Genuine Curiosity by Dwayne Melancon

Go pitch yourself

2012-05-20T22:47:22Z

I get a lot of calls from various technology vendors in my day job. Some of the "pitches" are good, but most are mediocre. This week I got one I found to be particularly lousy - and it was a voice mail, which was intended to get me interested enough about the vendor to call them back.

What do you do?

Here are some of the problems I found with this particular message:

I have no idea who this company is. Their name was "cool sounding" but absolutely not descriptive. This in itself is not a problem - the problem is that I listened to the pitch but it never told me anything about why I should call back.
I have no idea what this company does. The description - and this is a direct quote - was, "We deliver powerful capabilities through our platform, using patented technology." What?

I played this message for my wife and we laughed at how ridiculously vague this statement is.

Needless to say, they didn't get me to call back, which was their desired result.

At least you got that right...

Granted, they did get a few things right on the call:

They did say their company name, clearly enough for me to understand it.
They did provide their name and contact number, and even repeated the number slowly so I could write it down.

But that wasn't enough.

What's your pitch?

That got me thinking - when I leave messages about my company, am I any better? I came up with a good little "exercise" that I'd like to share here:

Call and leave yourself a voice mail, as if you were "cold calling" someone about your business, with the goal of having them call you back to find out more.
Listen to the message and see if you would call yourself back.

Is it clear what you have to offer?
Is the message short and to the point?
Is it clear why what you do would be valuable to someone who doesn't know about your company?
Is it clear who you are and how to get back in touch with you?
Bonus points: Did you give them the option of calling you back or emailing you?

If you missed the mark, adjust your pitch, call back, and try again until you are happy with your message.
Now that you're happy with it, recruit a friend or relative that isn't "close" to your business, and ask them to critique your message based on the same kind of criteria. Once again, use their input to adjust and tune your message.

I found some rough edges in my own pitch, for sure. Not as bad as that guy who told me, "We deliver powerful capabilities through our platform, using patented technology," but I had some room for improvement.

Give it a try - pitch yourself - and see what you learn.

Accountability and granularity

2012-05-14T22:42:42Z

Lately, I've been involved in a debate about accountability What's at the heart of the debate? Clarity regarding how much detail is required for someone to feel like they have enough information to hold another person accountable.

In my particular debate, the question revolves around accountability for some longer term goals. The person making the commitment, let's call them Mr. Committer, has made some bold declarations (more directional in nature, although there are some measurable aspects that are clear enough to give a "pass / fail" grade). These declarations won't be complete for at least a year.

Starting with these bigger picture goals, Mr. Committer created a sort of "work back" list - in other words, they began to break the larger commitment down into smaller steps and arranging them in a sensible order, to create an execution plan.

When this person presented their plan to two other people for review, there was a lot of consternation from one of the managers (let's call her Ms. Stickler) along the lines of, "Hey, I don't have enough here to hold you accountable," or "I don't know what to hold you accountable for."

Break down the breakdown

As we began to disect the situation, we discovered that the issue was primarily one of detail:

Ms. Stickler wanted a fully-fleshed out plan with way more detail than had been presented.
Mr. Committer complained that he wanted to be held accountable for his results - the "big commit" - and not the specific steps followed to achieve the results.
Ms. Stickler asked, "How can I hold you accountable over the next few months if I don't have a specific set of steps you'll be following?"
Mr. Committer retorted, "A lot can change as I learn along the way and I don't want to be locked in - how can I innovate with you bearing down on me about specific steps so early in the process?!?"
and so forth…

Shift the focus

So how can we break this conflict? In our case, we are trying to focus less on the detailed steps along the way and, instead, have been brainstorming some interim indicators that must be met regardless of the detailed steps we choose to follow.

This, in itself, is still a difficult discussion, but it is far more productive (and far less stifling) than a debate about what specific steps will be taken. In other words, I think we've successfully shifted the emphasis away from the activity, and toward a focus on the desired results.

This transition has been difficult, because we are fighting human nature and personalities in the process (detailed/control-oriented personalities vs. big picture/don't micromanage me personalities).

Any tips or techniques I can steal from you?

I'm sure we didn't get to this point in the easiest way possible. Have you seen this kind of situation before? Have you cracked the code (or at least come up with best known methods to make this easier)?

I'd love to hear your proven techniques for dealing with this kind of issue - please share!

Is your laptop bag getting too heavy?

2012-05-03T23:11:24Z

What better time than now to go through your laptop bag and find ways to lighten your load? When I was preparing to hit the road this week, I noticed just how heavy & cluttered my laptop bag was.

I set aside some time on Sunday night to reduce my “travel weight” by getting rid of some things in my bag. Here are some strategies to help you if you decide you want to lighten your load:

Move into a smaller place
- Nothing forces decisions like having to fit your stuff into a smaller laptop bag. This is a good strategy if you want to become less of a packrat with the things you carry along with you. Don't go too far, though - remember sometimes you need room to bring back the things you bring on the road with you.
- I have done the "try out" process on laptops before since I have a local luggage store with a very customer-friendly return policy. I buy a bag, take it home and, if I don't like how it accommodates my stuff, I return it. You can do the same via eBags - their selection is amazing - but it might take a little longer due to the shipping time..
Start with a clean slate
- This is an extreme approach. You empty your bag ad put in absolutely the bare minimum of “stuff” back in. Travel like that for a while, and only add in things that a) you discovered that you really needed during a trip; and b) you are absolutely sure you will need within your next 3 trips.
Find lighter alternatives to the things you carry
- This is the kind of approach that extreme backpackers take when they select their backpacking gear – ultralight tents, cups, etc. You don’t have to go that far, but you could do things like:
  - carry a Kindle instead of books;
  - carry an iPad instead of a laptop;
  - move to a smaller / lighter laptop;
  - carry a smaller note pad instead of the larger one you’ve been lugging around;
  - stop carrying chargers you seldom use on the road;
  - find multi-purpose items (like a single charger that will charge multiple devices)
Audit your stuff
- If you can’t decide what to leave behind and what to keep, audit your bag at the end of each trip. What things did you ignore, what things did you use? Are there things you can drop from your bag for your next trip? If you’re not sure, leave it behind and see how much you miss it.
- If you are a GTD follower, you could weave this into part of your inbox processing at the end of a trip – don’t just empty your inbox -- empty your bag, too.

These are just some ideas to help you lose some weight really quickly and make it easier on your back. Got strategies of your own? I’d love to hear them.

Sharpen your saw with THINKBook

2012-04-28T07:16:29Z

A while back, I bought a THINKBook, which was developed by my old friend Rajesh Setty. The problem? I got busy and forgot I had it, so I just got around to using it a few weeks ago. I am very impressed with this unassuming little notebook.

What the heck is a THINKBook?

In simple terms, a THINKBook is a hard-bound red notebook, about the size of a Moleskine notebook. But it's way more than that; sure, it has ruled paged you can use for writing, but it is more than just a general purpose notebook.. This is a thinking person's journal, for challenging your thinking.

The thinking challenges are framed by "prompters" on various topics interspersed throughout the THINKBook (see the example on the right). There are a bunch of topics relevant to both business and personal introspection, and I like them very much. Full disclosure, I didn't think I'd like them at first, but I surrendered to the process, tried a couple and found that they were very useful.

The structure of the prompter exercises in the book really pushes you to think at a fairly deep level, and definitely promotes "out of the box thinking." It feels very soothing to follow this process and begin writing journal entries in the THINKBook - this is all about crystallizing your thoughts and devoting some time for your own improvement. That's something a lot us us don't take time out to do, and I think we'd all be better off with some periodic deep thinking.

Spread the Thinking

I really like one of the suggestions from the THINKBook web site, which is to use the THINKBook as a personal and professional gift. I particularly like the thought of giving it as a business gift, and I just may try that to see how people react.

I like the framing of the "why" behind the THINKBook, according to Rajesh:

THINKBook makes it easy to pull your people’s own best advice out of them. It can be used to super-charge group brainstorming sessions or as a trusted advisor to help you improve the brilliant idea keeping you awake at 3am.

Pretty cool, don't you think?

If you could use some time working on your own creativity and mental health, I encourage you to grab a THINKBook and give the process a chance. And, if you like it why not give one as a gift to someone you like (a new one, not your old used one)?

Get things done on the Mac and/or without Outlook

2012-04-21T01:43:04Z

The dark side of the Mac: personal productivity systems

As some of you may know from following my escapades on this blog, I have been a big proponent of the Getting Things Done (GTD) and Mastering Your Now (MYN) as personal productivity systems. At one point, I was pretty good - and very productive - using these systems. A couple of years ago, however, I switched to the Mac and I lost a lot of momentum.

You see, I used to use Outlook as my "home base" for processing my inbox and managing tasks, and I relied heavily on ClearContext for managing my mail volume. On the Mac, Entourage, OS X Mail, and Outlook don't even come close to the power of Outlook on Windows. To make matters worse, Outlook on the Mac is not extensible so there is no way to do anything like ClearContext on the Mac.

I tried OmniFocus and a number of other tools, but never could find one that became a habit, so they all fell by the wayside (usually after a couple of days).

I found a personal productivity system I like on the Mac!

I have good news - I've found a personal productivity approach that is a) familiar, b) works well on the Mac, c) has a mobile approach that works. This one comes from my old friend Michael Linenberger (creator of the Mastering Your Now (MYN) system - that's him in the video freeze frame). A few weeks ago, I found out Michael had created an online offering for Master Your Now ToodleDo Video Training. He has done a lot of work to apply his MYN system to a pretty powerful cloud-based task management service called "ToodleDo."

I bought Michael's video course (as I write this, the price is discounted - not sure how long that will last), and I have been using ToodleDo and MYN as my new home base for tasks. I really like the system. Not only does it work extremely well on the Mac and my iPhone, I find that I actually check in on my tasks regularly

It fits well with inbox processing, as I can send emails to ToodleDo to automatically add them as tasks on my list. There are also some intuitive "commands" you can add to your subject line to adjust the priority, start date, and more on the task right from your email (I'm using OS X Mail).

This MYN/ToodleDo system will work with pretty much any mail system on pretty much any OS - a big plus in my book

ToodleDo customized for MYN

I'd used ToodleDo in the past, but it didn't flow well for me. Now, Michael Linenberger has collaborated with ToodleDo and has implemented a quick setup method that optimized the settings to support MYN. That made a huge difference by reducing clutter in the UI and making it simple for me to understand and use. There are also instructions in the course on how to configure your mobile client to work in this new way with ToodleDo (the mobile instructions are manual, but short and easy to follow).

With this setup in place, all your sorting, columns, default values, and so forth are set up as they need to be to make MYN easy with ToodleDo.

Why do I like MYN?

MYN is very similar to GTD, but I find it to be a bit more prescriptive - just enough to make it work better for me. The philosophy with GTD is "Do what you need to do for the system to work for you" which doesn't alway work as well for a distraction-prone guy like me. GTD also relies heavily on "Contexts" to drive what you do - do the thing that matches the place you are. I had a tough time with contexts, and never felt effective in that aspect of GTD.

In contrast, MYN is more of a "Do it this way" kind of system, which is what I need when it comes to time management.

For example, MYN cares a lot about when you want to do things, and less about where you want to do them. The diagram on the right illustrates what I think of as the "MYN Zones" for when you want to get things done. The Critical Now tasks are ones that must be done today (they are the "If I don't' get these done I've gotta stay late" tasks). The Opportunity Now tasks are ones you'd like to get done within the next 10 days. The Over the Horizon tasks are analogous to the "Someday Maybe" list in GTD - you want to get them done someday, but if they don't get done it's not the end of the world.

Limits are good

Within these "MYN Zones" it gets even more structured - you should have no more than 5 Critical Now tasks on any given day, and no more than 20 Opportunity Now tasks. Everything else should be in the Over the Horizon bucket, which can be as big as you want it to be.

I find this budgeting method to be a great forcing function as a safety valve against over-committing (that's a big problem I tend to have).

Summary

I'm just scratching the surface here, but my summary is this:

After years of frustration I've found a personal productivity scheme on the Mac that I can actually use and stick with.
I am a big fan of Michael Linenberger's Master Your Now ToodleDo Video Training.
Using ToodleDo with the Master Your Now ToodleDo Video Training is really powerful.
This method will work very well for those of us not using Outlook, and/or not using Windows.
The ability to use this consistently on my desktop, from a web browser, and on my iPhone is very powerful.

Would love your feedback and war stories regarding productivity on the Mac - particularly if you're a distractible type like I am.

Run your own private cloud at home

2012-04-12T19:07:07Z

I've been looking for an easy way to access some of my home files (music, pictures, some of my software, etc.) remotely, as well as share large files with other people. I recently found a great, cost-effective way to do this: The "Tonido Plug 2" personal cloud device.

The Tonido Plug 2 is a small device that you can plug into your broadband router to share data. The data is shared from a local hard drive, which you can either attach via a USB on the Tonido Plug; or from an internal 2.5" hard drive which you can insert into the Tonido Plug 2's built-in hard drive bay. I opted for the internal drive, as I had an extra 500Gb drive that I could use. I've been using this device for about a month, and really like it.

The device includes a straight-forward set of configuration instructions, in which you create a "Tonido ID" and establish an account which creates a front-end that enables you to access your files and configure sharing permissions & access controls. The configuration process also handles making your device accessible outside your firewall so you can get to your data from any internet connection.

It's hard to tell how big this is from the picture in this post, but it is pretty small. It comes with two power options: one is a cord, so you can lay it on a table or on the floor and plug it into your outlet; the second is a power plug that attaches directly to the Tonido Plug 2, so you can just plug it directly into the outlet and the device just hangs there.

Easy access to my stuff

To get to my files, I have quite a few options:

Access my personal cloud "portal" from any web browser
Access my files from my iPhone with a Tonido App (there are native apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Blackberry or Windows 7 mobile)
Mount my cloud drive as a folder on my computer (I use a Mac so I open it via WebDAV, on Windows there is an app to mount it as a folder)
Stream data to DLNA devices (I don't have one yet, but it supports XBox360, Sony PS3, etc.)

There are also a number of built-in "apps" that run on the Tonido Plug 2 itself (it has its own embedded OS). For example, there is a file sync app you can use to keep files in sync between your personal cloud and one or more computers. To find out more about the device or the apps, check out the Tonido site.

Share stuff

I can now use my personal cloud drive to share files with other computers in my house, access files from other computers, and to share files with other people without worrying about file size limitations of email. For example, I just shared a PDF of one of my previous blog posts and you can download it by clicking on this link.

You can set security controls around your files or folders, which will enable you to restrict who can access specific items, as well as set up passwords for greater control. It took less than an hour of experimentation to get the hang of the interface, and I really like this piece of gear.

Oh - and I got this for $119, not including the internal hard drive. Not bad. If you want your own cloud service, within your own control, I think you'll love the Tonido Plug 2.

"Brand Real" - does your brand pass the test?

2012-04-08T22:12:07Z

Laurence Vincent's book, "Brand Real," is all about brands and brand loyalty. At first, I was wondering how much of it would apply to me - after all, I'm more of a technical guy, and I'm not in charge of a big brand. I found that there were actually a lot of relevant take-aways from this book that I could apply in my daily life.

"Brand Real" not only helped me understand what it takes to build a good brand, it also helped me think differently about some of the brands I have a fondness for (and some that I don't), in that it has a deep discussion about why leading brands create loyalty within its customer base. In essence, this book spends a lot of time on analyzing brands that have become "sticky" based on what they do and not just whether they have a cool name or an exciting logo.

At its core, this book's discussion of "brand" reminds me of the maxim, "You become know for that which you consistently do."

Lots of case studies

I love learning by examples and through story-telling, so I was pleased to see that this book has a lot of real-world examples to illustrate some of its concepts. These stories range from the personal, such as a discussion between the author and his son illustrating how superficially we think of the notion of a "brand;" and corporate-oriented stories, such as how The Gap triggered a huge backlash amongst its customers when it tried to change its logo.

Other examples feature Apple, Starbucks, and other household names, as well as case studies about lesser-known (but perhaps even more informative) organizations like Washington Federal.

Thinking of brands as living things

One thing that stuck with me in this book was discussed in a chapter called, "Expressing the Promise." The author describes how researchers Robert McRae and Paul T. Costa, Jr. found that all people could be measured based on the degree to which they possessed 5 key characteristics:

Neuroticism
Extroversion
Openness
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness

Likewise, Vincent posits that brands can be measured along 5 similar axes - think of them as the "personality of the brand":

Sincerity
Excitement
Competence
Sophistication
Ruggedness

These attributes play a key role in measuring, defining, and even redefining your brand. In "Brand Real," Vincent discusses how to use these to develop your messaging strategy, as well as how to "test" your messages to determine whether they are congruent with how your brand behaves. Then, you can use these anchors to map what you say, what your brand does, and who you're talking to (your audience or customers) to make sure things all hang together in a credible way.

The third rail of brand

In much the same way that the third rail on a subway system provides the power that enables the train to move, Vincent talks about what it takes to connect your brand to the heart - the emotional side - of you customers, which is really the key in making a brand that customers feel passionate about (and loyal to). These are the brands that go beyond functional products and capabilities, and move into something that makes embeds itself in the lives of its customers to create strong, emotional loyalty. I think of brands like Apple, Nike, and Coca Cola when I think of this kind of brand.

I'm just touching the surface of the depth of this book, as it relates to brand. I think all of the concepts apply to anyone involved in branding and company reputation, but I was surprised at how many of the concepts can apply to our personal brands. I can see how many of these concepts could be used to improve your perceived value at work, home, organizations in which you're involved, etc.

So, if you have any interest in branding and reputation management, check out "Brand Real" -- it is well worth your time.

[Updated] Beeminder - put your money where your mouth is

2012-03-31T18:08:12Z

How many times have you said you were going to do something, then seen your commitment evaporate? I know it's happened to me. In the past, I've written about how to overcome procrastination, how to turn to coaches and other 3rd parties to help keep you on task, etc. But what about online tools to help keep you on track?

Recently, I was contacted by the creators of an interesting productivity service called Beeminder and I was intrigued enough to give it a try. Beeminder is an innovative approach to help you commit to specific goals, and stay focused on them. What’s the secret sauce? If you don’t do what you said you’d do, it will cost you money. In other words, it creates accountability by getting you to put your money where your mouth is.

The premise is pretty simple:

You decide on a goal and commit to it.
You decide on a dollar amount as a "penalty" you'll pay if you don't meet your commitments.
You agree to Beeminder's "contract" (including an "I promise not to weasel" clause) and commit to your penalty amount. Right now, looks like $5 is your only choice - I suspect that will change at some point.
You use Beeminder to track your progress.

Beeminder tracks daily progress against your goals to help you monitor whether you are on track or not. You can report progress via email, text message, or directly on the site. You also receive daily email updates from Beeminder to let you know whether you're on track or not.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

In tracking progress against your goal, Beeminder has a very good visual helper that I like a lot. They call it the "Yellow Brick Road" and it is the sweet spot of progress against your goal - here is a sample of my graph (at right). If you want a better illustration, check out the example from the Beeminder site.

In my case, my commitment is to blog 4 times per month (I know some of you have noticed how occasional my blogging has become, and I want to change that). I also have my own internal guidelines about what it means to "blog" 4 times a month - for example, I'm talking about original content (not reposts), and the posts need to be long enough (I don't have a hard guideline on post length - but I know it when I see it).

I've established daily milestones toward a weekly blog post, and my goal is to stay within the bounds of the yellow line (my Yellow Brick Road) or above it, which means I'm ahead of my goal. If it falls below the yellow line, I have a short amount of time to correct it, or I pay my penalty (in this case $5) to reset my goal.

The effect is cumulative, too - the first time you miss your goal, it costs what you committed originally, but each time you fall off the path, the price goes up - very motivating. Here is the formula for increases, per the Beeminder site:

What exactly is the exponential fee schedule for subsequent derailments?

Going off your yellow brick road the first time costs nothing, the second time (if you chose to unfreeze after the first attempt) it costs $5, the third time it costs $10, then $30, $90, $270, $810, etc. In general, the cost of going off the road the ith time is:

You can chicken out at any time, of course. Which leads me to the next point...

It's free if you stay awesome

One cool thing about Beeminder is that it will cost you nothing if you meet your commitments - you only pay when you fail to do what you said you'd do, at which point you have to pay to reset/restart your goal. I think this approach is pretty cool - they provide a great tool to help you track your progress, and it stays free if you adhere to your plan. Mess up, and you pay the site's owners - yep, they reap the rewards if I don't do what I committed to, which is a fascinating business model.

A lot of thought has gone into this approach, from what I can tell - there is a good overview about Beeminder on the site that goes into a lot more detail, and I suggest you read it if you're considering using Beeminder.

On Goals and tracking

You can pick just about any general goal, but I encourage you to think about what daily progress looks like, as Beeminder expects you to check in daily. They provide a bit of guidance on this on the site, as well as some specific guidance if you want to use Beeminder to track weight loss. More on that, plus general information about the approach and "akrasia" are detailed on the Beeminder blog, in the post "The Magical Widening Yellow Brick Road."

Update: I was having trouble figuring out how to effectively track my goal, which has a weekly "deliverable" rather than a daily cadence. I just spoke with one of the Beeminder founders and he pointed me at a great blog post on that very topic: Chunky Time! - it's a must-read if you have a "chunky" kind of goal.

Give it a try

If you need a little help overcoming procrastination, or some extra motivation to keep you focused on your goals, I recommend taking a look at Beeminder. I think it provides an interesting, innovative, and motivating method to help you get more done. You'll know whether I succeed or not - it will be measured in blog posts per month.

If you try Beeminder, let me know how you fare!

How "IFTTT" can make you seem smarter

2012-03-09T01:40:06Z

Recently, I heard about a service called "If This Then That" or "IFTTT" while listening to the Mac Power Users podcast. IFTTT is a free automation service that can do a lot of things for you online, automatically.

On their site, there are a bunch of building blocks to help you create automated actions, along with a whole collection of "recipes" other people have created that you can just use for your own purposes. Some examples of recipes:

When Facebook profile picture changes, update Twitter profile picture
If its raining tommorow, send me an email!
Thanking people in Twitter when they mention you or RT (note: this is a bit of overkill - I tried it for a few hours - it was too much)
star ★ a Gmail, send it to Evernote

And there are a whole lot more. I am still an IFTTT novice, but I have stuck with one recipe I really like:

Since I've started using this recipe, every morning I get an email that tells me 10 current events or relevant news stories that I can use to seem "up" on current events. The stories tend to be a bit technology biased, but that is a perfect fit for me. For example, the one I got this morning was:

Of course, this information is available on a "Business Insider" web page, but I love having it waiting there piping hot in my inbox every morning so I don't have to remember to go to the Business Insider site to catch up on things.

As I mention, I'm a newbie with this so I'm just scratching the surface, but this particular automation "recipe" has made me hungry for more. If you find a recipe you really like, please drop me a line and let me know about it.

Seeing the Big Picture

2012-02-23T02:06:48Z

Last week, I got a copy of Kevin Cope's new book, "Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company." This is a great primer on how to figure out the real way your business works - I'm talking about money and profitability.

I wish I'd had this book a year ago. I work for a company that was purchased by a private equity firm last year, and I've had to learn a lot of new things about the financial aspects of business, as they were thrown at me. A lot of what I learned e hard way is presented very clearly in this book - along with some additional information I'm sure I'll need in the near future. Do yourself a favor and learn about it before you need to apply it.

You see, a lot of us know the basics - "A business should bring in more than it costs to run the business." But there is a lot more beyond that to help us use real data to not only run our businesses, but improve them and make them sustainable and profitable in the long term.

Knowing the key elements

Kevin Cope does a great job of explaining aspects of the business in a very understandable way, whether you've got a financial background or not. The sections include:

Cash
Profit
Assets
Growth
People

Each of them is detailed in a way that unfolds very well - each section builds on the last, so you can better understand the relationships between these key elements of a business. He also does a great job of linking them so you can understand the interplay between these 5 elements.

Furthermore, Cope explains how to use and interpret some of the "artifacts" you'll encounter as you dig into the financials of a business, including how to read a balance sheet, how to interpret an income statement, and how to get real meaning out of financial reports.

One of the concepts I've had to learn about through hard knocks is EBITDA (Earnings Before Income Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization) which is a key indicator tracked by the private equity firm that owns my company. Cope explains this very succinctly in the book and relates it to the 5 elements, above.

Not just for managers

One of the things I love about this book is how relevant it is for anyone who wants to add value to the business they are involved in. This will add a lot of value for managers, but it will also help any individual contributor better understand how they can contribute to making the business more effective. In other words, if you want to figure out how and where you can add value to your company's success, this is a great book for you.

Cope also talks a lot about how you can use all of this information to make better decisions about your business - such as how you can make pod decisions about when to save earnings, when to reinvest them in the business, how to look after both short-term and long-term horizons for your business.

If you want to brush up on your financial acumen and learn some techniques to help you add more value to your business, grab a copy of "Seeing the Big Picture" - it's like a crash course MBA.

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 life? 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.