The Mysteries of the Brain

The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg (Random House)

 I was interested in this book from a variety of perspectives:

·         As a professional marketer the formation of habits certainly has some implications for what I do for a living.

·         My wife suffered a stroke which impacted her brain and the way she deals with information.

·         A family member with addictive tendencies and shows signs of obsessive compulsive and bipolar disorders.

In the The Power of Habit author Charles Duhigg certainly discusses how the brain reacts and acts in the formation of habits. Duhigg also gives examples of how people who have suffered some form of traumatic brain injury may have unaffected portions of their brain compensate for the injured sections. Along the way Duhigg really highlights the overall lack of definitive knowledge physicians and scientists truly have about the brain and its function.

Duhigg offers some basic steps in the formation of habits as well as the modification of habits and how even small changes in the process can have a dramatic impact in altering habits; including both positive and negative habits. When it comes to those with addictions, many will disagree with this section, which in the end doesn’t really have a foundation in science but does have some practical implications in our lives.

Particularly interesting are the portions of the book that deal with consumer habits and how businesses and marketers can use big data and predictive analytics to drive consumer habits by altering the decision making process to drive choice.

While it doesn’t offer “scientific proof” that some may be seeking, The Power of Habit does offer some intriguing insights into habit formation and the potential methods of alteration.

Finding The Stars in Your Universe

The Star Factor – William Seidman and Rich Grbavac (AMACOM)

I don’t recall the source, but I recently saw a post on LinkedIn to the effect of a company bean counter talking to a CEO about paying for special training for a talented staffer: loosely paraphrasing-  “what if we pay and they leave?” to which the CEO responded- “what if we don’t and they stay?”

One of the biggest challenges that businesses face, even in a difficult economy, is to identify and retain talented individuals. All too often it is the process to identify the talent that is the hard part; like the song says, “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”

In an effort to help businesses identify and retain star talent, Dr. William Seidman and Richard Grbavac from the the performance improvement company Cerebyte have put together the book, The Star Factor – Discover What Your Top performers Do Differently – and Inspire A New level of Greatness in All.

Seidman and Gbravac have boiled down the identification process to a set of three simple questions that you can ask yourself-

1.      Who are the people you most respect for their ability to perform some or all of the functions associated with the initiative, program or project?

2.      Are these the people you would go to if you needed to solve a critical problem or to identify leadership for a new initiative, program, or project dealing with this function or area of expertise?

3.      If these people told you how to do something would you (a) believe them and (b) do whatever they said to do, without question?

Do you notice a common theme that runs clearly through these questions? What is it that sets your team’s stars apart from the rest of the pack? TRUST! You can trust them to get the job done, to bring their A-game every day and to be able to take the reins of a project and move it forward without you needing to micromanage every step of the way. The stars on your team are the people you trust.

Now the question becomes how do you give those stars and the potential stars on your team the tools and resources they need to take things to the next level and succeed? The difficulty for some leaders is fear; fear that they will lose those stars or be outshined by the people on their team. It is that “fear factor” that you will have to learn to manage and overcome to continue you growth and success.

Drawing It Old School

Drawing Ideas: A Hand-Drawn Approach for Better Design – Mark Baskinger and William Bardell (Watson Guptill Publications)

As someone who writes for a living, I have always placed a high value on utilizing words to tell a story. With the growth of infographics I have become a big fan of using the combination of words and pictures to convey messages. More often than not I find myself utilizing an old fashion pad of paper, flip charts or a whiteboard to help me tell a story, outline a project or goals.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I have utilized my drawing skills to convey design ideas for client websites, rough advertising graphics, signage, banners and much more. While I have utilized a variety of graphics programs from basic to more complex, to rough up projects; I find that my best stuff comes from using an old school sketchbook and pencils or markers. One of the few nodes to modern convenience is using Post It Notes to make it easier to move pieces around on the page.

With this in mind I have embarked on an effort to upgrade my design skills to help me better communicate ideas with clients. One of the first steps in the process was to pick up a copy of Drawing Ideas: A Hand-Drawn Approach for Better Design by Mark Baskinger and William Bardell. Baskinger, an associate professor at the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University and Bardell, a principal at the design firm, Luminant Design, have put together a wide ranging collection of examples and ideas for utilizing analog tools for designing and developing projects.

This book gives you a great foundation of the basics including the tools to deliver the best end product. Later in the book they also offer up a variety of Top Ten Tips lists that are useful for any creative type. Again with the Post It Notes…I have flagged and indexed these pages for quick and easy reference; I know at some point they will be copied and placed in my work book for consultation.

Speaking of design, Drawing Ideas is a magnificently illustrated and uniquely bound collection; it will nicely on the work bookshelf or on the lobby coffee table.

Focus – On Your Success

Back in 1998 residents of California passed Proposition 227 which dramatically changed the way bilingual students were taught. Basically students who were limited English proficient would no longer be taught in a bilingual, 50/50 fashion; instead they would spend 100% of their classroom time immersed in English. Teachers unions and bilingual advocates groused about the unfairness of the bill and complained that students would suffer from this allegedly misguided legislation.

Some of the loudest and most ardent advocates of the law were Hispanic parents who believed that this heavy focus on English would benefit their students. As the bill took effect and student became focused on English, a surprising (to those against the bill) thing happened; by focusing on English student actually excelled and learned English and other subjects at a faster rate with improved scores across the board.

Why would anybody be shocked by these results? When you put 100% focus on something, as compared say to only a part-time, 50% focus, wouldn’t you expect to have stronger results? All too often business leaders and entrepreneurs get distracted by the newest, shiny object and lose focus on their goals and their success.

More often than not the shiny object ends up being the promise of a quick buck that seems too appealing to pass up. Revenue may seem like a good reason in the short term, but the loss of focus comes with a price tag that far outstrips the short term gain. By tenaciously locking in your focus on your goals, avoid getting sidetracked and ignoring the naysayers, you will reap bigger rewards.

Don’t kid yourself; having focus is hard work and one of the appeals of the distraction is they just seem so darn easy! You need to remind yourself daily what your goals are, which means they need to be written down and they need to be front and center in your work environment. When you start to feel things slide off track, grab that list and refocus your energy on your goals!  

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design – Randy Krum (Wiley)

The old saying is “A picture is worth a thousand words.” As a writer my response has always been, then imagine the value of a thousand words. By utilizing infographics, marketers get to have the best of both worlds.

Marketing has always been about telling stories and engaging customers. Through the use of infographics your data can tell your story by creating a visual representation of your story coupled with words that make your story easy to not only comprehend, but also to remember. Randy Krum covers a broad range of uses for infographics in Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design that goes way beyond adding charts and graphs to your presentation or report.

Krum starts with the basics of how infographics work, what makes them effective tools and then details how to develop your story and create your design. For the non-designer, creating infographics may seem like a daunting task, but Krum offers some great basics tips, design rules to live by and tools and tricks to make the process a whole lot easier.

Krum also loads the book up with some great example pieces that prove to be great creative inspiration. Okay, so you’ve got your idea, you gathered your data, developed and refined your design and you’ve created a winning infographic. Now what? Krum also provides a road map for successfully launching and releasing your infographic so that delivers the bang you are looking for. As always I am looking for actionable steps that I can put to use right away and Krum certainly delivers.

Advice for a New College Graduate, My Son

Sometimes You Win - Sometimes You Learn – John C. Maxwell (Center Street Press)

Call me proud Father; my son Thomas is getting ready to graduate from college in a few weeks. This occasion has spurred me to, once again, offer up some fatherly advice as he prepares to take on the challenges of the “real world.”

Quite naturally for me, I began to look around for just the right book that would offer Tom some solid, useful, advice that would not only help him to set off on the right path, but that he could turn to for advice and inspiration when needed. There are plenty of classics from the likes of Carnegie, Covey, Blanchard and Maxwell, that I myself have used often.

I started to look back over the course of my career and the many ups and downs and dramatic turns, that I have taken thus far and I determined that much of what I have done can be attributed to hard work; but not without a solid dose of confidence and faith in my own ability. It’s not something that you can really teach, but I firmly believe that you can set the table and prepare yourself to never be afraid; take the leap and the net will appear.

 

As I was looking for just the right book, I came across John C. Maxwell’s latest, Sometimes You Win - Sometimes You Learn and was struck that this might be the one. Maxwell has always offered up actionable advice and illustrated his thoughts with practical, real life examples of how the tools he writes about have been put to use.

Never be afraid to fail

If I could boil down once piece of advice that Maxwell offers early in the book that fits perfectly with what I would like to pass along to Tom, it would be, never be afraid to fail. If you are afraid of failure, chances are that you’ll never try something and if you never make the attempt, chances are you’ll never succeed.

There is never a “good time” or the “right time” to do something. It doesn’t exist. Waiting for the “right time” is just doubt and hesitation getting in the way of doing something. If you have an idea and you develop a plan, then pull the trigger and make things happen! If you fail…that’s okay. If you fail and you will at some point, then be sure to ask yourself “what have I learned?” If you don’t ask that question the chances are next time you won’t pull that trigger. It’s all about accessing what you have learned and putting that to use the next time you step up to the plate.

Learning is the key

While you have spent your time getting your education, learning never stops. Maxwell makes the case that much of what we do is really about being open to learning; whether it’s improvement, adversity, change or maturity.

While Maxwell offers dynamic leadership advice for people at all stages of their careers, and while Sometimes You Win - Sometimes You Learn can be useful to those farther along their career path, it is best suited for those new to Maxwell and those starting out.

With that I will pass the Maxwell on to Tom and let him know how proud my wife and I are of what he has accomplished and that we are confident, and he should be as well, that he will work hard, move forward with no fear, have faith in his ability and accomplish even greater things. With love, Dad.

Work From Home: Kicked Up a Notch

Remote: Office Not Required – Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Crown Business)

Earlier this year Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer caused a firestorm of controversy when she announced that her company would be pulling the proverbial plug on their remote-work program and that those employees in the program would have to make their way into one Yahoo!’s traditional office outposts if they wanted continued employment. They outpouring of vitriolic response was staggering and aimed squarely at Mayer; ranging from questioning her intellect to downright rude street punk name calling. Oh so classy and professional.

Then came the story of the remote software developer who took a portion of his sizeable income and outsourced his work to China so he could wile away his days surfing the web and watching cat videos. Not exactly the best endorsements for the concept of using available technology to free workers from the constraints of the traditional office setting.

 

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (the co-founders of 37 Signals, the software development company that produced Basecamp, a project management program) are out with their follow up to the bestselling Rework; Remote: Office Not Required, which makes the case that remote work is the way to go for companies to succeed. I found this book interesting based on the perspective that I live and work in both worlds; holding down a traditional office based, 9 to 5 job, while operating a successful content marketing company on the side and working remotely with clients.

There’s nothing too dynamic here; as Fried and Hansson make a pretty straight forward case for why remote work is the way to go. The book falls short of a how-to manual for pulling the trigger on making the transition to remote work. I think there are clearly huge advantages for creatives, developers and even engineers that can be gained by remote work settings. As technology continues its inevitable march, those opportunities will continue to expand. It also doesn’t provide actionable material for those already doing remote work to make their operations more robust.

The more traditionalist side of me kept looking for tools to measure the progress and success of remote work. I literally burst out in laughter when I read the section of one-on-one check in calls that the authors conduct with their own remote employees; that they conduct “every couple months.” I have direct reports that I trust to get their job done and I don’t spend anytime micromanaging what they do on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis, but I do check in with them a whole heck of a lot more often than every couple months.  I think its management 101 that folks in those positions know that I want them to have the tools and resources they need to succeed, so it’s only natural to check in on a regular basis.

While we certainly live in age where the tools to succeed working remotely are in place and new and advanced tools are coming online almost daily, that dynamic has not changed the need for traditional, results oriented measurements to be put in place. The innovator that develops an effective measurement tool for remote work will be the one who energizes traditional businesses to make the all in leap to remote work.