Work Matters

Category: Books

  • Larry Page, My Wife’s Lament, and Reading on Books vs. Screens

    A couple weeks back, my wife Marina and I were talking about the Kindle we share. She made an interesting observation: Although she loves the convenience of the thing and enjoys reading books on it, she doesn't remember what she reads on it nearly as well as a regular book. 

    I thought that was pretty insightful — it rang true to me.   I often buy books — both for pleasure and research — on the Kindle and also find reading on the Kindle to be just fine (although I prefer books because of the the tactile experience). But I've figured out that if I am using the book for my writing and research, especially for a long-term writing project, I need to have a physical copy someplace nearby where I see the cover now and then.  Otherwise, I forget about it. 

    This means that I often buy two copies of a book –one for the Kindle and the other to stack next to my computer.  I often am too impatient to wait for the book to come in the mail or to go to the bookstore, so I buy on the Kindle, and then buy a hard copy if I like it.  I need a copy of the book to remind of what I've learned and might need — something I reinforce it by flipping through each of the 30 or so books I keep in stacks all around me (and the stack of 100 or so articles I've printed out as well) to remind me of stuff I need to remember.

    Perhaps it is just Marina and me, but I started wondering if there was any research on the differences between how well people remember things they read in digital versus paper form.  I did a quick look and didn't find any, but in doing so, I recalled a conversation that Jeff Pfeffer and I had with Google's Larry Page in (I think)  2002  (We did an interview with him and then had lunch; this was before Google was a public company.).   At one point in the conversation, when we asked him about obstacles to Google's success, he said something quite interesting: Research shows that people read considerably slower when they read things on a screen than in paper form. I recall him saying 15% to 20% — a number supported by research done a few years earlier).

    I nosed around the web a bit and found some 2010 research on tablets versus books by Jakob Nielsen that confirmed Larry's point persists in the modern era– although it looks like the difference between screens and books is less than the research Larry was talking about. Here is the report and I reprint the key findings:

    Results: Books Faster Than Tablets

    The iPad measured at 6.2% lower reading speed than the printed book, whereas the Kindle measured at 10.7% slower than print. However, the difference between the two devices was not statistically significant because of the data's fairly high variability.

    Thus, the only fair conclusion is that we can't say for sure which device offers the fastest reading speed. In any case, the difference would be so small that it wouldn't be a reason to buy one over the other.

    But we can say that tablets still haven't beaten the printed book: the difference between Kindle and the book was significant at the p<.01 level, and the difference between iPad and the book was marginally significant at p=.06.

    This research doesn't dig into reading comprehension, let alone longer-term memory. But that nearly 11% difference is quite substantial when you think about how much many of us read.  And, perhaps I am being sentimental, but it is lovely to see that those old-fashioned books still have an evidence-based edge!

    What do you think?  Do you feel like you read slower and recall less when you read on screen versus real paper?  And is this an affliction only suffered by me and perhaps other other old-timers who learned to read on paper alone?

    P.S. If you want to nerd out, I just found a pretty detailed review of this stuff, and it does look like that, as computer screens are getting better (and more people grow up reading on them) that the paper advantage is narrowing and in some cases going away — although as the above study suggests paper still has the upper hand on key tasks.

  • Taking People With You By David Novak: Great Read and Most Useful

    Taking_people_with_you_coverMost books by sitting CEOs seem like they are pure fluff pieces, or worse, pure vanity projects.   As such, when I was contacted by a Penguin publicist about having a chat with David Novak, CEO of YUM! Brands about his new book, Taking People With You, I jumped at the chance to talk with him because he is so experienced and successful at scaling –Yum Brands! includes Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC — which what Huggy Rao and I are currently studying.  But I didn't expect much from the book. To my surprise, after spending a good hour and half with the book in anticipation of the conversation, I was stunned by how good it is — Novak really digs into the details of what he does to sustain, grow, and keep improving this huge company, and how any boss can learn from what he and his colleagues do.  

    The reason the book rises above most others of the genre is that it is based on a program that Mr. Novak teaches himself about eight times a year to people at YUM!, which is also called Taking People With You.  This book is based on that program, so it contains many of the specifics from this program, which as he told me, he has refined over the years as he teaches it about 8 times a year and, so far, it has involved about 4000 people from YUM! The three overall sections are: Get Your Mindset Right, Have a Plan: Strategy, Structure, and Culture, and Follow Through to Get Results.   These headlines are typical, and certainly not original, but once I started digging into how the book deals with them, I was very impressed with the detail, and specific suggestions, and how each chapter contains such specific and useful tools. Consider a few "picture step-by-step change," "choose powerful versus limiting mindsets," "get to know people," "get whole brained," and there are self-assessment tools throughout.   I argued in Good Boss, Bad Boss that the key to effective leadership, and one of the hardest things for any leader to achieve is self-awareness, knowledge of ones strengths and weaknesses and being in tune with what it feels like to work for you.  Taking People With You impressed me so much because it shows how to become more self-aware as a leader, and spotlights the specific skills that every leader needs to be effective.

    As for Mr Novak, I found him quite delightful, straightforward, and most efficient.  I was especially struck with a few things he emphasized. First, when I asked him how he spent his time, he answered that developing great leaders in the company was his number one priority.  Unlike so many companies who turn this responsibility over to professional trainers or worse yet outside vendors, Mr. Novak has developed and taught the Taking People With You workshop himself to 4000 people, and is now "cascading" it so his senior executives will teach it to others as well, so the plan is to touch 35,000 people in the company. 

    Second, when I asked him about bad behavior (as readers of this blog know, I have written quite a bit about how "bad is stronger than good"),  he had a great line, something like: "We are a company that believes in recognition, and that means recognizing both good and bad behavior."  When I asked for an example, he said that YUM! "is not the place for you if you think that you are better than everyone else."  He argued this is especially important to the company, because if managers and leaders see themselves as better than the people who work in their stores or better than their customers, then it undermines their ability to understand customer's and employee's motivations and needs, and it causes them to keep their distance from people they should be interacting with and listening carefully to every day.  (Note I was especially struck by this because I am reading Adam Lashinsky's wonderful new book Inside Apple, which certainly is a different culture, as it Apple appears to be a place where people are more or less required to think of themselves as better than others.  I will write something on Inside Apple  later in the week.)

    Third, Mr. Novak also had some interesting thoughts on what he called "the tensions between centralization decentralization," and he argued that one of the keys to YUM!'s success — which is doing incredibly well in China and other international markets — is that, while there are multiple non-negotiable elements of the culture (I like "Be Restaurant and Customer Maniacs… Now!), they err on the side of decentralization. He emphasized this meant that in places like China and India, the country team is made-up of mostly locals who understand the culture and it meant customizing menus for local tastes such as selling more desserts in France and having more vegetarian choices in India. I was quite interested to hear him talk about this approach, because as we are studying scaling, this tension between having a core set of principles and a shared mindset in concert with the need to give people enough decision-making power to adapt to local conditions is something that comes up again and again, whether we talk to someone like David who is opening thousands of restaurants in China or a chef in San Francisco who has just opened his second restaurant that is in a much different neighborhood than the first.

    Once again, Taking People With You with is a good read and is especially impressive because it is the rare leadership book that contains specific steps you can take to become more aware and more skilled at your craft.

  • Strategy & Business Lists Hard Facts Among Decade’s 10 Most Significant Books

    Strategy and Business just released a list of the 10 "most significant books" published between 2001 and 2010.  They looked back and selected one book for each year.   I am pleased to announce that, for 2006, they picked the book that Jeff Pfeffer and I wrote about evidence-management.  Here is what they said:

    2006
    Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management, by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton (Harvard Business School Press). By explaining the causes of common managerial errors (casual benchmarking, repeating what worked in the past, and following unexamined ideologies), Pfeffer and Sutton pointed the way to better decision making.

    Jeff and I are delighted the selection; we believe that, although some organizations are making progress toward using evidence rather than making bad gut decisions, doing what they have always done, or mindlessly imitating seemingly successful organizations, that our workplaces would be far more effective if decision-makers made a commitment to using evidence-based practices when possible, especially when making important decisions (unfortunately, they seem to do the opposite too often).  

    If you want to listen to a fun interview about the power of evidence-based management, check out the recent Planet Money interview with Harrah's CEO Gary Lovemen, who we talk about a lot in Hard Facts. It starts out with a quote/joke from Gary that also appears in our book, something like "There are three ways to get fired at Harrah's: Stealing, sexual harassment, and not having a control group."  Although he is joking a bit, taking an evidence-based approach has given Harrah's a huge competitive advantage.

    Here is the rest of the list.  You can read about each in more detail here in the original story.

    2001
    Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, by Jim Collins 

    2002
    Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

    2003
    Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround, by Louis V. Gerstner Jr

    2004
     Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds, by Howard Gardner

    2005
    The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits, by C.K. Prahalad

    2007
    Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction, by Thomas K. McCraw

    2008
    Redefining Global Strategy: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Matter, by Pankaj Ghemawat

    2009
    Managing, by Henry Mintzberg (Berrett-Koehler). The iconoclastic Canadian professor made the best case of his career for a more holistic, humane view of managing, which he convincingly declares is as much art as science. 2010

    2010
    Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance, by Boris Groysberg

    We are honored to be included in such a great group.  Of this list, my favorite three are probably "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance," "Prophet of Innovation," and "Chasing Stars." My candidates for the best books of 2011 are The Progress Principle and, because of impact, Steve Jobs of course.

  • Hostile and Entertaining Amazon Review for The No Asshole Rule

    0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
    1.0 out of 5 stars Typical attention seeking baby boomer, October 15, 2011

    Yet another selfish baby boomer sinks basic civility to get our attention. I think we have heard enough from the generation that thinks behaving like a petulant adolescent is a virtue. If he can't take the time to address us like adults, or articulate exactly what he means by 'a**hole' what's the sense in taking advice from him?
    ..and now that he has grabbed our attention, what do we get? fluff. Another article padded into a book, which plenty of examples of unpleasant people at work but little substance how to deal with them, or the unpleasant fact that it's often effective form of management- think of the marines for example and toughening up of mama's boys.

    Of course with the baby boom generation it's all about me me me and my feelings. Spare me.

    The above review just appeared on Amazon.  Sorry, the screen shot didn't work (at least for me)  but so I had to do cut and paste, you can see the original here.

    When I first started writing books, I would take every negative Amazon review personally.  And I confess that when they are careful, thoughtful, and negative, they still sting.  But I have learned to enjoy, even relish, the outrageous ones.  This one certainly qualifies.  I plead guilty to being a baby boomer and to selecting — really insisting on — The No Asshole Rule title.   My favorite line in the review is "toughening up the mama's boys."   Great stuff.

    P.S. It is a good time to buy this book for mama's boys.  Apparently, Amazon bought a bunch from the now-defunct Border's and you can get the No Asshole Rule paperback there for six bucks.  These bargain books produce a much lower royalty rate to authors, but are a great deal for readers.  I don't know how many they have; there was a bargain version of Good Boss, Bad Boss last week, but it sold out.  

  • The Progress Principle: A Masterpiece Every Manager Should Own

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    The Progress Principle was just published. A big congratulations to Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer.  I love this book, it is based on incredibly rigorous research, it provides the the best evidence ever of the power of small wins (one of my obsessions in Good Boss, Bad Boss), and it is chock full of useful advice that every executive, manager, and team member needs to do better work and to take more pleasure from the process of doing work.  My advice is to simply buy the book.  But if you want a few more details, here is a review I just did at Amazon because I got excited all over again when I started re-reading the book:

    I read an advance copy of The Progress Principle several months back, and I just went back and read the book again. I am even more impressed this time than the last. Four things struck me in particular:

    1. While most management books are based on anecdotes, the biased recollections of some famous executives, or on research that is presented as rigorous (but is not… Good to Great is a perfect example), the Progress Principle is based on the most rigorous field study ever done of creative work. And it draws on other rigorous work as well. As a result, the overall advice about the importance of small wins may be known to many people, but once you start digging into the smaller bits of advice about how to keep work moving along, the evidence behind those is very strong. In my view, the Progress Principle is the best example of an evidence-based management book I have ever seen.

    2. The authors didn't drown in their rigor and the details of their work. They worked absurdly hard to write a book that is quite engaging to read and chock full with one implication after another about what you can do right now to do more effective work and to motivate it in the people around you.

    3. Finally, the main point of this book may seem obvious to some readers, but if you listen to most management gurus and fancy consulting firms, the approach that the authors suggest is actually radically different. The broad sweep of strategy and radical change and big hairy goals is where much of modern management advice focuses, yet the finding from this book that it is relentless attention to the little things and the seemingly trivial moments in organizational life that really makes for greatness is not something that most leaders and their advisers get, yet it is the hallmark of our most creative companies like Pixar, Apple, Google, IDEO and the like. The implication of The Progress Principle, for example, that management training should focus on how to deal with the little interactions and smallest decisions — and that is what makes for great leaders and organizations — would, if taken seriously, mean completely revamping the way that management is taught throughout the world.

    This book isn't a bag of breathless hype, it doesn't make grand and shocking claims, and it doesn't promise instant results. But it is fun and easy to read, it is as strongly grounded in evidence as any business book ever written, and it is relentlessly useful because it points to little things that managers, team members, and everyone else can do day after day to spark creativity and well-being. And it shows how those little things add-up to big victories in the end. I believe it is one of the most important business books ever written.

    In the name of full disclosure, I am friends with the authors and did endorse the book. But I am friends with a lot of authors, but when they write bad books, I decline endorsement requests, and as I did very recently, let them know that I think their books aren't very good. Yes, I am biased, but I believe that this book deserves to be a #1 bestseller.

    P.S.  A special request to you, dear readers.  If you love the Progress Principle as much as I do, please do a little something to get the word out about the book — an Amazon review, a blog post, a tweet, or tell a friend.  The authors are working hard to get the word out, but they don't have a huge marketing machine or giant budget behind them, all they have is a great book. 

  • A Cool Neurological Explanation for the Power of Small Wins

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    Regular readers of this blog know that I am a huge fan of the power of small wins, and following Karl Weick's classic article, have argued in Good Boss, Bad Boss and here at HBR that big hairy goals cause people to freak-out and freeze-up if they aren't broken down into smaller stepping stones. Small wins are also a big theme in Peter Sims great book Little Bets, which I wrote about last week. Well, today I learned about a cool article in CIO about a book by Shawn Achor called The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology that Fuel Success and Performance at Work.

    Check-out the article. I liked it a lot, notably the 20 Second Rule "To break a bad habit, add 20 seconds to the time it takes to engage in that bad habit." But my favorite part was his neurological explanation for the power of small wins and dangers of big hairy goals alone:

    Goals that are too big paralyze you. They literally shut off your brain, says Achor. Here's what happens to your brain when faced with a daunting goal or project:

    The amygdala, the part of the brain that responds to fear and threats, hijacks the "thinker" part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, says Achor. The amygdala steals resources from the prefrontal cortex, the creative part of the brain that makes decisions and sees possibilities.

    "We watch this on a brain scan," he says. "The more the amygdala lights up, the less the prefrontal cortex does."Breaking a big goal into smaller, more achievable goals prevents the fear part of your brain from hijacking your thinking cap and gives you victories.

    Pretty cool, huh?  I have not read Shawn's book, but it sounds cool. Bosses beware, setting those big goals without breaking them into bite-sized people (or allowing and encouraging your followers to do so) will make you and your people dumb and uncreative — at least if Shawn is right. 

     

     

  • Little Bets: Peter Sims’ Delightful Masterpiece is Shipping

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    About 11,000 business books a year are published. Most of them aren't worth reading, either because you've heard it all before, they are badly written, not especially useful, and — perhaps the most common flaw — they are just no fun to read.  But, even though they are business books, there are always a few gems that you owe it to yourself to read.  Peter Sims Little Bets is one of those rarities.  I was blown away when I was asked to write blurb for the book, as I wrote:

    “Peter Sims buries the myth that big talkers with brains and big ideas move industry and science forward. This modern masterpiece demonstrates that the most powerful and profitable ideas are produced by persistent people who mess with lots of little ideas and keep muddling forward until they get it right. Little Bets is easily the most delightful and useful innovation book published in the last decade.”

    As the book is now out, I  took some time to visit with it again this morning –  I remain impressed.  Ye3s, Peter is a friend of mine, but most of my friends don't write books this compelling.  The first thing that struck me was the power of Peter's writing voice.  He exudes curiosity and optimism, which as I read the pages, provoked a feeling of joy that I've hardly ever experienced when reading a business book — I guess for me, Orbiting the Giant Hairball and The Art of Innovation had this effect, but it does not happen often.

     The second thing that struck me was the range of examples and the deftness with which Peter applies them to make points about small bets and in his lovely chapters (I especially like "Problems are the New Solutions" and "Questions are the New Answers.")  He uses everything from Chris Rock, to architect Frank Geary, to Pixar's Ed Catmull, to a U.S. Army General in Iraq, and many others.  He does this with such skill that I occasionally had to stop and admire how he had written a sentence or paragraph — I struggle to do this kind of thing day after day,it is a lot harder than it looks.

    Third, although Small Bets has many twists and turns, perhaps the core idea is the power of small wins, Karl Weick's powerful concept.  This is a message that comes through in other business books (including Good Boss, Bad Boss — see this post –  and in at least one other forthcoming business book I just read called The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer).  The power of small wins is not only supported by strong empirical research, it provides an antidote, and at times a useful companion, to all the management theorists who spew out stories of big hairy goals, bold vision, exciting futures, and all that without providing resources or specifying just what people need to do day after day to achieve such magnificent ends.  Little Bets is so useful to read because it shows, on page after page, what you can do and how to think day after day about things like problems, solutions, failure, and fun to make great things happen. 

    I could go on and on… but you would be better off using your time reading the book than reading more of my words about it!

    P.S. You might also want to check out Peter's website.

  • Rip-Off Book Title: Shame on You Dr. Doreen McGunagle

     

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    Huh?  How did that happen?

    I was just poking around the web, and to my amazement, I ran into a book that just came out on March 29, 2011 called (see the Amazon link if you want): Good Boss, Bad Boss: Lessons from Effective and Not-So-Effective Managers. It written  by a consultant named Dr. Doreen McGunagle, CEO of Global Strategic Management Solutions. Note the title is identical to my Good Boss, Bad Boss, and the subtitle is also very close to my "How to be the best… and learn from the worst."  I will buy the book and read it to make sure that none of the content is lifted ( I suspect it is not, I certainly hope it is not). 

    I sent this information to my publisher and they may take some kind of action against her.  I am not a big believer in suing people in general, and honestly, in this case, I don't think this book will do any financial damage to me.   But my main reaction is just to be disgusted, to wonder how this could happen?  Did she see my title and then forget it existed — but then later believe she had invented it herself?  We humans do things like this sometimes.  That is the most charitable explanation.  The others are much less charitable, that she is trying to get book sales and consulting work on the back of the the original Good Boss, Bad Boss as it was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.   I am not angry with the author, rather, mostly dismayed that anyone would be sloppy or so brazen as to lift the title of another management book and to treat it as her own.  She ought to be embarrassed and ashamed, which is punishment enough.  If she isn't, and believes her actions are defensible, well, I think that reflects even more poorly on her. 

    So, that was my little surprise today.  I was pretty shocked by the whole thing, and the more I think about, the harder it is for me to understand why and how this happened. What is the upside for her or her publisher?  Doesn't it just reflect badly on them? 

    I would appreciate any thoughts that readers might have, as this whole thing has me quite befuddled.

  • The No Asshole Rule in Slovenian – I Think They Call it “The No Pig Rule.”

    I was delighted to get a copy of The No Asshole Rule translated into Slovenian this week.  It just tickles me the different ways that different cultures spin the cover and the language, from the crazy Polish cover to the beautiful red  Italian one.  Below is the cover of Slovenian version. I am wondering, is it called something like  "The No Pig Rule." What is the subtitle?  Do you think this is a good translation of the book's main message? 

    If you speak Slovenian, or know someone who does, I would love to know the answer to the questions.  In any case, I like the clean design and that little pig os pretty cute.

    Ni-prostora-za-prasce_m1

     

  • Guy Kawasaki Makes an Enchanting Offer: Buy One, Get One Free

    Enchantment1 I recently wrote a post on Guy Kawasaki's new book: Enchantment: The Art of Changing Minds, Hearts, and Actions. I focused on the cover, which is probably the most beautiful I have ever seen for any business book — look at that thing, it is so damn pretty! If you know one that is more lovely, I want to see it.  And it resulted from an amazing story that Guy tells in the book, starting with design contest that Guy ran… and then much more happened. 

    I was planning on writing a review today, as the book comes out Tuesday, March 7th.  I was going to do it in the morning, as I just finished reading the book yesterday. But I learned some amazing news that convinced me I best write a short review before I go to sleep (it is after midnight in California).  The upshot is that this is Guy's best book — he was born to write on the topic of persuasion.  Buy this book and Robert Cialdini's classic Influence, and you've got the best two book on the subject.  I am not alone in this opinion, as Enchantment just got a glowing review from Kirkus, a group that is very tough on authors. They offered praise including:

    "Kawasaki transforms the otherwise exhausted and overwrought tropes of how to win friends and influence people with a complete makeover here, whether he's talking about wardrobe choice or tips for effective swearing. The author, a modern-day Dale Carnegie, offers explanations on how to wield the most influence in the digital age: Push Technologies like presentations, e-mails and Twitter are discussed as active means of enchanting others, while Pull Technologies like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn passively draw them in. The author's suggestions for achieving likeability and trustworthiness, as well as overcoming resistance, are thoroughly explained and can easily translate from the workplace to the real world….. Informative, concise guide from one of America's most influential and, yes, enchanting entrepreneurs."

    You were probably going to buy it anyway, but as Guy is the master of influence,  he — or someone, I am not quite sure how this is happening — is offering a deal that expires midnight on March 7th, so roughly 48 hours from now.  If you buy  a copy of Enchantment (at a bookstore or online), and fill out this form, yes this form, you will get copy of Guy's last book, Reality Check, sent to you for free as a bonus.  Reality Check is a also a great book (although I confess to being even more taken with Enchantment). As I wrote when it came out:

    "If you love Guy's smarts and irreverent charm, you've got to read this book.  If you have never read his blog or books — or seen him speak — this is the place to start if you want to understand why Guy has such a huge and loyal army of fans.   Guy has had a lot of different careers, including at Apple as an evangelist, a venture capitalist, the master of ceremonies at wildly popular entrepreneurship Boot Camps during the boom."

    The form is really easy to fill out, all you need is a pdf of the purchase (which is simple to produce, for example, from the email that Amazon sends you when you order it).  Be warned there are limited quantities of Reality Check and this offer only holds for U.S. addresses.  Enchantment will be the best-seller that everyone will be talking about in the coming months, and if you don't own Reality Check, here is a chance to get it for free.  I just did it myself, and I am getting copy of both books (I bought Enchantment at Amazon) for $13.74. I timed myself and it took me just under 160 seconds to order the book, make the pdf, and fill out the form.  Such a deal!