Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts by Brene Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What, if anything, about the way people are leading today needs to change in order for leaders to be successful in a complex, rapidly changing environment where we’re faced with seemingly intractable challenges and an insatiable demand for innovation? We need brave leaders and courageous culture

There are ten behaviours and cultural issues which get in the way of organisations:

• We avoid tough conversations, including giving honest, productive feedback.
• We manage problematic behaviour rather than acknowledging and addressing fear and feelings during change.
• Diminish trust caused by a lack of connection and empathy.
• Not enough people are taking smart risks or creating and sharing bold ideas to meet challenging demands and the insatiable need for innovation.
• We get stuck and defined by setbacks, disappointments and failures so we waste time and energy reassuring people who question their value and contribution.
• Too much shame and blame, not enough accountability and learning.
• Opting out of vital conversations about diversity and inclusion because they fear looking, saying or being wrong.
• When things go wrong we rush into ineffective or unsustainable solutions rather than staying with problem identification and solving.
• Values are vage instead of actual behaviours which are taught, measured and evaluated.
• Perfectionism and fear are keeping people from learning and growing.

The Rumble is a discussion, conversation or meeting defined by a commitment to lean into vulnerability, to stay curious and generous, to stick with the messy middle of problem identification and solving to take breaks and circle back when necessary, to be fearless in owning our parts, and to listen with the same passion we want to be heard.

The 6 myths of vulnerability –
Vulnerability is weakness – there can be no act of courage without vulnerability,
I don’t do vulnerability – life is fundamentally uncertain with risks and emotional exposure,
I can go it alone – humans are hardwired for connection as a social species,
Engineer the uncertainty and discomfort out of vulnerability – this is not something which you can fix out there it’s something you have to develop inside yourself,
Trust comes before vulnerability – in reality one can’t grow without the other,
Vulnerability is disclosure – this is not about oversharing its about leaning into conversations.

Ask your team”What does support from me look like?”

Armored Leadership	Daring Leadership
Driving perfectionism and fostering fear of failure	Modeling and encouraging healthy striving, empathy and self-compassion
Working from scarcity and squandering opportunities for joy and recognition	Practicing gratitude and celebrating milestones and victories
Numbing	Setting boundaries and finding real comfort
Propagating the false dichotomy of victim or viking, crush or be crushed	Practicing integration – strong back, soft front, wild heart
Being a knower and being right	Being a learner and getting it right
Hiding behind cynicism	Modeling clarity, kindness and hope
Using criticism as self-protection	Making contributions and taking risks
Using power over	Using power with, power to, and power within
Hustling for our worth	Knowing our value
Leading for compliance and control	Cultivating commitment and shared purpose
Weaponising fear and uncertainty	Acknowledging, naming and normalising collective fear and uncertainty
Rewarding exhaustion as a status symbol and attaching productivity to self-worth	Modeling and supporting rest, play and recovery
Tolerating discrimination, echo chambers and a “fitting in” culture	Cultivating a culture of belonging, inclusivity and diverse perspectives
Collecting gold stars	Giving fold stars
Zigzagging and avoiding	Straight talking and taking action
Leading from hurt	Leading from heart

Shame 1-2-3s:

1. We all have it. Shame is universal and one of the most primitive human emotions that we experience.
2. We’re all afraid to talk about shame. Just the word is uncomfortable.
3. The less we talk about shame, the more control it has over our lives.

Guilt = I did something bad. Shame = I am bad.

If shame is obvious then you have a big problem but it can exist in organisations but in a much less obvious way such as: perfectionism, favoritism, gossiping, back-channeling, comparison, self-worth tied to productivity, harassment, discrimination, power over, bullying, blaming, teasing, cover-ups….

Empathy skills:

1. To see the world as others see it, or perspective taking
2. To be non-judgemental
3. To understand another person’s feelings
4. To communicate your understanding of that person’s feelings
5. Mindfulness

Winning by Jack Welch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book, it gives quite a lot of really interesting stories which really go much beyond the notes I have capture here.

Underneath it all
MISSION AND VALUES – So Much Hot Air About Something So Real

A good mission statement and a good set of values are so real they smack you in the face with their concreteness.

A good mission statement answers “How do we intend to win in this bussiness?”, giving a clear direction to profitability and inspiring to be part of something big and important. In compiling the mission statement it is important to listen to smart people from everywhere in the bussiness but it is management’s responsibility to listen, then define it then deliver on it.

Where as the responsibility for mission is the managements the responsibility for values is everyones, and while management might come up with a first version it is important for everyone to feel that they can have input and challenge them to make them better. It is then important to reward people who follow them and punish those that do not – living the values is crucial to winning.

Mission and values must be reinforcing – which seems obvious at first, but over time they can drift apart and if kept unchecked can cause the downfall of the company (e.g. Arthur Anderson).

CANDOR – The Biggest Dirty Little Secret in Business

First you get more people and ideas expressed in conversations which results in more richer ideas where people feel they can discuss, pull apart and improve ideas rather than just shutting people down.
Second it generates speed which is needed in a world market competing against a five person startup.
Third it cuts cost with meaningful discussion not just dull presentations

DIFFERENTIATION – Cruel and Darwinian? Try Fair and Effective

This is the way to manage people and businesses – for businesses it was being #1 or #2 in the market or having a plan to get there, if this were not the case then the company would have to be restructured, sold or closed. This made winning very clear and also made it clear where money should be invested – not just giving a little to every bussiness.

Managers already rank people in their head so why not make it visible.
Top 20% – these are your best and are treated well with share options bonuses etc
Middle 70% – these are the majority and here the challenge and risk is to keep them motivated and engaged. Focus is on training, feedback and goal setting. You don’t want to lose these people you want them to improve.
Bottom 10% – these people have to go, ideally once you tell them they are in the bottom 10% they will leave on their own to find jobs which are much more suited to them.
The challenges is that in some companies 20-70-10 does not work because of cronyism or favoritism. It could be that management classify the top 20 are head nodders and the bottom 10 are the ones who ask tough questions. This can be resolved with a candid clear cut appraisal system with clear goals, expectations and timelines.

VOICE AND DIGNITY – Every Brain in the Game

Every person wants and deserves a voice and dignity. Voice meaning that everyone is respected for having a valid opinion and feeling from their perspective. Dignity being acknowledged for their work, effort and individuality. Using “Work-Out” sessions where an external facilitator the manager would open the event and then leave for the sessions to be as open as possible, the manager would return at the end of the day and for 75% of the items give a yes or no answer right away and committing to respond to the remaining 25% soon after.

Your company
LEADERSHIP – It’s Not Just About You

Before you become a leader success is about growing yourself. Once you become a leader success is about growing others.

What leaders do:

• Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence
  • You have to evaluate – making sure the right people are in the right jobs, supporting and advancing those who are, and moving out those who are not
  • You have to coach – guiding, critiquing, and helping people to improve their performance in every way
  • And finally you have to build self-confidence – pouring out encouragement, caring and recognition.
• Leaders make sure that people don’t only see the vision but that they live and breath it
• Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism
• Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency and credit
• Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls
• Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action
• Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example
• Leaders celebrate

HIRING – What Winners Are Made Of

Integrity – they tell the truth, keep their word and take responsibility for past mistakes
Intelligence – not just education (which is a piece of the puzzle) but intelligence is critical
Maturity – individuals can handle the heat, stress and setbacks

4Es and a P
Positive energy – they love what they are doing and seem to never get tired
Energise others – the ability to get people revved up and passionate to do things
Edge – the courage to make tough yes or no decisions
Execute – the ability to get the job done
Passion – a deep felt and authentic passion for work

For senior leaders then you are also looking for
Authenticity – to have self confidence and conviction
See around corners – to be able to predict things before they happen
Surround themselves with better people than they are – a great leader has the courage to pull together a team which can make them look like the dumbest person in the room
Heavy-duty resilience – when they make a mistake do they re-group and then get going again

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT – You’ve Got the Right Players, Now What?

• Elevate HR to a position of power and primacy in the organisation, and make sure HR people have the special qualities to help managers build leaders and careers. In fact, the best HR types are pastors and parents in the same package.
• Use a rigorous, non bureaucratic evaluation system, monitored for integrity with the same intensity as Sarbanes-Oxley Act compliance
• Create effective mechanisms – read: money, recognition and training – to motivate and retain
• Face straight into charged relationships – with unions, stars, sliders and disruptors
• Fight gravity and instead of taking the middle 70 for granted treat them like the heart and soul of the organisation
• Design the org chart to be as flat as possible with blindingly clear reporting relationships and responsibilities

PARTING WAYS – Letting Go Is Hard to Do

Firing people is not pleasant for neither the employee nor the manager but there are three mistakes which are common.
Moving too fast – Identifying someone is underperforming and not giving them a chance to improve
Not being candid – Where you have said nice things to the person but not the real feedback so when they are fired the feel mislead
Taking too long – where someone is obviously underperforming and everyone knows it but the fear of firing someone is too large these people suffer as a result

CHANGE – Mountains Do Move

• Attach every change initiative to a clear purpose or goal. Change for change’s sake is stupid and enervating
• Hire and promote only true believers and get-on-with-it types
• Ferret out and get rid of resistors, even if their performance is satisfactory
• Look at car wrecks – where things go wrong see what might be salvaged

CRISIS MANAGEMENT – From Oh-God-No to Yes-We’re-Fine

• Assume that it is worse than it appears
• Assume there are no secrets in the world and that everyone will eventually find out everything
• Assume that you and your organisation’s handling of the crisis will be portrayed in the worst possible light
• Assume there will be changes in processes and people
• Assume your organisation will survive, ultimately stronger for what happend

Your competition
STRATEGY – It’s All in the Sauce

• Come up with a big aha for your business a smart realistic relatively fast way to gain substantial competitive advantage
  • What does the playing field look like now
  • What the competition has been up to
  • What you’ve been up to
  • What’s around the corner?
  • What’s your winning move?
• Put the right people in the right jobs to drive the big aha forward
• Relentlessly seek out the best practices to achieve your big aha whether inside or out adopt them and continue improving them

BUDGETING – Reinventing the Ritual

The standard budget process is broken as finance and the company are on different sides – there is a phony war where people can not be honest and open which turns it into a game. If instead two questions were asked ” How can we beat last years performance?” and “What is our competitor doing and how can we beat them?”. This is more an operational plan and unlike a budget can and should change as the year progresses.
This can only work if bonus is not tied to the budget and is instead linked to how the company improved on the previous year and in comparison to competitors.

ORGANIC GROWTH – So You Want to Start Something New

Starting and growing a new product or company with value of $50k is more complicated than running an established bussiness of $20m. However there are common mistakes which companies make.
First companies tend to under resource new ventures.
Second they make too little fanfare about the potential the new idea has
Third they limit the ventures autonomy.
These are hedges by the company to limit the potential risk and impact but they also limit the chases of its success. Instead
Spend plenty up front and put the best, hungriest and most passionate people in leadership roles.
Make an exaggerated commotion about potential and importance of the new venture
Err on the side of freedom; get off the new venture’s back

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS – Deal Heat and Other Deadly Sins

• The first pitfall is thinking that a merger of equals can occur. Despite the noble intentions of those attempting them, the vast majority of such mergers self-destruct because of their very premise.
• The second pitfall is focusing so intently on strategic fit that you fail to assess cultural fit, which is just as important to a merger’s success, if not more so.
• The third pitfall is entering into a “reverse hostage situation”, in which the acquirer ends up making so many concessions during negotiations that the acquired ends up calling all the shots afterwards.
• The fourth pitfall is integrating too timidly. With good leadership, a good merger should be completed within 90 days.
• The fifth pitfall is the conqueror syndrome, in which the acquiring company marches in and installs own manages everywhere, undermining one of the reasons for any merger – getting an influx of new talent to pick from.
• The sixth pitfall is paying too much. Not 5 or 10% too much, but so much that the premium can never be recouped in the integration
• The seventh pitfall afflicts the acquired companies people from top to bottom – resistance. In a merger, new owners will always select people with buy-in over resistors with brains. If you want to survive, get over your angst and learn to love the deal as much as they do.

SIX SIGMA – Better Than a Trip to the Dentist

The book advocated Six Sigma in areas such as repetitive tasks and complex new products with the key aim to be the reduction in variation – with the highlight of “variation is evil” and Six Sigma provides a way to reduce this.

Your career
THE RIGHT JOB – Find It and You’ll Never Really Work Again

Imagine you are considering a new job…

Signal	Take it as a good sign if…	Be concerned if…
People	You like the people a lot – you can relate to them, and you genuinely enjoy the company. In fact, they even think and act what you do.	You feel like you’ll need to put on a persona at work. After a visit to the company, you find yourself saying things like, “I don’t need to be friends of people I work with”
Opportunity	The job gives you the opportunity to grow as a person and a professional, and you get the feeling you will learn things there that you didn’t even know you needed to learn.	You’re being hired as an expert, and upon arrival, you will most likely be the smartest person in the room.
Options	The job gives you a credential you can take with you, and is in a business and industry with a future.	The industry has peaked or has awful economics, and the company itself, for any number of reasons, will do little to expand your career opportunities
Ownership	You are taking the job yourself, or you know who you’re taking it for, and feel at peace with the bargain	You are taking the job that any number of other constituents, such as a spouse you wants you to travel less or the 6th grade teacher who said you would never amount to anything.
Work Content	The “stuff” of the job turns your crank – you love the work, it feels fun and meaningful to you, and even touches something primal in your soul.	The job feels like a job. In taking it, you say things like, “this is just until something better comes along” or “You can’t beat the money”.

GETTING PROMOTED – Sorry, No Shortcuts

To get promoted:

• Do deliver sensational performance, far beyond expectations, and at every opportunity expand your job beyond its official boundaries.
  
• Don’t make your boss use political capital in order to champion you.

In addition the following help:

• Do manage your relationship with your subordinates with the same carefulness that you manage the one with your boss.
• Do get on the radar screen, being an early champion of your company’s major project or initiative.
  
• Do search out and relish the input of mentors, realising that mentors don’t always look like mentors.
  
• Do have a positive attitude and spread it around
  
• Don’t let setbacks break your stride

HARD SPOTS – That Damn Boss

• Why is my boss acting like a jerk?
• What is the end game for my boss?
• What happens to me if I deliver results and endure my bad boss?
• Why do I work here anyway?

WORK-LIFE BALANCE – Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Having It All (But Were Afraid to Hear)

• Your boss’s top priority is competitiveness. Of course they want you to be happy, but only in as much as it helps your company win. In fact, if he is doing his job right, he is making your job so exciting that your personal life becomes a less compelling draw.
• Most bosses are perfectly willing to accommodate work-life balance challenges if you have earned it with performance. The key word here is: if.
• Bosses know that the work-life policies in the company brochure are mainly for recruiting purposes and that real work-life arrangements are negotiated one-on-one in the context of a supportive culture, not in the context of “but the company says …!”
• People who publicly struggle with work-life balance problems and continually turn to the company for help get pigeonhole as ambivalent, entitled, uncommitted or incompetence – or all of the above.
• Even the most accommodating bosses believe that work-life balance is your problem to solve. In fact, most know that there are really just a handful of effective strategies to do that, and they wish you would use them.
  • Keep your head in whatever games your at – compartmentalise so you do home stuff at home and work stuff at work
  • Have the mental to say no to requests and demands outside your chosen work life balance plan
  • Make sure your work life balance plan doesn’t leave you out – with pulls in 2,3,4 directions it is easy for there to be no time for you

Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization by Dave Logan, John King, Halee Fischer-Wright
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book looks at tribes and how there are different levels of them which can be identified by the language which they use.  The higher the stage the better the performance.  A tribe can be at multiple stages at the same time.  It comes down to language and behavior in the tribe.  The stages have to be progressed in order – there is no way to short cut or jump stages.

Stage	Mood	Theme
5	Innocent wonderment	“Life is great”
4	Tribal Pride	“We’re great (and your not)”
3	Lone Worrier	“I’m great (and your not)”
2	Apathetic Victim	“My life sucks”
1	Despairing hostility	“Life sucks”

Stage 1 – Life sucks

Summary

• A person feels alienated
• A group of such people express desperate hostility

Progressing from stage 1

• Spending time with people who are in a later stage
• Encourage the person to realise how life itself works
• Encourage the cutting of ties with other people in stage 1

Success looks like

• He will move from life sucks to more personal my life sucks with more specifics on why life sucks not a generalisation
• Will exhibit passive apathy – this is positive but appears as a step backwards to the uninformed
• Cuts ties with others at stage 1

Stage 2 – My life sucks

Summary

• Others lives seem to be working but mine does not
• In a group they feel like apathetic victims

Progressing from stage 2

• Encourage the making of friends (dyadic relationships)
• Highlight the positive impact the person is having and the areas that they have potential to develop in a positive way.
• Assign projects which such a person can do well in a short time.  Excessive nagging or follow-up will reinforce stage 2 so should be avoided.

Success looks like

• Will start showing off success using I’m great language.
• Many sentences will start with “I”
• Will exhibit a lone warrior spirit “What’s wrong with them?” “If they tried they’d succeed”

Stage 3 – I’m great (and you’re not)

Summary

• Connection are dyadic (two-person) relationships
• The language is “I’m great” and in the background “and your not”
• Competition to outperform each other and put each other down – often under the veil of humor.

Progressing from stage 3

• Encourage people to work on projects that are bigger than anything that can be done alone requiring partnership.
• Highlight that success has come through his own efforts but that going forward is going to require a totally different style – aka what brought you here is not enough to move you forward.
• Highlight people already operating at Stage Four.
• When the person complains that he doesn’t have time and that others aren’t as good (the two chief gribes at Stage 3), show that he has crafted his work life so that no one can really contribute to him.
• Tell stories about how you transitioned to Stage Four.
• Coach that power does not come from knowledge but from networking and there is more leverage in wisdom than in information.  Compliment his success and emphasises that you’re on their side.  Also help them notice that the goal requires getting more done than is possible alone, no matter how smart and talented they are.
• Encourage the use of transparency and over communication.
• Encourage the formation of triads

Success looks like

• Start to use “we” not “I”.  Will point to the team, not themselves.
• Will actively form triads, and expand their network
• Will work less and get more done
• Complaints about “not enough time” and “no one is as good” will cease.
• Results for the area accountable will increase by at least 30%
• Will communicate with transparency
• Will communicate more information and more often

Leadership Epiphany

• When people realise they have not achieved what they thought, the victories were only personal not tribal.
• An attempt to achieve tribal victories using Stage Three approaches which does not work
• Eventually there is a realisation that Stage Three is self defeating and that tribal successes are enduring and satisfying for everyone.
• At Stage Three power is felt as a zero-sum game, where as at Stage Four power is abundant: the more you give to others, the more you get back.
• The only real goal is the betterment of the tribe.  Ironically by doing this they achieve what they wanted from Stage Three: esteem, respect, loyalty, legacy and enduring success.

Core Values and Noble Cause

• Core values are “principles without which life wouldn’t be worth living”
• There are two ways to seek core values.  The first is for a Tribal Leader to tell a vision-laden story, which triggers others to tell similar stories about their values
• The second way is to ask questions such as “What are you proud of?” and ask three to five open-ended questions
• The Tribal Leader’s goal is to find shared values that unite the tribe.
• A noble cause is what the tribe is “shooting for”.  There are two ways to find a tribe’s noble cause.  The first is to keep asking, “in service of what?”
• The second ways is to ask the Big Four Questions of people in the tribe.  They are
  • What’s working well?
  • What’s not working?
  • What can we do to make the things that aren’t working, work?
  • Is there anything else?
• The goal of determining values and a noble cause isn’t agreement, it is alignment which produces coordination action married with passionate resolve.
• Everything not consistent with the core values and noble cause needs to be reworked or pruned.
• “What activities will express our values and reach towards our noble cause?”

Stage 4 – We’re great (and you’re not)

Summary

• Everything flows from the teams values and noble cause
• “What do we want?” – an outcome not a goal
  • A goal implies we are failing and need to achieve something to survive
  • An outcome is building on the existing success
• “What do we have?” – a set of behaviours of who would do what
  • Sometimes it needs an external pair of eyes to highlight what you already have
  • “Do we have enough assets for the outcome?”  If not what is an interim outcome?
• “Will the behaviour produce the outcomes?”, if not what do you need

Progressing from stage 4

• Stabalise at Stage Four by ensuring relationships based on values and mutual self-interest of current projects
• Encourage the formation of triads
• Explore the teams core values, nobel course, outcomes that would inspire the team, its assets, and then its behaviours.  Encourage working with more people.
• Once stably at Stage Four encourage the team to take advantage of market conditions and make history
• Recruit others to the tribe who share the values of the group’s strategy.
• When the team hits difficulties, point people to others for solutions.  Encourage them not to solve problems – that promotes “I’m great (and you’re not)”.
• Review what is working well, what is not and what cand the team do to make things that are not working well work.

Success looks like

• “life is great” language rather than “we’re great (and your not)”
• Will seek out ever more challenging projects
• Will have a diverse network.
• Will spend time based on the tribes core values and noble cause.
• Will appear to be an embodiment of the tribe’s strategy and values.

Stage 5 – Life is great

Summary

• Life is great
• Larger reach than a single tribe or company
• No competition

Primal Leadership: Unleashing the power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Leaders have the highest power to sway our emotions, this can be maximised when their leadership resonates with the people who they lead. This is because there is an open loop between leaders and the people who follow them, this results in a mirroring of the leaders because people pay more attention to what they say and importantly what they do – their emotional reaction has a huge impact. These leaders don’t need to be the formal leaders, but could be the teams emotional leader. This emotional watching results in a contagion of whatever the leader says or does. An emotionally positive mood has significant impact on the group and on results, and because of the impact a leader has this is generally stems from them.

Emotional Intelligence Domains and Associated Competencies

• Personal
  • Self-Awareness
    • Emotional self-awareness: Reading one’s own emotions and recognising their impact; using “gut feel” to guide decisions
    • Accurate self-assessment: Knowing one’s strengths and limits
    • Self-confidence: A sound sense of one’s self-worth and capabilities.
  • Self-Management
    • Emotional self-control: Keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control
    • Transparency: Displaying honest and integrity; trustworthiness
    • Adaptability: Flexibility in adapting to changing situations or overcoming obstacles
    • Achievement: The drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence
    • Initiative: Readiness to act and seize opportunities
    • Optimism: Seeing the upside in events
• Social
  • Social-Awareness
    • Empathy: Sensing others’ emotions, understanding their perspective and taking active interest in their concerns
    • Organisational awareness: Reading the current, decision networks and politics at the organisational level
    • Service: Recognising and meeting follower, client or customer needs
  • Relationship-Management
    • Inspirational leadership: Guiding and motivating with a compelling vision
    • Influence: Wielding a range of tactics for persuasion
    • Developing others: Bolstering others’ abilities through feedback and guidance
    • Change catalyst: Initiating, managing and leading in a new direction
    • Conflict management: Resolving disagreements
    • Building bonds: Cultivating and maintaining a web of relationships
    • Teamwork and collaboration: Cooperation and team building

These result in the following leadership styles

• Visionary
  • How it builds resonance: Moves people towards shared dreams
  • Impact on climate: Most strongly positive
  • When appropriate: When changes require a new vision or when a clear direction is needed
• Coaching
  • How it builds resonance: Connects what a person wants with the organisation’s goals
  • Impact on climate: Highly positive
  • When appropriate: To help an employee improve performance by building long-term capabilities
• Affiliative (relationship building)
  • How it builds resonance: Creates harmony by connecting people to each other
  • Impact on climate: Positive
  • When appropriate: To heal rifts in a team, motivate during stressful times, or strengthen connections
• Democratic
  • How it builds resonance: Values people’s input and gets commitment through participation
  • Impact on climate: Positive
  • When appropriate: To build buy-in or consensus or to get valuable input for employees
• Pacesetting
  • How it builds resonance: Meets challenging and exciting goals
  • Impact on climate: Because too frequently poorly executed, often highly negative
  • When appropriate: To get high-quality results from a motivated and competent team
• Commanding
  • How it builds resonance: Soothes fears by giving clear direction in an emergency
  • Impact on climate: Because so often misused, highly negative
  • When appropriate: In a crisis, to kick start a turnaround or with problem employees

Jumping between all four resonant leadership styles Visionary, Coaching, Affiliative & Democratic can prove a great mix for a leader.  If a leader constantly uses the Pacesetting or Commanding style this can have very negative impacts on the team and can cause toxic organisations.

CEO Disease : The information vacuum around a leader when people withhold important and sometimes unpleasant information.

Self-directed learning through the five discoveries:

1. My ideal self: Who do I want to be?
2. My real self: Who am I?
   1. My strengths: Where my ideals and real self overlap
   2. My gaps: Where my ideal and real self differ
3. My learning agenda: Building on my strengths while reducing gaps
4. Experimenting with new behavior, thoughts and feelings
   1. Practicing the new behavior, building new neural pathways through to mastery.  Bring bad habits into awareness, consciously practice a better way and rehearse that new behavior at every opportunity
5. Developing trust and relationships that help, support and encourage each step

Listening to peoples feelings people tend to come to a consensus and paint a picture of an organisation.

When looking to spread a new culture it has to be championed widely, else the people who are evangelised the new culture first could be shot down by other parts of the orgsanisation who have not been informed about the new direction.

Great Boss, Dead Boss: How to exact the very best performance from your company and not get crucified in the process by Edgar H. Schein
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
This is a book written in a story style which presents the idea of tribes and how these are how people in a business operate.

The book presents tribal dimensions:

1. Individuals are socially, emotionally, and psychologically defined by their tribal membership.
2. Individual Security (IS): Individuals act to reinforce their security when under threat.
3. Individual Value (IV): Individuals act to reinforce their self-worth when their security is not under threat.
4. Tribal Security (TS): Tribes act to secure their self-preservation if their security is under threat.
5. Tribal Value (TV): Tribes act to reinforce their self-worth when their security is not under threat.

Though the book various things happen which are then evaluated against the dimensions in a positive or negative way.  Initially the idea of positive tribal and individual security is presented as a bad thing resulting in complacency, process focus, rules and regulations, in fighting and backstabbing, taking no risk or innovation however during the rest of the book TS+ and IS+ are presented as good things – to me security is more nuanced than positive or negative.

The book presents a continuum from corporate failure at TS-IS- up to TV+IV+, as follows, with actions to progress to the next stage.

Status	Action
TV+ IV+	Maintain the status quo.  Set new just cause.
TV- IV+	Work to improve TV+. Reinforce super tribe.  Emphasis just cause.
TV- IV-	Reaffirm individual’s capability.  Define common enemy.
TV+ IV-	Identify source of IV-, create new source of IV+
TS+ IS+	Define and create new source of TV+ Create new superordinate tribe.  Create source of IV+
TS- IS+	Reinforce the rite of passage.  Reinforce common enemy.  Reinforce just cause.
TS- IS-	Redefine source of power, just cause, common enemy.  Replace leadership.
TS+ IS-	Reaffirm IV+, beware of sub-tribes, seeing others as common enemy.  Replace leadership or reeducate leaders.

The book presents tribal attributes:

1. A strong tribe must have a common enemy.
2. A strong tribe has clearly defined symbols.
3. A strong tribe offers a super ordinate identity to all sub-tribes.
4. A strong tribe has a credible, just cause for its continued existence.
5. A strong tribe has an accepted rite of passage.
6. A strong tribe has clear external measures of success.
7. A strong tribe understands and protects its source of power.
8. A strong tribe knows how it compares to the “untouchables.”
9. The criteria for tribal membership are clear and credible.
10. Tribes communicate in a non-traditional, subjective, and intuitive manner.
11. A strong tribe develops its own unique language.
12. Tribal roles are fundamentally different from accepted functional roles.
13. Strong tribes record and celebrate significant events that reinforce their identity and value.
14. A strong tribe has a clearly defined and well-known justice mechanism.
15. A strong tribe has a clearly defined icon that embodies the tribal value.
16. A strong tribe has a walled city–a place of refuge where things of value to the tribe are kept.
17. A strong tribe possesses objects of value that embody the tribe’s value.
18. A strong tribe has a revered figurehead.
19. A strong tribe celebrates and cares for the skills, tools, and implements required for its prosperity.
20. A strong tribe expects unquestioning loyalty.
21. A strong tribe has clearly defined roles, responsibilities, values, authority, power structure, and chain of command.
22. A strong tribe has a leader dedicated to the tribe’s success.
23. Strong leaders have capable mentors whose psychological limits exceed their own.

The book provides a grid detailing communication between tribes and individuals and their impact.

Communication	Result
Enemy Tribe to Tribe	Potential to harm or destroy the tribe, creates TV- or TS-
Ally Tribe to Tribe	Has potential to strengthen the tribe. Creates TV+ or TS+.
Enemy Tribe to Individual	Expulsion, eviction, discipline, creates IV- or IS-
Ally Tribe to Individual	Promotion, join inner circle, seat on the board creates IV+ or IS+
Enemy Individual to Tribe	Company sabotage, leak secrets, spread rumours, creates TV- or TS-
Ally Individual to Tribe	Supports the just cause, attack common enemy, creates TV+ or TS+
Enemy Individual to Individual	Dislike one another, threats and accusations. Creates IV- or IS-
Ally Individual to Individual	Good friends, supportive creates IV+ or IS+

The book presents a list of tribal and organisational roles, this is not very well explained and magically the book restructures the organisation by magic.

Tribal Role	Traditional Organisational Role
Hunter	Sales person
Farmer	Manufacturing
Care giver	Human resources
Cheif	CEO
Elder	Board member
Herder	Accountant
Story Teller	Advertising
Witch doctor	Financial analyst
Spy	Public relations
Builder	Maintenance

 

Scrum Mastery: From Good To Great Servant-Leadership by Geoff Watts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There are some really interesting stories in this book but each chapter starts with a great two line summary which really do sum up a huge amount.

• A good ScrumMaster grasps the responsibilities of the role. A great ScrumMaster grasps the skills and mindset of the role.

• A good ScrumMaster will be indispensable to a team. A great ScrumMaster will become both dispensable and wanted.
• A good ScrumMaster helps a Scrum team survive in an organisation’s culture. A great ScrumMaster helps change the culture so Scrum teams can thrive.
• A good ScrumMaster will hold team members to account if needed. A great ScrumMaster will hold the team to account for not holding their teammates to account.

• A good ScrumMaster is wary of influencing the team. A great ScrumMaster can act normally and know the team will still make their own decisions.
• A good ScrumMaster will ensure the team have access to a product owner. A great ScrumMaster will ensure the team have access to the product owner.
• A good ScrumMaster helps the team develop and grow. A great ScrumMaster helps the team develop their own growth pathway.

• A good ScrumMaster removes disruptive influences from the daily scrum so it is used for the team’s benefit. A great ScrumMaster will create an environment where others (particularly the product owner) can attend and not affect the behaviour of the team.
• A good ScrumMaster will help a team change their sprint length to find their optimum. A great ScrumMaster has faith in self-organisation and knows the value of rhythm.
• A good ScrumMaster will say what needs to be Said. A great ScrumMaster knows the power of silence.

• A good ScrumMaster creates an environment where raising impediments can occur.
• A great ScrumMaster creates an environment where creativity can occur.
• A good ScrumMaster ensures team members share their status efficiently with one another in the daily scrum. A great ScrumMaster ensures the daily scrum is an energising event that teams look forward to.
• A good ScrumMaster helps the team identify improvements. A great ScrumMaster inspires the team to be adaptive.
• A good ScrumMaster holds a balanced retrospective. A great ScrumMaster holds a focused retrospective.

• A good ScrumMaster encourages teams to share skills. A great ScrumMaster encourages teams to share responsibilities.
• A good ScrumMaster helps a team meet their definition of done at the end of the sprint. A great ScrumMaster helps a team extend their definition of done.
• A good ScrumMaster facilitates the sprint review to look back and review the product built in the previous sprint. a great ScrumMaster facilitates the sprint review to look forward and shape the product in future sprints.

• A good ScrumMaster helps ensure the high-value product backlog items are selected in a sprint planning. A great ScrumMaster helps raft an inspiring, engaging and synergistic sprint goal.
• A good ScrumMaster updates the sprint burn-down to free the team from overhead. A great ScrumMaster helps the team find a fun way to manage themselves visually.

• A good ScrumMaster notices areas for improvement in the team. A great ScrumMaster recognises and highlights strengths for the team to build on.
• A good ScrumMaster helps every member of the team grow. A great ScrumMaster fosters the team’s growth.

• A good ScrumMaster facilitates cooperation between people. A great ScrumMaster facilitates collaboration.
• A good ScrumMaster helps teams use “yes, but” effectively. A great ScrumMaster helps teams find more space for “yes and”.

• A good ScrumMaster will push for permission to remove impediments to team productivity. A great ScrumMaster will be prepared to ask for forgiveness.
• A good ScrumMaster protects the team from distractions. A great ScrumMaster finds the root cause of those distractions and eliminates them.
• A good ScrumMaster will help maintain team harmony. A great ScrumMaster will guide a team through disharmony to reach a new level of teamwork.

• A good ScrumMaster will use Scrum to help bring out the best in everyone. A great ScrumMaster will use Scrum to create a “new best” for everyone.
• A good ScrumMaster asks to understand. A great ScrumMaster asks so the team can understand.
• A good ScrumMaster will listen carefully to what is said. A great ScrumMaster will also listen carefully to what is not said.
• A good ScrumMaster will guide the team through the inevitable stages of development. A great ScrumMaster holds the mirror up to the team and the wider organisation so they can reflect and grow.
• A good ScrumMaster coaches the team to success. A great ScrumMaster also allows room for failure.
• A good ScrumMaster helps the team find ways to optimise their process. A great ScrumMaster guides the team past the need for process (and a ScrumMaster).

Black Box Thinking: Why Some People Never Learn from Their Mistakes – But Some Do by Matthew Syed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book starts off contrasting two industries – health care and aviation, it shows that in many areas of life, such as health care, we just don’t put the effort into learning from our mistakes. It contrasts these to environments where learning is critical to feed back into making future issues less likely. The book also highlights how blame for accidents in aviation are unfair just because the person accused just randomly happens to be the first person to have experienced that issue, not that they were actually any worse than any other pilot.

The book presents a number of challenges in fostering an environment where learning is the primary motivator and how this environment is extremely difficult to foster and protect, especially in position where peoples reputations are built on not looking too deeply into mistakes.

People don’t like to be wrong, it is almost hard wired into our brains. Through cognitive dissonance we even rationalise to ourselves or change our own interpretations so that we are not wrong. This means it is very difficult to be self critical, no one like to have done something wrong so re-framing things makes us feel better but it does not help us learn.

To ensure that we are properly learning gathering data is not enough, randomised control trial (RCT) are critically important. If we don’t do this we can still gather data which shows improvement but we need to contrast that against not having done something to prove that we did actually make an improvement and we did not just pat ourselves on the back. This combined with experimentation can lead to incremental improvements which add significant value.

Stories are powerful, to the point where people believe stories more than they believe data. If a story sounds logical and people want to believe it they will, even if there is evidence that it is wrong if this data contradicts the story in a way that the reader/listener can not comprehend or believes.

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book a really interesting read, partially as it is a familiar story to us but from the inside you get a very different perspective. The focus on success never being a guarantee and that everything is random are two particularly powerful points. Without a random sequence of events Pixar would not be what it is, Disney animation studio would still be struggling and the world would be a much worse place as a result.

The book starts with the story of how Pixar came into existence from being part of Lucasfilm then being sold to Steve Jobs. At the time the company made hardware then evolved into software until the movies it is famous for today. The challenges the book go through are similar to any growing company or one which stagnates but it also tells the personal stories of Ed Catmull (the author), John Lasseter and Steve Jobs.

Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen the controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, pay attention to anything that creates fear. Doing all these things won’t necessarily make the job of managing a creative culture easier. But ease isn’t the goal; excellence is.

The book has a chapter with the following points, but I have added some of my own notes from the book to the end.

• Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they will screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a great team, and they will either fix it or come up with something better. If you get the team right the chances are that they’ll get the idea right.
• When hiring people, give their potential to grow more weight than their current skill level. What they will be capable of tomorrow is more important than what they can do today.
• Always try to hire people who are smarter than you. Always take a chance on better, even if it seems like a potential threat.
• If there are people in your organisation who feel they are not free to suggest ideas, you loose. Do not discount ideas from unexpected sources. Inspiration can, and does, come from anywhere.
• It isn’t merely to be open to ideas from others. Engaging the collective brainpower of the people you work with is an active, ongoing process. As a manager, you must coax ideas out of your staff and constantly push them to contribute.
• There are many valid reasons why people aren’t candid with one another in a work environment. Your job is to search for these reasons and then address them.
• Likewise, if someone disagrees with you, there is a reason. Our first job is to understand the reasoning behind their conclusions.
• Further, if there is fear in an organisation, there is a reason for it – our job is (a) to find what’s causing it, (b) to understand it, and (c) to try to root it out.
• There is nothing quite as effective, when it comes to shutting down alternative viewpoints, as being convinced you are right.
• In general, people are hesitant to say things which might rock the boat. Braintrust meetings, dailies, postmortems, and Notes Day are all efforts to reinforce the idea that it is okay to express yourself. All are mechanisms of self-assessment that seek to uncover what is real.
• If there is more truth in the hallway than in the meeting room, you have a problem.
• Many managers feel that if they are not notified of a problem before others are or if they are surprised in a meeting, then that is a sign of disrespect. Get over it.
• Careful “messaging” to downplay problems makes you appear to be lying, deluded, ignorant, or uncaring. Sharing problems is an act of inclusion that makes employees feel invested in the larger enterprise.
• The first conclusion we draw from our success and failure are typically wrong. Measuring the outcome without evaluating the process is deceiving.
• Do not fall for the illusion that by preventing errors, you won’t have errors to fix. The truth is, the cost of preventing errors is often far greater than the cost of fixing them.
• Change and uncertainty are part of life. Our job is not to resist them but to build the capability to recover when unexpected events occur. If you don’t always try to uncover which is unseen and understand its nature, you will be ill prepared to lead.
• Similarly, it is not the managers job to prevent risk. It is the managers job to make it safe to take them.
• Failure isn’t a necessary evil. In fact, it isn’t evil at all. It is a necessary consequence of doing something new.
• Trust doesn’t mean that you trust that someone won’t screw up – it means you trust them even when they do screw up.
• The people ultimately responsible for implementing a plan must be empowered to make decisions when things go wrong, even before getting approval. Finding and fixing problems is everyone’s job. Anyone should be able to stop the production line.
• The desire for everything to run smoothly is a false goal – it leads to measuring people by the mistakes they make rather than by their ability to solve problems.
• Don’t wait for things to be perfect before you show them to others. Show early and show often. It’ll be pretty when we get there, but it won’t be pretty along the way. And that’s as it should be.
• A company’s communication structure should not mirror its organisational structure. Everyone should be able to talk to anybody.
• Be wary of making too many rules. Rules can simplify life for manager, but they can be demeaning to the 95% who behave well. Don’t create rules to rein in the other 5% – address abuse of common sense individually. This is more work but ultimately healthier.
• Imposing limits can encourage a creative response. Excellent work can emerge from uncomfortable or seemingly untenable circumstances.
• Engaging with exceptionally hard problems forces us to think differently.
• An organisation, as a whole, is more conservative and resistant to change than the individuals who comprise it. Do not assume that general agreement will lead to change – it takes substantial energy to move a group, even when all are on board.
• The healthiest organisations are made up of departments whose agenda differ but whose goals are interdependent. If one agenda wins, we all lose.
• Our job as managers in creative environments is to protect new ideas from those who don’t understand that in order for greatness to emerge, there must be phases of not-so-greatness. Protect the future, not the past.
• New crises are not always lamentable – they test and demonstrate a company’s values. The process of problem-solving often bonds people together and keeps the culture in the present.
• Excellence, quality, and good should be earned words, attributed by others to us, not proclaimed by us about ourselves.
• Do not accidentally make stability a goal. Balance is more important than stability.
• Don’t confuse the process with the goal. Working on our processes to make them better, easier, and more efficient is an indispensable activity and something we should continually work on – but it is not the goal. Making the product is the goal.

Some of my notes:

• Being on the lookout for problems is not the same as seeing problems.
• Stick to your beliefs – if you pride yourself in producing quality products, don’t let anyone make you make a low quality product.
• Never say things won’t change – things will this is inevitable.
• Trust, candor and respect are very important thing to develop,but they need a focus as they can disappear without people realising. A group of people who highly respect each other and are prepared to be completely open and honest results in a product which is of a superior quality – in Pixar this includes the Brain trust.
• From an early age in life people are taught that failure is bad – this is not the case failure is learning, and you will learn more from failure than you will from accidentally being successful.
• “You’ve got to feed the beast” – for Disney these were animators, these are the people who your paying to do the work so people keep them busy doing stuff. Controlling the beast is important and sometimes ideas need to be protected.
• People at Pixar don’t have contracts, they are there because they want to be and can leave at any time. This also means that instead of waiting for peoples contracts to expire, and to not renew them, conversations between management and employees happen as soon as they are needed.
• Peoples brains are wires in a manner than things need to be explained. Humans don’t like the idea of randomness but ran random events happen all of the time. It is natural to assume that your product was a success because the team was great, but it could just have been you were lucky.
• As people move higher up they see less. The position you are in means that people act differently around you and the issues you are looking for are hidden from you. You don’t understand what is happening on the “shop floor” as it is complicated, it is not possible to understand everything but additional view points should be considered additive and not dictatorial.
• Even though people like getting a bonus they enjoy being shaken by the hand and appreciated as much or more than the money.
• Hindsight is not 20-20, we know more about the past but we still interpret things differently as shown by two people recanting the same story. These are based on our own internal models. We also fill in the gaps and try to draw conclusions – some of which will be too sweeping.
• Research is key – the best way to be in a creative world is to be immersed into the environment you need to be creative within. So in Pixars case if you need to animate a flamingo the best way is to go to the zoo to observe one. This also prevents derivative work and not new creativity.

• Postmortems
  • Consider what we learned – but be careful not to construct learning which did not exist.
  • Teach others who were not there
  • Don’t let resentment foster
  • Use the schedule to force reflection
  • Pay it forward – what questions should we ask in the future?

• Pixar University
  • Built connections between desperate teams
  • People were free to be goofy, relaxed, open and vulnerable
  • It encouraged people to become accepting with mistakes and imperfections
  • Sent a clear message that people should keep learning

The book has details of Steve Jobs role with Pixar. Other than taking it over from Lucasfilms he ensured that it was strong against Disney which was many times its size. One of the key achievements was its flotation – right after its first full length film. Steve knew that once the film was launched Disney would want to renegotiate soon after the success of the first film, to ensure that Pixar had a strong hand he needed to build up the finances and do this by floating the company at a very astute time.

The book has a very interesting description of the process of the merger between Pixar and Disney. How Steve Jobs wanted to ensure the survival of Pixar and he could not see it being independent since it lacked distribution and marketing ability. Disney was the perfect match but the risk was Pixar would be subsumed into the Disney animation studio and squashed – Steve knew this and to protect Pixar he ensured that the management of Pixar took a lead at Disney Animation.

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How Google Works by Eric Schmidt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book lifts the lid a little on what goes on at Google. There are a number of insights which I found particularly interesting and a number of interesting anecdotes (such as the Google withdrawal from China).

There are a couple of over arching things in this book.

Bussiness plans are out of date as soon as the ink dries. Although it is good to think about where you are going, having a fixed and ridged plan of how you are going to get there is never going to suceed.

Hire great people, pay them well and let them get on with it without standing in their way will lead to creativity which you did not expect. The best smart creatives have the potential for disproportionate impact.

CEOs should make or be involved in product launches, acquisitions, public policy. The key skill of a CEO of senior leader is to know which decisions to make and which to let run their course.

Make sure you are working on the right things – spend 70% of time on the thing which is making you the money (not the thing which might in the future), spend 20% on what you think the next thing will be and 10% on speculative ideas which may or may not pay out.

Product, product product.

The best products are successful because of technical factors, not business ones. This explains why products such as Google Reader got closed down (which just presents RSS) and Google News (which aggregates data sources and identifies similar stores) was not.

Never think, we have put a lot of time and money into this so we have to make is a success. If something is not going the way it should kill it as soon as you realise it. Since there should be technical insight it is not likely to be a complete waste, it is likely some of the components are still useful for different projects.

Competitive advantages don’t last long. As such for companies to last a long time they need a “grow fast strategy”

The book refers to defaulting to open a large number of times. They explain how they feel this drives better products and that allowing people to build on the success of open tools, platforms etc drives innovation and improves things much quicker than if things are closed.

The defaulting to open also refers to not locking people in – if you lock people in so they can’t leave then it does not encourage you to innovate and as such a competition can come along and produce a much better product. This is clear from Google search where people can easily go to a competitor so by having a low barrier for the customer to change forces the company to focus on product quality.

Don’t follow competitors but do use them as motivators to keep you focused on product improvements. They gave the example of Bing and how this encouraged them on to innovate even more in search such as Google Instant Search.

If you want to know what you can do to change the world (or even your own career) think about where things will be 5 to 10 years in the future. How are things going to get from here to there, what is missing and what opportunities does this present. Thinking 5 to 10 years into the future self driving cars are extremely likely, but when Google kicked off their autonomous driving program there was not clear way how or who would get there.

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