people who have high tolerance for risk, can sell, and are too stupid to know they are going to fail.
  • Once the company is rolling and access to capital it is better served by a visionary individual who can scale the company.
  • Later in the alphabet there is the operator who keeps the company going with job security important and low risk.
  • After this there is the pragmatist has no romance for the glory days and helps the company through a managed decline cutting costs, selling bussiness off.

It is rare for a CEO to cover more than two stages.

Book Notes: The Unicorn Project

The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Digital Disruption, Redshirts, and Overthrowing the Ancient Powerful Order by Gene Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

For full disclosure I received a free copy of The Unicorn Project in advance of publication in exchange for a review. The content of the review are still my own independent thoughts.

The Unicorn Project is the second book about Parts Unlimited set at the same time as The Phoenix Project, whereas the initial book looked more at Devops this book looks from the perspective of a developer. As with the first book it is written in a very engaging manner.

Near the start of the book we are welcomed to The Phoenix Project by Maxine with one of her first challenges of getting the project to run on her machine, having been in a place where it’s taken a week to get projects to run I immediately empathised with the challenge. From there the book presents a few concepts throughout the story. In the first part of the book it focuses on the Five Ideals :

  1. Local and Simplicity – things should be easy to understand and pickup
  2. Focus, Flow and Joy – people should be able to actually get on with the job
  3. Improvement of Daily Work – always striving to remove process bottlenecks
  4. Psychological Safety – innovation is risky so people must be safe to take risks
  5. Customer Focus – a focus on value for the customer

The book briefly talks about the functional practice of immutability, the importance of data as “the new oil” and it makes two other points and cross functional teams.

From Zone to Win they look at ways the business can innovate by looking at “Horizon 3” projects (more speculative R&D) in addition to their core bussiness i.e. “Horizon 1” (bussiness as normal). For completeness here “Horizon 2” is the transformation where the core bussiness might need to be shaken to be able to cope with the new innovations.

The other concept which is worth mentioning is the idea of Core vs Context. “Core” is something which is core and unique to your bussiness, “Context” are things which you bussiness needs to operate but would likely be better to buy in as a service rather than run & maintain or develop in house. One tool which I found quite interesting on this was the Wardley map plotting Commodity vs Value to identify which you should develop and which just to buy.

Book Notes: The Trusted Advisor

The Trusted Advisor by David H. Maister, Charles H. Green, Robert M. Galford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is quite focused on the bussiness service of being an advisor however, I feel, that in companies we are all advisors to other people and as such there are a few key points that are relevant to nearly everyone. For an advisor to be effective it means that they have to be listened to – as such this is much more about the personal relationship rather than simply technical understanding.

Build Trust and a Relationship

Advising is very personal, there needs to be a high level of trust for it to be effective. The book proposes that Trustworthiness contains

  • Credibility – context expertise through accuracy and completeness over time. By:
    • Being truthful
    • Never exaggerating, even things like “our best people”
    • Show you have energy and care about their topic
    • Network people/bring others together to talk directly
    • When you don’t know say so quickly
    • Provide some examples of your work in advance
    • Relax, you know more than you think you do if not then don’t be there
    • Do your homework
    • Don’t show off
  • Reliability – be dependable and consistent. By:
    • Make specific commitments on small things and deliver quick
    • Send materials over in advance for review to save time
    • Ensure meetings have clear goals, not just agendas, and complete the goal
    • Match the clients fit and feel over terminology, format etc will save them time
    • Review agendas with the client to ensure they feel their time is well spent
    • Reconfirm scheduled events and notify of rescheduling as soon as possible
  • Intimacy – with someone you can talk about difficult topic and feel they care
    • Take courage and show trust first
    • Show candor as well, don’t be afraid to debate actively
    • Find fun and fascination by getting to the emotions of the decisions
    • Take care how you push – right topic, right time, right phrasing of questions.
    • Practice in advance to feel how you think things will land
    • To reduce bussiness risk you have to take a personal risk to grow intimacy.
    • One of you has to move first and it’s going to be you.

and is reduced by

  • Self focus – there is nothing worse than feeling the advisor cares about themselves more than the customer
Don’tDo
Have a tendency to relate our stories to ourselves
A need to too quickly finish their sentences
A need to fill empty spaces in conversations
A need to appear clever, bright, whitty, etc
An inability to provide a direct answer to a direct question
An unwillingness to say I don’t know
Name-dropping of other clients
A recitation of qualifications
A tendency to give answers too quickly
A tendency to want to have the last word
Closed-ended questions too early
Putting forward hypothesis or problem statements before the client has had chance to
Passive listening/watching the client like a TV set
Let the client fill in empty spaces
Ask the client to provide what is behind issues
Use open-ended questions
Not giving answers until given the right to do so
Focus on defining the problem not the solution
Reflect, listen, summarise
Say you don’t know when you don’t know
Acknowledge feelings
Listen without distractions
Resist requests to provide solutions too early
Trust in adding value after listening not during
Take responsibility for failed communication

Provide Advice

The key part with providing advice is to think from the client perspective – not just to provide advice but to provide options in a way that it is clear to them from which they can choose a direction based on your recommendation, shows a deep understanding of the bussiness and political world they are in and addresses any concerns so that the advice can be adopted.

  • Engage
    • Where there ideas worth talking about and an advisor worth talking to
    • Engagement is not a one time thing but regular to check in with old clients
  • Listen
    • Listening for what is said and unsaid to fully understand the client and problem
  • Frame
    • The advisor helps the client crystalise the problem and clarifying the many problems
    • Consists of formulating problem statements, hypothesis and points of view built around what is valuable for the client
  • Envision
    • Understanding what are we really aiming for?
    • What will it look like when we get there?
    • How will we know when we are there?
  • Commit
    • To understand what it will take to get to the vision
    • For the client to buy into the change

Book Notes: Leadershift

Leadershift: The 11 Essential Changes Every Leader Must Embrace by Maxwell John
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For me this was a book which resonated very well with my thoughts and opinions so it was quite an enjoyable read and one I would recommend.

  • Focus: from soloist to conductor – it’s not about you its about the team
    • Going slower so you can go further – you have to work with others so they can grow
    • Recognise you need others – working with people not against them
    • Making the effort to understand others – helping people succeed
    • Wanting others to shine more than you do – when others shine you deliver
    • Helping others to become better every day – supporting others growth
  • Personal development: from goals to growth – its about always striving to get better
    • Inside growth – growth results in better performance not targets
    • Growth in a few vital things – Relationships, Leadership, Growing others and a positive attitude
    • Growth without a finish line – continuous growth
  • Cost: from perks to price – its not about what you get its about what you give
    • Reality – everything worthwhile is uphill
    • Example – leaders must climb the hill first
    • Consistency – never get to stop climbing
  • Relational: from pleasing people to challenging people – your aim is not to be liked but to grow people
    • Shift from what you gain to how you can help, improve your organisation
    • Value people so they put in their best, serve them, empower them, motivate them
    • Work to set expectations up front
    • Ask yourself the hard questions first
    • When a tough conversation is needed, do it right
    • 25% will support you, 50% are undecided, 25% will resist change – support the 50% join the supporting 25%
    • Balance care with candor
CareCandor
Values the Person
Establishes the Relationship
Shores Up Weaknesses
Offers Comfort
Makes the Team Pleasant
Values the Person’s Potential
Expands the Relationship
Brings Out Strengths
Offers a Challenge
Makes the Team Productive
  • Abundance: from maintaining to creating – it’s about pushing forward and not resting
    • What zone are you in?
      • Coasting – doing as little as possible
      • Comfort – doing what you have always done
      • Challenge – do what you’ve not done before
      • Creative – think what I’ve never thought before
    • Get creative
      • Fuel Passion
      • Celebrate Ideas
      • Foster Autonomy
      • Encourage Courage
      • Minimise Hierarchy
      • Reduce Rules
      • Fail Forward
      • Start Small
  • Reproduction: from ladder climbing to ladder building – from just your success to helping others succeed
    • How high will others go with help?
  • Communication: from directing to connecting – from telling people what to do to helping them by working together
DirectingConnecting
Authoritative
Talking
Top Down
Enlisting
Assuming
Gives Answers
My Agenda
Collaborative
Listening
Side by Side
Empowering
Understanding
Asks Questions
Your Agenda
  • Improvement: from team uniformity to team diversity – there is power in diversity
    • Diverse teams fill in knowledge gaps
    • Diverse teams have different perspectives
    • Diverse teams have different experiences
  • Influence: from positional authority to moral authority – for people to want to follow you because of your reputation for excellence
    • There are many types of authority – natural, positional, knowledge, situational, relational, proximity, success, mentoring and seniority authority.
    • Levels of authority
      1. Position – people follow because they have to
      2. Permission – people follow because they want to
      3. Production – people follow because you demonstrate competence
      4. People Development – people follow because you help them become competent
      5. Pinnacle – people follow because you have a reputation for excellence
  • Impact: from trained leaders to transformational leaders
Trained LeadersTransformational Leaders
Know How to Lead
Are Liked
Influence Today
Ask People to Follow
Love to Lead
Are Trained
Help People
Have a Career
Impact a Few
Know Why They Lead
Are Contagious
Influence Today and Tomorrow
Ask People to Make a Difference
Love the People They Lead
Are Trained and Transformed
Help People Change
Have a Calling
Impact Many
  • Passion: from career to calling
CareerCalling
Mainly About You
Something You Choose
Separated from Your Best Life
You Can Take or Leave It
Something You Can Do
Measured by Success
Mainly About Others
Somthing Chosen for You
Integrated into Your Entire Life
Never Leaves You
Something You Must Do
Measured by Significance

Book Notes: How to Win Friends and Influence People

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The fundamental point from the book is really to think about things from the other person’s perspective – for you to think about what they want or what is in it for them rather than coming from the perspective of you pushing you ideas and approached, which does tend to be the perspective which most people attack problems.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

  • Don’t criticise, condemn, or complain.
  • Give honest and sincere appreciation.
  • Arouse in the other person an eager want.


Ways to Make People Like You

  • Become genuinely interested in other people.
  • Smile.
  • Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
  • Be a good listener.
  • Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
  • Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.

Win People to Your Way of Thinking

  • The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
  • Show respect for the other person’s opinions.
  • If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
  • Begin in a friendly way.
  • Start with questions to which the other person will answer yes.
  • Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
  • Let the other person feel the idea is his or hers.
  • Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
  • Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
  • Appeal to the nobler motives.
  • Dramatise your ideas.
  • Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offence or Arousing Resentment

  • Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
  • Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
  • Talk about your own mistakes before criticising the other person.
  • Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
  • Let the other person save face.
  • Praise every improvement.
  • Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
  • Use encouragement.
  • Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.