Genuine Curiosity by Dwayne Melancon

Enjoy Every Sandwich - a powerful book

2012-01-23T05:44:22Z

I just finished reading Dr. Lee Lipsenthal's book, "Enjoy Every Sandwich." Wow - what a book. The author wrote this book to share his experiences and new-found perspective after he was diagnosed with esophogeal cancer in 2009, and it is a very powerful and touching book.

Lipsenthal takes you through some very touching realizations of the precious nature of our time here on earth, and provides guidance on how we can take better care of the relationships and truly important parts of our lives - whether we know we're near death or not.

For me, the most "connecting" parts of the book were when the author takes us through the journey of accepting the inevitability of death. It was interesting to read how he dealt with his mortality, but even more interesting to learn how he took his family through the journey. Dr. Lipsenthal's wife was truly his soul mate, and I recognized the relationship I have with my wife in this book.

Appreciate what you have

As some of you who've been with me since I've been blogging know, I had my own bout with cancer (I wrote a little about my experience here). This was a very sobering experience, and it brought my wife and I closer. Luckily, I made it through - I've been cancer-free for almost 13 years. But I know the feeling of helplessness very well.

What I love about Dr. Lipsenthal's book and the journey he shares with us is that he's managed to translate his cancer journey into a set of concrete recommendations for all of us - and does it in a very inspiring way. In this book, you'll appreciate the opportunities we have to share ourselves now with the ones we love.

Learn from the journey of others

If you find yourself in the midst of your own struggle with cancer, this book will help you, as well. Not only will you gain some wisdom and ideas for how to make the most of your relationships during your struggle, you'll also find strength in the way Dr. Lipsenthal dealt with his cancer. As a medical Doctor, I found his thoughts to be very powerful - both in what you can do for yourself, and what you can't.

I love this paragraph from the book:

"You get to choose the world you want to live in. It can be a house of fear and constriction or a house of mystery and creativity. Do you choose honor and compassion about your frailties and the frailties of others? In your world, will it be the fear of death, or the joy of live? It is that simple."

This framing of your options, beliefs, and realities is your choice. And Dr. Lipsenthal's reminder that we can all decide is very empowering.

You may be wondering how Dr. Lipsenthal fared in all of this. Well, he lost his fight with cancer in Septemer 2011. But in this book, I think he took full advantage of his "knowing" time to make sure the important people in his life felt his love for them.

This book is both sad and uplifting; about death and about life. And it is an amazing legacy for Dr. Lipsenthal. I highly recommend "Enjoy Every Sandwich."

Business at the Speed of Now

2011-12-21T21:56:44Z

I just finished reading "Business at the Speed of Now," by John Bernard. Wow, this is a good book.

I know of John because I worked with him on a small project about a year ago, and I saw a lot of the things he writes about first-hand. Needless to say, when I heard he was writing a book, I could hardly wait to read it. Now that it's available, I recommend you pick up a copy right away.

This book is designed to help you create an environment or culture within your business that aligns people for execution, then empowers people to make a difference. There are some great stories in here comparing and contrasting "Now" cultures with much slower, more bureaucratic ones - some of those really hit the mark for me, and will stick with me.

The book also includes a number of tools to help you assess where your business's thinking is currently, as well as tools to help you take deliberate action to move toward a Now way of doing business.

According to this book, management must provide the rest of the company with 5 critical pieces of information for them to function in the now:

Context ("Where are we going?")

Accountability ("What role do I play?")

Skills ("What abilities must I possess?")

Facts ("What data must I access to make decisions?")

Authority ("Do I have the freedom to act without fear of reprisal?")

From my experience, #'s 4 and 5 are the hardest transition for control freak organizations. Fear not, there are some good tips & tools in this book to help in all of these areas.

Guidance when you need it

I read the book all the way through, and it went quickly. Going forward, I plan to use this as a reference guide to help me focus on what I believe is the "hottest fire" in whatever situation I'm experiencing. If you scan this list, it not only helps you pinpoint specific challenges, it also guides you to the right chapters to find the help you need.

If you're anything like me, examples and stories are among the best ways to learn. Not only does John share stories he's learned through working with companies, he also uses a ficticious company known as "BearPaw" to show you how some of these ideas work in practice, as well as show you how to create a tracking and alignment system that keeps everyone in the business on the same page about what is important.

The most important thing?

Want to get something done? Use this book to create your "Breakthrough Plan."

I got a taste of this while working with John, and he tells you how to create one in this book. A breakthrough plan keeps you focused on a specific objective and provides triggers to ensure that resources & dependencies are identified and dealt with, This is one of the highest-leverage activities in this process, in my opinion (and it isn't as hard as you think).

My favorite part

Yes, I liked the part about Breakthrough Plans. But I must admit, my favorite chapter in the book was Chapter 8, in which we're exposed to the "Seven-Step Problem Solving" approach. This is a fantastic model to guide you through a data-driven process to get everyone on the same page about the problem, the desired outcomes, the approach you'll take, and how success will be measured along the way. Of course, a big part of the formula is accountability, which is well-handled.

If you want a taste of the book, they are offering a sample chapter of Business at the Speed of Now at the author's site. If you really want to jump into the Now, you can click one of the following links to order it on Amazon in either hardcover, or Kindle formats.

The Top 5 Things For Greater Productivity

2011-12-11T06:30:31Z

I was just reading a great article by Brett Nelson of Forbes, called "Eight Secrets To Getting More Done In 2012." I love the ideas he's assembled, particularly the one about "Hourly Gut Checks."

With his post in mind, I have an idea of my own to contribute: The Top 5 Things.

The Top 5 Things

This is a pretty simple concept that I use, which I find to be very useful:

Start with a "mind sweep" as prescribed in David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology - get everything out of your head, out of your inbox, out of meeting notes, etc. in to one big list.
When you sit down to plan your week, look at this list and pick the top 5 things you need to get done this week from the list. Try to pick the 5 things that will have the most impact or drive the most progress toward your most important goals.
Write your Top 5 on an index card.
Carry that index card with you, and review it regularly to help you focus on what is important. As things get done, mark them off.
Repeat the process.

You can do this weekly, or just wait until you've done your top 5 - figure out what works best for you.

Another thing I've found useful is to use the back of the index card to record the "in the moment" priorities you end up working on, so you can review the things you chose to work on instead of your top 5. This can be helpful in figuring out what (or who) is undermining your productivity. Sometimes you'll find your doing it to yourself.

Got any tips of your own? Please share!

Practical Genius

2011-11-24T01:01:34Z

The other day, I read Gina Amaro Rudan's book, "Practical Genius: The Real Smarts You Need to Get Your Talents and Passions Working for You." I found this book to be a very down-to-earth approach to unlocking your creative juices, through a well-ordered method. In other words, it made sense, was prescriptive enough that you can apply it immediately, and it feels like an approach that will actually work for most people.

In "Practical Genius," the author takes us though a 5-step plan for figuring out what your best skills are, and coming up with a plan to leverage those skills. The steps are:

Identify Your Genius,
Express Your Genius,
Surround Yourself With Genius,
Sustain Your Genius, and
Market Your Genius

Throughout the book, the author shares her perspective, techniques, and a lot of personal stories that bring things down to a tangible level. The stories helped make it real for me.

What struck me as most powerful in this book were the two sections on "Surrounding Yourself With Genius," and "Sustaining Your Genius." What I liked about these sections is that they help you change your circumstances in a way that reinforces and amplifies your strengths, rather than draining or sabotaging them. I have seen very creative people who gave up on their gifts because they didn't think they were good enough, or were hanging around with people who didn't support or appreciate their gifts. In this book, you'll learn some techniques and new habits that will help you find people who add energy to your gifts, instead of taking it away.

You'll also find sensible guidance on when to seek the help of others -- I like the section on finding a "Yoda for hire," enlisting the help of "ambassadors," and building your "tribe."

I got a lot out of the section on "Sustaining..." because I found some techniques to help me re-start some of the fun and creative things I've drifted away from, due to some parts of my life getting a bit too busy. Throughout the book, the author shares little tips labelled as "Playboooks," and I found the "Sustaining" playbooks to be the most useful for me.

If you feel like you're stuck, have writer's block, or your creative juices just aren't flowing the way they used to be, I think "Practical Genius" can help.

Then, once you've gotten things unstuck, take advantage of the ideas in "Marketing Your Genius," to increase your value. You can apply the marketing tips for "getting famous" kinds of things, or just to increase your impact in your job and community - it's up to you.

[Review] Innovation You

2011-11-05T21:08:06Z

I just finished Jeff DeGraff's book, "Innovation You: Four Steps to Becoming New and Improved," and I really enjoyed it. I'd heard about DeGraff before -- that he had good techniques to help people come up with creative solutions to life's challenges -- and I've learned a lot more about him through this well-written book.

In "Innovation You," DeGraff provides some very practical advice for how to approach problems and go beyond your "default" approach for innovation. The notion is that we all have preferred ways of handling various situations, but that we don't always do well at adapting our approach to better fit the situation. The result? We stay in our comfort zone too long, while our situation fails to improve.

Why do we do this? I think it's mostly habit and fear of trying the unfamiliar. As DeGraff says so well, "To grow requires that we temporarily suspend our need for certainty and control."

Four zones - where's your comfort?

At the heart of this book is a model that DeGraff uses to articulate the most common approaches to innovation and problem-solving. The model is known as the "Innovation You Model," which is what is represented by the 4-color circle inside the letter 'o' on the cover (at right). Each of the pie slices represents a different approach or bias for solving problems or pursuing innovation:

Yellow is "Collaborate," which means you are most likely to team up with (or tap into) others as a default method for solving problems.
Green is "Create", which means you are most likely to try to create your own new and innovative solutions to a problem.
Blue is "Compete," which means you have a need to 'win' and are going to try to find a tangible goal within the problem space and doggedly pursue it.
Red is "Control," which means you'll collect the facts, figure out the rules, and be very systematic in solving the problem.

if you're like me, you can easily figure out which one of these is your dominant approach, which ones you can use effectively, and which one you have the most trouble applying (green is my favorite, I'm good at yellow, I am handy with red in a crisis, and blue is my least natural position).

Throughout the book, DeGraff uses interesting and relevant stories to share how these approaches can be used to solve problems. This includes some analysis techniques & tools you can use to try to figure out the best innovation approach to use, or diagnose why your current approach isn't working.

It, we, or I?

Another model used in the book is one that DeGraff describes as a sort of 3-layer Russian nesting doll.

The outermost layer is the "universal" layer, or the "it" layer. Things at this layer sort of happen to us and are not really within our direct control. Think natural phenomena, market forces, etc.
The middle layer in is the "communal" layer, or the "we" layer. Things at this layer involve our relationships with others, whether at work, in clubs, churches, and our family.
The innermost layer is the "personal," or the "I" layer. This is the layer that defines us as people - our values, health, intelligence, motivations, etc.

The interesting notion here isn't that we need to "pick a layer" when we solve problems or try to innovate - it's that we need to "consider other layers." In other words, trying to find solutions that work on multiple layers - not just solve for a local optima at a single layer.

Again, DeGraff provides some great examples and stories (I think of them as mini case studies) to help you internalize what this really means.

Become new and improved, a step at a time

This book is an easy read - the concepts are straight-forward, the chapters are short, and the stories are engaging. I think the thingI like most about "Innovation You" is that it is both prescriptive and practical.

This book would be a great gift if you know someone who feels stuck or overwhelmed by a difficult problem. One line I liked from the book: "Where is the pain so high that trying something new would be an improvement?" - if that hits the mark, get them a copy of this book!

It is also the sort of book that would be great for a book study group, particularly if you wanted to go through the book with an intact team (at work, in an organization, etc.) that needs to work together to solve problems.

Evernote, convenience, and habits

2011-10-30T21:22:43Z

I was recently catching up on some of my favorite blog stops, and just read an article from a few months back on the Success Begins Today blog, where John talks about the lovely marriage that is Evernote+iPad 2. John and I are usually of like mind, and our fondness for Evernote is no exception.

Background

I'm a long-time user of Evernote which, if you aren't familiar with it, is an excellent capture and recall tool for storing all kinds of digital information. You can take pictures of things and add them as a note, you can type things in, you can forward emails and PDF's to it, and much more.

Everything you send to Evernote gets indexed and stored in your account on its cloud-based service. Once the information is indexed, you can quickly retrieve it based on tags, location, or keyword searches (it will even convert text in pictures to a searchable form - it is awesome for retrieving pictures you've taken on whiteboard diagrams with lots of text on them).

Evernote offers a robust free account, as well as a subscription option (faster indexing of your files, and more monthly storage - most people will be fine with the free version).

Evernote makes it easy to collect and interact with this data - you can run desktop clients on your computer, access it in a web browser, or from mobile clients on most tablets or smartphones. Very simple.

Challenges

For me, the hardest things with adopting Evernote were:

Developing the habit of using Evernote
- The number of clients available for Evernote (see above) makes this easier but, like with any new process, it took me a while to develop the habit of entering my notes into Evernote. I wish there were some magic potion that would make this easy, but I don't know of one.
- One thing that can help is to ditch your paper notepad for a while so you are encouraged to take notes directly into Evernote.
Taking notes directly into Evernote in meetings
- There were a couple of problems in this area:
  - first, my computer was a bit bulky so I didn't carry it around to all my meetings;
  - second, the soft keyboard on my phone or iPad were kind of a pain to type on and I ended up spending more time concentrating on finger typing than I did on the contents of the meeting.
- The best solution I found for this was to get the Zagg ZaggFolio for my iPad 2. This is a combination iPad 2 case and Bluetooth keyboard. When I use this in combination with the Evernote iPad app, I can use my touch-typing skills to easily take notes in my meetings. The iPad's 10-hour battery life plus the long life of this keyboard (I charge it every month or two) makes this a much better alternative than my laptop.

So, if you're looking for a great way to centralize all your meeting notes, easily retrieve them, and you have an iPad, I think this is a great solution.

What can you change - yourself or others?

2011-09-06T01:45:39Z

Just reading a thoughtful post on Management Craft, in which Lisa Haneberg raises two points:

1. You cannot expect people to be what you aren't.

2. You cannot expect your employees to think or act like you.

Interesting to think about, eh? How does this match up with the notion that you should surround yourself with people who are weak in your areas of strength? It aligns very well, I think.

One of the temptations I fight is trying to get people to do what I would do in a given situation when, in fact, I may be asking them to fight their nature. If I let them use their strengths instead of mimicking mine, maybe they'll come up with something awesome that I'd never have dreamed up on my own.

It seems to me that the finesse of managers is to stick to advising and steering our employees on the "how" instead of the "what." In other words, letting people come up with their own solutions but providing guidance on the best ways to get the idea implemented in light of politics, personalities, and preconceived notions they may have to overcome to be sucessful.

What do you think?

Listen, don't just explain.

2011-08-15T02:18:45Z

I've run into a bunch of situations recently (both work and personal) in which two people get more and more irritated at each other. In each of these situations, both parties believed they were "right" and both parties went to great lengths to convince the other person.

This is "human nature 101" stuff, but why is it so hard for people to turn off their "explain" gene so they can listen to what the other person is saying? It happens to us all, so what do you do about it?

If you can't turn off the urge to talk, sometimes it's useful to bring in someone to mediate. I've found that in most of these cases, the viewpoints are not as far apart as they seem and a few tweaks can result in a solution both people can be happy with (or at least agree to live with).

What solutions have you found to this problem? Are you a good mediator? Please share your secrets.

"You - call 911!"

2011-07-30T04:32:28Z

In times of great change, as in times of crisis, leaders sometimes need to jump into "directive" mode.

That's what I realized during some chatting today with fellow managers. You see, we were talking about how managers and leaders can be more effective in times of change and uncertainty, as part of a discussion about 'situational leadership' and we reckoned that even experienced employees often welcome specific, unambiguous direction in times of crisis. This is sometimes difficult for managers with experienced teams, as we often think the best thing is just to stay out of their way because they'll figure it out quickly enough. In reality, even experienced employees can stall out and panic during these times of great change.

This rang true for me, and reminded me of my first aid / emergency medical training. In that training, they tell you that when someone is having a medical emergency, one of the worst things you can do is trust / hope that 'someone' will do the right thing. In medical emergencies, they tell you to take charge, look at a specific person and say to them, "You - call 911!" so you don't have to leave things to chance. In other words, give a specific person a specific thing to do so they can focus on what's required of them.

In times of organizational upheaval or uncertainty, the same principle holds true. Rather than hope that everyone gets back to work and figures out what to do next, many people look to company leaders to jump into "take charge" mode and start giving specific instructions. "You - go work on x, and get it done by the end of the week." This gets people working again, gets them focused, and takes their mind off the chaos.

I've been in uncertain and rapidly changing situations quite a bit in my life, and there are a lot of changes going on in my world right now. Maybe it's time for me to be more directive to get people focused and moving forward. What about you? Any of this sound familiar? Share your thoughts, please.

Team up - business lessons learned from volleyball

2011-06-02T06:37:35Z

I was watching one of my daughter's volleyball tournaments this weekend and I made a few observations that I think will apply to our work teams:

Know (and play) your position: In volleyball, everyone expects that their teammates will play their position and know where they should be on the court. When this doesn't happen, it results in a lot of dropped balls. The same is true in our work teams - people expect you to know your position and not drop any of the balls you're responsible for.
Talk to each other: One of the key attributes of a successful volleyball team is that they are constantly talking to each other on the court. If there is any doubt who should grab a ball, one of the players yells, "Mine!" and everyone else on the team backs off and lets them handle it. At work, if there is any doubt about who owns what, someone needs to overtly take responsibility for the commitment in question and everyone else needs to back off and let them handle it.
Celebrate the "aces": When the server on the volleyball team serves the ball and the other team is unable to return it, the "ace" gets celebrated immediately. And not just by the players on the field - the ones on the bench celebrate, too. In our work teams, we should recognize wins as they happen and everyone on the team should have the chance to celebrate - even if they weren't directly involved in the win.
Reassure and support each other: When someone screws up, let them know it's OK and move on to the next point (if it's appropriate, tell them what they could've done differently in a constructive way). In our work teams, the same concepts apply - remember, it shouldn't be personal - it should be about how to recover and learn from mistakes.
Ask for help when you need it: On a volleyball team, the setter works really hard - they have to move all over the court and their job is to set up the ball so the "hitters" can make a big play and get a point. However, sometimes, they just can't get to the ball in time. The moment they notice that this is the case, a good setter yells, "Help!" or something similar, signaling to their teammates that they need someone to cover their responsibility. In a team, this kind of behavior is also necessary. The moment you realize you can't meet your commitment, you need to ask for help - it's much better than a dropped ball with no warning.
Don't let your attitude wreck the team's attitude: I've seen huge performance variations between one game and the next in volleyball. The pivotal difference is often the attitude or confidence of one or two girls on the team - if they are "on," they bring the team up; if they are "off," they bring the team down. In work teams, never underestimate the impact your attitude and confidence have on the others on your team. Don't let your negative outlook spoil the team's chances for success.

These are just some of the parallels I drew from watching volleyball. Hopefully, they will get your juices flowing and help you be a better contributor to your team.

Who's on your "founders list'?

2011-05-14T06:51:41Z

A friend of mine asked me an interesting question: If you were starting a new company, who would be on your "founders list"? In other words, among the people you know, work with, etc. who would you want with you if you started a new company?

An interesting twist on this question: Which of the people in your current company or team would make the list? Are you doing enough to let these people know you value them, and to keep them engaged? More importantly, have you asked them to be part of your core team or "inner circle"? These are the people who are likely making the most positive difference in terms of moving your business or mission forward - shouldn't you be spending more of your energy on them?

And another, more sobering, question: Would any of these people want you on their "founders list"? What can you do -- now -- to increase your value to the people you value?

I have a new favorite laptop bag

2011-05-05T05:57:07Z

My old laptop bag was beginning to fall apart, so I got The North Face Off-Site Laptop Bag the other day. I absolutely love it. You see, I have this "thing" about laptop bags - I'm very picky and usually dissatisfied. I get a lot of flak from my wife for the number of bags I discard (give away, sell, etc.) because they frustrate me.

But this bag? Awesome. The North Face ranks as my #1 favorite bag (I'll share my #2, etc. at the end of this post, along with my favorite laptop backpacks).

Here is why I love this bag:

This bag is extremely light, but has a ton of space (over 1800 cubic inches)
There are "cinch straps" on the sides so you can compress it to a smaller size when it is fairly empty, or expand it when you are carrying a bunch of stuff
Waterproof zippers keep your stuff dry in the rain
The North Face makes extremely durable products, so this should last a long time (and it has a lifetime warranty against defects)
There are a lot of pockets with a good range of sizes, which makes it easy to tuck away cables, power supplies, etc. for easy organization and access
The laptop compartment is roomy for up to 17" laptops (my MacBook Pro 15" fits beautifully) - and the padding along the bottom of the bag is excellent
There is an expandable front pocket that can expand enough to hold a bike helmet if you are into that sort of thing
It comes in brown or black (I chose the brown) and looks casual, yet business-like
The strap and carry handle are very comfortable

So, if you tend to carry a lot of stuff with you when you travel, I think you'll love The North Face Off-Site Laptop Bag.

The rest of the story - other strong choices:

I mentioned I had a few other favorites - here are my top choices:

Shoulder-carry laptop bags:

The North Face Off-Site Laptop Bag - see above.
Timbuk2 Commute 2.0 - This one isn't quite large enough for me, but it's a terrific bag. If you like messenger-style bags, check this one out. Good use of space, very tough, very water-resistant, and checkpoint friendly.
Briggs & Riley @Work Computer Case - Spacious, versatile with lots of pockets. A bit on the heavy side, and pricey though.
Tumi Alpha Large Expandable Organizer Computer Briefcase - big, lots of pockets and tough. Very expensive and the computer compartment has a very rigid reinforcement panel that can make it tough to get under some airline seats.

Laptop backpacks - note, I don't use backpacks much in business, since they look too casual for some of the meetings I attend. On vacation, backpacks are my favorite.

Brenthaven Trek Expandable Backpack - This is a very durable, fantastic laptop bag with great use of space. Comfortable, with nice straps.
Briggs & Riley @Work Computer Backpack - Great bag, lots of padding, but a bit short on pockets for me and it's pretty tight (not expandable) so it doesn't always cooperate when I overstuff it. Comfortable and durable.
SwissGear Carbon Backpack - Spacious, lots of pockets. Shoulder straps are too short for someone tall like me, and it doesn't have compression straps so it feel big even when it's empty.

I've used more than my fair share of laptop bags in the last 20 years - I feel like you can't go wrong with any of the bags on this list. Let me know what you think, if you get one of them.

Choices and forcing functions

2011-05-02T22:03:20Z

I'm going through a strategic planning process right now. It's very liberating - you can start to redraw the boundaries, constraints, and reassess the pre-existing conditions of your business.

One of the challenges is not trying to commit to doing too many things. A long time ago, I realized something that seems counterintuitive, at first glance:

Sometimes you have to limit your choices to expand your opportunities.

What I mean is you need to force yourself to focus on fewer things so each one of your focus areas receives sufficient investment to allow it to succeed and thrive. One of the mistakes I see companies make (lots of them, not just mine) is to spread themselves too thin.

We often think of a "shotgun" approach as hedging our bets. In a way, that's true, but dividing your organization's attention across too many different initiatives more often results in frustration and failure.

So, what can you do?

Some techniques can help:

Drive to your top 5. You have lots of options, and you probably have a group of people you need to get on board with your priorities and commitments. Getting a group to agree on a short list is challenging, so your first step should be to try to get to reasonable alignment with five target areas.
Get clear on your top 3. This will take a while, but if you can get the group to agree on the top 3 areas of focus, that is real progress.
Drop the bottom 2. Now that you know your top 3, it's time to say "no" to everything below those. It will be a test of your mettle, but it's important.
Pick your #1. You've got a list of 3 important things - now, pick the one that is the most important. It will be your cornerstone.
Align your resources to your #1. Allocate at least 67% of your resources, time, etc. to your #1 priority (that's a minimum - allocating more to #1 is even better). The remaining 1/3 of your resources can be budgeted to the remaining 2 items (the mix there is less important, as long as you don't ever allow your commitment to #1 to drop below 67%.
- I realize you may not be able to make the shift all at once, but give yourself an aggressive deadline, then plan and execute to have the resource shift in place by the deadline.
Hold the line. The old saying, "No pain, no gain," holds true here - it will be a difficult transition but well worth it in terms of focus and execution.

This transition can be a very liberating one, if you do it deliberately. There is huge value in setting clear guidelines to drive decisions of what's in, and what's out - especially when it comes to how everyone in the organization spends their precious time and the company's precious money.

Anything to add or challenge from your experiences? I'd love to hear it.

Bare Knuckle People Management

2011-04-16T21:45:12Z

I got an early copy of "Bare Knuckle People Management," this week from one of the authors, Sean O'Neil. Sean, along with co-author John Kulisek, have created a fantastic resource for managers. I started reading it on a cross-county flight this morning and couldn't put it down.

The subtitle of the book is "Creating success with the team you have - winners, losers, misfits, and all." Their focus is to help you identify the traits, strengths, weaknesses, etc. of the folks on your team and then come up with individualized management / coaching approaches that map to each person's strengths and weaknesses.

The book is written in a very direct, "in your face" style that is clearly rooted in real-world experience. What do I mean?

What's your Cast of Characters?

The authors discuss people in terms of 16 "Character Profiles" that I clearly recognize from people I've worked with. For example, one of the "people types" they talk about is "Needy Ned," described as follows:

"Although he has the tools it takes to make the starting lineup, Needy Ned's anxiety and constant need for approval and assistance keep him on the bench. He has an insatiable appetite for your attention, is afraid of everything, and requires kid glove treatment in order to avoid a display of tears. If you can manage his anxiety and resist the urge to kill, perhaps you could boost his productivity."

I know that guy - I used to manage one back in the 90's, and I thought of them as "high maintenance" (or more politly, "high touch.") The other 15 types conjured up specific people in my mind, as well.

This book not only helps you identify the types of folks you are dealing with, it also offers good, practical advice on how to better manage them, tap into their strengths, and manage around their weaknesses (which will help you and them in the long run).

It also deals candidly with the subject of whether you should really try to coach them, or just manage them out of the team. And yes, there are some comments on whether you are really a good manager if you can't get more out of some of these folks - worth thinking about, for sure.

Get the Team right

Another thing this book does well is discuss team dynamics. For each of the 16 Character Profiles, they discuss who you should (and shouldn't) pair people up with, with regard to helping both individual and team effectiveness.

The book gets you to think in terms of:

Your "Starting Five," which are your go-to people for "wow" results.
Your "Utility Players," which are predictable - the bedrock of the team.
Your "Benchwarmers," who have potential but should be coached up or out.
Your "Trading Block Candidates," that really ought to be off the team.

This model helped me frame my thinking very clearly and I like how it's discussed in the book.

The last section of the book is more about the chemistry of teams, and how to use your team of Characters most effectively. There is a good discussion of 5 team types, ranging from awesome to has-been, and I picked up a lot of good tips along the way.

This book is a great tool box for managers. Some of my team members are actually combinations of the 16 Character Types, but I have some practical, immediately applicable tools I can use in my next coaching sessions.

My Recommendation

I recommend "Bare Knuckle People Management" to anyone who's responsible for managing a team, but especially to those who are new managers or have just inherited a new team.

One thing missing from the Mac: ClearContext

2011-04-06T16:15:31Z

In the past, I've written a lot about Getting Things Done (GTD) and my journey with it. One of the shining points along the way was finding ClearContext, which is an Outlook add-in for WIndows that transforms how you can use GTD with Outlook. I've written a lot about ClearContext, as well.

As you may also know, I switched to the Mac about a year ago and one of the hardest things to do without has been ClearContext. I'm now using Outlook 2011 for Mac, but it apparently isn't quite as extensible as the Windows version of Outlook (I'm hoping Microsoft addresses this crippling limitation in future release of Outlook for the Mac).

Anyway, if you are looking for an awesome product to help you up your game with GTD, I encourage you to check out ClearContext. Their latest release (which a few of my colleagues are using) has a lot of new functions to help automate a lot of the categorization, filing, and other kinds of mundane tasks so you can better focus on getting your work done efficiently.

If you've never looked at ClearContext, start with the intro video before, then head over to the ClearContext site for a free trial. If you've looked at ClearContext before but not acted, give it a second look.

And Microsoft: If you're listening, please open up Outlook on the Mac to enable fantastic products like ClearContext.