J. T. Pedersen » Reading List

What I’ve Read Lately: Open Leadership

JT — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 23:34:45 +0000

“Open Leadership”
by: Charlene Li
ISBN: 978-0-470-59726-2

Every once in a while you come across a new book that just knocks the ball out of the park. And, so it is with Charlene Li’s Open Leadership. As an active proponent of social media I’ve read a number of books on the topic. Yet Open Leadership is the first that has a presented a practical, pragmatic, and far-reaching discussion about how to integrate it into the fabric of existing companies. Not only how, but why, and why now!

Someone looking to do a ‘power-reading’ of the book might tend to dismiss it as a social media ‘how-to’ manual after the first couple chapters. There’s much more to it though.

Social media is the book’s consistent thread and is pervasive throughout. Yet it’s not about social media itself. Social media is the contemporary reference to a broad sea change involving how we communicate. This communication has made it as easy for the CEO to interact directly with customers as it is for the individual employee, and that employee with the CEO his or herself. When it seems everyone can communicate with everyone else, how can you effectively lead anything? This is the crux of Open Leadership.

In a world where communication drives ever higher levels of transparency, mistakes are on a public plateau, and leaders are encouraged to let go. Things move too quick for one, or even a select few, to respond quickly enough. Imagine, developing a way to trust everyone in the organization to do what is right.

Lest this seem to utopian, Charlene provides a series of guidelines for how to introduce more openness to an organization. For cases where the all-important ROI must be addressed, she provides some reasonable mechanisms for doing so.

At the same time, she provides structure for how to control, provide guidance for, increased openness. Senior managers may be afraid to let everyone ‘go wild.’ To this, she provides the notion of sandbox covenants. Provide employees, managers, even customers, guidance with how to interact…what the rules of the road are.

Once she completed the ‘essence’ of how to constructively introduce the openness of social media to the organization, the book seemed to get into second gear.

Open Leadership is about the need to be more collaborative, more open, more transparent, and evolving the relationships needed to make it work. One note on transparency, openness, and ‘authenticity,’ Ms. Li actively talks about what these mean. They’re not just buzzwords dropped about. Just ‘what’ does transparency mean? Do you need to be ‘open’ about ‘everything?’

Most important, the 3rd segment of the book, is primarily about relationships. Mind-sets. Traits. Trust. And how each of these need to be considered as you look to evolve your organization.

We all know (or we all should) that the world’s pace has picked up a couple notches. Everything is happening faster, more visibly, and involving more people. You can fight it (and you will lose). Or you can figure out how to thrive and take advantage of evolutions in communication, openness, and lead your organizations (regardless of your role) forward.

Toward the very end, she provides a number of good case studies, including the U.S. State Department, Dell, Proctor & Gamble, Best Buy, and the State Bank of India.

Fortunately, Charlene’s give us an excellent, constructive, guide to start working with. If you’re even remotely worried, or perhaps just curious, about how social media really can work within your space, you need to get a copy to read.

In the interest of full disclosure, the publisher sent me an advance copy for review. No other monetary consideration exists.

Possibly Related

iPad Dominance? Nah….

JT — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:42:56 +0000

Two things triggered the following post today. First, was a stop at the local mall. Second, was happening across an online article on ereaders.

This afternoon my wife and I happened by the local Apple store. It was my wife’s first iPad interaction. She’s seen, and briefly used, my Sony eReader PRS-505. She ‘gets’ the eReader. Over lunch, I was surprised when she asked me where the iPad ‘fit,’ and who it was best suited for.

Darn good question…as the sole device for someone…it’s a narrow market. I think she said it right. In her mind the iPad’s a luxury device. Most of us need a computer first, iPad later. It’s been said elsewhere, of course. But I found it very interesting coming from someone who focus is elsewhere; not worrying about ‘iPad dominance’ or ebooks and ereaders..

Eventually, I will get an iPad (or similar) device. I do a –lot—of reading, in multiple formats, from newspapers, to magazines, eBooks, whitepapers, and presentations. Being able to consume all that content, mixed with in-line video and active linking to complimentary content, has strong appeal to me.

Having spent some time with a friend’s iPad, and having consumed oodles of books/PDFs/docx on my eReader, I’m somewhat surprised. I’m not drooling over getting an iPad.

iPad’s got a problem for me: battery life. I make the following comparison: iPad|eReader and iPhone|Blackberry. The ‘i’ devices just suck power. “If” you get 10 hours real use, be happy about it—especially as their batteries age. My eReader, like my former Blackberry, isn’t sexy, but does most of what I want and—importantly—happily goes days (or over a week for the Reader) on a charge.

Cost, so thoroughly debated elsewhere, is going to continue to be a barrier to adoption. What I believe will happen, as in the cell phone market, is that devices like the iPad will redefine the high-end market, pushing more options down, lower in the market, giving more functionality to everyone at all price points. We’re no more likely to see ‘iPad only’ offerings in 2013 than we are dedicated ‘eReaders only.’

A major current impediment is coming from the market makers themselves, folks like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon, Sony’s eStore, and the like. Some of them are focused on trying to lock us in with one of ‘their’ devices and selling content only those devices can consume. Guess what: there’s a reason I stayed away from the Kindle, and it had nothing to do with the device itself.

Yes, iPad can borrow from McDonald’s signs of years past, with signs saying, “Millions and Millions Sold.” The stage lights are bright. iPad’s strutting its stuff. It is itself a great market maker for application developers selling to specific markets. Let’s not forget the world remains pretty busy off-stage too.

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door

JT — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 01:41:31 +0000

“Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door”
by: Harvey Mackay
ISBN: 978-1-59184-321-4

Yes, this is a ‘job search’ book, written by one of our nation’s (U.S.) best business authors: Harvey Mackay. And, there’s one thing in particular that sets this job search book apart from the others: Mr. Mackay’s desire to help others, to help you, is very apparent. Yes, he offers some very good suggestions for the over 14,000,000 people currently looking for work. The content alone is worth the read. But it is his desire to truly help that puts it over the top.

This ~330 page book is his latest. It took me longer to read than most business books—and it’s his own fault! Throughout the body of the book there are a number of other authors and their own books that he cites with recommendations to read. And, I did. Matter of fact, I read two other books he recommended, before coming back each time to continue where I left off in his book.

For instance, he spends time discussing the critical need for people to do research now, more than ever. With so many people vying for the same exact job you’re after, a few minutes googling a company or browsing their website is insufficient.

The solution? Formal research using all the tools, particularly internet oriented, that are available to you. He introduces his readers to Sam Richter’s Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling: Web Search Secrets. Sam’s book itself is a treasure trove of valuable information—which I’m also glad I read.

Mr. Mackay’s perspective is fairly unique in the market of job search books…at least that I’ve come across. He is actually a CEO making hiring and firing decisions. His views, and advice, are based on 40 years of staffing decisions. Unlike others than lean toward pontificating, his is real, sound, and worth paying attention to. It’s not often the boss tells you the way it is, even if only from his or her perspective.

Whether it’s recovering from the shock of having to look; preparing for interview questions; negotiating for the new position; networking; or, asking for a raise, he’s covered all the bases. And, what’s nice, many of the examples used are as recent as 2008/9.

Throughout the book, typically at the end of each chapter, there is a Mackay’s Moral. Most germane to this posting: “You’ll never pass the test without doing the homework.” Your homework: Get the book, read it, and take to heart the elements important to you.

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: Real Secret to Finding a Job?

JT — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:55:54 +0000

“The Real Secret to Finding a Job: Make Me Money or Save Me Money!”
by: Rick Gillis
ISBN: 142519138X

A friend put me in touch with Rick Gillis a few weeks ago and he sent me a copy of his book in electronic form (Thank You). The primary focus is Rick’s making the case for an updated resume format in light of contemporary, online job search tools.

Gillis outlines the concept of what he has trademarked, the ‘Pre-Resume.’ This is a one-page resume emphasizing minimal contact information, selected achievements, and only (if applicable) the most recent 20 years of work history.

The basis and justification for his Pre-Resume are laid out as he discusses online and resume filtering systems, the need for keywords, and chapter’s specific to the needs of IT professionals, entry-level, Professional Mom’s, and the like.

Laced throughout the book, Rick also emphasizes the document’s focus needs to be on what’s important to the reader it is being shared with. Remember, a resume is not about ‘you’. It is about how you. From the reader’s perspective, is is about how you can help, “make me money or save me money!”

The topics are sufficiently addressed so as to validate the concepts for the reader. The book may work best as an addendum for those who’ve already studied deeper books on the topic of long-form resume writing. If you are already reasonably well-studied in crafting a resume, you will be able to quickly review the book for salient points, and revise your own documents–for use online–appropriately.

I found sufficient merit in Rick’s suggestions that I’m making some changes and will be specifically testing the results.

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: How We Decide

JT — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:41:23 +0000

“How We Decide”
by: Jonah Lehrer
ISBN: 978-0-618-62011-1

Thinking about how we think. That’s the gist of Jonah Lehrer’s book, “How We Decide.”

I’ve read books in the past about how the brain works. What the amygdala does, what the prefrontal cortex does, and so on. They’ve all been rather clinical, dry in nature. Certainly not engaging. In surprising contrast, Lehrer has not only crafted a book on the topic of the brain and it’s constituent parts, he also puts it all in context of our daily lives.

Going all the way back to Plato’s day

, and following through Freud, there has been the expectation that man is a rational beast, beset by uncontrolled emotion. But Plato, and Freud, had it backward. Plato’s own analogy, used to put forward his way of thinking, is more correct: Our Brains are of two parts. Emotions being the wild horses pulling the chariot, with rationality being the chariotsman keeping rein on them.

Modern science advancements have given us the ability to look into the brain in real time, as humans think. When asked different questions, or different thoughts are triggered, distinctly different parts of the brain fire up.

What has been discovered is that we have a number of distinct functional components in our brains. Emotions, morality, rationality, to name a few, are all very distinct.

“If you want to understand the function of scissors, then you have to look at both blades simultaneously.”

This is exactly how Jonah approaches how we decide. Not just by looking at parts, but by how the parts work together. And, realizing the brain is an argument.

Using a popular theme from my own life, consider being a new motorcyclist. If you take it easy, consciously thinking about what you need to do, you can have a successful trip from point A to B. Basic thoughts like, do I use the front or rear brake, or together, for this next curve? Where do I put myself in the lane so as to make sure I’m seen, to be sure I have an exit route? Do I raise the kickstand and then start the engine, or the other way around? These are conscious thoughts on the rational side of your brain.

The emotional side of your brain operates on past experience, lessons learned. With more time in the saddle, the individual activities you consciously thought through before begin to transfer into the emotional side of your brain. Now, as you approach a curve, you’re no longer thinking about what you need to do—you just do it.

It turns out, that much of the thinking we do when faced with complex problems, such smoothly riding a motorcycle through some curves, are done with the emotional side of the brain. This part of the brain makes evaluations without our even being aware of it. It is why we often cannot explain why we ‘feel’ something is right. It just is.

There are times where more deliberation, more conscious thought is necessary. We use the prefrontal cortex, the rational side of the brain, to monitor our thinking, to evaluate our emotions. We would not want to trust our gut when buying a car. Our emotions are useful, we subconsciously evaluate all the myriad variables, yet we use the rational side to think through the process. Rather than get that cool convertible, we deliberate how correct the answer is. Maybe we need a SUV for towing our motorcycles:).

The brain is a finely balanced machine though. If we over-deliberate, over analyze our actions, we can begin to ‘choke’. Many of us have experienced choking at some point. It’s where we second-guess ourselves; we start thinking through previously ‘unthought’ actions. For instance, an experienced rider has a scare, and then starts thinking-through each curve afterward. The result is often scalloped-looking curves, inconsistent throttle and braking control, and if bad enough, fright and sweaty palms.

Decisions made using past experience relies on the unconscious, emotional part of the brain. We do something ‘automatically.’ Something new, for which no past experience exists, needs to be consciously deliberated, using the rational part of the brain.

How We Decide has innumerable applications for everyday life. I encourage you, whether a golfer, musician, business leader, or motorcyclist, to read the book. You might find it worthwhile to spend some time thinking, about your thinking.

Possibly Related

My Gift To You: Wisdom

JT — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:44:57 +0000

As is the tradition this time of year, we exchange gifts. Some years it is harder than others to find a gift to give, especially for you, friends, colleagues, and visitors to my blog. This year, has turned out to be easier than most.

Earlier this month, Seth Godin released a free ebook, “What Matters Now.” It is a real gem of contemporary wisdom, a collection of one-page essays by over seventy of today’s recognized big thinkers. To give you an idea, just a sampling of the contributors includes: Tom Peters, Fred Wilson, Tim O’Reilly, Elizabeth Gilbert, David Meerman Scott, Chris Anderson, and Guy Kawasaki. (Links for your convenience, I have no monetary interests.)

I’ve really enjoyed reading this compilation of fresh thought. It’s down to earth, refreshing, and thought provoking. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Merry Christmas!

ps: Thank you to Seth Godin and all of What Matters Now’s contributors.

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: Never Eat Alone

JT — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:29:26 +0000

“Never Eat Alone”
by: Keith Ferrazzi
ISBN: 0-385-51205-8

A note to my father:

Hey Dad,

I can’t recall if I bought this, you gave it to me, or what. But having finished reading it, thought I’d share some thoughts with you.

For one, the title caused me to pass it by in favor of other books for quite a while. After all, just what I needed, another ‘networking’ book, but focused on making sure you took someone to lunch every day. Short story, not sure I need to read 300 pages on the topic. Having done so now, I’m pleased to have read it–should’ve done it sooner.

Keith has written one of my favorite books on the mechanics, personal experiences of connecting with others. He openly shares his knowledge and, as important, his most embarrassing mistakes too. Some I can really relate to, others I’m glad to have sidestepped, yet others serve as good warnings into the future.

Ferrazzi’s woven perhaps the most complete tapestry of its type in a down to earth fashion that everyone can benefit from. It helped I had already come to be in line with some of his thinking–being successful is less about title, income, and position. Successful, being happy, is more about the value of relationships with the people you know, how you can help them, how you can be both mentor and mentee.

Posting a review on Amazon, I find myself wishing they provided more of a ranking system, rather than the simple Recommend Yes/No option presented. On a scale of 1-5, I’d give this a 5.

Cheers

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: Free

JT — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:28:28 +0000

“Free”
by Chris Anderson
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2290-8

A couple weeks ago at my local bookstore, I happened across Chris Anderson’s (Editor of Wired) new book, “Free.” Anderson’s book is focused on the notion that due to abundance, digital content of all types tends to gravitate toward becoming ‘free,’ or, as inexpensive as to not be worth measuring. Case in point, when was the last time you worried about how many MB or GB of data you downloaded last month? He contrasts today’s digital economics (bits and bytes) with those of the atom-based world (physical stuff).

Rather than do a ‘review’ I want to look at my own experiences and how they compare to being ‘free.’ If you want a synopsis, take a look at the New Yorker’s review by Malcom Gladwell. A contrasting review is offered by Rob Pegoraro, at The Washington Post. As you read these, or other reviews (just Google ‘chris anderson free’), keep in mind the reviewer’s perspective. Reviewers’ perspectives may seem particularly biased based on which side of the | line they are on.

My experience may be somewhat unique, in that I have spent time on both sides of the line in the software industry. On one side, selling shrink-wrapped box product software (SWBP) and then moving to the other side as product manager for a SaaS/web-based business, in both cases selling into some of the same industries, such as automotive.

SWBP Software

Selling software (digital, bit-based) has often faced some of the same challenges as the music industry. The cost to produce is all up-front. You bear the cost of buildings, utilities, tools, and staff in full, before the product even sees light of day. Unlike conventional industries such as automotive, or atom-based ‘stuff’ as Anderson puts it, the marginal cost of production (cost for each additional copy of a CD) is effectively zero. This leads to rampant piracy and theft of intellectual property.

For instance, students would get a ‘free’ copy of AutoCAD ($3995) and use it for their studies. The first product you ever use—tends to be—the one you want to continue using. So, students starting with a ‘free’ copy of AutoCAD (or Office, or take-you-pick) move into the workplace and ask their boss to buy it for their use there. Eventually, the student may become the person making the purchasing decision. Given the poor anti-piracy controls (especially in the early years), AutoCAD was readily available and in turn helped it become a dominant CAD package. Early adoption by students is one reason why companies push their software into the education arena.

One of the challenges in selling SWBP software is that pricing is based on scarcity. People are basically good in my view. Yet if software is readily abundant (e.g. can be copied easily), it tends to get copied, and the effective price then rapidly falls toward zero. In one example, a Fortune 100 company brow-beat us into providing them with ‘unlocked’ copies of software—making it easier to deploy. Three months later, during a conference call the customer openly admitted to copying the software because their purchasing process was taking too long. A couple weeks later, admitting to yet more copying, their manager complained to us, ‘…you need to give us a way to stop the software from being copied (Uh…).’

While scarcity was maintained, the customer paid for it. Once constraints on scarcity gave way to abundance (hey Bob, here’s the CD with the serial no. on it), the marginal price also fell to zero.

The challenge with selling SWBP software as discrete units is that it represents a one-time purchase by the customer. The customer may, or may not, return to buy future releases and services. I talk about this in a prior post, “When a Backward Customer’s No Longer a Customer.”

To help combat this, software vendors introduced ‘subscription’ services. Pay an annual fee, 10-15% of the purchase price, and you’re entitled to all the upgrades and updates made available during your subscription period. This tends to lead toward a more easily swallowed ‘maintenance’ price. Rather than make a major capital expense every few years to upgrade your software, you convert to an operational expense paid in smaller annual amounts. The downside to subscriptions is, If you fall off the bandwagon, you may have to pay past years’ subscription fees (bringing yourself up to date), and then pay the next year’s fee.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

SaaS offerings, purely web-based services, operate on a different footing. Here, everything is subscription-based in some form. If you’re a salesforce.com user, you (or your company) are paying a monthly fee based on usage (e.g. per user, per instance, etc.). If you stop paying, you lose access to the service, want to restart, just start paying again. From the provider’s perspective, administration becomes easier. Instead of COG (cost of goods, for CDs, boxes, etc.) you think in terms of operational overhead (e.g. servers, staff, bandwidth). And, service upgrades don’t necessitate creation of new physical media, tens of thousands of new tracking SKUs, nor distribution channel restocking.

In this model, the service provider has direct control over the abundance of their offering. They can more easily employ Freemium or other models. Anderson discusses freemium frequently. For example, 90-95% of a service’s users use a basic version of the service for free $0. 5-10% of the users pay for a Pro or full-service version and account for all the revenue—enough to pay for them, and the ‘free’ customers, and still make money.

The provider determines how they chose employ freemium, if at all. Many options exist including free 30-day trials or the Basic ($0) / Pro ($$) concept. The freemium model works because in the era of digital products, the marginal cost of new customers can be effectively zero. Consider, as part of your service, spread across multiple TB (terabytes) of storage, your storage cost is $0.0000005/KB/month. This presents you with some options.

As a service provider like salesforce.com can afford to give away storage space (they charge steeply for it, actually). Free storage now becomes a marketing feature, a loss leader effectively, for your core offering. If your primary business is as a web-based repository, you may elect to make a certain amount of online storage available to consumers for free, with premium versions offering access to redundant disaster recovery sites, regular backups, and other services.

Back to the Book

Pundits will enjoy pulling Free apart like pork for a pulled pork sandwich for some time. Chris’ presentation of economics in the digital realm, lightly contrasted with the atom-based ‘stuff’ world, is done in straight-forward manner. Even though he provides numerous real-world examples, past and present, the topic is controversial enough (today) to encourage lengthy debate.

For many, their position on Free will likely be driven by the source of their livelihood. Me? I have worked and sold into the physical world. My experiences also include all phases of the traditional software realm, and now the SaaS/web services realm. On a scale of Atoms-to-Bits, the farther you are to the right, the more likely you’ll agree completely with Anderson. My suggestion, keep your mind open as you read, and at the very minimum be conscious of how others are viewing the world. It just might let you communicate better with your teenagerJ!.

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: Presentation Zen

JT — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:16:35 +0000

“presentationzen”
by Garr Reynolds
ISBN-13: 978-0-321-52565-9
ISBN-10: 0-321-52565-5

Can you relate to this? You’re attending a meeting, having spent a half-day getting there, its mid-to-late afternoon, and the presentation starts. The first slide features a blue background, too-small black font, and a slide counter in the corner promising you 143 slides. You groan. 5 slides into the presentation, you’re enjoying a slide with two columns of bullets, corporate logo(s), and you’re magically at slide 14/143.

Unfortunately, I’ve encountered this scenario more times than once. One time, my own boss was the offender. Doing my best to be kind, I pointed out his colors and font selection were terrible, I was simply met with, ‘…what’s wrong? I think it looks great!’

From my experience, some of the most common experiences include:

A presenter relying on the slides to tell the story
Festooned with too many bullets
Text you cannot (or do not want to) read
A page counter
Poor color selections
Graphics use with abandon, too-busy
A set of slides clearly from ‘another’ day’s presentation

To be honest, especially earlier in my career, I must confess to having been guilty of probably every one of these, and more. When page counters first came out—it was Cool! 3-D graphics making eye-popping charts! Way Cool! And, animations (sure, I can make it have ‘something’ to do with my prezo), just plain awesome!

Over time, I attended a professional presentation course, or two. They pointed out a slide should only have 5-7 bullets; never smaller than a 14pt font size; certain colors to never/ever use; and so on. I also started paying closer attention to how different presentations were built, delivered, received.

It was with great pleasure I stumbled across the book presentationzen, by Garr Reynolds. In presentationzen, Reynolds has created the best book I have ever read or studied on the topic of giving presentations.

Reynolds is an American living in Japan. The book is a real pleasure to read, mixing quality of life (Zen) perspectives, with case studies of failing and successful presentations. Along the way, he provides excellent examples of original slides, how they can be improved upon (and does so), while also explaining the reasoning. It’s an excellent practitioner’s book letting you immediately apply the principles discussed.

Boiling the 228 page book down: Use the slides for impact, rely more on imagery (he uses lots of pictures), and a whole lot less on bullets, text, and whiz-bang stuff. If you present for a living, you owe it to yourself to get this book, read it, and seriously consider at least starting to adopt some of Reynold’s suggestions!

So, I’m curious, what are the worst offenses you’ve experienced?

Possibly Related

What I’ve Read Lately: Closework

JT — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:26:59 +0000

Closework, Consulting

“Closework”
by Adam Lury, Simon Gibson
ISBN-13: 9781904879008

This is a business novel commissioned by Celerant Consulting. The essence of the book has merit, success comes by virtue of better -doing-; less so from smarter ‘thinking.’ While I did find the book worth having read, I’d rate it a 6 out of 10, overall.

If you’re interested in consulting, particularly for Celerant, then this book serves three basic roles: *Introduction for potential candidates; *Corporate values intro for new hires; and, *primer for customers looking to engage Celerant.

You won’t find this in a bookstore; you’ll need to specifically know about it and place an order.