Avainsana: Johtaminen

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Taleb: Skin in the Game

About the book

Aim of the book is to be practical discussions, philosophical tales and scientific and analytical commentary on the problems of randomness under uncertainty.

How was the book?

This book is for all the people who live in Ostrobothnia in Finland. All the people who thinks that ”moon oikias, soot vääräs” should read this. The Skin in the Game is a perfect book for them. Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes as everybody else would have wrong opinions. He intended the book to be an oversensitive bu***t detector. He says that the book came after a deep unplanned flirtation with mathematics. Unfortunately the first 40 pages were explanation what the book is about and how Taleb gave birth to it. For me it was a bit too much. Nevertheless I enjoyed reading the book.

What are the key learnings?

If I would have to draw a word cloud of the book it would certainly use three words – freedom, trade-offs and rationality. Putting your skin in the game you are making trade-offs with your freedom and sometimes rationality plays no role. 

Topics of the book are:

  • uncertainty and the reliability of knowledge, 
  • symmetry in human affairs, 
  • information sharing in transactions and 
  • rationality in complex systems and in the real world.

For Taleb skin in the game is about justice, honor and sacrifice. Things that that are existential for humans. Core of the book is rationality and risk bearing. Rationality resides in what you do and it is about survival. Rationality is also risk management.

 Important in the book are thinking flaws and what kind of people there are. The thinking flaws that Taleb brings up are:

  • Incapable of thinking in second steps and unawareness of the need for that
  • Incapable of distinguishing between multidimensional problems and their single-dimensional representations and
  • They can’t forecast the evolution of those one helps by attacking.

There are types of Skin In The Game people:

  • No skin in the game people are those who keeps the upside, transfers downside to others, owns a hidden option at someone’s else’s expense. For example consultants or corporate executives.
  • Skin in the game people are those who keeps his own downside, takes his or her risk. For example entrepreneurs or citizens.
  • Skin in the game of others or soul in the game are those who takes the downside on behalf of others, or for universal values. For example saints, artists, innovators, journalists who expose frauds.

Taleb’s characterization of people is so interesting that the following quote summaries his thinking. ”Beware of the person who gives advice, telling you that a certain action on your part is ”good for you” while it is also good for him, while the harm to you doesn’t directly affect him.” So there is asymmetry of advice is when it is applied to you but not him. As Romans were fully aware, one lauds merrily that merchandise to get rid of it (Horace). Advice and sales should be kept separately. But if the asymmetry or symmetry exists in sales, so how much should the salesperson tell to the buyer? Laws come and go; ethics stay.

 In the same context Taleb sees that peoples thinking and actions should go hand in hand. Those who do should talk and only those who do should talk. Things designed by people without skin in the game tend to grow in complication (before their final collapse). Like Nokia’s strategy department did. Non-skin-in-the-game people don’t get simplicity. Without skin in the game everybody is dumb. If you do not take risks for your opinion, you are nothing.

 Putin against heads of NATO countries is one example of asymmetry. Putin does not have to be re-elected and he does not have to act with the same rules. On the other hand NATO heads have to be thinking what his or hers statements means for his re-election.

 When we think about symmetries or asymmetries we must bear in mind four things:

·       Unconditional symmetry is base of democracy.

·       Symmetries between people and transaction – an eye for one eye.

·       Rhodian law – all must be made up by the contribution to all.

·       Silver rule symmetry: you can practice your freedom of religion so long as you allow me to practice mine.

Minorities are one important form of asymmetries. According to Taleb the dominance of minority has led to manifesto of dictatorship of the minority. For example halal meat or kosher drinks are more widely used than the minority. Lingua franca i.e. English is used as corporate language, because the entry-level of starting to use English is smaller than training everybody to use a new language. This is a case example of asymmetry is our time. Renormalization rule is one form that exist in the minorities’ eco-system. Renormalization means that everybody is using a minority product – lactose free dairy products, halal meat or kosher. To win the game you have to win only small proportion of users and you will get the vast majority as well. Sound, but controversial thinking and maybe a solid marketing strategy.

How minorities rule and make change happen? Societies evolve when few courageous people want to move the needle. ”All one needs is an asymmetric rule somewhere and someone with soul in the game.” Or as Alexander the Great has legendry said – ”I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” Meaning that there is a value for active, intolerant and courageous minority. That is short, but elegant summary How Taleb sees people. 

Taleb spends few pages around a concept what he calls ”Intellectual Yet Idiot”. Taleb is suggesting that for example Richard Thaler is a intellectual yet idiot, because of his nudge theory. Btw what is IYI? According to Taleb it is ”one IVY league degree one vote” against one man one vote. Anyways Talebs critic might be in place, but having read The Nudge book I would argue that Taleb and Thaler have different motives. Thaler want’s to help us making positive action. Taleb want’s to grow the readers to become non-traditional thinkers and finding new perspectives. Strategy vs. execution?

Thomas Piketty and his books gets also his share of the IYI analysis. Piketty’s analysis is also seen flawed, because inequality works the other way around according to Taleb. He sees that year to year changes does not happen in the knowledge economy and the people belonging to the ne percent do not change. So the winner takes it all and Piketty does not understand that. According to Taleb. And maybe he is right. The one percent has different tools to protect their wealth than the blue collar workers have in order to accumulate his wealth. 

Taleb is also playing the violin of change in our globalized society. He points out that currently we are witnessing Uberization, birth of city-states and Black Swans. Uberized is a process of being disintermediated. City-states are growing and it will give birth of new governance. What has survived has revealed its robustness to Black Swan events and removing skin in the game disrupts such selection mechanism.

How should we change according to the book?

Why Romans had a slave as a treasurer? Because the laws for a freeman were different compared to a slave. The slave had more skin in the game. Taleb didn’t write this as self-help book, but I think that we can learn from these great ideas that he has. Concept of freedom, risk taking, envy and income mobility might be one of the ideas that might help us change.

Today the best slaves are those who you overpay and the modern slave knows that. For example expat strategy. Even extreme freedom is not freedom, because there lies also a risk. Employees are reliable by design, but you should not trust their ability to make hard decisions, because they are afraid of the risks. For example the tale by Aesop where the ass don’t want the collar of the dog although it gets all the meals. Eventually the free ass was eaten up by a lion. That is real skin in the game. Freedom is never free and life is full of trade-offs.

Salesperson and traders are manageable only when they are not profitable, in which case they were not wanted. When people turn into profit-centers, then no other criterion matters. And then people might turn into wolves again. Or risk takers which can lead that they are also socially unpredictable people. One way to show your freedom is to curse – for example in Twitter. That way you show that they are also competent which is a low-risk strategy to show off. ”Risk takers take risks because it is in their nature to be wild animals.” 

Few notions about work and businesses. Why firms exist? Because it’s too costly to negotiate every transaction and that’s why companies hire employees (like for example The Oktoberfest dilemma). ”What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing.” The more you have to lose, the more fragile you are. So lovers of paycheck (employees) have significant skin in the game – their dependability and they have a reputation to protect. How to become financially secure? It’s not about means – it’s about lack of wants. ”F*** your money.”

Envy does not travel long distance or cross many social classes. Envy is apparently being upset that ”less smart” persons are much richer. Typically people envy people how are in the same level. Not the super-rich class. Envy you are more likely to encounter in you kin (Aristotle). So that’s why cobbler envys cobbler.

About income mobility Taleb has made interesting observation. Americans are far better well of than Europeans. American equality is that 10% of Americans will spend at least a year in the top 1 percent, and more than half of all American will spend a year in the top 10 %. But for example 60 % n the French list are heirs and third of the richest Europeans were the richest centuries ago. Make the rich rotate by forcing the rich to be subjected to the risk of exiting from the one percent? Are there mechanisms that is protecting the 1 %? Anyways this tells a bit different story about European and American income mobility.

Taleb’s book is flooding with quotations. Here is a small collection of those:

·       How to find hidden vulnerabilities – ask me why I don’t have a statue rather than why do you have one?

·       You can’t chew with somebody else’s teeth.

·       A bird in the hand is better than ten on the tree.

·       Madness is rare on individuals, but in groups, parties, nations, it is the rule. (Friedrich Nietzsche).

·       Action without talk supersedes talk without action.

What should I personally do?

Ultimate is when you have your skin and soul in the game.

Summary

The book in six words – ”Success is leading a honorable life”

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Doz & Wilson: Ringtone

About the book

The book by Yves L. Doz and Keeley Wilson is like a detective story. You know what will happen at the end of the story, but you don’t know where exactly did the crime happen.  

I served the mobile communications industry for 12 years and that’s why the ”Ringtone” book is very interesting piece of analysis to me. It’s like an analytical continuum for books such as ”Good to Great” or ”Leading Change”. I can remember great many historical dates and activities that this analysis presents.

How was the book?

In the case on Nokia and it’s mobile phone business we typically analyze the reasons for failure. But in this analysis there is also presented the reasons for the high-growth of the mobile phone business within Nokia. Somehow it is actually more interesting than the failure of the mobile phone business in Nokia. Wouldn’t you like to learn how to grow businesses more than how administer failure.

What are the key learnings?

I remember when I joined Nokia and the CEO of the company was Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. One of the most impressing moments was when I heard mr. Kallasvuo to end one of his speeches stating that ”Internet is our quest”. Well said, but it was not only our quest, but it was also our destiny.

Nokia didn’t go from good to great. It went slowly from great to bad and then to worse. The old Nokia was once hit by the Schumpetrian creative destruction and it happened long before the mobile era. So actually Nokia has in it’s 153 years of history met disruption at least twice. And survived from both occasions.

According to Doz and Wilson the reasons for success of the mobile phone business in Nokia were:

·       Porter’s theory of competitiveness of nations is one explanation why Nokia and Finland was struck with the phenomenal success.

·       Planetary alignment i.e. good luck.

·       And fragmented and localized structure on Finnish telecoms market.

I think that Nokia was lucky when it got involved in the development work of NMT and later in the development work of GSM specifications. For example roaming was invented in the NMT standardization process and it led to the service development of other complimentary services than voice calls. GSM Standard in was a great business plan for companies that were hungry enough to execute. Nokia with it’s greenfield operator customers were more hungry than the incumbent state owned telecom operators. Radiolinja was one of the hungry customers and so it became the first customer of Nokia for a digital network.

According to Doz and Wilson the reasons for failure were:

·       It was unavoidable a la Schumpeter.

·       Organizational evolution and adaptation gone astray.

·       Failure of management volition.

There is no single decision that explains the failure of Nokia Mobile Phones. It was merely mixture of different and multiple decisions that lead to prolonged deterioration of the mobile phone business. Nokia was declining way before the arrival of new competitors such as Android and iPhone. These competitors were in platform business, but Nokia was still in hardware business. Nokia was caught up with the ”Red Queen” effect. The Red Queen explained that ”My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.” Maybe Nokians should have also tried to learn to run other routes. And smarter?

What could have Nokia done differently in order to save it’s mobile phone business?

·       Create and stick with a software-first vision.

·       They should have create a strategy how to compete against Internet companies.

·       Develop proprietary operating system for Nokia.

·       Nokia didn’t have a theory how succeed.  

·       Integrate interdependent decisions.

·       Behave disciplined as the Good to Great companies did.

At the end of the book Doz and Wilson offers some factors that might have saved mobile phones businesss from total destruction:

·       Nokia kept doing the same thing for too long.

·       The innovation center should have been established much earlier to California.

·       MeeGo should have been developed much earlier and in faster pace.

There is also exhaustive list of management lessons which are by far the best outcomes of the research and analysis. My favorite findings are:

·       Success begets failure.

·       Success also breeds conservatism.

·       A new reality of different nature calls for a new strategy-making paradigm.

How should we change according to the book?

As mentioned this book is like a detective story and you don’t know when or where does the crime take in place. Bearing in mind that ”Nokia’s success in mobile phones was neither the fruit of a repeatable recipe, nor an accident”. Due to that reason the Ringtone is somehow a dull book to read, because I was certain that the research team would have found a repeatable recipe.

But we can learn from the book a great deal:

·       We should invest into the future megatrends.

o  As long as GSM specifications was the business plan everything was well. When they had to become a software-first company, the hardware-first attitude overruled the need for change.

·       Never forget your customer.

o  Time consumed in committees was away from the customer centric work. Key driver in change is that change management must never forget the customer.

·       Organizational changes need presence of management

o  Matrix organization and it’s barons turned against each other. They had to compete from the same resources and the leadership team failed to guide these teams. ”Organizations structures do not fail; management fails at implementing them” (Jay Galbraith).

The idea of matrix organization was sensible for Nokia, but it was poorly implemented. Matrix organization is not a dead end, but there are three ways to run a matrix:

·       arbitration,

·       negotiation,

·       decentralization & delegation.

Because Finns have a strong tendency towards consensus Doz and Wilson suggests that in Finnish matrix organizations there should be clear and speedy rules for decision making

Matrix organization managers needs different set of business skills. For example when matrix leaders pushback decisions to managers he needs:

·       collaborative skills,

·       a careful balance of collective interest and self-interest and

·       structural context to match.

What should I personally do?

Read Gary Hamel’s book called ”Competing for the future”.

Summary

The book in six words – ”Lieutenants should not turn into barons” (Jorma Ollila)

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Kim & Mauborgne: Blue Ocean Shift

About the book

Blue Ocean Shift (BOS) is a systematic process to move you from fierce competition to new markets. You should be looking at wide-open blue oceans, which are without bloody competition and which can also engages company’s workforce. Successful BOS is a humanistic process. It should legitimizes our fears and deal with the issues.

W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne are trying to empower managers to make the shift from red to blue ocean with practical guidance. With these methods you might even win by creating value-cost.

How was the book?

To start with – I’m somehow baffled. The Blue Ocean Strategy book was well advertised and  hyped decade 12 years. Even today you might find people talking about the Blue Ocean Strategy. Secondly the cases they are presenting are minimalistic or to be honest some cases are trivial. Thirdly they are seriously repeating points of views that could be well understood when mentioned only once. Too late, too little and too repetition?

When we forget these issues, I will gladly recommend the book for those who have not read the original Blue Ocean Strategy. It’s a big merit that Kim and Mauborgne have created the Blue Ocean concept. And with this book you get a workbook built within. Those who have already read the Blue Ocean Strategy, I would recommend to read something else unless the original book is your favorite.

What are the key learnings?

Blue Ocean Strategy is about market-competing moves and market-creating moves. It is like two oceans – red is market with fierce competition and blue is market with high growth and profit. Red ocean companies are bureaucratic and resistant to change just like the companies John P. Kotter and Jim Collins are trying to help. For example there is a story about Kimberley-Clark Brazil which is one of the great companies in the ”Good to Great” book by Jim Collins.

Kim and Mauborgne talk a lot about superior technology as one of the key drives of change. Compared to Collins who did not see tech as a driver for a transformation to a good to great company. Kim and Maubrogne combines these ideas and introduces a hybrid term of disruptive creation which combines for example both new technology and the creative usage of it.

Creative destruction by Joseph Schumpeter plays a vital role as a concept in the BOS although the real economic growth comes from the creation of new markets. For example blockchain could be one of those new technologies that enables new markets. The book uses different kind of examples. Such as how to reduce of the cost of petty criminals and prisons in Malaysia? How to define French fry maker market in France? How to create a youth orchestra in Iraqi and travel to international orchestra competitions? How long does it take to make the transformation? New French fry maker – ActiFry, was launched in two years. Iraqi and Malaysian cases ”were made in a year or so”. These and other examples illustrated how BOS works. Three key components to BOS:

1) Adopt a blue ocean perspective to expand horizon and seek for opportunities.

2) To have practical tools for market creation which helps the companies building commercially compelling new offering.

3) A bult-in process that empowers people to ”drive the process for effective execution.

Kim and Mauborge want’s to teach us how to move from market competing to market creating. BOS way of working is to identify and challenge the industry’s fundamental assumptions. Kim and Mauborge introduces five steps to create new markets are. These steps are based on their study about competition and blue oceans:

1. Get started with pioneer-migrator-settler map.

2. Understand where you are now with strategy canvas tool.

3. Imagine where you could be with buyer utility tool.

4. Find how to get there with six paths framework.

5. Make your move with blue ocean fair.

By the way the pioneer-migrator-settler map is kind of BCG Matrix which communicates to the management how fit the company is for the future. And ”to build a shared understanding of the likely consequences of inaction”. Anyways leaders are tied into two fundamentals. Firstly market boundaries and industry conditions are given. Secondly typically organizations make choice between differentiation and low cost. So you can’t offer value (differentiation) and low-cost (cheap) according to this thinking.

Nondisruptive creation can generate new markets like ringtones did for mobile entertainment, life coaching did for personal & professional lives, Sesame Street did for preschool market, Viagra solved dysfunctional erectile or Grameem Bank did with microloans. These did disrupt any market per se. So embrace nondisruptive and disruptive creation in strategic thinking. Comic Relief’s Red Nose-campaign and Salesforce.com’s web-based CRM are examples how to re-define the market and move to blue ocean. A growth model for market-creating strategy:

1. Breakthrough solution for existing problem.

2. Redifining an existing problem and solve it.

3. A brand-new problem and solution for that.

Blue ocean strategist do’s and dont:

• They do aim to make competition irrelevant.

– How to differentiate so that your offering cannot be benchmarked?

• They do focus on creating and capturing new demand.

– Search for new demand from noncustomers.

• They do aim to break the value-cost trade-off.

– They pursue differentiation and low cost, not either-or.

• They don’t take industry conditions as given.

– Industry conditions are created by individual companies and those can be changed by individual companies.

I feel again that I’m reading John P. Kotter or Jim Collins when Kim & Mauborgne starts to talk about humanness. For them it is to help people develop the confidence to act. Way to use humanness are:

1. Atomization = deconstruct the challenge and focus on solving them one at a time

2. Firsthand discovery = let people to discover for themselves the need for change (brutal facts)

3. Exercise of fair process = engagement, explanation and clear expectations.

With the BOS methodology you will create six different blue oceans with strategy canvases, business models, ERRC grids etc. Kim & Mauborgne have a lot of different kind of tools that are freely available for download from HERE. Just to get a glimpse of the tools I’ll present two – The Six Paths and ERRC.

Six-paths to open new value-cost frontier where you:

1. Look across alternative industries

2. Look across strategic groups within your industry

3. Look across the industry buyers and redefine the industry buyer group (Ogilvy & wife)

4. Look across complementary products and services

5. Rethink your functional-emotional orientation of your industry

6. Participate in shaping external trends over time

A useful tool is also the the ERRC grid <= the way you define your blue ocean. For example the hotel chain citizenM is worthwhile of reading on how to deeply the ERRC grid.

– Eliminate factors that are granted. For example citizenM eliminated front desk operations.

– Reduce factors that are below standards. For example citizenM reduced room size.

– Raise factors above the standards. For example citizenM raised the quality of the sleeping environment.

– Create factors that has not been offered. For example citizenM created check-in kiosks.

How should we change according to the book?

Obviously – if you are interested on creating new markets for you company – you should evaluate this methodology. While thinking about the possibility you could start the thinking from ”customer first” to ”noncustomer first”. Secondly we should never forget – today’s negatives can be turned into tomorrows positives. And when building the buyers experience in blue ocean – we should really experience the buyers experience.

What should I personally do?

Start thinking how to move your operations to areas where there is no competition (blue ocean). 

Summary

The book in six words – ”What we look for determines what we see.” 

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Collins: Good To Great

About the book

This book is pure gold even after 17 years when it was published published.

How was the book?

The Good to Great book by Jim Collins is a story about eleven companies and their comparison companies. But eventually it’s more about people than systems, more about how to facilitate growth than maximizing profit and more about companies that existed in the pre-Internet era.  People and especially the right people are in the heart of the book. Passionate, disciplined and willing to prevail right people. Those people who can execute disciplined actions within the Hedgehog Concept. Then there is the another story about ”exploration and description of the pieces of the buildup-to-breakthrough flywheel pattern” i.e. how to facilitate enduring growth in greatness.

What are the key learnings?

What are great companies? Those are companies that have had cumulative stock returns beating the market on average 6,9 times.

How to become a great company. First you need time from 10 to 20 years. Then you need a board of directors who know what you are doing. And then:

·      You need a Level 5 leader.

·      Get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus.

·      Remember the Stockdale Paradox.

·      Brutal facts.

·      Find you Hedgehog Concept.

·      Make disciplined decisions and actions.

·      The Flywheel loop.

After all this your company is on it’s way from good to great and built to last.

How to describe a great company?

·      Typically the CEO comes from inside.

·      Compensation was not a key driver.

·      Strategy work didn’t differ from other companies.

·      They focused also on the what-not-to-do.

·      Technology was accelerator, but not the cause of transformation.

·      M&A played no role.

·      Scant attention on leading change.

·      No revolutionary process behind the transformation.

·      And greatness was ”matter of conscious choice”.

I will elaborate few topics in more detail such as The Hedgehog Concept and the right people. Let’s start with leadership and right people. Leadership accounts in the transformation from good to great. In these companies leadership rest on two main factors – humility and fearless, modesty and will. Level 5 leader is like a servant leader.

When talking about people Collins scrutinized always about the right people. It all starts from disciplined people. The right people. What do right people want? They want to be part of winning team. Right people are according to Collins people who are disciplined and understand the meaning just like Viktor Frankl descripes. About discipline you must first understand that culture of discipline is born from the work ethic and lack of discipline creates need for bureaucracy. So right people are on the bus, because of the other right people. They don’t need to be motivated and ”great vision without great people is irrelevant”. Collins states that right people is your most important asset. And rigorous people management comes from three practicalities – ”when in doubt, don’t hire – keep looking”, ”when you know you need to make a people change, act” and ”put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems”.

The Hedgehog Concept is the turning point for the good to great companies. The Hedgehog name sounds childish, but it’s actually something that sticks. You cannot become a good to great company without the Hedgehog Concept. So read this very carefully, because with the Hedgehog Concept you will prevail. The Hedgehog concept is like the business idea for a good to great companies. For Wahlgreen the Hedgehog concept was drugstores with high profit per customer visit. Also passion is key ingredient in the concept, so do not think it’s only something that you can measure. And how long does it take to develop a Hedgehog Concept. Typically it took four (4) years for the good to great companies in order to get their Hedgehog concept right.

After you have found your Hedgehog concept you should start spinning the flywheel. It also requires time and effort to get it turning, but when it does start turning it will pay dividends. But avoid the doom loop by changing the direction of the flywheel. Learnings from the doom loop: 

·      ”You absolutely cannot buy your way to greatness”, because two turkey’s won’t make an eagle.

·      The new CEOs typically stop the flywheel process. Obviously backed up by the board of directors.

Doing deals is exciting and that’s why comparison companies had a ”when the going gets tough, we go shopping”-attitude. In good to great enterprises the acquisitions where used after the Hedgehog and the flywheel had built momentum. The executives of good to great companies wanted to accelerate their business after they knew what they were doing.

How should we change according to the book?

More relevant question would be that how to become a great company in today’s business environment. Collins states that ”technology cannot turn a good enterprise into a great one, nor by itself prevent disaster”. 80% of the interviewed executives did not mention technology as a transition factor on becoming a great enterprise.

How about today? Internet technology and it’s applications are pervasive. Did Collins miss this trend? Isn’t the Internet bigger phenomenon than other tech trends that good to great companies deployed? Is technology today merely an accelerator or the cause? Somehow Collins is on the top of the technology when he talks about Boeing. Technology was an accelerator while he analyzed the Boeing’s change from military segment to commercial segment, but I think that he still underscores the essence of Internet. I suppose that the Internet is the commercial airline of worlds boeings. Maybe today we should promote technology to the agenda for the companies on their way from being a good to a great.

To be fair let’s not forget the story about Wahlgreens and Drugstore.com. It was supposed to eat up Wahlgreens businesses. Well, that didn’t happen, because Wahlgreens was a good to great company and Drugstore.com was not. Eventually Wahlgreens bought it

Great enterprises never talked about competitive strategy. They were minding their own business, not competitors. They were not driven by fear. And they were driven by the aspiration of becoming better all the time. This trait is something that can be recognized extremely well from companies minding their own businesses.

What is the key ingredient to ensure that the good to great company will become a built to last company also? In short it’s the core values. ”Core values are essential for enduring greatness, but it doesn’t seem to matter what those core values are”. And how long does it take? For example the buildup-to-breakthrough took two year’s for Fannie Mae’s, but for Circuit City’s it took nine year.

At the end of the book Collins asks ”why greatness?” He replies with two answers – it’s as hard to build a good as it’s hard to build a great company. Secondly we are all looking for meaning and in the great companies people tend to know the meaning. This is what the Good to Great book is all about it. Read it!

What should I personally do?

Five things I should elaborate:

·      ”Sell the mills”.

·      Should I form a council which should iterate at least three times. ”It will not happen overnight”. 

·      Why not do my own ”stop doing”- list? Focus on continual improvements around selected areas.

·      Avoid hoopla and show evidence that the flywheel is turning – short-term wins. Just like Kotter is talking in book about Leading Change .

·      Remember why rinse the cottage cheese when the life is so good? Bank of America syndrome and it’s executive perks.

Summary

The book in six words – Good is the enemy of great. 

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Lauri Järvilehto: Tee itsestäsi mestariajattelija

Kirjasta

Jos kuvittelet palaavasi käsillä olevaan kirjaan – joskus, niin sitä kannattaa harkita paperisena luettavaksi. Hanki tämä. Perustelen paperiversion hankintaa käytettävyydellä sekä että se on näkyvillä muistuttamassa itsestään.

Minkälainen kirja oli?

Aina kun näet mielenkiintoisen kirjan, niin mietit että “onko tämä sen arvoinen?”. Lauri Järvilehdon kirja on sen arvoinen. Tämän kirjatyypin kirjoja julkaistaan Suomessa harvakseltaan. Ja tiiserinä voin sanoa, ettei myöskään näin hyviä. Mikä tästä kirjasta sitten tekee hyvän?

Mitkä ovat kirjan keskeiset ideat? 

”Älykkyys määräytyy sen mukaan, minkälaisia tuloksia saamme aikaiseksi”. Harmillisesti tämä ajatus löytyy kirjan lopusta, mutta siihen tiivistyy kirjan oppi.

Lauri Järvilehdon kirjassa on kaksi erityistä ominaisuutta. Kirjoittaja on tuonut ajatustensa tai neuvojensa tueksi myös tietoa. Sen lisäksi kirja sisältää pikaharjoitteita, joilla voit testata kirjoittajan neuvoja.

Hän aloittaa kertomalla, että ajattelu jakautuu kahteen koulukuntaan – aivo- ja ideakoulukunnaksi. Ajatukset ovat ideoita ja ne ovat aivojen prosesseja. Kirjassa siis yhdistyy kummatkin koulukunnat. Ajatukset saavat alkunsa tahdonvaraisesti, ruumiin sisäisistä muutoksista tai ympäristöstä. Ajatuksista pääsee myös eroon – sulkemalla ne, haarauttamalla ajatukset, niiden mahdottomuus tai muun ajatusprosessin katkaisemana.

Ajattelussa on aina mukana kertauksen laki – toisto vahvistaa ajattelua, ja assosiaation laki – kahden asian yhdistäminen. Oppiminen on tulos kun altistus ja kiinnostus yhdistyy. Ja oppiminen onnistuu jos altistat itsesi asioille mitkä kiinnostavat sinua. Tähän kun lisätään mielikuvaharjoitukset, niin hyvin ajateltu on puoliksi tehty. Eli mielikuvaharjoittelusta on hyötyä. Tässäkin täytyy muistaa, että tahdonvoima on rajallinen resurssi eli sitä ei pidä tuhlata kuten myös Walter Mischel on todennut vaahtokarkkitestejä tehdessään.

Toimintaamme ohjaa – järki, tunne ja intuitio. Ja kun intuitiota ohjaa tiedostamaton mieli mitä et voi ohjata toisin kuin tietoista mieltä. Jota voit ohjata. Tässä yhdistyy Kahnemanin havainnot S1- ja S2-ajattelusta.

  1. Intuitio käyttää tiedostamattoman mielen kaikki resurssit. Intuitio toimii kun olet alueella jonka tunnet ja olet tottunut. Silloin voi luottaa intuitioon. Vastaavasti intuitio ohjaa harhaan alueella jossa et ole hyvä. Silloin kannattaa käyttää rationaalisia ratkaisuja päätöksenteossa. Intuitiota voi kehittää mietiskelemällä omia ajatuksiaan tai opettelemalla uusia taitoja.
  1. Tunne-elämän tehokkaaseen analysointiin auttaa päiväkirja, johon kirjaat tunteita ja opit pääsemään eroon negatiivisista tunteista. Tunteet auttavat säilymään hengissä.
  1. Järki. Analyyttistä ajattelua voi opetella harjoittamalla matematiikka, logiikkaa ja argumentaatiotaitoja.

Kirjassa toistuu usein ideoiden arvo ja mielekkyys. Teet ideoistasi itsellesi tavoitteet, joissa rakennat itsellesi elämäntavoitteet tai esim. 1-5v. tavoitteet. Lohko ne pienemmiksi toimenpiteiksi, vaikka yhden päivän tasolle (1 pvä). Paras tapa saada hyviä ideoita on saada paljon ideoita (Linus Pauling). Ja tehokkain tapa on kerätä kaikki ideat talteen. Tavoitteiden toteuttamista auttaa optimismi, joka taas synnyttää positiivista todellisuutta.

Aivot ovat loistava paikka saada ideoita, mutta surkea niiden säilyttämiseen (David Allen). Siksi pitää:

  • tehdä paljon muistiinpanoja tai
  • piirtää ajatuksesi tai
  • tehdä miellekarttoja

Oppimisesta ja ihmismielen kaistanleveydestä Järvilehdolla on kaksi hyvää neuvoa. Opi tarpeeseen eli harjoita ”just in time”-oppimista. Se on tarpeeseen hankittava tieto, jota tukee kollektiivinen alitajunta. Aivoja ei kannata kuormittaa turhaan. Kykenemme kiinnittämään asiaan seitsemään asiaan huomiota kerrallaan. Sitä kannattaa varjella.

”Kutsumuksesi on siellä, missä taitosi kohtaavat maailman tarpeet” (Aristoteles).

Mitä meidän pitäisi tehdä kirjan perusteella?

Ota käyttöön mestariajattelijan ABC:

  • looginen päättely ja sen voit oppia opettelemalla esimerkiksi formaalin logiikan perusteet
  • lateraalinen ajattelu ja sitä voi oppia Edward de Bonon kirjoista
  • argumentaation taitoja ja tätä voit oppia Juhana Torkin Puhevalta-kirjasta
  • muistikirja, joka kulkee aina mukanasi

Mitä minun pitäisi itse tehdä? 

Opetella yksi uusi taito joka vuosi.

Yhteenveto

Tämä on samanlainen kirja kuin Chip & Dan Heathin ”Made to Stick”. Järvilehdolla on myös paljon pieniä harjoitteita, helppoja koonteja tai listoja asioista sekä hyviä sitaatteja. Toiseksi tähän kirjaan on miellyttävä palata aika ajoin. Kukaan meistä ei ryhdy mestariajattelijaksi yhdellä lukemalla?

Kirja kuudella sanalla – Jokaisen teon esi-isä on ajatus (R. W. Emerson).

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Endurance

About the book

This is not a typical book about leadership. If it ever was ment to be a book about leadership. But great many other books cover Shackelton’s expedition to the South Pole. And in those books this book is introduced in the light of leadership. So I had to read the original one.

How was the actual reading of the book?

Ernest Shackleton was no amateur. This was his third expedition to the South Pole. He spent over four years planning and preparing for this expedition. Leaders of such expeditions must be an extraordinary leader of men. Let’s look at him in detail.

Ernest Shackelton was 40 years old during this mission and he died already when he was 47 years. Shackletons family motto was ”By endurance we conquer”. He was described was romantic, utterly self-reliant and little swashbuckling (rämäpää) as an explorer. And purposeful. But as a person he was described as flamboyant. He had monsterous ego and implacable drive. Critics said that he was immature and irresponsible. Are these typical traits for a great leader? Well, for him at least.

Shackleton motives for the expedition were not all romantic. He was also after the social position and the financial rewards it included. As such we could conclude that he was a start-up entrepreneur of his time. 

About his team mates. Frank Wild was chosen a second-in-command and he was opposite to Shackleton. They formed a perfect match. Plus they had been in the Pole twice before the Endurance expedition. The method of selecting other newcomers in to the expedition was described as capricious. Looks of the men was crucial in the selection process. Shackelton did use some funny questions. Such as the conditions of teeth or can one sing. Maybe Shackleton used the five seconds method for deciding the fit of the man? Nevertheless his decisions proved to be right.

Leadership is a statement.  And that Shackelton knew. One have to show example for others. And this was Shackelton in person. For example left his golden cigarette case and bible behind when they abandoned their ship. In the same circumstances a seaman called Hussey was ordered to take his banjo with. Mostly because singing kept the spirit up. Third example could be that Shackelton wanted to give the credit for begin the first man setting his foot in the Elephant Islands to one of the seamen called Blackboro.

Basic trait for Shackleton was to keep the team close-knit and under his control. He was afraid of demoralization. It was his way to ensure that he could safely lead the team. He also wanted to conduct similar duties as others. And he did not want to have privileges. But he was aware of his responsibility and that created a aloofness for him.

If the mission started for monetary and social reasons, it turned out to be a rescue mission. Invincibility was Shackelton’s main purpose while trying to rescue the mission from the icy hell.

This is not a book about leadership. It’s a story about life and death.

What are the key learnings of the book? 

Shackelton’s book has been hailed, because of his leadership skills. I not denying that those elements are there, but to me this book is also about endurance. Nearly every page addresses endurance. And maybe every tenth page addresses leadership.

Key learnings can be categorized into five findings and a strategy:

Responsibility

  • Responsibility is a pervasive act.
  • A true leader takes everything account. 

Smells like team spirit.

  • It’s crucial to understand different personalities and how they operate within a community.
  • Keeping the spirit up is a skill that a leader should acquire.

Less privileges, more leadership.

  • Leading the change or people or a company is an act, not a project.          

Endurance

  • How a team of people will survive in harsh conditions and what is the the formula.
  • They all had assigned duties for every day and there was organized mangement & leadership. That kept them going.
  • Just like in Viktor Frankl’s story about his survival from the Auschwitz.

How should we change according to the book?

Maybe we should learn how Shackelton sacrified himself to rescue his men. Not because they could not have handled it, but because Shackelton was the leader and that way responsible of the expedition. And especially responsible for the lives of his crew. 

What should I personally do? 

Learn or understand how different personalities operate within a community.

Summary

The book in six words: Hope is the fuel for the bravery.

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The Marshmallow Test

Walter Mischel: The Marshmallow Test

About the book

Again this time I read the book in Kindle format. It reminded me a lot of the days I was studying psychology. Expect this book is written in with individual touch by the way that the writer shares his own personal experiences. In that sense it’s more a self-help book than a course book for studying psychology.

Shakespeare: ”All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.”

How was the actual reading of the book?

Mischel has divided the book into three parts. First one explains results of different studies. Second part dives into different solutions. The third one is summary and conclusions.

Reading of the book is inspiring. It’s just like Kahneman’s great book. Scientific without the academic nuances. Mischel’s main theory can help people to understand his or hers hot and cool actions. Hot actions are temptations and cool decisions are rational choices. It also gives a great opportunity to develop different strategies for personal development or even ways to work with other people’s development. Especially children. The book could be also seen as tutorial to psychology. The reader can scratch the surface of behavioristic psychology without bothered any heavy lectures of main stream theories. 

Less inspiring the book is when the writer shares the same observations in different forms. Luckily the writer points out why some observations are delt numerous times.

What are the key learnings of the book? 

Key learnings can be categorized into four main elements: 

It’s all about self-control

  • Beating your personal best becomes the moving target
  • Self-control is a skill and that can be learned 

Now vs. later?

  • You have a winning formula if you have sense or understanding that potentially later will bring better results than now.
  • You will fulfil your goals if you have the self-control and motivation work based on the understanding
  • The more you can connect to future of yours, the more you are willing to invest into the future 

Pursuing goals and behavior

  • Behavior is crucial for pursuing goals and it can be predicted and steered.
  • Strategies and tools for personal development are easy to access. Understanding ones actions can be monitored with diaries and based on the findings one can develop if-then –strategies.
  • Age is not an obstacle on having a good working memory. By exercising and minimizing loneliness one can keep the working memory up and running.
  • By pre-living different situations you can understand the end-results of your actions  

Fundamental value of self-control is to cool now and heat the later.

  • Self-control is a key to success. It starts a process that cools ones thinking and regulates hot thinking.
  • If one can delay urge to fulfil temptations, most probably one can also see the benefit of delayed gratification. And by that way he can pursuit higher goals than just fulfilling temptations.
  • Are low delayers losers? Yes, based on the data. But no if they can develop ways on steering their own behavior. We all have our personal behavioral signature which triggers if-then –patterns. Knowledge of different if-then -strategies will help to delay unwanted temptations.

How should we change according to the book?

We should not overvalue the immediate rewards and discount the value of delayed rewards. Dollar today is worth more that dollar tomorrow?

What should I personally do?  

I should study the things that I’m not good at (ref. Carl Jung).

Summary

Walter Mischel sheds light to an important phenomenon of human beings. His studies can build foresight into our actions. Based on Mischel’s book we can:

  • Understand our self-control abilities and measure our willpower capabilities
  • Analyze our hot and cool areas of decision
  • Make an if-then –plan to resist unwanted hot decisions and to endorse desired cool decisions.

The book in six words: Find and develop your behavioral signature

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A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court By J. Wooden

About the book

This time I read the book in Kindle format. The chapters are fairly short and the e-book format works well with Wooden’s thinking.

How was the actual reading of the book?

Wooden is very frank and humane. He uses less superlatives compared to a typical business book. This book can be easily read in a weekend.

What are the key learnings of the book? 

 The key learnings can be summarized as following:

  • Two sets of threes 
    • Wooden’s father had simple rules about honesty and adversity. Honesty goes like “never lie, never cheat and never steal”. Adversity rules are “don’t whine, don’t complain and don’t make excuses”. For a Finn these rules are obvious
  • The goal is a by-product 
    • Coach Wooden sees that making your best has an end-result – achieving your goals.
  • Seek small improvements every day
    • And the key to goals lies in small improvements which can be achieved every day.
  • Think big is too strong for kids
    • But achieving goals should be fitted into ones resources. Small dreams for those who have small resources. Big dreams for those who have big resources.
  • Did I make my best effort?
    • That’s what matters

How should we change according to the book?

In great many ways, but from this book you can find the baby steps of improvement. I would highlight two essential learnings that can turned into everyday guidelines.

First is that the doer makes mistakes. John Wooden believes that the team which makes most mistakes will probably win. Doing and learning goes hand in hand in Wooden’s thinking. The second one is to learn forever, die tomorrow. If you want to turn Wooden’s philosophy in an equation it might look like this: Idealism + Realism + Hard work = More than you can hope

What should I personally do? 

Promise to talk health, happiness and prosperity.

Summary

Not too many times you come up with a writer like John Wooden. His humane attitude and great reputation as a coach underlines the soft ways of coaching teams into greatness. Compared to Kahneman’s book this book is about team leadership in plain English.

All in all it is a great book if you have recently read only hard-core business books. A short book, but a welcomed book about coaching. And you ask from yourself every day….

The book in six words – Did I make my best effort?

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Thinking, fast and slow

Daniel Kahneman

Me and my book club

I’ve been member of a book club for four years. Book club has eleven members and they are also business professionals of various discipline and industries. We gather once a month or every other month. The meetings are standardized. We have the same procedure and standard questions. This time I took a challenge. I would make written notes of the book, not just underline interesting topics. I also decided that I would document my analysis. So here we go…..

About the book

In the age of Twitter a book that has nearly 500 pages must be worth the time. While this a book that requires your full attention, it is in the same time intellectually rewarding and also fun. I could sometimes hear Kahneman giggle. For example his equation about martial stability – “frequency of lovemaking minus frequency of quarrels. You don’t want your result to be a negative number”.

How was the actual reading of the book?

Sometimes writers with a position in the academia have a cumbersome way on expressing themselves. That is not the case of Kahneman. He has forgotten his discipline and is writing in plain English. Secondly he lures readers on thinking different what-if –scenarios. For example when explaining how System 1 or 2 operates he let’s us test ourselves with different tests. Thirdly it is quite difficult to come up with negative comments of the contents. Sometimes he get’s carried away with his statistical analysis, but that happens fairly seldom. And sometimes the describing of the designing of different tests are less interesting. But nevertheless he carries readers easily through those parts also.

What are the key learnings of the book? 

I will skip all the key lessons and dive straight into learnings. Key learnings are: 

  • Want to be well-being?
    • Goals are key into well-being. Think about your goals before dreaming being satisfied and well-being.
  • Don’t want to regret anything?
    • Know you loss aversion and create a risk policy.
  • Want to be realistic?
    • Legitimize doubts
  • Would you like to be optimistic?
    • Sorry, the optimistic attitude is inherited

How should we change according to the book? 

Actually Kahneman points out in the last page of the book an elegant answer to this. Firstly organizations make less errors, because they can think more slowly and the way of working is organized. Secondly organizations have read their “Checklist Manifestos” and they do have checklists. Organizations can do forecasting. Last, but not least. Organizations are deploying premortem – analysis of failure.

What should I personally do? 

This is easy. Set new goals. 

Summary

Thinking, fast and slow by D. Kahneman is one of the TOP3 business books I’ve read so far. The crip of the book is intense and will not let you down. Every page is worth turning, because you cannot wait the findings Kahneman has made. It’s intellectually challenging. It’s well written. One can easily imagine how to use the learnings. And would also argue that the wealth of the wisdom of the book might be everlasting?

The book in six words – top three business book of our lives.

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Yksin seitsemällä merellä

🔵 Suomi on avomeripurjehduksen suurvalta? Ainakin minä toivon niin, että Lehtinen aloittaa uuden aikakauden.

✅ Lehtisen purjehdusfilosofiaa on hauskaa opiskella kirjasta, miten hän kertoo siitä ja kuinka sitä kilpailun aikana koetellaan.

✅ Tavallaan hänen tarinansa muistuttaa Shackletonin ja Amundsenin seikkailuja. Loppuvaiheessa Lehtinen seilasi Atlantilla ilman kaasuhellaa, kone rikkoutuneena, akut eivät lataudu ja vessapaperi on loppu.

✅ Vuoden mittaisen purjehduskilpailun opit on helppo kiteyttää neljään ja puoleen totuuteen:
1) Valmistaudu ajoissa.
2) Ota kaikkea mukaan kaksi ellei peräti kolme.
3) Ystäviä ei ole koskaan liikaa, kun lähdön hetki lähenee.
4) Veneen tiivisteisiin eikä toisten puheisiin kannata luottaa – tarkasta kaikki itse.
4 ½) Merta ei saa roskata.

✅ Olen lukenut Tompen, Hjalliksen ja muiden suomalaisten avomeripurjehduskokemuksista. Tapion tarina ei häviä muille maailman ympäripurjehtijoille, koska tämä tarina on kertaluokkaa sivistyneempi.

✅ Vuoden mittaisessa yksinpurjehduskilpailussa auttaa toki, jos olet osallistunut aikaisemmin maailman ympäripurjehduskilpailuihin. Lehtinen oli osallistunut Skopbank of Finlandin miehistössä Whitbread Round The World-kisaan.

🔴 Jos jotain negatiivista pitää keksiä, niin Tapio oli viimeinen maaliin saapuja.