A Seth Godin Gem - Tribes

I came across the below Slideshare by Seth Godin on tribes. I found the Slideshow quite interesting, which subsequently had me watching a talk he gave on Vimeo.com. From here I ended up getting the audio book for free somehow?? can't remember how.

Anyway the audio book was so good I've subsequently bought the book - Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

The bonus feature of the audio book is that Seth reads it himself. He does manage to hold your attention and present a number of good points, this is the that I've bought the book.

Hope you find this interesting.

Cheers

Andrew

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Seth Godin on Tribes

From: sethgodin, 22 hours ago

Seth Godin on Tribes

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: book tribes)

This is the first revision of Seth Godin's presentation of Tribes. Be sure to check out the notes on each page.


SlideShare Link

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The No Complaining Rule

Continuing the theme of brief posts, I thought I'd throw up a link to an audio book I've listened to over the last couple of days. Maybe it will not be as noteworthy for you, in fact it possibly resonated a little for me considering the career year I have had.

Anyway, it is a good 'Listen' with a good number of simple anecdotes, maybe if you are a bit peeved off with what is happening around you it may help out and give you yet another tool/approach to improve your position.

You can obtain 'The No Complaining Rule' by Jon Gordon from Audible.com

Alternatively if you're not into listening and prefer reading you can obtain the book from Amazon - The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work

Cheers

Andrew

Crazy Bosses by Stanley Bing

'Crazy Bosses' is a book I picked from my wife on my inaugural fathers day. Nice catchy title, the blurb on the back of the book uses quotes such as 'fearless', 'sly humor' and 'Bing is Hilarious' - 'Laugh-out-loud'. To be honest I got none of this when I first started the book.

Over a week of persistent reading and the traditional I'll give it to the next chapter to get better the book eventually dropped of my preferred reading list and then sat Dormant. That was until I got my own Crazy Boss.

It was like reading the book anew, sitting down after one more frustrating night with the 'Crazy' boss which included lots of bluster and talk of resignation etc, and the book suddenly had some context. It is a brilliant chuckle, as long as you have someone to compare it to.

Not only is it a good read, when you have the context, it is exceptionally accurate. I was in fact dealing with a 'Bully' Boss and the description of the behavior's, although a little more extreme, and I say only a little more, were spot on.

You are able to breath a sigh of empathetic relief at the fact that this is not a new situation, and that you are not alone, you can also benefit from the differing strategies suggested at the end of each chapter.

Over-all, not a bad book when you have the context in which to read it. I'd suggest this is the sort of book that if you do buy (and don't get a crazy boss thrown in for free) and do not have an immediate use for, put it on your bookshelf, it may be invaluable in the future. My copy is still in use, it has been handed onto one of my peers who is sharing my 'Crazy Boss'.

If you're interested the following link will take you to Crazy Bosses: Fully Revised and Updated

Cheers

Andrew

How Win Friends and Influence People

A very quick review. Dale Carnegie first wrote this book back in 1936, since that time a few revisions have been published and the editors of these books have worked to modernise the stories/case studies on a regular basis. For example the copy I have was last printed in 1999 in the Harper Business Classics series.

Now I have read this book cover to cover, and I can confirm it has some tremendous points in the book. Just that reading the book really did feel like reading one of the classics. It was a bit tortuous at times and as you can imagine written in 1936, it has a very "Gentlemanly" tone to it.

I can recommend buying this book - it is quite an asset to have on your bookshelf. For now though I've included a summary of the principles from each chapter below. Simply considering these principles at face value provides some benefit. Be aware though - putting them to practice is much harder.

Note this summary comes from a Dale Carnegie Page at:

http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/carnegie/carnegie.html

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six ways to make people like you

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Win people to your way of thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong."
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment
A leader's job often includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior. Some suggestions to accomplish this:

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Cheers

Andrew

FreeMind - Product Review

I had the Freemind application recommended to me by a friend as an effective brainstorming tool. He was spot on - it is a tremendous tool. I've been using it in my workplace over the last couple of weeks and have found it a valuable asset not only for creating a broad perspective on a problem I am solving, but a great tool for communicating to others and having them contribute to my thought process.

Freemind is "FREE" software. I can confirm this through the licensing panel when using the software. Of course this means credit should be given to Joerg Mueller and the rest of the open source project team that worked on this product. It really is quite a sweet little application.

So What makes it so sweet? The simplicity and ease of use and in particular the way you can actually use your keyboard to do most things such as expanding and collapsing branches, creating new Nodes or simply navigating around your mind map.

Freemind does not try to be anything else but a straightforward mind-mapping tool. Once you have made a mind map you can then export it into a few mediums e.g. HTML page, JPEG, XHTML or open office writer document. Note I've not had a pressing need to do this at all and have only tinkered to see how it would look. The HTML/XHTML appears to be the most effective approach at the moment.

Another point that has been quite appealing for myself personally is that the freemind application is available in two versions. One for both Windows XP and Mac OS X. This has allowed me use both my work laptop (xp) and home system (Mac OS X) to mature the mind-maps I have been working on.

From a collaborative perspective I have used the application at my desk with peers and also in open meetings with the map projected onto a screen for the whole room to contribute. Talking your way through a mind map also provides a great medium for explaining a broad range of perspectives to your audience, and as it is quite interactive in the participation levels are quite good.

Overall - a very handy application and one that I have already started handing onto peers.

Cheers

Andrew

Note - clicking on the freemind links above takes you to http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Late Addition: Here is a screen capture of Freemind on the Mac.

Getting Things Done!! I’m a Convert!

I promised a review of David Allen's book "How to get things done: the art of stress-free productivity" (GTD). Now I have to admit I haven't really finished yet. I have approximately 50 pages to go. My perspective though is it is quite a brilliant book, and if I can keep up the discipline required to maintain the approaches proposed it will make a drastic difference to my life.

It's not brilliant in a literary kind of way. It isn't brilliant in an aesthetic sort of way. It is brilliant in the ease with which David presents a solution to a common problem most people have in today’s environment. Quit simply put this problem relates to how to get things done in an environment where information comes at you from all directions and in all shapes and forms.

The initial premise that David explores is the nature of our work today, how it has changed from a task driven environment to one of knowledge work. He quotes Peter Drucker "In knowledge work the task is not given; it has to be determined". I’ve been espousing this difference for some time, but naturally it has taken Drucker’s wisdom delivered via this book to give me a good way of stating it.

It is this principal and what he subsequently does with it that makes this book an absolute asset for today’s managers. Old school time and task management isn't really written off entirely, just that it really isn't directly applicable for today’s environment. Definitely these techniques still have some great ideas and principles; it is just that David builds on them superbly.

So as you can see from my rant above I am quite impressed. One reason for this is that my inbox on my mail client (at work and home) is at zero and has been for weeks. I've completed 133+ tasks in the last ten working days. My team is benefiting from this as I am more present when talking with them, and my wife, LOVES IT!! I have less on my mind and am more present for her on a day to day basis.

As I have pointed out I haven’t completed the book – so how is it that I can rave about it so much. This is because of a very simple outcome I have finally achieved from reading this book. That is the idea of contextualising my tasks. By grouping or categorising tasks into a context relative to your life you can better manage and close off on an item at the appropriate time.

I know it’s surprisingly simple, and you’re probably doing it already. It is the way in which David presents this concept and the process that you go through to achieve this ‘Nirvana’. GTD clarifies the point that we humans can really only manage a number of things internally at anyone time, and it is this small buffer or retention that causes most of us our stress.

Advice guiding you to recognise the need to develop a personal process, and then go through the activity of building and complying with the process is all part of the learning. The tools and catch-all’s that you create become quite a central point to ‘Getting Things Done’.

All of this has lead me to correctly establish my own process, and trusted catch-all’s. I am not entirely happy with how it all works. My partner still picks me up on some things I forget but I am getting better.

Second to this I am already starting to talk to people around me in regards to GTD and will start to toy with introducing this as one of my coaching tools going forward. I can already see it’s applicability in my workplace and coaching sessions I already run.

To close out my very first attempt at a book review I better tell you about my perspective. In a nutshell, a good read, very applicable and most definitely one of the best task/time management books I have come across over the last couple of years.

If you'd like to learn more here are some of the sites I have been gathering information from:

43 Folders: Pretty good site all-round. Merlin Mann the author of this site is in fact one of the reasons I started to hear about and eventually plugged into 'GTD'. his article Getting Started with 'GTD' is a good read.

Of course there is also the official David Allen Site. I've not been around this site to much so far, of course it is on my list of to do's.

And finally - a combination of the two Merlin Mann & David Allen got together for a brief podcast series on 'GTD'. It's worth a listen, I'm going back for a second time round.

You could also click on the link in the top right of this page and buy the book through Amazon.

I Hope you have found this article of interest.

Cheers

Andrew