The Conundrum of Innovation

The Innovation Race: How to Change a Culture to Change the Game – Andrew Grant and Gaia Grant (Wiley)

Full confession: Since it arrived on my doorstep, I have picked this book up, struggled through some of the concepts it present and put it down. Later I would return, pick it up and put it down. It reached the point where it became a challenge for me to work my way through the book and develop a meaningful review.

As I worked my way through the ups and downs, I finally reached the conclusion that the problem I have, is understanding exactly what innovation really is. Innovation is a word/concept that gets tossed around by all sorts of business folks, but what does it really mean?! Naturally I went where I always go; the dictionary.

Innovation – The action or process of innovating. Really!? Alright, how about this one- change, alteration, revolution, upheaval, transformation, metamorphosis, breakthrough, modernization. Well that certainly didn’t solve the problem I faced.

So I shifted the focus to what is truly at the root of innovation? Think about the concept of innovation; in the process of “innovating” you are often simultaneously causing obsolescence? Now ask what role does disruption play in the process? How do we find that magical delta between innovation and obsolescence? Are you getting the drift here? The Grants concept of the pace of innovation and the so-called purpose driven route to innovation certainly is a challenging one. Are we innovating just for the sake of innovating and is that really serving the needs or fixing the problems that lead to the desire to innovate.

Not sue I have come up with a helpful review here, other than to say that this book is certainly challenging and thought provoking.

Not So Disruptive

The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions and Created Plenty of Controversy – Leigh Gallagher (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

There is something just this side of ironic about a business book written about a company that is touted for disruptive to and entire industry. Fortune editor and the books author, Leigh Gallagher gives a nod to that irony in the introduction to the book when she acknowledges that Airbnb founder Brian Chesky intimated at the time she pitched him the idea for the book, that by the time it would go to press, it would be outdated.

So is the nature of the guys and the business profiled in Gallagher’s new book, The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions and Created Plenty of Controversy. While the idea is far from groundbreaking, it is the way that the idea was accelerated and the nature of the platform that they built to speed the process that is at the heart of this story.

The disruption really comes down to the selling of two ideas; one that you have space, a spare room, and extra home, or maybe something more unique, so why not monetize that space? And second, wouldn’t you rather have a unique experience or save money the next time you travel. It is certainly not a proposition for everyone, but it is one that seems to have caught fire in some circles.

Gallagher spells out that Chesky and company certainly seem to have a clear vision of the future of their company; expand into areas of the entire travel experience. While that makes sense because the shine may wear off on the initial disruption and results could dwindle; it’s hardly disruptive to offer discounted flights and rental cars. The focus will have to evolve into selling experiences, which may be a tougher market to hack.

Gallagher does a nice job of detailing the companies first decade and spelling out the challenges ahead as it moves into it’s second.   

A Nice Addition to the Go To Library

If Not You, Who? –Cracking the Code of Employee Disengagement – Jill Christensen (Knightsbridge Press)

I have taken on the habit of keeping a strip of Post-It flags while I am reading new business books. Maybe it’s a case of OCD, but I have never really felt that highlighting was a very useful why of truly marking things that I wanted to remember and use in my business. These handy little flags are easy to place the exact line on a specific page that I want to circle back to.

As I review books, I can get a pretty good sense of how good a book is based on the number of flags that dot the outside edge of the book. While I have utilized many of the tactics that Jill Christensen, an employee engagement expert outlines in her new book, If Not You, Who, this concise collection is a great reminder and a useful tool to have within reach on the go to books shelf. One look at the pile of red flags will easily illustrate why what this book teaches, makes so much sense.

If you are struggling with keeping your staff engaged, recruitment and retention of good employees and rewarding and recognizing those folks who make your shop hum, then this book demands your attention. Christensen lays out the statistics, but the fact of the matter is it, is common sense that an engaged workforce can make a huge difference to your bottom line.

Like I said, I have used a lot of this stuff before; while it’s not necessarily groundbreaking, what Christensen succeeds at doing is synthesizing the engagement process under the cover of one easy to read, easy to implement cover. She even spells out action steps at the end of each chapter that boils this stuff down to an easy 1, 2, 3. I found myself implementing the stuff I could do myself right away and then put the team stuff on the agenda to roll out to the larger group.

While Christensen will tell you how to take this on in bit size chunks, she also explain that there is some heavy lifting involved and while the process works, it does take some time. What better reason to get started today do you need?

Revelation: Men and Women Are Different!

Own It: The Power of Women at Work – Sallie Krawcheck (Crown Business)

Sallie Krawcheck, the current co-founder and CEO of Ellevest, a self-described “innovative digital investment platform” to help women reach their financial goals, draws on her years of Wall Street experience in high level, high profile positions with the likes of Smith Barney, Merill Lynch Wealth Management and Citigroup to detail a career playbook that helps women to shift the paradigm and changes the rules for workplace success.

In, Own It: The Power of Women at Work, Krawcheck posits the stunning revelation…wait for it…wait for it…that men and women are different! Shocking right? Krawcheck delves a little deeper into this thought process when she gives women permission to be different. Now that may seem a bit silly, but think about it; more often than not for women to advance and move forward in the corporate world they get sold on the idea that in order to succeed women basically have to become men!

Krawcheck makes her case be clearly defining exactly how men and women are different and why that is definitely not a bad thing! She outlines the strengths that women bring to the workplace and how by playing on those strengths and not co-opting themselves, both women and the companies they work for will benefit and grow in the long run.

This might be viewed by some as radically different thinking, but it actually makes perfect sense. Have you ever been in a work environment where cookie cutter thinking is the order of the day? A place where they seem to punch folks out of the same mold, with the same skillsets and the same thinking process? Not much in the way of creativity and innovative thinking going on there.

While Own It is supposed to be directed at women, there are probably more than a handful of men who would benefit from this mold breaking thought process.

A Go To Guide To Life

Tools of Titans: the Tactics, Routines and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World Class Performers – Tim Ferriss (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

To put things in the proper perspective; while I am familiar with Tim Ferriss based on articles and reviews regarding his prior books and his podcast, I have not read his previous books and have never listened to the podcast. So you can say that I bring a different perspective to the table than the average raving fan or Ferriss-head when it comes to my thoughts on this book.

That being said and knowing I put a premium on usefulness when it comes to business and personal development books; I found Tools of Titans: the Tactics, Routines and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World Class Performers to be a highly engaging and useful toolbox of tactics and a collection of ideas that caused me to learn more about the people Ferriss interacts with on the podcast.

Folks familiar with Ferriss’ work may find this to be kind of like a greatest hits CD from a favorite band; familiar territory repackaged and re-released. I found it a great entry point for delving into his thoughts and it allowed me to wade into the podcast for areas that I was most interested in, rather than having to go at it in stops and starts, I could cut to the chase.

This is a true reference book; if you think by reading these brief segments that you will have all of the answers, or even some of the answers, you will be sadly disappointed. If you are looking for a starting point for a massive array of topics, this is a book for you; perfect to whet your appetite and build upon.

A great example is, I had read Jocko Willink’s book Extreme Ownership, and garnered some knowledge and insight into his approach, but with a brief piece from Ferriss, I became engaged enough to seek out not on his podcast with Willink, but moved over to Jocko podcast to delve even deeper. This is very useful stuff.

Topping out at over 700 pages, some may find this book a bit overwhelming and the fluid approach to organization may throw some off, but I liked the ability to bounce around and be selective in what interested me most and then move on from there. Ferriss also does an nice job of trying to draw together similarities and ties between the thought processes of many of the folks profiled in the book. This one is HIGHLY useful and certainly can find a place on your go to shelf.

Challenge...Accepted

Leading the Unleadable: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People – Alan Willet (AMACOM)

Show of hands, how many of you can relate to this, from the preface of Leading the Unleadable: “Too often leaders ignore their people problems for too long because they’re afraid of conflict or, if they do act, handle the situations poorly because of inexperience or not knowing what to do.” And “Not acting can damage everyone around the difficult people, leading others to leave before the difficult people themselves quit.”

Not only could I relate to those thoughts, I have lived them recently. Alan Willet, a leadership development and organizational cultural change guru has penned a terrific new leadership development book, Leading the Unleadable: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People, which deserves a place in leaders toolbox, no matter what your level of experience.

For those starting out it offers workable solutions for problems that I can almost say with a level of certainty that you will be confronted with as you move through your career. For those veterans of leadership, the book will serve as a healthy reminder of the options available to you when t comes to dealing with the difficult members of your team.

All too often organizations don’t do a great job of developing the next generations of great leaders; instead elevating those good or great worker bees to the next level and allowing them to sink or swim on their own, without providing the tools of leadership. Willet puts out the rallying cry that those moving into leadership need to accept the clarion call of being exceptional leaders.

The exceptional leader understand that like all walks of life you will at times be confronted by folks who are difficult to deal with and that the answer is not always to involve HR and move those folks to the exit. Often times it is the difficult people that challenge leaders to play at a higher level because they bring skillsets to the table that are necessary to the success of the business. Willet loads up your tool belt with tips and ideas on how to manage and maximize these folks and to minimize any negative impact they may cause.  

Leadership 101

Why Leaders Fail – and 7 Prescriptions for Success – Peter B. Stark, CSP, AS, and Mary C. Kelly, PhD, CSP, Commander, U.S. Navy (Ret) – (Bentley Press)

A quick visit to the business section of any well stocked bookstore and you will encounter countless books on leadership that will offer up a myriad of thoughts on how to be a successful leader. These books will detail the prerequisites needed to guide a wide variety of business sectors; some very narrow cast for specific business, others a more broad based, and general in their approach.

Very few, if any of these books will highlight what it is that leaders do wrong and what causes them to derail and fail. Why Leaders Fail – and 7 Prescriptions for Success by Peter B. Stark and Mary C. Kelly, by leadership experts, bestselling authors and leadership development trainers tackles leadership from that perspective. While they focus on the traits of failed leaders, they also back into the prescriptive to dos that can either help leaders avoid these issues or take the corrective action needed to be a successful leader.

Stark and Kelly take a very nuts and bolts approach and don’t get bogged down in a lot of leadership theory or fantastical programs that readers will need to follow. This isn’t brain surgery; it’s what should be a common sense way to approach being a successful leader and build a high quality organization and team. As I read worked my way through the book I noticed I was creating a list of my former leaders who could have benefited greatly from Stark and Kelly’s straight forward guidance. The question becomes do I want to deliver a few anonymous gifts to these folks?

Whether you are aspiring to leadership and looking for a road map to being successful in that endeavor or a veteran of the C-Suite, Why Leaders Fail, is one of those handy tools you can keep within reach as a reminder of not only the things to do, but the things to avoid. If you are one of those folks who set out with the best of intentions and buy books on leadership to improve or advance your skillsets, but then find your interest waning as you get bogged down in the minutiae, at just over 150 pages, Why Leaders Fail, cuts out the fluff and cuts to the chase. These are actionable steps you can implement today.