Take Time for a Little “Catch Up” Learning

high touch:
Dealing with a human being instead of a computer screen or voice response system. The term was coined in the early 1980s by John Naisbitt in his best-selling book “Megatrends.” Naisbitt pointed out the fallacy of automating every business transaction without human interaction at some point. There is no substitute for “the personal touch.” Contrast with high tech.
from The Free Dictionary

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Two moments in my life recently:

Moment #2 — The other day, I mentioned the challenge of High Tech, High Touch to a small group. This organization has this phrase on their wall, and on cards, as part of the explanation of their vision and mission statements.  But, as we talked, I discovered that the origins of the phrase were unknown to the group.  John Naisbitt introduced the concept in Megatrends, first published in 1982, long before Netscape – in fact, before the 1984 Apple commercial.  I read Megatrends the year it come out, and I led a brief conversation about the book, and especially about the High Tech, High Touch concept, with this group…

I thought to myself, “how can they display Hi-Tech Hi-Touch so prominently, and not even know where it came from?  (Maybe the leadership team that helped shape the vision and mission statement did know the origins of the concept — but this group did not).

But, before I get too cocky at my overflow of information, my carefully developed “information bank” that I can draw from…  let me tell you about moment #1.

Here’s one version of my “current” chart – Click on image for full view

Moment #1 – A few weeks before Moment #2, I experienced the other end of this kind of conversation.  I was talking about my current “chart” that I have created, about the concerns and issues that every organization focuses on.  A former professor, now business consultant, looked at my graphic, and asked me if I had ever seen the McKinsey 7S Framework.  It turns out, no, I had never seen it, had never heard of it, and by the time I read about it I thought – how could I be so ignorant?

And here is one version of the McKinsey 7S Framework. Click on image for full view.

So….  Here’s the lesson.  If we have any great new insights, or adopt and adapt concepts that we hear, there’s a pretty good chance someone somewhere said it first, simply, clearly, long before we belatedly learned about it.

And, if we only spent a little more time in “catching up,” we might know a whole lot more that we need to know as we prepare to face today’s challenges.

This reminded me of a friend, a participant at our First Friday Book Synopsis.  He has said, more than once, about a best selling book that we presented – “I learned that years ago in my graduate studies.”  Yes, he did.  And I should have.

So, what do you know that you think is new?  Chances are, if you did a little digging, you would discover that it is not so new after all.

And, what do you not yet know that would be really helpful to know, if you only did a little “catch up learning?’

There is so much I need to learn…  What about you?

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Thinking about learning over the long haul, here’s an excerpt from the James Fallows’ profile of lifelong learner Jerry Brown, from The Atlantic:

Brown:
“The question you have to ask yourself is, if teacher accountability is really the whole key, how can it be that from Comenius”—a 17th-century European pioneer in education—“through John Dewey and Horace Mann, and going back to the Greeks, every­body missed this secret, and we figured it out just now? I’m skeptical of that—and of you, and Washington, and myself.” This was the “civilizational” outlook Nathan Gardels was referring to. Then, the practicality: “The world is so rich and diverse, and there is this technocratic imperative to impose rules, by small minds.” I realize that on the page this could look airy or pompous. In real conversation, Brown gives a convincing impression of weighing thoughts and evidence as he goes.

If You Do Not Do the Drills – You Won’t Have the Skills …(How to Speak More Clearly, and…)

“Practicing:  that is, purposefully and single-mindedly playing their instruments with the intent to get better.”
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers:  The Story of Success

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You know how it happens.  Something rolls off your tongue, and then you realize — “oh…  that really makes sense.”

Well, I was discussing the problem of “mumbling” with someone who needs to speak their words more clearly.  It’s the skill of enunciation/pronunciation.  Pronouncing every word fully – every syllable, especially every ending consonant.  So that your audience can understand you.   So, I recommended some drills.  Pretty simple, actually:  pick a favorite piece of poetry, or any other piece of writing, and mark it up, so that you read it aloud one.word.at.a.time.  Read aloud – repeat – repeat some more.  Drill, drill, drill.

And I heard myself say: “If You Do Not Do the Drills – You Won’t Have the Skills.”

It’s true for any skill development.  Do you need to type faster?  Then practice typing (with proper technique).  Do you need to hit more serves to the backhand side?  Then serve a box of tennis balls, every day, over and over again, until you can put the tennis ball where you intend it to go.

Every athlete drills, drills, and drills some more, before the game is played.

So does every first responder

And every emergency room team.

And every musician – a pianist plays a lot of scales, and practices, practices, practices – drills, drills, drills.

So to with speakers/presenters.  You have to do the drills, especially in your areas of weakness.

Remember:

If You Do Not Do the Drills – You Won’t Have the Skills.

or, to put it more positively,

If You Do the Drills, You Will Develop the Skills.

Here’s the New York Times Hardcover Business Books Best Sellers for May, 2013

Here’s the New York Times Hardcover Business Books Best Sellers for May, 2013.

In Dallas, Karl Krayer and I have presented our synopses of business books every month (two each month) since April, 1998.  From this month’s list:  I have presented Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg (at the April, 2013 gathering), Decisive, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, (at the May, 2013 gathering), To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink (at the February, 2013 gathering), and The Power of Habit, Charles DuHigg (at the June, 2012 gathering).  I will present Give and Take, Adam Grant (at the June, 2013 gathering), and Karl will present The One Thing, Gary Keller (also at the June, 2013 gathering).

If you are in the Dallas area on June 7, come join us for our synopses of The One Thing and Give and Take.  Details, and registration, here.

{And, we have presented many of the “perennial” best sellers from this month’s New York Times paperback list, including Outliers, The Tipping Point, Drive, The Checklist Manifesto, and Thinking, Fast and Slow.  These synopses are also available from our site).

We make our synopses available, with the audio of our presentations plus our comprehensive handouts, at our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.

Here’s the May, 2013 list from the New York Times.

1	LEAN IN, by Sheryl Sandberg
2	THE ONE THING, by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan.
3	GIVE AND TAKE, by Adam M. Grant
4	GREAT DEFORMATION, by David Stockman.
5	LEADERSHIFT, by Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille.
6	SALT SUGAR FAT, by Michael Moss.
7	ATHENA DOCTRINE, by John Gerzema and Michael D’Antonio.
8	THE DUCK COMMANDER FAMILY, by Willie and Korie Robertson with Mark Schlabach
9	START, by Jon Acuff
10	DECISIVE, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
11	SECRETS OF SILICON VALLEY, by Deborah Perry Piscione
12	POWER OF HABIT, by Charles Duhigg. (Random House, $28.) A Times reporter’s account of the science behind how we form, and break, habits.
13	STRENGTHS-BASED LEADERSHIP, by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie
14	TO SELL IS HUMAN, by Daniel H. Pink
15	SOUNDTRACK OF MY LIFE, by Clive Davis with Anthony DeCurtis.

Marissa Mayer (Yahoo) buys Tumblr – and/but, Take a Look at her Casual Attire

So, I just read the short piece by Matthew Iglesias about the Yahoo purchase of Tumblr:  Yahoo Buys Tumblr, Promises Continued Operational Independence Under David Karp’s Leadership.  Concise, makes sense.  Here are the two key sentences:

You’re going to hear a lot about Marissa Mayer trying to make Yahoo cool again and no doubt that plays some role in her mind. But the basics here are that Yahoo is a company that has a lot of cash on hand but needs growth, and Tumblr has a lot of web traffic but needs some cash. It’s a nice coincidence of wants and needs.

But, I was really struck by the accompanying picture.  Take a look:

MILWAUKEE, WI – MAY 12: Ryan Lewis, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and Macklemore attend Yahoo! On The Road at Turner Hall on May 12, 2013 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Photo by Timothy Hiatt/Getty Images

A few years ago, I read a most terrific essay by Tom Wolfe in his collection Hooking Up:  Two Young Men Who Went West.  (profiles of Robert Noyce and William Shockley).  One reviewer wrote this about this essay:

Wolfe’s essay “Two Young Men Who Went West,” the finest short history of the early Silicon Valley ever written…

I thought of the essay as I looked at the photo.  From Wolfe (sorry – no link, this is typed from my physical copy):

There were no rules of dress at all, except for some unwritten ones.  Dress should be modest, modest in the social as well as the moral sense.  At Fairchild there were no hard-worsted double-breasted pinstripe suits and shepherd’s-check neckties.  Sharp, elegant, fashionable, or alluring dress was a social blunder.  Shabbiness was not a sin.  Ostentation was. 

So now, here is Marissa Mayer near the moment of one of her most visible decisions, dressing “down.”  (Yes, I am aware that Marissa Mayer frequently dresses “up.” (See this article:  Is Marissa Mayer The New Face Of Workplace Fashion? And this one:  These Are Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s Favorite Designer Labels).  But in this photo, which she surely know would make the rounds, she dresses notably not “up.”

What does this mean?  I’m not sure.  Maybe simply this – the only thing that matters is product.  And, in this case, finding the cash to keep going, and, on the other hand, finding/attracting the eyeballs to keep bringing in more cash.

And, maybe simply this – you always dress for the audience in front of your face.

Some of My Best Friends are Black by Tanner Colby — Here are my 11 Observations

We all know that advertising is a big con to get us to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need. It works on us anyway. Ads work because they’re aspirational. They tap into some unsatisfied desire and then sell you the solution for it. Buy this product, take it home, and you’ll be safer, happier, and more attractive. And therein lay the root of the industry’s problem with race, both in the office and on the airwaves. If advertising is aspirational, who in the 1950s aspired to be black?
Tanner Colby — Some of My Best Friends Are Black:  The Strange Story of Integration in America

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I have just finished reading Tanner Colby’s Some of My Best Friends Are Black.  I have read many books on race relations and the history of the “civil rights” struggle.  And, I present my synopses of these books at the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare.  I am presenting my synopsis of this terrific book today (May 16, 2013).

Here’s my impression:  this is my new “this is the book to read” book  on race relations in America.  It is not quite history, though there is plenty of history.  It is not academic, though it is filled with facts and details.  It is a flowing narrative that is engaging, and painful, and yet ends with some hope.  (Tanner Colby is a terrific storyteller!)  Mr. Colby did an exceptional job capturing the human element of this long-term struggle.  Consider this, from the book:

“Integration was devastating for that first generation of black children…”
“In black schools, they’d had teachers that cared. Now white teachers had no idea what they were dealing with, and the black kids were just passing through, unattached. No nurturing.”

The book is told in four separate, substantive narratives:

#1 — the story of Vestavia (outside Birmingham), with details about busing, integration, and the impact of these practices on neighborhoods.
#2 – the account of the Kansas City real estate genius, who also happened to be the real father of “Racial Covenants,” – J. C. Nichols (who, by the way, provided the model for Hugh Prather’s vision of Highland Park, here in the Dallas area – as he did for many other developments across the country).
#3 – the difficulty black people have had in making it in advertising.
#4 – the noble, and now somewhat successful attempt, to achieve genuine black-white equality in church, as revealed in the story of one congregation’s attempt.

Mr. Tanner is a witty, funny writer – dropping in humor, and unexpected jewels, in the midst of an overwhelming amount of pain and ugliness.  His first two books (which I have not read) are on John Belushi and Chris Farley.  So, this was an “unexpected” next project.  He wrote:

I wanted to write a book about why I didn’t know any black people. I wanted to skip from dead, fat comedians to the history of racial integration in America.

Here are 11 observations from my reading of the book, which I include in my handout for my synopsis:

1)  The busing mandate — in order to facilitate integration — led to:  the closing of good black schools (some, better schools than some white schools kept open); the (mass) movement into private schools…
2)  Though the students ultimately had to be “in the classroom,” that did not mean they would be on the volleyball team or the debate team or the cheerleading squad.
3)  The (“white”) textbooks in the south made no mention of the Civil Rights movement…
4)  The black teachers and principles basically lost their jobs (or, in some cases, became janitors)…
5)  The practice of “nullification” has been alive and well all along.  In other words, federal laws were not followed.  They were ignored, skirted, over and over and over and over again…
6)  And, nullification was only part of it.  To get the laws passed, the laws were always watered down to get “something” passed…
7)  And, well intentioned laws had very counterproductive consequences.
8)  A brief legal history:
• Segregation
• Racial Covenants — Whites only – (first, individual deed; then, entire developments; then, “automatically renewed every twenty five years…”)
9)  Hope:  At a recent Vestavia basketball game, the black parents sit in one section, the white parents in another.  No interaction.  But!, their kids sit together…
     • Down in the student section, all the kids, black and white, are sitting with one another, laughing, fist-bumping, and generally having a blast.
            • Give partial (make that plenty of!) credit to the new white principal who banned the Confederate Flag
10)  Redlining may have been worse than segregation…  Redlining may have been the worst “tool” of racism of them all.
11)  Here’s a question for you – can you get pizza delivered to your house?

Do yourself a favor – read this book.  You will learn about real estate, the value of planned developments, a pretty fair amount about advertising – and, in the midst of it all, plenty of the story of race relations over the last 100 years, or so.

It’s Possible that You Might Need to Get More Stuff Done

When a culture adopts “What’s the next action?” as a standard operating query, there’s an automatic increase in energy, productivity, clarity, and focus. 
David Allen, Getting Things Done:  The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

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(call this a rather free-flowing thought exercise)…

Every person has just so much time in a day.  In fact, every person has exactly the same amount of time in each day.

The difference between those who succeed, and those who don’t, involves what they do with that time.

So…  what do you do with your time?

Who you see, who you talk to, what you fill your mind with, then what you let out of your mouth, or onto the keyboard…  call it:

Input and Output

This is what matters.

Here’s what I know.  The more you let moments slip by unused, the more you let moments slip by unproductively used, the more you let moments slip by in which you were busy, but busy not doing the “right” task (the task you needed to do, intended to do, at that moment), the more difficult you have made your challenge.

Working with intense focus – on whatever task is in front of you,… this really matters.
Planning well enough to keep the right task in front of you in every given moment,… this really matters.
Finishing the task in front of you,… this really matters.
Getting right to the next task that should be in front of you,… this really matters.
And starting every next task by getting right to the task, right away, “straitway/straitaway,”… this really matters.

One day, I had lunch with a friend in his office.  He is a top notch, scheduled to the minute, periodontist.   I sat in his office, waiting for him.  Lined up outside were three of his assistants.  They each had a file folder open, and a question ready.  He walks up, and says to the first assistant – “go.”  She asks a question, he answers.  Then he repeated this process to the 2^nd, and the 3rd assistants.  I commented on the rapidity of the exchanges.  He said,  “I tell them good morning at the beginning of the day, good bye at the end – and the rest of the time, it is task after task. I have surgeries to perform, consultations to give…  I do not have a minute to waste.” 

Not a minute to waste.  Not in what you do.  Not in what you think.  Not with what you read.

Plan your moments.

Get to the task.

Stay focused.

As close as I can tell, this is not optional for the person intent on getting more stuff done.

What You Will Find on 15minutebusinessbooks.com? – A Tool to Help You Learn from Recent, Useful Business Books

I made a short video (just under 5 minutes) to introduce our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.  Not studio quality, but a good quick look at what we have available on our companion site.  Take a look.

And, check out our site.  Click here to go to 15minutebusinessbooks.com.  

Will Men Be Left Behind in this New Lean In World?

I’ve got a growing list of articles saved under my Sheryl Sandberg bookmark.  Prompted by her book Lean In, and her movement to help women lean in at work, and everywhere else, it is beginning to feel like a movement with some real potential.

Today, on The Daily Beast, we find this article:  Millennial Males’ ‘Lean In’ Ambivalence:  There’s now a host of ambitious terminology for women in the workplace—and young guys are feeling left out of the girls’ club, by Peggy Drexler.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The lexicon of women and work is crowded with terms like “queen bee,” “glass ceiling,” “burnout,” “have it all,” “mommy track,” “on ramps,” and—now—“lean in.” Name one for young men.

There are some indications that the adjustment isn’t as smooth as the assumptions of an evolved male might indicate. Pew research finds that young women are, for the first time, surpassing young men in career ambition: 67 percent of women put career success high on their list of life’s goals, versus 60 percent for males. It’s a statistically significant difference, and an even more significant shift from decades past—when the majority of women were just happy to be in the game.

And this important point:

Roughly 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies have organized and funded women’s-affinity groups. The number of men’s-affinity groups are a handful and largely informal.

So, the organizing energy is on the side of the Lean In Women at the moment.  But if the question is “Will men be left behind?,” I’m not sure there’s much danger of that anytime soon.  Over the long haul? – That may be a different matter.

I speak to a lot of organizations.  And, at least in my circles of exposure, men are still pretty much at the top of the pyramid.  And, the next group of men are just “expecting” to keep moving on up.  It has been, for so very long, the “given” about the work place.  The men are the ones who will get the next slots near, and at, the top.  And it is that fact that prompted the single best career advice line in Sheryl Sandberg’s book:

It’s a cliché, but opportunities are rarely offered; they’re seized. What I noticed over the years was that for the most part, the men reached for opportunities much more quickly than the women.

Let me put it this way:  women need the new Lean In groups and discussions and meetings and movement to help them, because they are starting way behind. And though they have made great progress, the very top spots, in disproportionate numbers, are still filled, and almost seem to be reserved for, the men.

Men don’t have to do much of anything — at the moment.  But, maybe, if the Lean In movement endures, the men might have to create their own movement to stay even.  And if they wait until the women gain their hoped for success, it might be too late.

And, in case you are wondering, here is my answer to what things should look like.  It is right out of Sandberg’s book:

The promise of equality is not the same as true equality. 
A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.
Conditions for all women will improve when there are more women in leadership roles giving strong and powerful voice to their needs and concerns.

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I am presenting my synopsis of Lean In a number of times to gatherings within local organizations.  It is available, with comprehensive handout and the audio of my presentation from our First Friday Book Synopsis, at our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.

 

Our Wonderful (and at times Exhausting) Custom Nation

As we get deeper into the 2010s, the most successful companies in every industry in the United States – from food to fashion – are ditching mass production in favor of customization…
America is becoming a nation of customizers.  And the one new rule for successful businesses across the country is simple:  Customize for your clients.
Anthony Flynn, Emily Flynn Vencat – Custom Nation:  Why Customization is the Future of Business and How to Profit from It

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As I dipped into the book Custom Nation, I sort of just stopped to think about all the ways this has become a way of life.

If you are old enough, you remember the nights when all of America seemed to watch the same television shows.  There was Ed Sullivan and Bonanza night; there was All in the Family night; and later, there was Columbo night.  (I miss Columbo).

Not anymore.  I now watch my TV shows when I want to.  They are either recorded with my DVR, or I click on the magic box and watch Netflix.  (I am currently half-way through the first season of House of Cards.  Yes, I am hooked!).

There are signs of this custom-created living everywhere.  My wife and I both have iPhones.  But she checks hers differently than I do — and, in fact, they are different “devices.”  I have, and use, different apps than she does.  And if you have your own iPhone, I can assure you that you have different apps than your family members, your colleagues.

At restaurants, people order their food “their way” in increasing number.  Custom Nation states that 25% of orders are not according to the menu, but rather “personalized by customers.”  From the book:

In fact, in the Starbucks era, the static menu hanging behind the espresso machines at most coffee shops seems more decorative than informative – retro even.  

We design it ourselves, use it the way we want to, and this “trend” is only going to accelerate.

Here’s a thought exercise to try.  We know that 3D printers are arriving in our office supply stores this fall.  At first, prices  will keep them out of reach for many, but still lower than we could have imagined just a short while back.  And, those prices will go down rapidly – that is practically a certainty.  The number of “designers” for “print-it-yourself” products and items will probably multiply as fast as app designers have.  The thought experiment:  how will the mass use of 3D printers change the way we function?  Brainstorm a list.  I suspect “we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

So, what are the implications?

As consumers, it is obvious – we will choose more often.  And, as wonderful as this is, it can also be borderline exhausting.  The more choices we have to make, the more time we invest in such choices.  A few weeks ago, I ordered my wife a new coffee maker.  (She drinks coffee – I stick to Dr Pepper products).  She had one simple request – “no bells and whistles.”  And she wanted an on-off switch.  No digital programming, no digital scheduling.  Just an on-off switch.  In the old days, that ‘s what all coffee makers had.  Not anymore! we learned.  (I did find two, and only two – that fit her request.  But there were so many more choices…)

On the other hand, the plethora of choices is terrific.  I really can order things my way, nearly everywhere, nearly every time.  And that does make me happier.

As product or service providers, the challenge is especially clear.  The more that we expect, or at times demand, that a customer purchase what we offer the way we offer it, the more quickly we will lose that customer to a competitor ready to “make it/do it their way.”  Increasingly, we have to learn to listen to the customer – each individual customer — adapt very quickly, and customize, customize, customize.

Susan Cain on the Gladwell-ification of Science Writing

Susan Cain writing in her “office”

The Daily Beast has a wonderful series in which they ask successful and influential writers, in a terrific interview format, to reflect on:  How I Write.  The latest author featured is Susan Cain, author of Quiet.  The entire article, Susan Cain: How I Write, is worth reading, but I especially like this section:

What are your thoughts on the Malcolm Gladwell-ification of science writing?


I love Gladwell’s books, and the genre he created, and am annoyed by how fashionable it’s become to criticize him for being slick and not a “real” intellectual. I think that writers like Gladwell perform a service precisely because they’re not academics. They’re not too close to the research, so it’s easier for them to appreciate how fascinating it is.

When I started researching Quiet, I found so much amazing stuff that’s second nature to personality psychologists but utterly unknown to laypeople. (Did you know that introverts, who are more sensitive to stimuli than extroverts, will salivate more if you pour lemon juice on their tongues?) Academics, who’ve been studying this stuff since graduate school, can’t always see how remarkable it is. In fact, the more immersed I became in my subject, the more it started to seem like second nature to me, too. I had to go back and remember how awestruck I felt when I encountered it for the first time.

I do think there’s a tendency in the last five or 10 years for writers to use neuroscience in a reductive way, as if that’s the only or best way to understand human nature. And there’s a temptation to act as if we know more about the brain than we really do. But people are already starting to self-correct on this. So I think we’ll be OK.

That is an elegant and thorough way to say this:  when there is important information, or an important idea, someone has to communicate it clearly, simply, making it genuinely accessible to the “rest of us.”  Frequently, the absolutely necessary academic researchers are either too close to the details, or maybe simply not gifted as clear simple writers.

I’m a lot of years removed from a daily reading of academic journals, and probably never did study any subject as thoroughly as those who would seek to know the impact of lemon juice on the tongue of an introvert contrasted with that of the extrovert.  But Gladwell provides the model, according to Ms. Cain, for how to translate such specific findings into understandable, accessible, narratives. And I would add that her own book, Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking does a very good job at carrying on in the Gladwell tradition.

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I have presented a synopsis of Quiet at the First Friday Book Synopsis, as well as three of Malcolm Gladwell’s books:  The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers.  These are available, with handouts + the audio of my presentations, at our companion site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.