Explore every episode of the podcast Steph's Business Bookshelf Podcast
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to Work With (Almost) Anyone by Michael Bungay Stanier | 05 Jun 2023 | 00:18:55 | |
Liked this? Subscribe to the bookmark newsletter to receive more book, podcast, music, and tech recommendations straight to your inbox every month. About the book The quality of your working relationships determines your success and your happiness. Stop leaving it all to chance. Build relationships that are safe, vital, and repairable. One essential conversation. Five powerful questions. Your chance to build the best possible relationships with all the people who matter Source: https://www.mbs.works/how-to-work-with-almost-anyone/ About Michael I’ve written books that have sold about a million copies all told, including The Coaching Habit, a self-published book that’s become the best-selling book on coaching this century. I founded a training and development company, Box of Crayons, that has taught coaching skills to hundreds of thousands of people around the world. I love that it’s a human-centered place to work, and that it practices what it preaches. But wait! There’s more! I’ve been happily married for 30 years or so; I was a Rhodes Scholar; I’ve created a book in partnership with Seth Godin that raised $400,000 for Malaria No More; I’ve been named #1 Thought Leader in Coaching and a Coaching Guru; I’ve launched several podcasts; I’ve spoken live and virtually to crowds of thousands… Source: https://www.mbs.works/about/ Listen to Michael talk to Brené Brown about the Advice Trap
Big ideas
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| What I read in April 2023; pre-releases, comedy, and books I didn't finish | 01 May 2023 | 00:14:46 | |
It's April, and it's been a funny month of starting books, not finishing books, and desperately trying to squeeze books in so that I did finish them. So here we are; two books read, two books retired, and two books in progress. This month I'm talking about... Books I read Books I didn't finish Tell me what's on your reading list Hey, have you subscribed to the bookmark newsletter? If you liked this, you might like my monthly email with book reviews and ideas of what you should be reading, and listening to, next. Click here to subscribe. Support my book habit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/stephsbookshelf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. | |||
| What's on my TBR: eight books I want to read before the end of the year | 30 Oct 2022 | 00:12:01 | |
Subscribe to the bookmark newsletter for twice-monthly book and listening tips in your inbox. This week's episode is a little different as I wanted to tell you about some of the books I'm looking forward to reading, rather than about a book I've read. Here's the books on my TBR at the moment...
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| 2020 Wrapped Up: The five best books and podcasts of this year | 20 Dec 2020 | 00:24:42 | |
Five best books for 2020 Range by David Epstein Listen to the episode: Range by David Epstein: why you need to stop specialising Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/Range/9781509843503/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Listen to the episode: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: How powerful stories can change your life Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/I-Know-Why-Caged-Bird-Sings-Maya-Angelou/9780345514400/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile Listen to the episode: The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile: How wizards and gyms will make you more spiritual Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/I-Know-Why-Caged-Bird-Sings-Maya-Angelou/9780345514400/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Infinite Game by Simon Sinek Listen to the episode: Infinite Game by Simon Sinek: Why playing to win will make you lose Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Infinite-Game/9780241295595/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Listen to the episode: What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami: What you can learn about life from running Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/What-I-Talk-about-When-I-Talk-about-Running/9780307473394/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Five best podcasts for 2020 Tim Ferris Listen to the podcast: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Two of my favourite episodes Brian Koppelman on Making Art, Francis Ford Coppola, Building Momentum, and More (#424) Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify — Habits, Systems and Mental Models for Top Performance (#484) Wind of Change Listen to the series: https://crooked.com/podcast-series/wind-of-change/ Clever Listen to the series: http://www.cleverpodcast.com/ Two of my favourite episodes Ep. 119: Lettering Artist Lauren Hom Broken Record Podcast Listen to the series: https://brokenrecordpodcast.com/ One of my favourite episodes TOM PETTY’S WILDFLOWERS II WITH ADRIA PETTY Murder Ballads Podcast Listen to the series: https://open.spotify.com/show/13uPg0t3QrwppCHTNQ3aRW One of my favourite episodes Five other good things I liked in 2020 Two cookbooks Flavour by Yottam Ottolenghi Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/Ottolenghi-FLAVOUR-Yotam-Ottolenghi/9781785038938/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Falastin by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wrigley Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/Falastin-Cookbook-Sami-Tamimi/9781785038723/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf One fiction book Honeybee by Craig Silvey Buy the book: https://www.bookdepository.com/Honeybee-Craig-Silvey/9781760877224/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Two random things that have got me through Music By: Is this hip hop by LightBeats
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| This is Water by David Foster Wallace: The capital T truth-about life | 13 Dec 2020 | 00:11:12 | |
Listen to the full speech here: https://fs.blog/2012/04/david-foster-wallace-this-is-water/
About the Book: This is Water In this rare peek into the personal life of the author of numerous bestselling novels, gain an understanding of David Foster Wallace and how he became the man that he was. Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life, during a commencement address given in 2005 at Kenyon College. The speech is reprinted for the first time in book form in This is Water. How does one keep from going through their comfortable, prosperous adult life unconsciously? How do we get ourselves out of the foreground of our thoughts and achieve compassion? The speech captures Wallace’s electric intellect as well as his grace in attention to others. After his death, it became a treasured piece of writing reprinted in The Wall Street Journal and the London Times, commented on endlessly in blogs, and emailed from friend to friend. Writing with his one-of-a-kind blend of causal humor, exacting intellect, and practical philosophy, David Foster Wallace probes the challenges of daily living and offers advice that renews us with every reading. Source: Amazon About the Author David Foster Wallace wrote the acclaimed novels Infinite Jest and The Broom of the System and the story collections Oblivion, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Girl With Curious Hair. His nonfiction includes the essay collections Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, and the full-length work Everything and More. He died in 2008. Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/This-Is-Water-David-Foster-Wallace/9780316068222/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Source: Amazon
BIG IDEA 1 (4:23) – How to think This is about the things in our life that we don’t often talk about. Liberal arts degrees are often surrounded by the cliche that they teach you ‘how to think not what to think’. David said that we first need to decide what to think about, therefore not being taught about how or what to think. Closed-mindedness drives arrogance and leads to wrong ideas or thoughts. We get to choose what we pay attention to or what to think about, but too much time inside our head is a bad thing. Over analysing things is one of the bad things about liberal arts degree or any kind of higher education, because it often leads to over-intellectualising and getting stuck in your thoughts.
BIG IDEA 2 (6:36) – Things look and feel different to everyone. We need to ask more questions around why. Why do things look and feel different to everyone? Why is our experience in life different from what other people think and other people’s experience of life? We should also explore where we get our meaning from – the experiences or stories that lead us to believe one things over another. David talks about how we are the center of our own world, everything we’ve ever experienced has us at the centre. When we start putting our life in the center of everyone else’s life, it’s a problem. We need to free ourselves from the thought that we are the center of the actual universe, despite what our experience tells us. We have to have compassion for what other’s reality might be.
BIG IDEA 3 (8:15) – It’s within your power You get to decide. We have to learn to choose what gets our attention and what has meaning to us. We need to choose what we worship, whether it’s power, intellect, beauty or money. These things drive our behaviour and we will never feel satisfied or like we have enough of them, especially ones that diminish over time. Freedom is attention and discipline and the opposite is unconsciousness. Living by the standard set without the awareness of what’s going on. Real education is knowing what’s real. Knowing this is water. Music By: Is this hip hop by LightBeats
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| The Practice by Seth Godin: Why everything you thought you knew about creativity is wrong | 06 Dec 2020 | 00:17:24 | |
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About the Book The Practice Creative work doesn’t come with a guarantee. But there is a pattern to who succeeds and who doesn’t. And engaging in the consistent practice of its pursuit is the best way forward. Based on the breakthrough Akimbo workshop pioneered by legendary author Seth Godin, The Practice will help you get unstuck and find the courage to make and share creative work. Godin insists that writer’s block is a myth, that consistency is far more important than authenticity, and that experiencing the imposter syndrome is a sign that you’re a well-adjusted human. Most of all, he shows you what it takes to turn your passion from a private distraction to a productive contribution, the one you’ve been seeking to share all along. With this book as your guide, you’ll learn to dance with your fear. To take the risks worth taking. And to embrace the empathy required to make work that contributes with authenticity and joy. Source: https://www.amazon.com/ Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Practice/9780593328972/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
About the Author Seth Godin is the author of nineteen international bestsellers that have been translated into over 35 languages, and have changed the way people think about marketing and work. For a long time, Unleashing the Ideavirus was the most popular ebook ever published, and Purple Cow is the bestselling marketing book of the decade. He’s a recent inductee to the Marketing Hall of Fame, and also a member of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and (go figure), the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame. In addition to his writing and speaking, Seth was founder and CEO of Squidoo.com,. His blog (find it by typing “seth” into Google) is the most popular marketing blog in the world. Before his work as a writer and blogger, Godin was Vice President of Direct Marketing at Yahoo!, a job he got after selling them his pioneering 1990s online startup, Yoyodyne.
LINKS Previous Seth Godin books covered on the podcast Seth on Tim Ferriss talking about The Practice https://tim.blog/2020/10/26/seth-godin-the-practice/ Seth on Tim Ferriss talking about how how he manages his life, rules, principles and obsessions: https://tim.blog/2016/02/10/seth-godin/
BIG IDEA 1 (6:02) – Build a practice. Build a practice of your work, and practice it everyday with the mindset of a professional. Practice it even when you don’t know what the result will be. Success or good results are not guaranteed but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work towards it on a daily basis. We need to show up. Seth doesn’t believe in writer’s block. He believes that inspiration doesn’t show up unless we do. We have to turn up professionally, take things seriously on a daily basis, and that momentum and practice will avoid us feeling stuck. We need to start with a problem that we need to solve and then find out what the answer is. Without having an assertion or point of view we won’t do anything. By putting creative work out on a schedule, things like writer’s block don’t have time to exist, because we are showing up. BIG IDEA 2 (8:16) – Don’t be a hack. It’s not just about empathy or deeply knowing your customer but knowing WHO you’re even aiming to create value for. Because if you aim for the masses, you lose your point of view, your authenticity and quickly become a hack. So you need to know what market you’re in. You need to have a voice. You need to constantly ask who it is you’re creating for, and what will help your work become more appropriate for your audience. Don’t be a hack, know who you’re talking to and don’t worry about the rest. BIG IDEA 3 (10:24) – Be generous. Worry less about what other people think. Many of us allow our output or work to define us, meaning that any criticism of our work becomes a criticism of us personally. We need to become like lifeguards, they are not worried about what others think or say or worry about imposter syndrome when they jump into the ocean to save someone. They just do the work they need to do and do it in a generous way. It is also about not hiding yourself because you will miss the opportunity to be generous. We need to embrace discomfort, show up and do the difficult work. Just put yourself out there so others can benefit.
LINKS Also listen to Whatcha Gonna do With That Duck: Just keep shippin’ Seth on Tim Ferriss talking about The Practice https://tim.blog/2020/10/26/seth-godin-the-practice/ Seth on Tim Ferriss talking about how how he manages his life, rules, principles and obsessions: https://tim.blog/2016/02/10/seth-godin/
Music By: Is It Hip Hop by LightBeats
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| Own Your Career, Own Your Life by Andy Storch: why you need to take more responsibility for your career, and your life | 28 Nov 2020 | 00:16:14 | |
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About the Book "Own Your Career Own Your Life'' is an incredible reference manual for every person who wants to design a life they are truly proud and joyful to live! With stories that will engage you and make the book impossible to put down, resources that will become a part of your daily life, and ideas that will spur you on to a more successful life and career, this is the very next book you need to read!
About the Author Andy Storch is an author, consultant, coach, speaker and facilitator specializing in helping clients turn strategy into action and people doing the best work of their lives. Andy’s purpose is to love and support his family and to impact the world by inspiring people to stop drifting, take control and live life with intention. Andy is also the host of two podcasts, including The Talent Development Hot Seat and Own Your Career, Own Your Life (previously the Andy Storch show), and the co-founder and host of The Talent Development Think Tank Conference and Community. Andy is also the author of the book, Own Your Career Own Your Life. Andy has taught strategy, sales, leadership, finance, and innovation to business leaders all over the world including companies like Salesforce.com, Oracle, Google, Box, Toyota,, State Farm, Red Bull, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, HP, Sony, Bechtel, Cisco, Tiffany & Co and others. Andy is a partner with Advantage Performance Group. He holds an MBA from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business where he served as President of the MBA program in 2008 and a BS from the University of Florida (Go Gators!) Most importantly, Andy is a husband, father and friend who is on a mission to get the absolute most out of life and inspire others to do the same. Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Own-Your-Career-Own-Your-Life-Andy-Storch/9781736020906/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Links: Listen to Andy Storch Podcast First Time Facilitator Podcast Episode 118: They arrive for the content (and stay for the connections) with Andy Storch Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
BIG IDEA 1 (5:25) - Ask for help Nobody is building a career or life alone. You need to ask for advice from mentors and coaches or look for informal ways of asking for help, such as asking people specific questions by email. The important thing is you have to take initiative, as you never know where it might lead. In the book, Andy shares examples of some of the challenges he’s overcome and how he did that by asking for help. There was a time Andy asked for sales advice from his friend and he ended up getting a whole new job. The important thing is you want to know what help you are asking for, and ask for it well. Go in with a plan, structure an outcome you’re looking to get and then ask the right person for help. This means you might need to expand your network.
BIG IDEA 2 ( 7:33) - Prioritise what matters You need to prioritise the actions you need to achieve the change you’re looking for. Andy gave examples of exercises, activities or thought provokers at the end of each chapter. He also talks about the important steps of setting goals, vision and strategy to achieve what it is you want to create. What you need is to prioritise the action that you need to take to create that change and improve something in your life. It comes down to the idea that nothing changes if you don’t. And what got you here, won’t get you there.
BIG IDEA 3 - Take responsibility This is the fundamental message throughout the whole book. Without responsibility, things will just happen to you. During the time of COVID, Andy looked at what he could control. What are the things that clients need now? How can I still serve them and do a great job? He also gave some examples in the book of some of the toughest feedback he received earlier in his career. His managers thought that it might not be the right role for him or the company structure might not be a fit for him. But he thought about how he can improve and what he can do about it, rather than just feeling like a victim. In the book there was a ‘no complaining challenge’. How much stuff are you complaining about that you could either ignore, let go or do something about? There are plenty of examples in the book about taking more responsibility like learning new skills before you need them, building your network, and doing things before you’re told to. Let’s Connect LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steph-clarke Instagram: @stephsbizbookshelf Enjoying the show? Please hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and leave a review on iTunes to help others find us. Support my book habit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/stephsbookshelf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. | |||
| Special Episode: Talking books with Steph Clarke and Kelly Irving | 22 Nov 2020 | 00:33:32 | |
Time for something a little different. This week, to celebrate the 100th episode of Steph’s Business Bookshelf (yes, you read this right, there was an episode zero, so episode 99 is the 100th episode) AND my birthday, I’ve invited a guest host onto the podcast… introducing, Kelly Irving. Kelly is an author coach who helps you unlock what’s inside your head, so you plan, write and publish your best book as fast, fun and pain-free as possible. She is obsessed with helping experts, CEOs and thought leaders, author work that matters and makes an impact. As a bestselling-book coach, editor, and creator of The Expert Author Academy, Kelly nurtures authors from idea to implementation. Her unique Write Book method, results in book awards and major publisher deals (she has never had a book rejected), and transforms businesses from 6 to 7-figure turnovers. Find out more about Kelly’s work here: https://www.kellyirving.com/ Join Kelly and I talking books, and tackle some of these questions:
Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
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| Think Like a Freak by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner: Why morals can get in the way of the right answer | 15 Nov 2020 | 00:13:11 | |
About the Book With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner take us inside their thought process and teach us all how to think a bit more productively, more creatively, more rationally. In Think Like A Freak, they offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems, whether your interest lies in minor lifehacks or major global reforms. The topics range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain. Along the way, you’ll learn the secrets of a Japanese hot-dog-eating champion, the reason an Australian doctor swallowed a batch of dangerous bacteria, and why Nigerian e-mail scammers make a point of saying they’re from Nigeria. Levitt and Dubner plainly see the world like no one else. Now you can too. Never before have such iconoclastic thinkers been so revealing—and so much fun to read.’ Source: https://www.amazon.com/ Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Think-Like-Freak-Steven-D-Levitt/9780062295927/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf
About the Authors Steven and Stephen are co-authors of the “Freakonomics” book series, which have sold millions of copies in 40 languages, and host of Freakonomics Radio, which gets 15 million global monthly downloads and is heard by millions more on NPR and other radio outlets. Steven D. Levitt is the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he directs the Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. In 2006, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 People Who Shape Our World. In addition to his academic and Freakonomics pursuits, he is a founding partner of TGG Group consulting firm. He lives in Chicago with his wife Jeannette and their four children. Stephen J. Dubner is an award-winning author, journalist, and TV and radio personality. Dubner’s journalism has also been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time and elsewhere. He has taught English at Columbia University, played in a rock band and, as a writer, was first published at the age of 11. He lives in New York with his wife, the docu mentary photographer Ellen Binder, and their children. Source: https://freakonomics.com/about/ Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR LINKS Freakonomics podcast No stupid questions podcast BIG IDEA 1 (5:27) – Correlation is not oranges. There are many examples in the book around correlation not equaling causation. A lot of things require second order thinking, the question of ‘what else’. One example in the book is the famous connection between falling crime rates and the legalisation of abortion, 18-20 years earlier. This shows that answers might be uncomfortable but it doesn’t mean they should be ignored or unexplored. By digging in a little bit deeper, we make better choices and decisions by using the right information. The authors say that we sometimes need to put away our moral compass when trying to find out what’s really happening. Because we might miss things that we don’t like, but it doesn’t mean they are not true. BIG IDEA 2 (7:46) – Ask the right questions. The right questions might include – what will happen next? There are some examples in the books around unintended consequences as a result of (what seemed like genius) problem solving. We need to ask what else could be causing this, or what else is contributing to this situation. There was an example in the book about children who are having difficulties at school. Initial thoughts were that these kids weren’t very smart or even lazy. Turns out they just couldn’t see the board at the front of the room. A quick and cheap fix of giving them glasses meant they were able to contribute in class and do much better. There was a whole chapter in the book about understanding the root cause of problems. And understanding whether the cause is really the effect, and whether you helped a symptom or cured the actual problem. This requires the ability to say ‘I don’t know’ because if you don’t, you won’t be able to ask better questions. And in turn, won’t get better answers and better solutions. BIG IDEA 3 (9:56) – Quit more. The very core of thinking like a freak is the ability to let go. It is letting go of the system, limits, of saying you don’t know and of first order thinking. This can also involve quitting bigger things like jobs, relationships or alcohol, whatever it happens to be. If in doubt whether to quit something or not, toss a coin. It turns out that tossing a coin on a decision can take away the idea of failure, because *we* didn’t fail and quit, the coin told us to do it. Importantly, by quitting more, we can offset the opportunity of carrying on with things that aren’t serving us anymore and waste time that could be spent on other opportunities, tasks, relationships and activities. Music: Is It Hip-Hop by Lighbeats
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| Dream Teams by Shane Snow: How to fight your way to working better together | 08 Nov 2020 | 00:16:21 | |
About the Book A journey through science and history to understand incredible teams and what makes them tick. In Dream Teams, award-winning journalist Shane Snow takes us on an adventure through psychology, neuroscience, business and more, revealing what separates groups that simply get by together from teams that get better together. You’ll meet rap groups, pirate gangs, buddy cops, pioneering women in journalism and the FBI, soviet hockey teams, outrageous artists and city planners, and the people behind social movements that changed the world. And much more! Source: https://www.shanesnow.com/dreamteams About the Author Shane Snow is an award-winning entrepreneur, explorer, and journalist who has helped expose gun traffickers and government corruption, explored abandoned buildings and sewers around the world, eaten only ice cream for weeks in the name of science, and taught hundreds of thousands of people to work better through his books, including the #1 business bestseller Dream Teams. Snow speaks globally about innovation and human behavior, has performed comedy on Broadway, and has been in the running for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism. His writing has appeared in GQ, Fast Company, Wired, The New Yorker, and more. He is currently a board member of the media technology company Contently, and the investigative journalism nonprofit The Hatch Institute. Source: https://www.shanesnow.com/about Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Dream-Teams-Shane-Snow/9780349420967/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:05) – Re-look at problem mountain Heuristics are the mental models or ways of thinking that we evolved to have in our minds. They impact how we perceive problems, people and our range of potential solutions. Our different experiences growing up, who we grew up with, where we grew up, languages we speak, gender or disability inform just some of the mental heuristics that influence our decision, behaviour and problem solving approach. Shane says that different people’s mental models or heuristics affect their perspective of a problem. And therefore we need to ‘cast the right crew’ to solve different problems. Our differences may be more or less relevant in different situations or types of problems. So it’s not about casting the same crew for every problem, but what is important is knowing what type of problem you are solving first, and then picking the best mix of people to solve it. BIG IDEA 2 (8:20) – The conflict paradox Conflict can be a predictor of progress in a relationship. A lack of conflict can indicate organisational silence, which can end up as inertia, inaction and halt progress. But what we need to know is what it is we’re actually fighting for, how to harness that and what we are trying to get to as a result of conflict, otherwise it becomes toxic and unhealthy. An example in the book is the Wright brothers who are known for their loud arguments as they were trying to solve their flying machine problems. They would switch sides regularly and argue really well which lead to them finding the right answer and solving the complex problems. Make sure that conflict is done in a healthy way, not personal attacks but a focus on getting to the right outcome and answer. BIG IDEA 3 (11:45) – Play for belonging Play creates points of connection, similarity and an opportunity for trust. In Argentina, the immigration of Jewish people and Europeans created significant tensions. However, it was a shared love of football that ended up bridging some of the cultural and religious barriers to bring people together. Despite not looking like each other, having different cultures and languages, customs and religions, they all loved football. It goes to show that something neutral can transcend generations, cultures, countries and languages can be the thing that connects people. Play breaks down barriers and allow people to have a point of similarity even when sometimes it seems like there’s none. Music: Is It Hip-Hop by Lighbeats
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| Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon: How to unlock your creativity and make better work | 01 Nov 2020 | 00:12:40 | |
About the Book An inspiring guide to creativity in the digital age, Steal Like an Artist presents ten transformative principles that will help readers discover their artistic side and build a more creative life. Nothing is original, so embrace influence, school yourself through the work of others, remix and reimagine to discover your own path. Follow interests wherever they take you—what feels like a hobby may turn into you life’s work. Forget the old cliché about writing what you know: Instead, write the book you want to read, make the movie you want to watch. And finally, stay Smart, stay out of debt, and risk being boring in the everyday world so that you have the space to be wild and daring in your imagination and your work. Source: https://www.amazon.com/
About the Author Austin Kleon is the New York Times bestselling author of a trilogy of illustrated books about creativity in the digital age: Steal Like An Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going. He’s also the author of Newspaper Blackout, a collection of poems made by redacting the newspaper with a permanent marker. His books have been translated into dozens of languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. He’s been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. New York Magazine called his work “brilliant,” The Atlantic called him “positively one of the most interesting people on the Internet,” and The New Yorker said his poems “resurrect the newspaper when everybody else is declaring it dead.” He speaks for organizations such as Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx, and The Economist. In previous lives, he worked as a librarian, a web designer, and an advertising copywriter. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and sons. Source: https://austinkleon.com/about/ Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Steal-Like-an-Artist/9780761169253/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
BIG IDEA 1 (5:33) – Nothing is original It is a fact that all new things are combinations or revisits of old ideas. And constantly wanting to do something original will stop you from doing anything, because you’ll be paralysed by the idea of needing to make something different, and likely end up doing nothing. So stop trying to create from nothing. And a little bit of intentional copying can be good, especially during the learning process. But start thinking about and analysing the thinking behind an idea, not just the final output or a piece of work (which will just be plagiarism). Nothing is original. You will undo yourself trying to create something new, which will be unhelpful and stop us from creating anything, never mind anything good.
BIG IDEA 2 (6:42) – 10 rules to unlock creativity The book is split into ten sections, or the ten underlying rules that Austin believes are at the heart of creativity and important to bear in mind.
BIG IDEA 3 (8:09) – Don’t throw any of yourself away During your life you have likely given a part of you away, to do your job or live the way you do. It might have been stopping a hobby or something you loved doing as a child. You may or may not notice how missing they are from your life until you start doing it again. It’s important to have hobbies to keep yourself sane. You might find special connections between the hobbies and the work you do. You may start seeing things in a different way, which can even help you do better work.
Music: Days of light by Simming
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| Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller: How to use enlightenment to create commitment | 25 Oct 2020 | 00:13:16 | |
About the Book An essential part of any marketing professional’s tool kit – this strategic and actionable guide shows you how to apply the renowned StoryBrand framework to your brand. Every day, brands lose millions of dollars simply because they do not have a clear message that tells consumers who they are and what value they will add to their customers’ lives. To solve this dilemma, Donald Miller wrote Building a StoryBrand, which has become the quintessential guide for anyone looking to craft or strengthen their brand’s message. Now, Don is taking it a step further with this five-part checklist that helps marketing professionals and business owners apply the StoryBrand messaging framework across key customer touchpoints to effectively develop, strengthen, and communicate their brand’s story to the marketplace. Source: https://www.amazon.com/ About the Author Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and every year helps more than 3,000 business leaders clarify their brand message. Combined, Don’s books have spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestsellers list. His books include: Blue Like Jazz, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, and Scary Close. Don is widely considered one of the most entertaining and informative speakers in the world. His audiences are challenged to lean into their own story, creatively develop and execute the story of their team, and understand the story of their customers so they can serve them with passion. Don’s thoughts on story have deeply influenced leaders and teams for Pantene, Chick-fil-A, Steelcase, Intel, Prime Lending, Zaxby’s, and thousands more. Don lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, Betsy, and their chocolate lab, Lucy. Source: https://www.amazon.com/ LINKS Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Marketing-Made-Simple-Donald-Miller/9781400203796/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
BIG IDEA 1 (4:06) – Have a marketing plan There are five steps to Don’s recommended marketing plan: 1. Brand script 2. One liner 3. Landing page 4. Lead generation PDF 5. Email list Don said that the more of these you put into place the better. The whole concept is helping your audience understand you. Don rebuilt his name, audience and influence by developing and putting this plan into place after losing everything he’d made from selling his first successful book. BIG IDEA 2 (5:48) – Three stages of relationship The three stages of relationship are curiosity, enlightenment and commitment. Curiosity is when people wonder who you are and how you can help them. They are curious about ‘what’s in it for me?’ Curiosity leads to enlightenment on how the product helps them. This stage is about educating your potential customers to reduce confusion. Because confused people are not going to buy your product or service. Enlightening / educating also helps build trust and influence. The lead generation PDF stage of the marketing plan is generally when you start the enlightenment phase of relationships, which is education. The final part is when the person is ready to make a decision and ready to commit. This could be providing their email address to join a mailing list or buying your product to solve their problem. Many businesses are still starting with the ‘why’ while this marketing model starts with the ‘what’ and the ‘how’. It is how you pique someone’s curiosity by talking about the difference you want to make to them and their business. BIG IDEA 3 (9:22) – Execute the plan More execution equals more results. There are examples in the book showing that execution of this approach works with both B2C and B2B business models. Don also shares how people who applied the method more, got bigger results because all of the elements work together instead of cherry picking from the five steps. If you don’t put them into place, you don’t consistently stick to it. You can use them not just on your website but also on social media channels and profiles. But as with anything, if you don’t execute the plan, it’s not going to work. Music: Chill Cool Driving Music by Sun Channel Music via Envato
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| Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott: Why you need to start being more weird | 18 Oct 2020 | 00:13:52 | |
About the Book For a quarter century, more than a million readers—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title. An essential volume for generations of writers young and old, Bird by Bird is a modern classic. Source: amazon.com
About the Author Anne Lamott is the New York Times bestselling author of Help, Thanks, Wow; Small Victories; Stitches; Some Assembly Required; Grace (Eventually); Plan B; Traveling Mercies; Bird by Bird; Operating Instructions, and the forthcoming Hallelujah Anyway. She is also the author of several novels, including Imperfect Birds and Rosie. A past recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an inductee to the California Hall of Fame, she lives in Northern California. Source: amazon.com Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Bird-By-Bird/9780385480017/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
BIG IDEA 1 (3:46) – Bird by bird, buddy This book was inspired by Anne’s father who helped her brother who had months to do an essay project at school about birds but inevitably left it to the last minute. Overwhelmed by the size of the task and the short amount of time left, her dad told her brother “Just take it bird by bird buddy, bird by bird”. However big the challenge is you just have to break it down, take it bird by bird and just get through. She said that in the context of writing, no writer she knows sits down feeling enthusiastic and confident but they do it – word by word, page by page. Anne said there’s treasure in the piles of chaos and mess, and we need to make that mess to find out who we are. She also said that nobody is reading your first draft or nobody needs to read it. So if you’re putting pressure on yourself to show your first draft (on social media / to friends or family), you’ll find it too overwhelming – keep it for yourself. On the topic of writer’s block she argues that you actually are not blocked but empty. So you need to fill yourself back up. It’s all about the process. Sit down at your desk and tackle your book, essay or anything, bird by bird. BIG IDEAS 2 (7:19) – Write to tell the truth Anne always encourages her students in writing classes to start with their childhood and write anything and everything they remember. The Christmas celebration where your Uncle got drunk, the dress that your Grandma used to wear, the smell of cooking coming through the door, everything you remember. Write it down. Anne says that you need to write as people talk. And to do this well, you need to go out and listen to people really talking. In your mind, think how you would write that conversation as narrative so it sounds like people really talking. By helping your characters create their own narrative, you find things out about your characters as you go along. The point of good writing is to create real characters with hopes and dreams. As a writer, you need to think as a writer and constantly observe and listen – you need to write the true representation of people. Observing and listening and capturing can be anything – from a snippet of a one-sided conversation when someone walks past you whilst on the phone, or the colour of someone’s hat at the supermarket. BIG IDEA 3 (10:11) – Be weird This book is full of irreverence, neurosis, quirks, hypochondria and general human weirdness. Anne gives voice to the weird things that we all say, feel, think and do but don’t always show or tell anyone. Because if something inside you is real, someone will probably find it interesting. This book is a perfect example of writing as a person that you really are not the person that you think you should be to write a book. This is very relevant to non-fiction writing where it’s likely easy to slip into the idea of who you ‘should’ be to be a non-fiction author, rather than writing from who you are.
On Writing by Stephen King: Why boredom is the key to great writing Music: In Pulse by Assaf Ayalon via Artlist
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| Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte: why you need to stop using your head | 24 Oct 2022 | 00:15:28 | |
About the author Hi, I'm Tiago Forte, I’m the founder of Forte Labs, and the question that drives me is, “How can humans reach their creative potential?” To answer that question, I teach and write about new ways for you to thrive in our connected, digital world. Over the last decade, I’ve helped thousands of people build a Second Brain. It’s a trusted place outside your head where you can collect and organize your most important ideas and insights, and use them to do your best work. The ultimate goal of building a Second Brain is to help you lead a more fulfilling life with more ease and less stress. Source: https://fortelabs.com/ About the book How many times have you tried to remember something important and felt it slip through your grasp? How often have you struggled to recall even one useful takeaway from a book or article you read? How much time have you wasted looking for a document or file you were sure you saved? If your first thought was, “This happened to me today!” then you’re not alone. The sheer amount of information flooding our brains every day is overwhelming. Information Overload has long since become Information Exhaustion, taxing our mental resources and leaving us constantly anxious that we’re forgetting something. Yet, information is the fundamental building block of everything we do. Anything you want to accomplish, from executing a project at work to getting a new job, learning a new skill, and starting a business, requires finding and putting the right information to use. Your professional success and quality of life directly depend on your ability to manage the information around you Now, it’s time to acknowledge that we can’t “use our head” to store everything we need to know, and outsource the job of remembering to technology. This is where a Second Brain comes in. To make effective use of information, we need to package it up and make it accessible for our future self. Building a Second Brain is a way to cultivate a growing body of knowledge that is uniquely your own… So when the opportunity arises — whether that’s giving a big presentation, launching a new product, or starting a business or a family… You’ll have access to the wisdom you need to make sound decisions and take the most effective action. Source: https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com/
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| When I Woke Up by Paul Evans: Why the right relationships can save your life | 11 Oct 2020 | 00:12:09 | |
About the Book The True Story of Paul Evans written by Carolyn Coe – is one man’s inspiring story of starting rough, making mistakes, personal suffering and the raw grit it takes to get back up when life deals the heaviest blows. Told with his authentic humour and frank wit, this is an upfront and personal account of a life of full of jaw-dropping, gut-wrenching and heartwarming events that will leave you reeling in disbelief and full of admiration for one man’s spirit to survive and live life to the full. Source: https://www.wheniwokeup.com/my-book/ About the Author A passionate, ambitious go-getter, Paul began his career in the financial services sector. Recognised as GE Capital’s “Golden Boy” of sales, a coincidental meeting with club entrepreneur Freek Teusink on a Hurghada beach saw him make the bold decision to move to Egypt permanently in 2001. It was here the two formed the pioneering, multi-award-winning Solutions Leisure group. Re-inventing Egypt’s nightlife scene through the introduction of house music and European bands to the region, Paul and Freek Teusink developed and grew the Hurghada Marina Boulevard to become the number one destination in the Red Sea. Following the violence and disruption of the Arab Spring and the Egyptian revolution, Paul re-established Solutions Leisure in Dubai, UAE in 2011. Today, the group is the most heavily-awarded in the region, having owned and operated over 34 venues internationally. Having created a multi-million-dollar business, Paul’s perseverance to his vision, dedication and loyalty to his goals and objectives have significantly set him apart from the fierce competition he faces daily. Source: http://www.wheniwokeup.com/my-story/ Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/When-I-Woke-Up/9781076135599/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:01) – Find opportunity Paul had an eye for seeing and seizing the emerging trends and gaps in the market. This trend and gap spotting started early in his life, as a teenager in college in the UK. Him and his friends started a stall at the back of one of their cars selling clothes to other students. The opportunity for selling to his college friends who couldn’t afford the top labels but could afford the (potentially knock off) clothes that Paul was selling. So it started young and small started to big size of things to multi-million dollars – when he saw what the nightlife of Egypt could be like from what he’d seen in other countries and seized the opportunity. He knows what the people want because he stays very close to people or clients coming to his resorts. He talks about observation and connection being critical skills to find more opportunities, knowing the trends, speaking to people on a regular basis and understanding what the people want. His method of education was getting out there, trying things, making mistakes and learning along the way. There’s a quote in the book that says, “Opportunity is everywhere when you open your eyes”, but you have to have the right action oriented mindset when you see that opportunity arrive. BIG IDEA 2 (6:47) – It’s meant to be hard Paul said that life, work, success are meant to be hard and hard is what makes it great. He had two close calls to death, two stints in prison, a fire in one of his clubs, legal issues (including him having to go into hiding for a period of time), relationship breakdowns and he was close to being caught up in a terrorist attack in Egypt. Despite all of these incredible challenges, his attitude was that everything can be overcome. And noone can come out of of the hardships that he experienced without having that mindset. BIG IDEA 3 (9:02) – Relationships can save your life His parents, one of his teachers, and friends in Egypt all helped him overcome challenges and literally saved his life at various points of his life. All of his relationships are built on reciprocity and trust. And even when he was making some questionable decisions or trying to outrun his problems, it was always the people around him who made him come to his senses, made him realise what he was doing or came to his rescue. They helped him stand back up again and make things a bit better, fix things up and helped him move forward. Music: Anthem of a Quirky Hipster by Rex Banner (via Artlist)
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| Further Faster by Warren James: How to get your career off to the best start | 04 Oct 2020 | 00:13:36 | |
About the Book You too can find direction and build a roadmap to take your life and career further faster, even if you are feeling a little under-equipped for the journey ahead. “‘Further Faster’ is an actionable guide full of important steps for those who want to make the most of their career” – Nir Eyal, bestselling author of ‘Hooked‘ and ‘Indistractable‘ Come on a journey of self-discovery with Warren James, The Rapid Mentor, to uncover:
‘Further Faster – The Ultimate Guide To Accelerating Your Career’ is for you, whether you are just starting out in your career; ready to really go after some serious life goals; or feeling stuck and overlooked despite the hard work you are already putting in. Source: amazon.com About the Author Warren James is the founder of the Rapid Online Mentoring Company. He has devoted the latter part of his career to helping the brightest graduates and young professionals from across the world take their life and career further faster. An engineering Honours graduate himself, he has spent over ten years in corporations, advancing his career as an engineer and later a project manager, responsible for budgets in excess of $50M. He found though that his greatest satisfaction came from mentoring teams and individuals, and has now made this his life’s work. Source: amazon.com Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Further-Faster-Warren-James/9780648910602/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:15) – Have a plan This idea is more around the direction and mindset of career and life planning over being fixed to a set outcome. It’s ultimately about avoiding floating and getting stuck in a rut. Having a flexible plan which can also be applied to other parts of your life as well will help that. Warren talked about the specifics of smart goals to avoid things passing you by. For example, can put a time scale on activities or ambitions and life planning exercises using sticky notes with the things you want to do, achieve or places you want to go to in the different decades of your life. This helps provide direction and can help you take the first important steps. He encourages you to think about those initial tiny steps that can help you move forward. BIG IDEA 2 (7:28) – Four buckets The four buckets that Warren mentioned in this book are: 1. Career 2. Finance 3. Bucket list 4. Personal You use these four buckets to plan. It helps you think about the things that you can do today or this to help one of these things move forward. It can also help you set your career goals. This can influence your plan and create balance. BIG IDEA 3 (9:05) – Know your numbers Warren shared some of his numbers and his solid approach to his personal finance and the impact of that. This also avoids you getting stuck and making poor financial decisions early on in your career and then ending up over-leveraged and tied to your salary. One idea is working out your hourly rate helps you understand and get a better appreciation of how much things really cost. For example if you want to buy a shirt, think about how many hours of work it will cost. This helps you set priorities and plan your career goals, financial goals, bucket list and personal goals. It helps you prioritise where to spend your money and the kind of lifestyle you want to create. Music: Vuelta al Sol by Tomas Novoa via Artlist
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| Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss: how to make your habits your key for success | 27 Sep 2020 | 00:15:14 | |
About the Book Tim has interviewed more than 200 world-class performers for his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. The guests range from super celebs (Jamie Foxx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc.) and athletes (icons of powerlifting, gymnastics, surfing, etc.) to legendary Special Operations commanders and black-market biochemists. For most of my guests, it’s the first time they’ve agreed to a two-to-three-hour interview. This unusual depth has helped make The Tim Ferriss Show the first business/interview podcast to pass 100 million downloads. This book contains the distilled tools, tactics, and ‘inside baseball’ you won’t find anywhere else. It also includes new tips from past guests, and life lessons from new ‘guests’ you haven’t met. Tim said “I created this book, my ultimate notebook of high-leverage tools, for myself. It’s changed my life, and I hope the same for you.” Source: Amazon.com About the Author Tim Ferriss has been listed as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and one of Fortune’s “40 under 40.” He is an early-stage technology investor/advisor (Uber, Facebook, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ others) and the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, including The 4-Hour Workweek and Tools of Titans. The Observer and other media have called Tim “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast.
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BIG IDEA 1 (6:50) – Success comes from beliefs and habits. Tim summarises the ideas in the book by saying that success comes from beliefs and habits applied consistently. And it’s not always the big things, for example, over 80% of the interviewees have some kind of meditation or mindfulness practice. One of the questions he asked almost everyone was ‘how do you define success?’. It’s interesting to see the different perspectives of people about what success means to them, and what beliefs and habits they contribute their relative success to. Tim also mentioned in the book that you should look at people who have done things like you want to, not necessarily exactly like you want to. If you want to conquer Mars, don’t go and look for someone who conquered Mars but look for someone who conquered an industry or even a country. You can borrow from this ‘collective DNA’, without needing the other person to have done exactly what you want to do. BIG IDEA 2 (9:10) – Maximise your strengths. Tim says that everyone struggles and practically everyone is a mess (at least at a point in time). But people don’t succeed because they have zero weaknesses. They found one or two strengths and developed habits around them to maximise them. They brought those strengths to life and used them to their advantage. For some people this was a physical strength (particularly athletes) whereas for others it could be their ability to focus or apply themselves to a particular field. This is only possible with self-awareness. You can only use your strengths by working out what they are before using them to the advantage of yourself, your company or your team, whatever it happens to be. BIG IDEA 3 (11:07) – Learn from others. This is the fundamental reason why the book exists – to learn from others. Most of the people Tim interviewed in the book mentioned the mentors, peers or other people they have learned from. They’ve either lived with them, worked with them, collaborated with them or indirectly learnt from them through their books, writings or podcasts. The question that Tim often asks at the end of the interviews is ‘which book have you gifted the most?’. There’s a whole section at the end of the book dedicated to all their answers. It goes to show that success is not a solo pursuit. None of these people achieved what they have achieved alone. They all have other people around them. Many of them talked about people from other fields who are at the top of their game. Who they can learn successful habits, mindset and behaviours from. When you find these good people to learn from, ask new and different questions. And questions that will help you understand what makes them successful – not just what the ‘answer is’.
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| On Writing by Stephen King: Why boredom is the key to great writing | 20 Sep 2020 | 00:16:23 | |
About the Book On Writing Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work. Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999—and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it—fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told. Source: amazon.com
About the Author Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His first crime thriller featuring Bill Hodges, MR MERCEDES, won the Edgar Award for best novel and was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger Award. King co-wrote the bestselling novel Sleeping Beauties with his son Owen King, and many of King’s books have been turned into celebrated films and television series including The Shawshank Redemption, Gerald’s Game and It. King was the recipient of America’s prestigious 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for distinguished contribution to American Letters. In 2007 he also won the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He lives with his wife Tabitha King in Maine. Source: amazon.com Links: Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/On-Writing/9781444723250/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Also listen to other episodes: The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran & Michael Lennington: How to stop wasting your time and your years
BIG IDEA 1 (6:39) – Be ready. Stephen argues that good ideas come from nowhere. It might be two unrelated ideas in your brain that will suddenly collide and create something beautiful. Your job is not to find these ideas but to recognise them when they show up. So you need to be ready, to listen, look around and see where those ideas might appear. This means turning off the TV and putting away other screens to start noticing things in order to be ready for the good ideas to arrive. He also talks about readiness by taking writing seriously, being intentional and approaching the blank page with meaning. BIG IDEA 2 (8:21) – Kill your darlings (and your adverbs). Creating a space between the original writing and your final draft can make a world of difference. When it comes to editing, Stephen said that when you write a story, you are telling yourself the story. But when you re-write, your main job is to take out the things that are not the story. Editing involves killing the words, paragraphs and even characters that you put in and that you are so attached to, but you have to let go of in order to tell the best story. One of the quotes in the book says that “writing is refined thinking.” It is not just talking on paper. This also includes killing your desire to use longer words than necessary. He said that the best words you should use are the first ones that come to your mind, if they do the job. And whilst you are busy killing your darlings, you should be killing your adverbs too. They are a lazy way of describing an action or dialogue which should have been made obvious by the preceding prose. BIG IDEA 3 (12:13) – Read a lot, write a lot. Reading equals writing. Stephen said that if you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time, or the tools, to write. Reading broadly let’s you work out what you do and don’t like and can help you find your style. Joining writing classes might not give you the silver bullet to writing, but helps you find good critics. There is no secret ingredient, just read a lot and write a lot. This goes back to the big idea number one about being serious and not coming lightly to the blank page. It takes intent and a lot of practice to write well.
Music By: Cinematic Ambient Piano by OlexandrIgnatov (via Envato Elements)
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| Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg: Why you need to embrace control but relinquish certainty | 13 Sep 2020 | 00:19:14 | |
About the Book From the author of the New York Times bestselling phenomenon The Power of Habit comes a fascinating new book that explores the science of productivity, and why, in today’s world, managing how you think—rather than what you think—can transform your life. A young woman drops out of a PhD program and starts playing poker, a group of data scientists at Google embark on a four-year study of how the best teams function, a Marine Corps general, faced with low morale among recruits, reimagines boot camp and the filmmakers behind Disney’s Frozen are nearly out of time and on the brink of catastrophe. What do these people have in common? They know that productivity relies on making certain choices. The way we frame our daily decisions; the big ambitions we embrace and the easy goals we ignore; the cultures we establish as leaders to drive innovation; the way we interact with data: These are the things that separate the merely busy from the genuinely productive. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters—this painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently. They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways. About the Author Charles Duhigg is a reporter for The New York Times. He’s also the author of The Power of Habit, about the science of habit formation, as well as Smarter Faster Better. He has worked at the Times since 2006. In 2013, he was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for a series about Apple named “The iEconomy”. Before that, he contributed to the NYT series about the 2008 financial crisis, how companies take advantage of the elderly and national violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act. He’s also a native of New Mexico. He studied history at Yale and received an MBA from Harvard Business School. He now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children and, before becoming a journalist, he was a bike messenger in San Francisco for one terrifying day. Links: Buy the Book from the Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Smarter-Faster-Better-Charles-Duhigg/9781847947437/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
BIG IDEA 1 (5:08) – Doing more with less. This book was inspired by Charles Duhigg not getting a hold of Atul Gawande, the author of Checklist Manifesto as he happened to be enjoying time with family. Charles wondered how such a busy and popular man (Atul) was able to have leisure time. This inspired Charles to write this book about the fundamental principle of doing more with less. What we need to do is to be able to bring this to life is recognise that choices fuel productivity. Motivation, working effectively with teams, focus, goal setting, managing others, decision-making, innovation, and absorbing data are the chapters in the book that have stories that help you do more with less. BIG IDEA 2 (7:53) – Embrace control, relinquish certainty. There were studies mentioned in the book that those who have an ability to take control of their lives live longer, live happier, are more confident, and resilient. The best way to embrace control is by making decisions or taking actions, this might include small acts of defiance. The good news is that being able to take control can be learnt. You can teach this to both children and adults through feedback. Studies have found that kids who were given feedback “you worked very hard, well done” after being given a maths challenge versus “you are really good at maths” were more resilient when faced with harder challenges. An important thing about taking control is knowing the odds. If you’re after certainty in your decisions, you’ll never make a good decision. You have to think of the future as numerous possibilities of outcomes while still being able to make decisions as a result. Knowing your odds, embracing control and relinquishing your need for too much certainty. BIG IDEA 3 (12:39) – Building a productive culture. The book shared a fascinating story about the General Motors plant in Fremont, California who had a terrible working culture before Toyota took over. When Toyota did take over, they invited the employees to submit ideas and more importantly, created the environment where the workers could take pride in their work. Build the trust in action and not just with what’s written in a contract or on a wall is imperative. Empowering people to make decisions and take pride in their work rather than doing things for the sake of just doing it. There was another example in the book about bag checks from a company with problems about theft. The unintended consequence was productivity dropped because people would leave earlier to get through the bag check line and get home a decent time. The fundamental part of building a productive culture is building trust and pushing things down to the lowest level of decision making possible. You’ll start to see new ways of doing things emerge.
Music By: Digital Life by Loops Lab (via Envato)
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| The Power of Ritual by Casper ter Kuile: how wizards and gyms will make you more spiritual | 06 Sep 2020 | 00:17:25 | |
About the Book “After half a decade of research and hundreds of conversations with people around the country, I am convinced we are in the midst of a paradigm shift. That what used to hold us in community no longer works, and that the spiritual offerings of yesteryear no longer help us thrive.”–Casper ter Kuile What do Soul Cycle, gratitude journals, and tech breaks have in common? For ter Kuile they offer rituals that create the foundation for our modern spiritual lives. We are in crisis today. Our modern technological society has left too many of us—no matter our ages—feeling isolated and bereft of purpose. Previous frameworks for building community and finding meaning no longer support us. Yet ter Kuile reveals a hopeful new message: we might not be religious, but that doesn’t mean we are any less spiritual. The Power of Ritual reminds us that what we already do every day matters—and has the potential to become a powerful experience of reflection, sanctuary, and meaning. Source: amazon.com
About the Author Casper ter Kuile is helping to build a world of joyful belonging. He's the author of The Power of Ritual (2020), and co-host of the award-winning podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Casper is a Ministry Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School and holds Masters of Divinity and Public Policy from Harvard University. With his team at Sacred Design Lab, he co-authored the seminal paper How We Gather (2015) and his work has been featured in the New York Times, Atlantic Magazine, and Washington Post. He and his husband Sean Lair live in Brooklyn, NY. Source: amazon.com Buy the Book from the Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Power-of-Ritual/9780008389901/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR
BIG IDEA 1 (5:34) – Ritual is for everyone. We all may already be partly doing ritual, but that doesn’t mean you’re already getting the benefits from it because ritual needs to be intentional and repeated. When we cook, eat, read, exercise or travel, all of these things can be turned into meaningful rituals. Ritual is about the gaps you’d like to fill or identifying the connection or habits you lack. In the book, it says that rituals are for everyone because you don’t have to believe in anything to enjoy and create a ritual. It is about connection which is a necessity, not a luxury.
BIG IDEA 2 (7:53) – The four types of ritual.
BIG IDEA 3 (13:52) – The permission to be creative. Convention is the death of tradition. It is where old ways of being have lost their relevance and stayed too strict to their methods. Tradition, however, shows us how to live and it allows for tweaks and changes along the way. The good thing about being creative with rituals is that it gives us permission to take things from different places and make them our own to better connect. It could be a religious activity you want to unbundle from it’s religious context, or an old routine from your childhood. The rituals you have growing up with your family that you want to re-enact or restate. Change it to what you need and make it happen to create the meaning and connection. Also listen to the episode: The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin: How to learn anything Music By: After the Movie (by Plaid) - Remix Version Song by Ricardo Tobar
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| I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou: How powerful stories can change your life | 30 Aug 2020 | 00:18:56 | |
About the Book Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. Source: amazon.com About the Author Maya Angelou was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. Angelou received several honors throughout her career, including two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009. Maya Angelou has been a waitress, singer, actress, dancer, activist, filmmaker, writer and mother. As well as her autobiography she has written several volumes of poetry, including ‘On the Pulse of the Morning’ for the inauguration of President Clinton. She now has a life-time appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. Source: https://www.biography.com/writer/maya-angelou Links Sign up to the bookmark here: http://eepurl.com/g9rkFD Also listen to the episode: What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami: What you can learn about life from running Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/I-Know-Why-Caged-Bird-Sings-Maya-Angelou/9780345514400/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (5:42) – The power of books. This book takes us through Maya’s childhood, from the time that her and her brother, Bailey, were packed off to live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. From a young age, books were her companion and gave her comfort particularly during the lonely moments of feeling like their parents abandoned them. Maya would read books with her brother Bailey during evenings in front of the fire as they escaped into the new worlds that books invited them into. Reading books also gave her empathy and understanding of others. Classic books by white authors such as William Shakespeare gave her access to people and cultures she didn’t otherwise have access to. Books also connected Maya to others. A neighbour, Mrs Flowers, took Maya under her wing and introduced her to poetry. The impact of this moment, of hearing poetry for the first time was pivotal and the style became a big part of her life. BIG IDEA 2 (9:13) – The power of connection. The connection made through relationships can be the thing that makes a world of difference, especially in challenging situations and even when those relationships are fleeting. It’s the importance of having people that believe in you. Maya spent a month living in a junkyard in San Francisco after an ill-fated trip to visit her father. She built camaraderie with other kids there as they went dancing, joined dance competitions and all other adventures they had in a short period of time. They looked after each other and believed in each other, no matter their backgrounds or reasons for being there. There’s also the lasting relationship with her Grandmother, despite her Grandmother not always being able to express her love for them, she clearly was a very strong loving figure in Maya’s life. Her relationship with her brother was heartwarming, particularly how they looked after each other in Stamps, but also challenging as they got older and went through teenage emotions and strain in their respective relationships with their parents. Even the connection despite the confusing relationships with their parents was evident. BIG IDEA 3 (13:33) – The power of story. This book will take you to another place and open your eyes to the power of a story of someone’s life and show you beauty and horror at the same time. It’s a very evocative way of gaining empathy for people who have lived a very different experience than you. Throughout the book, you’ll find yourself always on the edge of your seat worrying about their safety and the sad reality of how they were treated in many situations. A book like this will give you a perspective of a life you didn’t have. An important conversation about the way people live, lived and are treated and the impact at a global scale. Music By: In Pulse Song by Assaf Ayalon
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| Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl: What is the meaning of life? | 23 Aug 2020 | 00:19:39 | |
About the Book Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful. At the time of Frankl’s death in 1997, Man’s Search for Meaning had sold more than 10 million copies in twenty-four languages. A 1991 reader survey for the Library of Congress that asked readers to name a “book that made a difference in your life” found Man’s Search for Meaning among the ten most influential books in America. Source: amazon.com About the Author Viktor E. Frankl was professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School until his death in 1997. He was the founder of what has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Freud’s psychoanalysis and Adler’s individual psychology)–the school of logotherapy. Born in 1905, Dr. Frankl received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps. He was a visiting professor at Harvard, Duquesne, and Southern Methodist Universities. Honorary Degrees have been conferred upon him and he was a guest lecturer at universities throughout the world and made fifty-one lecture tours throughout the United States alone. He was President of the Austrian Medical Society of Psychotherapy. Source: amazon.com Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Man-s-Search-For-Meaning/9781846041242/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:12) – Choose your attitude. The situations in the Nazi concentration camps and working camps were unimaginable. There was dangerous work with limited tools, non-existent equipment or appropriate clothing, insufficient nutrition, disease and violence and the daily occurrence of death. Despite these extreme conditions that everyone was subjected to, Viktor talks about the amazing acts of kindness that he saw and experienced. Because whilst everything else was taken from them, they could still choose how to act. People shared their last tiny bit of bread, which given the amount of work they did and conditions they lived in, the lack of food could mean life of death. There was a quote in the book that says, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing, the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” He also talks about the space between stimulus and response, and it’s our choice on how we use that space. He also talks about when struggling is inevitable, he said to suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic. Suffering Is unnecessary to finding meaning but meaning is possible in spite of suffering. BIG IDEA 2 (8:42) – Focus on the future. Viktor noticed during his experience at the camp that the men who couldn’t see past their imprisonment, started to decay both physically and emotionally. They lived a provisional life with no future or goals. This led to Viktor’s work on therapy being future-focused. It’s about finding meaning in what’s going to happen next and the future, rather than the current suffering. For him, it was about the idea of reuniting with his wife and family and being able to complete the research work he had started. There was also an idea around how people noticed the physical, natural beauty of things which was so heightened given what they had taken away from them. Which comes back to their focus on the future and being able to see and experience those beautiful things again in freedom. BIG IDEA 3 (13:25) – The meaning of life. If your meaning in life is unknown, this is where the existential crisis happens. When we don’t have the meaning, we don’t know who we are. According to logotherapy, we can discover the meaning of life in three different ways: by creating a work or doing a deed (an achievement focus), by experiencing something or encountering someone (and the beauty or love as meaning), and by the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering (giving meaning to the suffering). Having a different perspective allowed him to put his own, and his patient’s, suffering in a different context and meaningful place for them to be able to move on. There was a quote in a book that says,“We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life and instead think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” Our meaning in life is to respond to what life throws at us. Also listen to the episdes: Courage to be Disliked: denying trauma & having the courage to be happy Strive by Adam Fraser: Why you need to start struggling more The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris: Happiness is not the goal Music By: Love Song by Yehezkel Raz
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| What I talk about when I talk about running by Haruki Murakami: What you can learn about life from running | 16 Aug 2020 | 00:16:03 | |
About the Book An intimate look at writing, running, and the incredible way they intersect, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is an illuminating glimpse into the solitary passions of one of our greatest artists. While training for the New York City Marathon, Haruki Murakami decided to keep a journal of his progress. The result is a memoir about his intertwined obsessions with running and writing, full of vivid recollections and insights, including the eureka moment when he decided to become a writer. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, here is a rich and revelatory work that elevates the human need for motion to an art form. Source: amazon.com About the Author Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto, Japan, in 1949. He grew up in Kobe and then moved to Tokyo, where he attended Waseda University. After college, Murakami opened a small jazz bar, which he and his wife ran for seven years. His first novel, Hear the Wind Sing, won the Gunzou Literature Prize for budding writers in 1979. He followed this success with two sequels, Pinball, 1973 and A Wild Sheep Chase, which all together form “The Trilogy of the Rat.” Murakami is also the author of many novels, three short story collections, an illustrated novella, several works of nonfiction and series of personal essays on running, entitled What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. The most recent of his many international literary honors is the Jerusalem Prize, whose previous recipients include J. M. Coetzee, Milan Kundera, and V. S. Naipaul. Murakami’s work has been translated into more than fifty languages. Source: http://www.harukimurakami.com/author Buy the Book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/What-I-Talk-about-When-I-Talk-about-Running/9780307473394/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:09) – Process and rhythm. In the book, Murakami says we need to know our priorities to work out where to spend our energy. He applied the same level of thought and dedication to both running and writing – but that was it. He embraced the process and momentum for both activities and designed his life around these pursuits. He applied the methodology of stopping when you feel like you have more to go. Stopping running when you feel like you can keep going and are still having a good time, and stopping writing when you’re in a good flow. He also talks about the idea of rhythm – set your pace and the rest will follow. He focuses on the quality of what he’s doing and meeting his own expectations, not winning awards or races. This gave him the freedom to write and to only associate with the people he wanted to. He said in the book, “No matter what, I keep up my running. Running everyday is a kind of lifeline for me. So I’m not just going to lay off just because I’m busy. If I use being busy as an excuse not to run, I’d never run again.” Something that many of us could learn from, as often our own well-being activities are the first thing to get cut when we’re busy. BIG IDEA 2 (8:17) – It’s never too late to start. Murakami was 33 when he sold his jazz bar and started running and writing seriously. He built his life and maximised doing those things. He talks about how he bought his previous skills as a business owner with him, particularly in his writing career. For example, keeping his customers happy. He thinks of his audience as customers and wants to write in a way they would enjoy. BIG IDEA 3 (10:34) – Reflect and learn. In the book, there’s an impressive level of detail as he talks about the runs he’s completed, all from the journals he kept about them. His journals capture how he prepared for different races, the training plans and how he felt before/during/after both practice runs and official races. He referred to these journals regularly to learn from so he wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. His dedication to his practice and this detail is a testament to his commitment to learning and improving. To meet his own standards of writing and running. The level of dedication, reflection and learning he gave in these pursuits is impressive and something to reflect on and learn from ourselves. Music By: Ryefield Song by Out of Flux
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| Hit Refresh: How to build better companies and technology for humans | 09 Aug 2020 | 00:13:48 | |
About the Book The New York Times bestseller Hit Refresh is about individual change, about the transformation happening inside of Microsoft and the technology that will soon impact all of our lives—the arrival of the most exciting and disruptive wave of technology humankind has experienced: artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and quantum computing. It’s about how people, organizations, and societies can and must transform and “hit refresh” in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, and continued relevance and renewal. Microsoft’s CEO tells the inside story of the company’s continuing transformation, tracing his own personal journey from a childhood in India to leading some of the most significant technological changes in the digital era. Source: amazon.com About the Author Satya Nadella is a husband, father and the chief executive officer of Microsoft – the third in the company’s 40-year history. On his 21st birthday, Nadella emigrated from Hyderabad, India to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in computer science. After stops in America’s Rust Belt and Silicon Valley, he joined Microsoft in 1992 where he would lead a variety of products and innovations across the company’s consumer and enterprise businesses. Nadella is widely known as an inspiring, mission-oriented leader who pushes the bounds of technology while crafting creative and sometimes surprising deals with customers and partners globally. Nadella’s life is a journey of learning deep empathy for other people, which he brings into all he does personally and professionally. As much a humanist as an engineer and executive, Nadella defines his mission and that of the company he leads as empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. In addition to his role at Microsoft, Nadella serves on the Board of Directors for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Starbucks. Satya and his wife, Anu, personally support Seattle Children’s Hospital as well as other organizations in the Seattle area that serve the unique needs of people with disabilities. Source: amazon.com Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Hit-Refresh/9780062652508/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:20) – Hit refresh. We need to change how we do things. It is not a case of better products or working longer hours but the need for culture change, and the underlying way of working that needs to be refreshed. The culture change that Satya championed was about regaining the soul of Microsoft; the reason that people wanted to work there in the first place. This also meant shaking up his senior leadership team as he knew that any culture change has to be driven by the top, shown and demonstrated by the most senior positions. Getting things right at the top meant challenging the current ways of working so things could change. He said that often we assume that people have more power over us than we do. But this isn’t true, and by empowering the individual and taking control of situations ourselves we get better outcomes. BIG IDEA 2 (7:51) – Build for humans. Ultimately this is about empathy – something that is central to how Satya works and leads. Ironically, it was empathy that almost stopped him getting his job at Microsoft. During his interview, Satya was asked what he would do if he saw a baby crying on the street. He said he would call 911. The interviewer told him that he should pick up a baby because it needs comforting. It was from this question that he realised that he needed to build some more empathy and human connection into how he works. This was brought to life even more when his son Zain, was born with serious health issues – including cerebral palsy, meaning he needed to use a wheelchair. Satya quickly saw for himself that users have very different needs, the way they interact with technology and the needs they have that are unique to them. He injected the need for empathy into the team as part of the culture change. He actively meets with Microsoft users around the world to see the real stories and how the technology is impacting the people and shares this throughout the organisation. BIG IDEA 3 (10:57) – Build for the future. You have to think longer term. In his travels around the world, Satya sees that there’s huge opportunities for technology, education and economic benefits. There’s also huge inequality due to lack of investment in technology and education in certain countries. Some of these are driven by short-term thinking of governments or companies. He talks about the need for systemic change through investment longer than election terms or budget cycles. Businesses also have an important position to create bigger change by innovating, investing in different ways for something that benefits the wider society. He states that it’s no good just sharing your surplus within your own ‘patch’, these surpluses need to filter into the global community. Satya has design principles for Microsoft that sets them up for the next industrial revolution; one that is going to be driven by software. Also listen to the episode: Shoe Dog: Values, working for fun and building one of the biggest brands in the world Music By: Contraluz Song by Tomas Novoa
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| Converge by Dr Catherine Ball: how to see into the future | 19 Oct 2022 | 00:15:54 | |
About the author Associate Professor, Dr Catherine Ball is a scientific futurist, speaker, advisor, author, founder, executive producer, executive director and company director working across global projects where emerging technologies meet humanitarian, education and environmental needs. Catherine also likes to create businesses and champion movements, collaborate with peers, and advise game-changers. A sought-after voice across the start-up, futurist and tech world, Catherine works globally across a wide range of projects from creating documentaries and world leading conferences and events, to advising on the use of novel approaches (e.g. drones) across environmental and humanitarian projects. Catherine is a proponent of community engagement with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and likes to demystify emerging tech. Source: https://www.drcatherineball.com/about About the book As we face challenges globally on multiple fronts, it’s refreshing to hear the positive voice of scientific futurist Dr Catherine Ball. In Converge she presents insights into how technology and science are providing answers to many of the challenges the world is facing today – food shortages, war and conflict, the decline in local manufacturing, health and ageing, and global warming – and asks why we are not embracing these technologies more widely. The answer in many cases is, ‘Because we don’t know about them!’ Well, now we do. Dr Catherine opens our eyes to the amazing, wide world of technological advancements and explores the role we all have in learning more, owning the conversations, and determining what we want technology to be. Source: https://www.drcatherineball.com/books Three big ideas
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| Losing My Virginity and Finding My Virginity by Sir Richard Branson: How to embrace the 'screw it, let's do it' mindset | 02 Aug 2020 | 00:16:01 | |
About the Books Losing my Virginity In little more than twenty-five years, Richard Branson spawned nearly a hundred successful ventures. From the airline business (Virgin Atlantic Airways), to music (Virgin Records and V2), to cola (Virgin Cola), and others ranging from financial services to bridal wear, Branson has a track record second to none. Many of his companies were started in the face of entrenched competition. The experts said, “Don’t do it.” But Branson found golden opportunities in markets in which customers have been ripped off or underserved, where confusion reigns, and the competition is complacent. Finding my Virginity Twenty years after his iconic memoir Losing My Virginity, the world’s ultimate entrepreneur is back with the rest of the story. Richard Branson’s Losing My Virginity shared the outrageous tale of how he built Virgin from a student magazine into one of the greatest brands in history. No challenge was too daunting, no opportunity too outlandish to pursue. And each new adventure started with five simple words: “Screw it, let’s do it.” Now, fifty years after starting his first business, Branson shares the candid details of a lifetime of triumphs and failures and what he really thinks about his unique life and career. Finding My Virginity is an intimate look at his never-ending quest to push boundaries, break rules, and seek new frontiers—even after launching a dozen billion-dollar businesses and hundreds of other companies. Source: amazon.com About the Author Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known as the founder of Virgin Group, which comprises more than 400 companies. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneur at a young age. At the age of sixteen his first business venture was a magazine called Student. In 1970, he set up a mail-order record business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson’s Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic and expanded the Virgin Records music label. In March 2000, Branson was knighted at Buckingham Palace for “”services to entrepreneurship””. In July 2015, Forbes listed Branson’s estimated net worth at US $5.2 billion. Source: amazon.com Get these Books on The Book Depository Finding My Virginity - https://www.bookdepository.com/Finding-My-Virginity/9780753556122/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Losing My Virginity - https://www.bookdepository.com/Losing-My-Virginity/9780307720740/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (6:15) – Screw it. Let’s do it. There’s a theme of adventure and fun throughout the two books and Branson’s life. At the back of the more recent book, Finding my Virginity, there are even 75 near death experiences that he has encountered, all listed in chronological order! He is famous as the founder of the Virgin brand but is maybe equally famous for his extreme sports adventures. Between the two books, Losing my Virginity has more of the ‘Screw it. Let’s do it.’ feel because this is what fuelled the early endeavours Richard built and his approach to his way of living and the way he runs his businesses. It also goes to his desire to get into and shake up the industries who’ve been complacent and have forgotten their customers; particularly airlines and telecommunication. BIG IDEA 2 (8:11) – Challenges are there to be overcome. When you read even the first 50 pages of the first book Losing my Virginity, you feel that so many people would have given up with the challenges Branson faced. But, he is the master of overcoming challenges. From how he started his first student magazine to the huge endeavour of Virgin Galactic, and everything in between, there have always been challenges. This also includes some of the ‘failures’, such as when market forces turned against him and the impact of the change in online media and music consumption rather than people going to record stores. There was also examples of challenges with competitors (eg BA dirty tricks campaign) and regulators in the early days of Virgin airlines and even some tragedies that happened in his brands and business ventures over the years. In all of these challenges, he always rolls with the punches, gets back up and keeps fighting. BIG IDEA 3 (10:36) – Find your people and take care of them. Both books talk a lot about those people who were behind his success. From his parents, his wife Joan, to all of his teams who developed with him the Virgin brands. Everyone thinks that Branson is a crazy risk taker but when you read the book and see the thinking behind certain ideas, you’ll see that he is actually very measured. He knows his strengths and skills and he surrounds himself with people who offset them or add to them. The book Finding my Virginity is a bit more reflective, a lot more about space exploration and around the idea of passing on and giving back – including one of the founding members of Nelson Mandela’s ‘the elders’. He is also heavily involved in charity work and helping people create opportunities through entrepreneurship. Music By: Pretty Painting – Instrumental Version Song by James Gardin
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| Strive by Adam Fraser: Why you need to start struggling more | 26 Jul 2020 | 00:18:23 | |
About the Book Is happiness really the key to a meaningful and fulfilling life? We are all obsessed with happiness. There are thousands of books, presenters, and courses trying to teach us how to be happy. But are we more happy? No! We are the most depressed, anxious and medicated group of people in history. The happiness movement has failed us. Strive turns our ideas of happiness upside down and reveals why challenge, struggle and setbacks are the keys to living a profoundly satisfying life that fosters authentic happiness. Dr Adam Fraser shows that the practice of striving towards a goal is vital to achieving fulfilment and peak performance, without needing to sacrifice your relationships and physical and mental wellbeing along the way. Strive is a must read for anyone who wants to transform their lives and find fulfilment, one struggle at a time. Source: https://www.dradamfraser.com/shop-content/strive About the Author Dr Adam Fraser is a heavy metal loving, car racing, daughter raising, gym junkie, geek researcher. Up til now the greatest moment in my life is being front row at an Iron Maiden concert. His company conducts cutting edge research with different universities all over the world and then disperses that information in a practical form through books, keynote presentations, workshops, training programs, online programs and customised consulting projects. He believes everyone has a superpower. Some people can cook, some people can create amazing works of art, others can hug with the appropriate amount of pressure for the right length of time. His superpower is the ability to make the complex, simple and engaging. He takes the latest science and translates it so that people can immediately apply it to their own situation.Source: https://www.dradamfraser.com/about Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Strive/9780730337416/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR BIG IDEA 1 (4:25) – We need more struggle. We need to stop the happiness obsession. It’s not achieving of things that makes us feel good (this is the completion myth) but the work we put in on the way to achieving something. This means that it’s not helpful (or true) to think ‘when you get this then you’ll be happy’, ‘when you lose weight then you’ll be able to get on with your life’ or ‘when you find true love etc’, these things don’t really make us happy but only for a few moments, couple of days or weeks. The real fulfilment is in the strive. According to Dr. Adam Fraser’s study, it’s actually the struggle and strive of getting to our goals that makes us feel accomplished. It gives us a sense of purpose and less about the idea of happiness. People want personal journey and development, which is why we see people doing what some might consider crazy, like signing up for Ironman races or Tough Mudders. Because we know we need more struggle, something to work for. There’s an interesting point in the book around the idea of skill and confidence building compared to the characteristics of flow. The characteristic of something that will build confidence is that the challenge level and skill required have to be high but the enjoyment level is low. The difference between flow and strive is that with strive, you’re not enjoying the process at the moment. BIG IDEA 2 (8:48) – Change your struggle mindset. We have to see struggle as an opportunity for development. This means that we are not always going to feel good. Adam says there are three foreground ways to allow us to embrace struggle:
By embracing these behaviours, we can overcome the inherent feelings of discomfort that will come from doing something that feels hard. BIG IDEA 3 (13:05) – Build struggle rituals. Struggle rituals are the background behaviours which is the basis from which we strive.
These healthy rituals, or habits, will give us the mental and emotional ability to embrace struggle on a regular basis. Links: Also listen to: Grit by Angela Duckworth: How to dig in and get more done The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris: Happiness is not the goal Watch Adam’s talk about The Third Space here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpk_dssZXqs Sign up to join a readtreat session here: www.readtreat.space Music By: Jell-O – Instrumental Version Song by Egozi
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| The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran & Michael Lennington: How to stop wasting your time and your years | 19 Jul 2020 | 00:16:55 | |
About the Book The guide to shortening your execution cycle down from one year to twelve weeks Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. Instead, The 12 Week Year avoids the pitfalls and low productivity of annualized thinking. This book redefines your “year” to be 12 weeks long. In 12 weeks, there just isn’t enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff gets done and the impact on results is profound. Turn your organization’s idea of a year on its head, and speed your journey to success. Source: Amazon.com About the Authors Brian Moran, President and Founder of The 12 Week Year, has 30 years of expertise as a corporate executive, entrepreneur, consultant and coach. His background as a corporate executive combined with his experience as an entrepreneur positions him with a unique skill set to help individuals and organizations grow and prosper. Brian’s corporate experience includes management and executive positions with UPS, PepsiCo, and Northern Automotive. As an entrepreneur he has personally launched and led successful businesses and been instrumental in the success of many others. In addition, he has consulted for dozens of world-class companies. Michael Lennington’s most important roles are as father, husband, and most recently grandfather. When he is not with his family, or working, his favorite personal pursuits include attending music festivals, downhill skiing, and sampling good Kentucky Bourbon. Michael, has been a consultant for most of his adult life and has worked in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and The Middle East. Currently, he spends his professional time coaching his entrepreneurial clients, writing about leadership and business execution, and building simple tools for people seeking to accomplish more. Source: Amazon.com Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the Book from the Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/The-12-Week-Year/9781118509234/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (5:52) – Execution is the problem. There’s a quote from the book that says “execution is the single greatest market differentiator.” Your ability to execute your ideas is what will set you apart. A lack of ideas is not generally a problem in the organisation, it is the ability to execute on the ideas and what is most important. We procrastinate and delay, but there’s less room to hide in a 12 week year, so every day becomes more important. Each day you have to focus on the key activities. We also have a tendency to re-do the plan before we’ve ever really executed it. Unless you’ve actually executed the plan, you’ll never know how good it is or not. BIG IDEA 2 (7:31) – 12 months is too long. The book says that the annual process limits performance. Most of the year, people are behind and waiting to catch up and then scrambling at the end. We need to rethink the year and think of it as 12 weeks instead of 12 months. This creates urgency and the need to focus on fewer things. This then allows you to focus on executing the core activities and creates more clarity on what you say yes and no to. The deadline is also more visible with 12 weeks. This approach creates more productivity and helps you keep control of your time. Because if you don’t have control of your time, you don’t have control of your outcomes. They talk about three types of time blocking;
Making a strategic plan for the weeks forces you to make decisions on priorities. You’re also forced to think about when you are at your best and planning the right block for the right time of day. BIG IDEA 3 (12:26) – Three principles and five disciplines. Three principles in this book are accountability; ownership and focus on the time for continuous improvement. Commitment; keeping the promises that you make and staying true to your intent and greatness in the moment; making every day count. The five disciplines that you need are vision, planning, process control, measurement and time use. Applying these principles and disciplines will allow you to achieve amazing results in less time. Links: Also listen to: Getting Things Done by David Allen: why you need to stop using your brain Infinite Game by Simon Sinek: Why playing to win will make you lose When by Daniel H. Pink: How You’re Not Spending Your Day the Best Way Atomic Habits: environment architecture and crisps at airports Find out more about [ r e a d t r e a t ] events here: www.readtreat.space Music By: If I Were King – Instrumental Version Song by Low Light
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| Start With Why & Find Your Why by Simon Sinek: How to stop being boring and be more interesting | 12 Jul 2020 | 00:16:59 | |
About the Book In 2009, Simon Sinek started a movement to help people become more inspired at work, and in turn inspire their colleagues and customers. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, including more than 28 million who’ve watched his TED Talk based on START WITH WHY — the third most popular TED video of all time. Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over? START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who’ve had the greatest influence in the world all think, act, and communicate the same way — and it’s the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY. Find Your Why picks up where Start With Why left off. It shows you how to apply Simon Sinek’s powerful insights so that you can find more inspiration at work — and in turn inspire those around you. With detailed exercises, illustrations, and action steps for every stage of the process, Find Your Why can help you address many important concerns, including: * What if my WHY sounds just like my competitor’s? * Can I have more than one WHY? * If my work doesn’t match my WHY, what should I do? * What if my team can’t agree on our WHY? Source: amazon.com About the Author Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Simon teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. With a bold goal to help build a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single day feeling inspired, feel safe at work, and feel fulfilled at the end of the day, Simon is leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them. Simon is the author of multiple best-selling books including Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last, Together is Better, and Find Your Why and The Infinite Game. Source: https://simonsinek.com/about/simon-sinek Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the book from the Book Depository Start with Why - https://www.bookdepository.com/Start-With-Why/9780241958223/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Find your Why - https://www.bookdepository.com/Find-Your-Why/9780143111726/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (7:39) – What you do is boring. Whatever you do, whether it’s selling shoes, making clothes, preparing accounts, cooking food or defending tax evaders is boring. (Unless you are an astronaut or epidemiologist). When we attempt to only differentiate ourselves based on what we do, we end up blending into the beigeness of that job title or industry. This is relevant to teams, companies, and individuals. The ‘what’ and ‘how’ are of course important because ‘why’ can be abstract and big. But your ‘what’ and ‘how’ become much more interesting when you start with ‘why’. Using your ‘why’ is a great way to pique curiosity and encourage people to start asking more questions about what you do. BIG IDEA 2 (9:39) – More questions = more clarity. Finding your why and being able to articulate it is about making the intangible, tangible. For companies, it can help you define the problems that you solve and for whom, and the impact that you make. It can set the purpose for teams and describe how you can help bring the company’s purpose to life. For individuals, it can help you make hard decisions around the type of work you want to do. It differentiates you and helps set your brand both internally and externally. Asking ourselves the questions that help find our why, will create that level of clarity. So you can understand and articulate who you’re serving, what impact you’re making, where you best operate and how you can make those kinds of decisions. BIG IDEA 3 (11:25) – It’s all in the stories. Finding your why is quite challenging, sometimes involving days or even months of reflection. When you get into finding your why as an organisation, team or individual, it all comes down to your stories. What are the big stories that define you? We’ve communicated and made sense of the world for millennia through stories. It is the way we connect, and stories trigger an emotional reaction in the old, less evolved part of our brains. The story generation activities are all about finding the memorable stories – the legends of the organisation, things that define you, the ups and downs – these are where your why lives. Identifying your why is in the threads that run through all of your different stories. The Find Your Why book sets out the facilitation instructions and questions for organisations, teams and individuals to do this important reflection work. Links: Find out more about [ r e a d t r e a t ] events here: www.readtreat.space Infinite Game: Why playing to win will make you lose Leaders Eat Last: Employees are people too Simon’s TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en Music By: Do It for You – Instrumental Version Song by Guesthouse
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| Be Brilliant by Janine Garner: How to stop dimming your brilliance | 05 Jul 2020 | 00:15:26 | |
Sign up to the bookmark newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1119b1358a84/thebookmark About the Book Business was simple; now it’s competitive. Clients were easy; now they’re demanding. Communication was straight forward; now it’s overwhelming. Resources were limitless; now they’re stretched. Employment was secure; now it’s uncertain. Often the world feels like it’s all too much. It’s exhausting trying to work out ‘what to do’! We want to be successful. So we spend a fortune on stuff, on shit, that we think will make us ‘better’ — that will help us achieve more, or simply ‘fix us’. But all it does is fuel feelings of loneliness, depression, undue stress, and further disconnection. The thing is, that we are all like diamonds with lots of facets and flaws. And it takes artistry on ourselves to bring out our unique brightness. We are all rare gems designed to shine, created under enormous pressure. We all have to get better at being ourselves. The world is asking us to be extraordinary, this is our calling. Are you ready to embrace the challenge? Source: https://bebrilliantbook.com/ About the Author Janine Garner’s whole world revolves around helping others reclaim and reignite their influence. A highly sought-after keynote speaker, educator and author, Janine works with high profile global leaders and teams, and helps many of Australia’s top 50 ASX companies and multinationals — EY, CBRE, DXC Technology, Hewlett Packard, Micro Focus, Optus and CBA, to name a few. Janine believes we need people, teams and companies to be absolutely brilliant to lead today’s complex environment into tomorrow’s unknowns. This requires collaboration, transformation and leverage and it demands better conversations, training and connection. That’s the power you have when you are your brilliant self. https://bebrilliantbook.com/#Author Links Read extracts, download extras and order the book here: www.bebrilliantbook.com Listen to Janine’s podcast here: https://janinegarner.com.au/business-podcast/ Listen to episode 12 of SBB about Janine’s last book, It’s Who You Know here: It’s Who You Know: Networking without the cringe-factor Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the book from The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Be-Brilliant-Janine-Garner/9780730383765/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (5:06) – You’re already imperfectly brilliant. We’ve all got what it takes but we tend to underestimate ourselves with demons like self-doubt or imposter syndrome. But if we only let certain bits of ourselves catch the light, the bits we think are acceptable, then people will not only see through us but also miss the other parts of us that can bring value. The model in the book includes the focus on both inner and outer confidence plus the impact we have on ourselves and others. BIG IDEA 2 (6:57) – The four laws of brilliance. Janine sets the four laws out in her diamond model;
Each of these four laws is brought to life with three different facets which you can self assess against to know where you are at the moment. Many of these aren’t groundbreaking or new ideas, but the real question is are you already doing the things? Are you really owning your potential brilliance? BIG IDEA 3 (10:54) – Beware of the shadows. These are the things that we do to sabotage ourselves. In ‘be you’, you might let self-doubt get in the way of you owning your spotlight. For ‘be ready’, blaming others and letting ourselves burnout will stop us from shining. In ‘be together’, you might want to be on the lookout on your networks for ‘dream-stealers’. And for ‘be heard’ some of the shadows you might need to look out for are things like treading water and not really doing much to being heard and magnify your influence. Links: Music By: Bokeh Song by Soundroll Let’s Connect LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steph-clarke Instagram: @stephsbizbookshelf Enjoying the show? Please hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and leave a review on iTunes to help others find us. Support my book habit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/stephsbookshelf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. | |||
| The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni: Why you need to embrace conflict | 28 Jun 2020 | 00:13:04 | |
Sign up to the bookmark newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1119b1358a84/thebookmark About the Author Pat is one of the founders of The Table Group and is the pioneer of the organizational health movement. He is the author of 11 books, which have sold over 6 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages. As President of the Table Group, Pat spends his time speaking and writing about leadership, teamwork, and organizational health and consulting with executives and their teams. Prior to founding the firm in 1997, Pat worked at Bain & Company, Oracle Corporation and Sybase. Pat lives in the Bay Area with his wife and four boys. Source: https://www.tablegroup.com/pat/ About the Book In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams. Throughout the story, Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams even the best ones-often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. Just as with his other books, Lencioni has written a compelling fable with a powerful yet deceptively simple message for all those who strive to be exceptional team leaders. Source: www.amazon.com BIG IDEA 1 (4:44) – The five reasons why teams don’t work. We have all experienced having or being in a team that doesn’t work, but haven’t always been able to name why it’s not working. Lancioni developed this hierarchical model to show the reasons and symptoms for team dysfunction. The five reasons that team don’t work are:
You can see the link between them, without trust, you can’t have any healthy conflict. The lack of healthy conflict does not drive people to commit to things. And if you can’t commit to things, you can’t be held accountable for anything. Without all of these things, you can’t achieve results. Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the book from The Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Five-Dysfunctions-of-a-Team/9780787960759/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 2 (7:35) – Get personal. The more we understand that people are people, the more we will trust them and have more open conversations with them. You need the ability to be vulnerable without the fear of repercussions. Trust is the ability to put yourself out there and disagree with an idea, or challenge someone with something without the fear of being sacked! The lack of trust will result in everything from only having surface conversations without deeper, meaningful connection to full toxicity at its extreme. Ultimately without it, teams are not able to reach their full potential. BIG IDEA 3 (9:30) – Weigh in to buy in. There is such a strong relationship between trust, conflict and commitment. When you can trust that nothing bad is going to happen to you when you challenge an idea it means that in a meeting you can have a creative, constructive conversation. And because of that, even if your idea is not chosen, you can still commit to the decisions and actions of the team. As a leader this might mean you need to choose who are the right people for the team. The leader has to be the role model of this kind of behaviour by building trust and encouraging healthy conflict. Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey: Why trust is at the heart of everything Links: Music By: Mythologica – Instrumental Version Song by Ofrin Let’s Connect LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steph-clarke Instagram: @stephsbizbookshelf Enjoying the show? Please hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and leave a review on iTunes to help others find us. Support my book habit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/stephsbookshelf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. | |||
| Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey: Why trust is at the heart of everything | 21 Jun 2020 | 00:16:44 | |
Sign up to the bookmark newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/1119b1358a84/thebookmark About the Book Stephen M. R. Covey, widely known as one of the world’s leading authorities on trust, asserts that it is “the most overlooked, misunderstood, underutilized asset to enable performance. Its impact, for good or bad, is dramatic and pervasive. It’s something you can’t escape.” Thankfully, it is also the thing that can dramatically improve your personal and professional success. Why trust? The simple, often overlooked fact is this: work gets done with and through people. The Speed of Trust offers an unprecedented and eminently practical look at exactly how trust functions in every transaction and every relationship—from the most personal to the broadest, most indirect interaction. It specifically demonstrates how to establish trust intentionally so that you and your organization can forego the time-killing, bureaucratic check-and-balance processes that is so often deployed in lieu of actual trust. Source: amazon.com About the Author Stephen M. R. Covey is co-founder of CoveyLink and of the FranklinCovey Global Speed of Trust Practice. A sought-after and compelling keynote speaker and advisor on trust, leadership, ethics, and high performance, he speaks to audiences around the world. He is the New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Speed of Trust, and coauthor of the #1 Amazon bestseller Smart Trust. Over the years, Stephen has gained considerable respect and influence with executives and leaders of Fortune 500 companies as well as with mid- and small-sized private sector and public sector organizations he’s consulted. Clients recognize his unique perspective on real-world organizational issues based on his practical experience as a former CEO. Stephen currently serves on the board/advisory board of several entities and is a Top Thought Leaders in Trust Lifetime Achievement Honoree from Trust Across America-Trust Around the World. Stephen resides with his wife and children in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains. Source: www.speedoftrust.com Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Speed-Trust-Stephen-M-R-Covey/9781416549000/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (4:54) – Speed of trust Trust impacts everything. And we see that come out as a result of speed and cost, so when trust is low, speed is low and the cost is high. On the flip side, when trust is high, speed is high and cost is low. This can be applied to relationships – if you think of leaders and managers who you haven’t got along with because there’s lack of trust, you’ll see this impact on speed and cost. You will have to go and double check things, send emails to cover your back, rather than just having a quick conversation. There’s a concept in the book about smart trust. It’s about not being gullible and having blind faith, but also not being over skeptical and not trusting anyone. This drives our relationship quality which all comes down to low trust. BIG IDEA 2 (8:12) – The components of trust. In the book Stephen talks about the two components of trust – character and competence. There are four cores of trust within these components. In character, there is integrity and intent while with competence, there is capability and results. It’s interesting to think about why we don’t trust someone – is it because we don’t trust their character or their competence (or both?!). Competence is a test of their ability to do whatever they need to do and get the results while character is a bit more human and integral to them. Stephen describes a trust ‘account’ that we hold with other people. Every interaction is an opportunity to build trust (or deposit trust) or break trust (or withdraw trust) – and not just with the person you’re directly talking to. If other people see your relationship or interaction with other people it can also impact their level of trust towards you. BIG IDEA 3 (11:25) – Trust looks different to everyone How trust looks and feels to one person, may be different for another person, which means there are different ways of building trust with different people. In the book there are 13 trust behaviours, containing details of what they look like and how to build or restore them. Here are the 13 behaviours mentioned in the book:
Doing these things can build trust. They can be practiced and changed. Withdrawal of trust is larger than deposits so can take some time to rebuild trust if you’ve withdrawn too much from the trust account. Links Videos, resources and more information here: https://www.speedoftrust.com/ Music By: Around Again – No Backing Vocals Song by Ian Post Let’s Connect LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/steph-clarke Instagram: @stephsbizbookshelf Enjoying the show? Please hit subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and leave a review on iTunes to help others find us. Support my book habit: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/stephsbookshelf See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. | |||
| Range by David Epstein: why you need to stop specialising | 14 Jun 2020 | 00:20:00 | |
About the Book Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule. David Epstein examined the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields—especially those that are complex and unpredictable—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one.They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see. Source: https://davidepstein.com/ About the Author David Epstein is the author of the #1 New York Times best seller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World , and of the New York Times best seller The Sports Gene, both of which have been translated in more than 20 languages. (To his surprise, it was purchased not only by his sister but also by President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.) He was previously a science and investigative reporter at ProPublica, and prior to that a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he co-authored the story that revealed Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez had used steroids. David has given talks about performance science and the uses (and misuses) of data on five continents; his TED Talk has been viewed 8.5 million times, and was shared by Bill Gates. Three of his stories have been optioned for films. David enjoys volunteering and as an avid runner, he was a Columbia University record holder and twice NCAA All-East as an 800-meter runner. Source: https://davidepstein.com/ Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Range/9781509843503/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (4:18) - Roger vs. Tiger Roger Federer and Tiger Woods have both defined their respective sports. Tiger Woods hyper-specialized since he was a child - his parents believed he was going to be the best golfer in the world. Whilst the young Roger Federer just liked playing sports. Eventually in his teens he picked tennis, at an age when many of his peers had been specialising since a very young age and were already working with elite coaches and nutritionists ec. The Roger story is actually much more common, but we worship the Tiger story. Research also shows that elite performers actually practice less at a very young age, compared to the near-elite performers who specialise and practice more, earlier. BIG IDEA 2 (6:25) - Kind vs. Wicked The world's problems are becoming more wicked and much more complex. Therefore, to tackle them, we need the fundamental conceptual reasoning skills that we can transfer across different fields. When you have a narrow view of the world, you’ll only have a look for one thing in your field to answer the question or solve the problems. This type of development of thinking was explored during some fascinating research in remote villages where the villagers still lived in a pre-modern age. Those with a very narrow view of the world, could only look at things from the perspective of what they had experienced before. So whilst some of their ideas were more creative (their descriptions of colours), their ability to think conceptually and abstractly was almost completely limited. The Roger Federer approach is much better for wicked problems - one that brings the skills and experience of different sports (or fields). The Tiger Woods approach is better for kind problems or the more complicated, replicable challenges. If there is a high likelihood that you know what’s going to happen next, being Tiger Woods can help. BIG IDEA 3 (13:05) - The Power of Analogy If we need to have better conceptual thinking, the ability to think in analogies will help. A study on problems solving says that successful problem solvers are more able to determine the deep structure or problem before they proceed and match a strategy to it. And a lot of the time, the deep structure of a problem isn’t limited to the same field of that particular problem - it takes going beyond the context and into the concept. Less successful problem solvers are more likely to mentally classify problems only by superficial features (ie, it’s a medical problem or an engineering problem). Sometimes the more you know about the area, the worse you are about making decisions. Companies, including NASA, have had some of their longest standing problems solved by amateurs with no, or limited, scientific knowledge but who are able to see the similarity from something else they have seen before in another field. Links: Learn more about being a multipotentialite here: https://www.ted.com/talks/emilie_wapnick_why_some_of_us_don_t_have_one_true_calling?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare Watch David’s TED Talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/david_epstein_are_athletes_really_getting_faster_better_stronger Music By: Bluerise Song by Oliver Michael
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| The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday: Why you need to domesticate your emotions and act | 07 Jun 2020 | 00:12:03 | |
About the Author Ryan Holiday is a writer and media strategist. When he was 19 years old, he dropped out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. He had a successful marketing career at American Apparel and went on to found a creative agency called Brass Check, which has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors, including Neil Strauss, Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss. He is the author of ten books, including Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic, Conspiracy and Stillness is the Key which have sold more than 2 million copies in thirty languages and have a following among NFL coaches, world-class athletes, TV personalities, political leaders, and others around the world. He spends most of his time on a ranch outside Austin, Texas where he does his writing and work in between raising cattle, donkeys and goats. Source: https://ryanholiday.net/about/ About the Book The Obstacle is the Way has become a cult classic, beloved by men and women around the world who apply its wisdom to become more successful at whatever they do. The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. Ryan Holiday shows us how some of the most successful people in history—from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs—have applied stoicism to overcome difficult or even impossible situations. Their embrace of these principles ultimately mattered more than their natural intelligence, talents, or luck. If you’re feeling frustrated, demoralized, or stuck in a rut, this book can help you turn your problems into your biggest advantages. And along the way, it will inspire you with dozens of true stories of the greats from every age and era. Source: https://www.amazon.com/ Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy the book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Obstacle-is-Way-Ryan-Holiday/9781781251492 /?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (5:47) – Invoke the reverse clause. There’s a quote from the book that says, “The impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way, becomes the way”. Ultimately the obstacle is the way. Marcus Aurelius, who is talked about in the book, suggests that we need to turn our obstacles upside down and have a way to find another path if necessary. Stoicism suggests that we have a choice, whether we will move over, around or through the obstacles that appear in our life. One concept in the book is the flank attack on an obstacle – stepping back and finding a new path. Take the line that is least expected which is not always the ideal one but gets us around, over or under the obstacle that is in our way. BIG IDEA 2 (7:06) – Behaviours and virtues. If an emotion can’t change the situation, it’s probably unhelpful. This doesn’t mean you can’t feel the emotion – vent, rant or even cry. It is about how you control (or domesticate) your emotions. Stoicism is about emotional regulation or control. We need to tame emotions; train them and use them to our advantage. The virtues of stoicism include patience, courage, humility, resourcefulness, justice, reason and creativity. These are the virtues that you need to have to overcome the obstacles in your way. BIG IDEA 3 (8:37) – Act. The root to overcoming the obstacles is through action. Despite the situation you find yourself in, you have the courage to take action. If you fail, that is okay, that’s just feedback that you need a different path and you just have to find a new way. Problems are our chance to do our best. And we shouldn’t assume everything will go well; we should do pre mortem and plan for problems so we know how to react. External factors influence that path but not the direction. We should always be moving forward. Links: See my post about how I use my copy of Archley’s Book of Books here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_OIycvobxU/?igshid=uoytldajyc1d Listen to the Daily Stoic here: https://dailystoic.com/podcast/ Music By: Arcade Song by Generation Lost
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| Reboot by Jerry Colonna: How to grow up and be a better leader | 31 May 2020 | 00:16:48 | |
About the Book Jerry Colonna helps start-up CEOs make peace with their demons, the psychological habits and behavioral patterns that have helped them to succeed—molding them into highly accomplished individuals—yet have been detrimental to their relationships and ultimate well-being. Jerry has taught CEOs and their top teams to realize their potential by using the raw material of their lives to find meaning, to build healthy interpersonal bonds, and to become more compassionate and bold leaders. In Reboot, he inspires everyone to hold themselves responsible for their choices and for the possibility of truly achieving their dreams. Work does not have to destroy us. Work can be the way in which we achieve our fullest self, Jerry firmly believes. What we need, sometimes, is a chance to reset our goals and to reconnect with our deepest selves and with each other. Reboot moves and empowers us to begin this journey. Source: https://www.reboot.io/book/ About the Author Jerry Colonna is the CEO, and co-founder, of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm whose coaches and facilitators are committed to the notion that better humans make better leaders. For nearly 20 years, he has used the knowledge gained as an investor, an executive, and a board member for more than 100 organizations to help entrepreneurs and others to lead with humanity, resilience, and equanimity. Previous to his career as a coach he was a partner with JPMorgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of JP Morgan Chase. He joined JPMP from Flatiron Partners, which he launched 1996 with a partner, Fred Wilson. Flatiron became one of the most successful, early-stage investment programs in the New York City area. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Source: https://www.reboot.io/about/founders/ Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy this book from the Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Reboot-Jerry-Colonna/9780062749536/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (7:55) – Do your own work. The most important role as a leader is to ‘get yourself in order’. Jerry’s fundamental belief is that better humans make better leaders. He also said that leadership is the art of growing up. It’s about getting over what happened to you before, putting aside some of those demons, and growing up. However, we often avoid doing our own work (ie working on ourselves) for the fear of what we might find. We keep ourselves busy, moving, distracted, and tired. We blame circumstances, our past, our lack of time, the company that we work for, and anything else to avoid stopping to reflect. And so, continue to be controlled by our unconscious, our leftover fears and out old patterns of behaviour. BIG IDEA 2 (10:29) – Ask important questions. The book is full of incredible reflective questions. There were three particular questions that Jerry talks about in the book;
Asking ourselves, and other people, these questions help us understand what’s really going on. BIG IDEA 3 (12:19) – Stop the sabotage. There’s another critical question in the book; how am I complicit in creating the conditions that I say I don’t want? We are often contradicting ourselves between our actions and speech. Saying we do/don’t want something but acting in the total opposite way. Ask yourself some of these questions to see how, where, and why you’re stopping yourself in reaching your potential, succeeding, and uncovering what’s true to you. It may be the irrational stories we tell ourselves, but without understanding this, they will continue to control and sabotage us. Links Check out Kelly Irvine’s work helping people get their books out of their heads: https://www.kellyirving.com/
Music By: Ancient Sailing Song by Ziv Moran
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| My Life in Full by Indra Nooyi: why you should put purpose and learning at the centre | 09 Oct 2022 | 00:14:52 | |
☀️ Get in before 21 October to join this year's Steph's Business Bookshelf Summer Book Club: https://www.itsyesand.co/sbbsbc 📚
About the book For a dozen years as one of the world’s most admired CEOs, Indra Nooyi redefined what it means to be an exceptional leader. The first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company — and one of the foremost strategic thinkers of our time — she transformed PepsiCo with a unique vision, a vigorous pursuit of excellence, and a deep sense of purpose. Now, in a rich memoir brimming with grace, grit, and good humor, My Life in Full offers a firsthand view of Indra’s legendary career and the sacrifices it so often demanded. Source: https://www.indranooyi.com/thebook
About the author Indra Nooyi is the former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo (2006-2019); a Fortune 50 company with operations in more than 180 countries. In this role, Ms Nooyi was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo’s pledge to do what’s right for the business by being responsive to the needs of the world around it. As part of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo was focused on delivering sustained growth by expanding its portfolio to include more nutritious products, limiting its environmental footprint, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. During her tenure, PepsiCo grew net revenue more than 80%, and PepsiCo’s total shareholder return was 162% beating the S&P over the same period. Source: https://www.indranooyi.com/meetindra
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| Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull: how to take your leadership to infinity and beyond | 24 May 2020 | 00:13:36 | |
About the Book Creativity, Inc. is a book for managers who want to lead their employees to new heights, a manual for anyone who strives for originality, and the first-ever, all-access trip into the nerve center of Pixar Animation—into the meetings, postmortems, and “Braintrust” sessions where some of the most successful films in history are made. It is, at heart, a book about how to build a creative culture—but it is also, as Pixar co-founder and president Ed Catmull writes, “an expression of the ideas that I believe make the best in us possible.” Source: https://www.creativityincbook.com/about/ About the Author As a young man, Ed Catmull had a dream: to make the first computer-animated movie. He nurtured that dream as a Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, where many computer science pioneers got their start, and then forged a partnership with George Lucas that led, indirectly, to his founding Pixar with Steve Jobs and John Lasseter in 1986. Ed Catmull is co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He has been honored with five Academy Awards, including the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for lifetime achievement in the field of computer graphics. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Utah. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and children. Source: https://www.creativityincbook.com/catmull/ Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy this book from The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Creativity-Inc-Ed-Catmull/9780593070109/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (3:38) – Leadership creates creativity. One of the things that drove the Pixar leadership team of Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter was protecting Pixar from the forces that ruined many businesses. They had seen business grow, only to implode upon themselves, and they wanted to avoid this happening at Pixar. They therefore focused on helping smart people work better together. They worked on methods for better collaboration and creativity for better outcomes. Ed said that to do this effectively, you have to assume that the people you’ve hired are talented individuals. He talked about the idea that good leaders can help creative people stay on the path to excellence, no matter what business they’re in. This is breaking the idea that to be creative or solve problems you have to be in the arts or technology. Also as a leader you need to admit that you might be wrong or that you don’t know the answer. You need to see yourself as a teacher and put your ego aside to help people learn. BIG IDEA 2 (6:08) – Find the right team. You can’t possibly understand everything and therefore you need as many viewpoints as you can. Once you have the great people and expertise in the team you need to give them the autonomy to do their best work – getting the right team means getting ideas right. There is no hierarchy in Pixar, they really value the work of the creatives and pride themselves on being filmmaker-led. In order to find the right team and nurture them, you have to be open about the problems you are facing. That is why it is important to be open to learning about solving those problems. BIG IDEA 3 (9:04) – Challenge everything. PIxar is famous for their ‘braintrust’ process for feedback. They fully embrace the fact that everything sucks at the start. The braintrust makes the breakthroughs for films because of their candid and regular feedback – it’s saved many of the films we know and love from being disasters. They embrace the fact that everyone gets stuck but the braintrust is not about solving the problem, it’s about asking the questions and providing the right challenge to make things better. It shows the importance of peer review and collaboration. In the book Ed states that “ideas only become great when they’re challenged and tested”. Music By: Monomer – No Backing Vocals Song by Leroy Wild
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| It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work: How to design the chaos out of your day | 17 May 2020 | 00:17:02 | |
About the Book Long hours, an excessive workload, and a lack of sleep have become a badge of honor for modern professionals. But it should be a mark of stupidity, the authors argue. Sadly, this isn’t just a problem for large organizations—individuals, contractors, and solopreneurs are burning themselves out the same way. The answer to better productivity isn’t more hours—it’s less waste and fewer things that induce distraction and persistent stress. It’s time to stop celebrating Crazy, and start celebrating Calm, Fried and Hansson assert. Source: https://books.google.com About the Authors David Heinemeier Hansson is the cofounder of Basecamp and NYT bestselling coauthor of REWORK and REMOTE. He’s also the creator of the software toolkit Ruby on Rails, which has been used to launch and power Twitter, Shopify, GitHub, Airbnb, Square, and over a million other web applications. Originally from Denmark, he moved to Chicago in 2005, and now lives between the US and Spain with his wife and two sons. In his spare time, he enjoys 200-mph race cars in international competition, taking cliche pictures of sunsets and kids, and ranting far too much on Twitter. Source: https://www.amazon.com/David-Heinemeier-Hansson/e/B001JS19Y8/ Jason Fried is the co-founder and President of 37signals, a privately-held Chicago-based company committed to building the best web-based tools possible with the least number of features necessary. 37signals’ products include Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, Ta-da List, and Writeboard. 37signals also developed and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails programming framework. 37signals’ products do less than the competition — intentionally. Jason believes there’s real value and beauty in the basics. Elegance, respect for people’s desire to simply get stuff done, and honest ease of use are the hallmarks of 37signals products. Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy this book from The Book Depository BIG IDEA 1 (4:55) – Re-think the basics. The book challenges so many of the concepts that we assume are a given at work or running a business. The authors argue with goal setting (at Basecamp there is no revenue target, no retention goals or other meaningless targets). The only goal they have is to do the best work everyday and make things better. They also argue that there is no need to change the world with your business and they throw away the idea of comparing yourself to the competition. Just do your best work everyday to create great products for your customers. They say that the idea of comfort and calm is fine, and you can still do good and meaningful work without chaos – and probably even more so. Oh and they make it VERY hard to hold a meeting – because meetings are generally terrible ways of getting things done. Redesigning the way we work and get back to the basics. All of these human-made constructs of work can be redesigned. BIG IDEA 2 (8:46) – Protect what matters. David and Jason say that what matters most is the time and attention of employees. The time that employees spend at work has to be quality time – not a ‘mess of minutes’ as people find cracks of time between meetings and other interruptions to try and do their work. According to them, dedication to asynchronous communication protects the time and attention of employees. Everyone has to have a good night sleep, no pulling all nighters, and they are not stealing people’s weekends. They also apply the library rules in their offices – it’s quiet, because distraction spreads like a virus; once one person has it, everyone becomes infected. BIG IDEA 3 (11:56) – Forget family like cultures. Family like cultures often excuse bad behaviour and are used to excuse power plays, weekend stealing (because you’re doing it for ‘the family’), rudeness and ineffective decision making by consensus. We shouldn’t need to pretend to be family to show respect, care and to do the right thing. Any leader, especially the owners, must be conscious of their role modeling. Everyone is looking at the leader and looking for social cues to see what’s accepted and what’s not. Fundamentally, bad habits beat good intentions. Bad habits are hard to break and can quickly stay as the new normal – from allowing chaos to creep in, bringing bad habits from previous companies or engaging in something suboptimal in your interactions with others. Links Find out more about the book here: https://basecamp.com/books/calm Music By: Autumn Wind Song by Yehezkel Raz
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| Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: How empowering others is the key to leadership success | 10 May 2020 | 00:17:03 | |
About the Author Sent to the most violent battlefield in Iraq, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s SEAL task unit faced a seemingly impossible mission: help U.S. forces secure Ramadi, a city deemed “all but lost.” In gripping firsthand accounts of heroism, tragic loss, and hard-won victories in SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, they learned that leadership―at every level―is the most important factor in whether a team succeeds or fails. Willink and Babin returned home from deployment and instituted SEAL leadership training that helped forge the next generation of SEAL leaders. After departing the SEAL Teams, they launched Echelon Front, a company that teaches these same leadership principles to businesses and organizations. From promising startups to Fortune 500 companies, Babin and Willink have helped scores of clients across a broad range of industries build their own high-performance teams and dominate their battlefields. Source: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057 About the Book Detailing the mindset and principles that enable SEAL units to accomplish the most difficult missions in combat, Extreme Ownership shows how to apply them to any team, family, or organization. Each chapter focuses on a specific topic such as Cover and Move Decentralized Command, and Leading Up the Chain, explaining what they are, why they are important, and how to implement them in any leadership environment. A compelling narrative with powerful instruction and direct application, Extreme Ownership revolutionizes business management and challenges leaders everywhere to fulfill their ultimate purpose: lead and win. Source: https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs/dp/1250067057 Links Listen to Jocko’s podcast here: https://jockopodcast.com/ Would you like to take better notes from the books you read? Get your copy of Archley's beautiful book journal, the Book of Books here: https://www.archleys.com/?ref=JamVyS-U4mVR Buy this book from The Book Depository: https://www.bookdepository.com/Extreme-Ownership-Jocko-Willink/9781250183866/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Before we dive into the three big ideas, the biggest idea in the book is ‘extreme ownership’. The fact that everything is your responsibility (and your fault) in some way – and the more you look at everything as your responsibility, the more effective you’ll be. Waving goodbye to blame and circumstance and all the things that get in the way of us taking control of situations. This idea on its own is incredibly powerful and would make a huge difference in many organisations (and lives). BIG IDEA 1 (5:42) – Belief is key To convince and inspire others to follow you, you must truly believe in the mission. This is challenging in a lot of organisations because sometimes when you ask other people (or you yourself are asked) to do something, you’re not sure if it is the right direction or action. But to inspire others you have to truly believe in that mission. To better understand the mission (and therefore believe in it), you have to challenge it, question it, and therefore understand it. It comes back to a purpose or ‘why’ you’re trying to achieve what you’re trying to achieve. Of course, it is not just you who should believe in what needs to happen or what the overall vision is but as part of communicating that with others you need to give them the chance to question, challenge, and help them understand it. BIG IDEA 2 (8:38) – Decentralise This whole book could be called ‘extreme delegation’. A huge amount of ideas in the book come down to decentralisation and delegation. Jocko and Leif argue that humans can only manage 6 to 10 people – especially when things are going wrong. Organisations, therefore, have to push down as much authority as possible to make sure decisions can be made and action taken. To do this, however, you have to put the ego away – you won’t be able to delegate with an ego and whilst trying to control everything yourself. It comes back to big idea #1 – if everyone truly understands and believes the mission (and you have the right people), they should be able to make decisions accordingly. As a leader, if you are taking on all the work, ownership, and responsibility, you’re losing situational awareness to see what’s going on and be able to plan strategically. BIG IDEA 3 (11:52) – Plan Nothing can be achieved without a plan. Some of the items in their leader’s checklists for planning are analysing the mission, understanding the overall purpose, identifying the people you need, resources and time, determining the course of action, contingency planning, mitigating any risks and communicating the plan to relevant parties. The idea of decentralisation is actually built into the planning process to embed this discipline and thinking into all missions and activities. Finally, part of the planning is doing a post-operational debrief after the activity has happened – something that’s not done often enough in organisations. The planning process put forward by Jocko and Leif is quite intense but this is the crux of their mindset of ‘discipline equals freedom’. By having the discipline of plans, processes, and systems, you then have the freedom to focus on the things that matter, to flex and adapt when needed. Music By: Cave Dweller Song by When Mountains Move
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| The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier: How to unlock the most powerful leadership skill | 03 May 2020 | 00:18:59 | |
About the Author “My name is Michael. I can hop. Do you want to see me hop?” That’s how Michael introduced himself to bemused strangers at the supermarket when he was three. Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior and competency. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century and in 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the coaching prize by Thinkers50, the “Oscars of management”. Michael is the Founder of Box of Crayons. Box of Crayons is a learning and development company that helps organizations transform from advice-driven to Curiosity-led. Michael is a compelling keynote speaker who combines practicality, humour, and an unprecedented degree of engagement with the audience. He has performed around the world in front of crowds ranging from ten to ten thousand. Source: https://www.mbs.works/about About the Book The Coaching Habit gives you seven questions and the tools to make them an everyday way to work less hard and have more impact. It has been endorsed by people such as Dan Pink, Brené Brown and David Allen, all big names in the world of motivation, authenticity and productivity. It’s been well received by leaders and managers in organizations all over the world, ranging from A(DP) to Z(urich Insurance). It’s a Winner in the 10th annual National Indie Excellence Awards in the General Business category. And a Finalist in the “Business: Management & Leadership” category of the 2016 International Book Awards as well as the 2016 Top Sales and Marketing Book. And, the audiobook version was nominated for Best Audiobook Narration in the Voice Arts® Awards Competition, the international competition sponsored by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS). https://boxofcrayons.com/the-coaching-habit-book/ Links For more resources from this book and from Michael on coaching, check out https://boxofcrayons.com/ Get 15% off your copy of the Book of Books – the perfect book journal accompaniment to your reading habit: https://www.archleys.com/discount/STEPHCLARKE Buy the book from The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Coaching-Habit-Michael-Bungay-Stanier/9780978440749/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (5:06) – Ask more questions. This is the fundamental of this book, ask more questions (and then be more quiet) to embrace curiosity and understand rather than give advice. However, you need to be cautious when asking more questions – don’t ask them all at once with ‘drive-by questioning’ (when you fire multiple questions all at once). You will lose the depth of conversation, momentum, and the other person will be confused as to which questions to answer first. Also, be aware of asking leading questions, or advice shrouded in a question, instead ask “what else” and then be quiet and let the other person answer. And finally, just ask it – it’s easy to spend a long time building up a question, giving examples and generally being very long-winded in asking a question rather than just getting on and asking it. One of the benefits of taking a coaching approach is being able to ask the harder questions… so just ask them. BIG IDEA 2 (9:19) – Identify the three P’s. Under great questions, you will discover three things, or the 3 Ps. The project which is the content of the challenge or situations, the people which is really about the relationship between the people, and the patterns – the trends or themes, both positive and negative. Help people find their AHA! moments, whether it’s negative or positive through your questions and by exploring these three areas. This can help them see their positive patterns that they don’t appreciate enough about themselves. BIG IDEA 3 (13:02) – Beware the drama triangle. The drama triangle is taken from more therapeutic models but has a lot of relevance in a coaching context. The drama triangle has three roles – the persecutor, the victim, and the rescuer. If you see people fall into one of these roles, you can ask – ‘how can I help?’. This question can help stop the drama from unfolding by acting as a circuit breaker. So if you hear someone in victim-mode whining about a situation, asking ‘how can I help’ can snap them into a higher level conversation about what really has to happen next or the real challenge (or admit that they were just whining!). These types of coaching conversations don’t have to be sitting down, forty-five minutes sessions but you can use a coaching mindset in the micro-interactions we have with other people – and often these can be the most powerful moments to use a coaching approach. Music By: Big Sky Song by Shuhandz
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| Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg: Why you need to start small to create big changes | 26 Apr 2020 | 00:19:48 | |
About the Author The “New Guru You Should Know” according to Fortune. BJ Fogg runs the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford. He invested over 20 years researching and teaching insights about human behavior. His early research on Persuasive Technology has informed the design of products that millions love and use (like Instagram, which his student co-founded). Now, he is taking everything he knows about behavior change—including his experience personally coaching 40,000 people – to help people lose weight, de-stress, sleep better, or achieve any goal of your choice. You just need Fogg’s behavior formula: make it easy, make it fit your life, and make it rewarding. Whenever you get in your car, take one yoga breath. Smile. Whenever you get in bed, turn off your phone. Give yourself a high five. Change can be easy—once it starts, it grows. Source: https://www.tinyhabits.com/about About the Book In the widely-anticipated book Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything, readers will discover the landmark Tiny Habits method that has helped thousands of people build their ideal lives. Unlike anything that’s come before, this system—what Dr. Fogg has coined “Behavior Design”—cracks the code of habit formation. The content in this book is practical, immediately applicable and most importantly brand new. Tiny Habits is not just a summary of existing methods. Each chapter shares breakthrough insights and simple steps you can take to improve your life. All this is based on Dr. Fogg’s groundbreaking research in Behavior Design. At the heart of this book is a startling truth: Creating a happier, healthier life can be both easy and fun. Source: https://www.tinyhabits.com/book Links: https://www.tinyhabits.com/ Listen to BJ’s TED talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKUJxjn-R8 Order your Book of Books with 15% off here: https://www.archleys.com/discount/STEPHCLARKE Buy the Book from The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Tiny-Habits/9780753553237/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (6:21) – Motivation is not the answer. A lot of us fall into the trap of relying solely on motivation to force us to do what we want to do (or what we other people think we should do). However BJ talks about the fact that once you build habits, you can do almost anything. Habit building is a superpower. Motivation runs out quickly, making it an unreliable and unhelpful beast. Instead we need to focus on systems of behaviour design and the emotion we feel when we do a particular action. We need to constantly ask ourselves ‘how could I make this easier’. BIG IDEA 2 (8:51) – The recipe for habits. Firstly, we need to be clear on our aspirations; what we want to be better at, do regularly or not do regularly. After this you need to identify the actual actions that would result in that aspiration, or outcome, coming to life. You can then plot these possible actions into a handy 2×2 to map their effectiveness vs your ability to do them. To build your recipe, you need to make sure you are looking at specific actions (eg ‘stop eating a tub of ice cream every evening’) to find (and then stick to) things you are really able to do. It’s easy to just stay at the aspiration level of ‘get healthy’ or ‘sleep better’ which aren’t actionable and often results in habit failure. It’s possible you just need a reminder to do things. You can add an anchor to your habit recipe through attaching a new action to old habits. For example, flossing can be anchored to brushing your teeth. The reminder is the previous action which is brushing your teeth. BIG IDEA 3 (13:48) – Our emotions drive our habits. We only do the things that make us feel good. Therefore you need to make yourself feel good in order to repeat the behaviour. This is the unique element of tiny habits which is the idea of celebration. BJ proposes we need to celebrate upon completing our new habit. Anything from a smile at ourselves in the mirror to dancing around the living room to hi-fiving your significant other. These celebrations make us feel great, resulting in our brains remembering and associate that great feeling with the habit. Importantly, the celebration is not an incentive or reward (eg ‘if I workout five times this week, I will go for a massage’). It is critical that the celebration happens IMMEDIATELY after completing the habit action (eg straight after flossing your teeth) and makes you feel good or successful as a result of doing your new habit. Music By: Brainstorm Song by Rex Banner
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| Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss: Why no is better than yes | 19 Apr 2020 | 00:12:35 | |
About the Author Chris Voss has used his many years of experience in international crisis and high-stakes negotiations to develop a unique program and team that applies these globally proven techniques to the business world. Prior to 2008, Chris was the lead international kidnapping negotiator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as the FBI’s hostage negotiation representative for the National Security Council’s Hostage Working Group. During Chris’s 24 year tenure in the Bureau, he was trained in the art of negotiation by not only the FBI but Scotland Yard and Harvard Law School. He is also a recipient of the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement and the FBI Agents Association Award for Distinguished and Exemplary Service. Source: https://www.blackswanltd.com/our-team/chris-voss About the Book Everything we’ve previously been taught about negotiation is wrong: you are not rational; there is no such thing as ‘fair’; compromise is the worst thing you can do; the real art of negotiation lies in mastering the intricacies of No, not Yes. These surprising tactics—which radically diverge from conventional negotiating strategy—weren’t cooked up in a classroom, but are the field-tested tools FBI agents used to talk criminals and hostage-takers around the world into (or out of) just about any scenario you can imagine. Throughout the book, Voss draws on his experiences in truly life-or-death situations to illustrate these techniques, and offers scores of examples of how they translate into our working lives. Source: https://info.blackswanltd.com/library Links Find out more about the techniques in the book and worksheets to help plan your negotiations here: https://www.blackswanltd.com/ Buy from The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Never-Split-Difference-Chris-Voss/9781847941497/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf BIG IDEA 1 (4:14) – Tactical empathy Tactical empathy is not about agreeing with the other person’s position. Chris talks about the fact that some people are allergic in this concept because the idea of extending empathy to a hostage taker or terrorist is so abhorrent. However, the beauty of empathy is that it doesn’t demand that you agree with the other person but does mean you need to identify their underlying emotion. You don’t need to like the other person or agree with their idea to try and identify what they might be feeling. There are two ways to better build tactical empathy. First is mirroring, it’s what humans and even animals do to create comfort with others. There are two kinds of mirroring – physical and verbal mirroring. Physical mirroring is moving in sync with the other person (which builds trust and like-ness). Verbal mirroring is repeating back the last 1-3 vital words that the other person said, which allows them to elaborate more – creating deeper understanding and connection. BIG IDEA 2 (7:46) – NO is your friend. The big myth in negotiation or sales is we want people to say ‘yes’, and say yes as quickly as possible. However, no is good because it slows things down, helps us get to the real issue and allows people to make better decisions. Mark Cuban once said – “Every no gets you closer to yes”. No also puts the feeling of control back with the other person, which is very important in a negotiation situation. BIG IDEA 3 (10:13) – Forget fair. We often fall into the trap of wanting everything to be ‘fair’ whenever we talk about negotiation. ‘Fairness’ is often used to accuse the other party (either implicitly or explicitly) of being either unfair (they’ve made you a horrible offer) or unreasonableness (they have declined your ‘fair’ offer). This is not very useful to a relationship in a negotiation when the idea of fairness is often used as a weapon in order to accuse someone of something that they are not doing. Chris has discovered that one positive way of using fairness in a negotiation is up front, by making a statement like ‘I want you to feel like you’re being fairly treated at all times, so please stop me at any time you feel we’re being unfair and we’ll address it’. Again, this puts fairness on the table up front (rather than an accusation later on) and gives control and permission to the other party to bring up ‘unfairness’ at the right time. Music By: Almanac Song by Seth Parson
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| COVID Special Edition: Books for unusual times | 13 Apr 2020 | 00:14:13 | |
We are living in a strange time, one that will be written about, analysed, reflected on and remembered for decades. And everyone’s experience of it is so very different – whilst some are struggling with loneliness or financial insecurity, others are seeing the opportunities that come from adapting and embracing some new ways of working. Whilst pushing us physically apart, it’s also unifying people – with many people commenting on how they are connecting more with the people who matter most, albeit in a different way. This week, I’m taking a little break from the usual big ideas from one book and bringing you a little special episode talking about some of the books that I feel are fitting reads for this period in history. Some of these are books I’ve already talked about on the podcast, others are ones still on the ‘to be recorded’ pile, but all of them will take on a slightly different meaning when read in the context of COVID and everything that comes with it. Links Priya Parker on how to gather well remotely https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-iOI_BpUaP/?igshid=1cq12mbxo82fk Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (4:22) – whilst we can’t compare Viktor’s experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II with what’s happening today, there’s a lot to be taken from his reflections and lessons. During this time he identified his purpose in life and used this to guide and provide comfort to his unimaginable experiences. Buy the Book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Mans-Search-For-Meaning-Viktor-E-Frankl/9781846041242/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Essentialism by Greg McKeown (6:00) – A book about productivity. By thinking more closely about what is essential, we are able to regain control of our own choices and priorities. As many people are reporting a productivity increase as a result of working from home, this book will be food for thought as we look to redesign work ‘post COVID’ and where we channel our time, energy and effort to make the most impact on the elements of our life and work that matter the most. Listen to this episode - https://www.stephsbusinessbookshelf.com/essentialism-by-greg-mckeown/ The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (8:07) – The way we gather matters just as much virtually is as it does in person, so we need to get it right. Whatever the gathering or the format, it needs to have a purpose; why are we there? Who do we need to gather with? How do we need to gather better? How do we need to gather more… or less? This book invites you to take a longer look at your role as a host and reimagine what gatherings can be. Listen to this episode - https://www.stephsbusinessbookshelf.com/art-of-gathering-by-priya-parker/ Lost Connections by Johann Hari (10:23) – This book is about mental health and how what appears to be depression, may actually be loneliness caused by the function of the way we live. Given the loneliness pandemic that could run alongside the COVID pandemic, it’s an interesting book to revisit when thinking about redesigning the way we live, connect and operate as a society after this pandemic is over. Listen to this episode - https://www.stephsbusinessbookshelf.com/lost-connections-by-johann-hari/
Other Recommended Books Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way Buy the Book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Obstacle-is-the-Way/9781781251492/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf Bad Science by Ben Goldacre Buy the Book from The Book Depository - https://www.bookdepository.com/Bad-Science/9780007284870/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf
Music By: Teenage Dream Song by Curtis Cole
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| The Advice Trap Michael Bungay Stanier: How to save others from the perils of your good advice | 05 Apr 2020 | 00:17:58 | |
About the author “My name is Michael. I can hop. Do you want to see me hop?” Michael Bungay Stanier is at the forefront of shaping how organizations around the world make being coach-like an essential leadership behavior and competency. His book The Coaching Habit is the best-selling coaching book of this century and in 2019, he was named the #1 thought leader in coaching, and was shortlisted for the coaching prize by Thinkers50, the “Oscars of management”. Michael is the Founder of Box of Crayons. Box of Crayons is a learning and Michael is a compelling keynote speaker who combines practicality, humour, and an unprecedented degree of engagement with the audience. He has performed around the world in front of crowds ranging from ten to ten thousand. En route to today—and these are essential parts of his origin story—Michael Source: https://www.mbs.works/about Click here to buy on The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Advice-Trap/9781989025758/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf About the book The Advice Trap is the much anticipated companion book to the Wall Street Journal bestseller and smash hit, The Coaching Habit. It’s all about how to #TameYourAdviceMonster. And that’s no easy thing. This book:
Plus, it’s all written in a clear, funny and practical manner. Source: https://www.mbs.works/theadvicetrap Links Find out more and download the advice trap resources here: BIG IDEA 1 (6:47) – The perils of advice. The dysfunctional patterns that repeat themselves between individuals within teams are because of the advice trap. And these bad habits and behaviours and dysfunctional patterns will just keep happening as advice is perpetually carried forward. Researchers suggest that advice givers are less likeable and are ineffective at developing others. Advice is given by people who were not curious enough to find out what the real challenge is with the person they’re giving the advice to. Falling into the advice trap also limits change because people can’t identify the real challenge themselves. It stops success being scalable because it sticks people into the status quo. The trap is keeping on giving advice even though it doesn’t work. BIG IDEA 2 (9:24) – The types of advice monster. There are personas of the advice monster – tell it, save it, and control it. ‘Tell it’ loves the spotlight and believes it has all of the answers. ‘Save it’ is the rescuer, who uses the excuse of being helpful to provide advice – with a ‘faint smell of burning martyr’. The third persona is ‘control it’, it’s always present and has delusions of grandeur and can’t possibly empower others because then it will lose control. All these personalities are really saying that ‘you are better than the other person’. Which is quite a statement, but this should be confronting; every time you give advice, you are suggesting you are better than the other person. BIG IDEA 3 (11:48) – Stay curious longer. The answer is curiosity. Michael talks about the key principles in the book; be lazy – don’t feel like you have to carry everything and make all the decisions and come up with all the answers; be curious – keep asking questions at all opportunities, and be often – coaching is something that shouldn’t happen only quarterly or annually but it should be your normal way of doing things. Music By: Almanac Song by Seth Parson
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| Radical Candor by Kim Scott: How to avoid ruinous empathy and obnoxious aggression | 29 Mar 2020 | 00:18:44 | |
About the Author Kim Scott is the author of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss without Losing your Humanity and the co-founder of Radical Candor LLC. Kim has been a CEO coach at Dropbox, Qualtrics, Twitter, and several other tech companies. Previously, Kim led AdSense, YouTube, and Doubleclick Online Sales and Operations at Google. Known for her ability to generate billions of dollars in revenue from millions of small customers while keeping her team happy and margins high, her unofficial title was High Priestess of the Long Tail. After Google, Kim joined Apple to develop and teach a leadership seminar. Additionally, she was the co-founder and CEO of Juice Software, a collaboration start-up, and led business development at Delta Three and Capital Thinking. Earlier in her career, she worked as a senior policy advisor at the FCC, managed a pediatric clinic in Kosovo, started a https://www.radicalcandor.com/our-team/ Click here to buy on The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Radical-Candor/9781529038347 /?a_aid=stephsbookshelf About the Book The idea is simple: You don’t have to choose between being a pushover and a jerk. Using Radical Candor―avoiding the perils of Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insincerity, and Ruinous Empathy―you can be kind and clear at the same time. Kim Scott was a highly successful leader at Google before decamping to Apple, where she developed and taught a management class. Since the original publication of Radical Candor in 2017, Scott has earned international fame with her vital approach to effective leadership Radical Candor is about caring personally and challenging directly, about soliciting criticism to improve your leadership and also providing guidance that helps others grow. It focuses on praise but doesn’t shy away from criticism―to help you love your work and the people you work with. Radically Candid relationships with team members enable bosses to fulfill their three core responsibilities:
Required reading for the most successful organizations, Radical Candor has raised the bar for management practices worldwide. Links Watch Kim’s video ‘be a kickass boss without losing your humanity’ here BIG IDEA 1 (6:14) – Care personally and challenge directly. Caring personally is fundamentally about giving a damn. It is about sharing yourself and allowing others to do the same by creating an environment where everyone can build true relationships. It’s about truly caring about your team as people – not just about how good they are in their job. Create space for conversations about what your team members want to do with their careers, even if people may not want to stay in your team or your organisation. The first important step to caring personally is to decide that it is your job to make your team successful. Caring personally and challenging directly are what make up the radical candor. Challenging directly is telling people what’s working and what’s not. Whether you are giving feedback or guidance, you can’t effectively care personally without challenging directly. And you can’t effectively challenge directly without caring personally. BIG IDEA 2 (8:54) – Choose radical candor. The radical candor model in the book has two axis; at the top of the vertical axis you’ve got caring personally and bottom is ‘you don’t give a damn’ while on the horizontal axis right hand side is challenge directly and on the left is silence. If you care personally but don’t challenge directly, you display ruinous empathy. If you stay silent and don’t care personally, you act with manipulative insincerity (which usually involves a lot of back stabbing). If you have no care but you do challenge directly, you act with obnoxious aggression. Interestingly many people rather work with an obnoxious asshole than someone who just says nice things all the time as at least you know where you stand with an obnoxious asshole! When you care personally and challenge directly, this is radical candor. BIG IDEA 3 (12:39) – You’ve got to get to give. You can’t just give out radical candor without being open to receiving it. Team leaders should be open to receiving radically candid feedback from their teams to be a role model in how to receive such feedback and have these conversations. Therefore you may need to encourage your team to practice it with you in a less public setting (eg in your one on one meetings) until people can feel safe to do so in a group environment. Music By: Gotta Love – Instrumental Version Song by Yulee
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| Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert: How to rethink creativity and find your magic | 22 Mar 2020 | 00:18:26 | |
About the Author Elizabeth Gilbert was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1969, and grew up on a small family Christmas tree farm. She attended New York University, where she studied political science by day and worked on her short stories by night. After college, she spent several years traveling around the country, working in bars, diners and ranches, collecting experiences to transform into fiction. Elizabeth is best known for her 2006 memoir EAT PRAY LOVE, which chronicled her journey alone around the world, looking for solace after a difficult divorce. The book was an international bestseller, translated into over thirty languages, with over 12 million copies sold worldwide. In 2010, EAT PRAY LOVE was made into a film starring Julia Roberts. The book became so popular that Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2015, she published BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR—a book that encapsulates the joyful spirit of adventure and permission that Elizabeth has always brought to her work and to her life. Elizabeth divides her time between New York City, rural New Jersey, and everywhere else. Click here to buy on The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Big-Magic/9781408881682 /?a_aid=stephsbookshelf About the Book Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy. Source: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/ Links Check out Liz speaking at an event here: https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/tour/ BIG IDEA 1 (7:34) – Just create. Don’t wait for permission, inspiration or the right time, just create. And stay in the habit of making. We often put pressure on our creative pursuits to be a ‘thing’ that we lose the sense of doing things for enjoyment. We should be approaching our creativity with a lightness because it will make it a lot less stressful. BIG IDEA 2 (8:53) – Everyone is creative. We’ve been making things for generations – to cook, eat, live, connect, move or work. But over time these normal things we’ve been doing for ages have become ‘things’. And we take them too seriously. We also have fallen into the trap of giving the term ‘creativity’ over to just certain fields or skills. Creativity is much broader than being able to draw or paint as everyone can create. There were a few quotes in the book which are really brilliant, such as “If you’re alive, you are a creative person.” and “If you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.” By thinking about creativity in a broader way, as a mindset which all have ownership of, we can have bigger lives, happier lives and more interesting lives. Think of creativity as a way to live our lives – not just a skill. BIG IDEA 3 (11:35) – Ideas are entities. Elizabeth thinks of ideas as living, conscious beings that float around looking for someone to bring them to life. You need to treat your ideas well and put them to work to keep them alive. Ideas won’t just wait around for you to be ‘ready’. Elizabeth also said you can say ‘no’ to ideas if it’s the wrong time, place or idea for you. You can even share the idea with a person better suited to it which means you can let ideas go. Whilst this idea feels a little ‘woo woo’ and magical, it’s Elizabeth’s way of understanding and thinking about creativity – and the way she shares this as a concept, rather than an absolute statement, is given lightly and with humour. Music By: Side Road – Instrumental Version Song by Jenny Penkin
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| The Best Books of 2022... so far (part 3) | 02 Oct 2022 | 00:14:23 | |
It's quarterly review time with a recap of the best books I read between 1 July and 30 September this year. Best books I read
Best audiobook I listened to
Honourable mentions
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| Winging it by Emma Isaacs: How to make an impact by accident | 15 Mar 2020 | 00:16:12 | |
About the author Emma Isaacs is the founder and Global CEO of Business Chicks, Australia’s largest community for women, and is passionate about encouraging women to be bold, to be courageous and to take risks. Emma can take something good and turn it into something spectacular with no experience required. After seven years of running her own recruitment business which she acquired at just 18 years old, Emma was invited to a small event run by a group called Business Chicks. After hearing the business was for sale, Emma took a leap of faith and bought it. And over the next decade, Emma grew the the small Business Chicks group of 250 members into a community of thousands of engaged women. People often talk about a ‘Business Chicks feeling’ and much of this comes back to Emma. She is perpetually optimistic and always joking wherever she goes. Emma wants to make people feel special, always. Customer service is at the forefront of everything she does and that is evident in every touch point of a Business Chicks interaction. Emma currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband and five kids (plus one more on the way). And she’s raising each of them to be proud feminists. Source: https://businesschicks.com/emma-story/ Click here to buy on The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Winging-It/9781489439819 /?a_aid=stephsbookshelf About the book CEO and entrepreneur Emma Isaacs forgot to draw up her life plan, and she doesn’t have a list of five-year goals. She doesn’t believe in work/life balance. Like Sheryl Sandberg, who told us to ‘lean in’ to find success, Emma wants to show us that you can’t plan every detail and wait for the confidence to kick in before you begin; instead, take action now, do what feels right and figure the rest out as you go along. In other words, you’ve got to learn how to ‘wing it’ rather than wait. Drawing on her own life and the stories of the many men and women she has met and interviewed – from Sir Richard Branson to Bill Gates to ‘Girlboss’ Sophia Amoruso – Emma tells us how to turn a dream into a job, turn a job into a business, network like a champion, protect your time for the things that matter and understand that sometimes failure is part of Emma shows us that often the only thing holding us back is ourselves; that you can follow your dreams; and that there’s no reason not to start doing so right now. Source: https://businesschicks.com/wingingit/ Links Find out more about Business Chicks here: https://businesschicks.com/ BIG IDEA 1 (6:29) – You’ll never be ready. If not now, then when? You need to find opportunities and seize them, even if (and sometimes especially if) they are unexpected. It’s also about not asking people for permission. Emma started her own recruitment agency at 18 and bought Business Chicks at 26, it didn’t cross her mind to be scared. She just kept on doing the next thing because it felt like a good opportunity. In the book Emma talks about things that might not go according to plan – things might fail or get hard, but you just need to keep swimming because you will never really be ready for everything that could happen. You just need to start again, move, make traction and keep building momentum. You will never know what’s going to come up and you will never be ready for all those things. So you just gotta do it and learn along the way (or wing it!). BIG IDEA 2 (8:13) – Go the extra mile. Emma definitely embraces the hustle mentality and talks about being obsessed with your business and doing what others are not prepared to. She has pushed herself mentally and physically to make something happen on many occasions but also acknowledges it’s not about being workaholic as you need to know when to switch off without feeling guilty. An important trait is keeping learning and asking for feedback, especially when it’s uncomfortable. Ask people that you trust who will give you the real deal. For your customers, go the extra mile and give people something to talk about – make them feel something. Business Chicks create the sense of belonging and togetherness in a very positive way through their events and the experience they create. BIG IDEA 3 (11:16) – Build great relationships. This idea starts by doing things to make someone’s day. Emma found a way to get a chocolate cake for her friend who was working in China over her birthday, and it made her friend’s day. Spend time building trust, Emma shares some good ways of networking by making it less awkward and cringey. She also talks about the importance of building an amazing culture by doing little things such as giving credit to whom credit is due, saying ‘thank you’, and letting people do their best work without getting in their way. These are all the fundamentals of building great relationships. P.S. Despite all of this, you can’t please everyone and that is okay. Music By: Mindplay – Instrumental Version Song by Roza
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| Think on Your Feet by Jen Oleniczak Brown: How to use improvisation for better communication | 08 Mar 2020 | 00:16:46 | |
About the Author Jen Oleniczak Brown is the founder of The Engaging Educator (EE), a women-owned and operated company dedicated to helping people find their unapologetic, authentic and best voice, communication style and self through improv-based education. Since 2012, EE has served over 50,000 students, working with such companies as Viacom, Food Network, The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue and CBS. Aside from her entrepreneurial endeavors, Jen has done three TEDx talks on the power of improv, including one TEDxWomen on uplifting and elevating women. A firm believer in the idea that Yes, And can change the world – so firm it’s tattooed on her arm, Jen’s personal mission is to empower as many women as possible to stop playing small and know their incredible supernova powers. She currently lives in Winston Salem, NC with her husband Alex, dog Drumstick, and about two-dozen houseplants. Source: https://theengagingeducator.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Press-kit-THINK-ON-YOUR-FEET.pdf Click here to buy on The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/Think-on-Your-Feet-Jen-Oleniczak-Brown/9781713524946 /?a_aid=stephsbookshelf About the Book Our professional lives are full of situations outside of our control. A job interviewer asks a question out of left field. A coworker puts you on the spot in front of the boss. Your PowerPoint presentation crashes at a critical moment. Most people react to the unexpected with anxiety and unease. We get rattled, stumble over our words, and overthink the situation. Others, though, handle it with self-assurance and aplomb. They gain a sense of empowerment and energy when the pressure is on. Like great improv actors, they’re able to think on their feet. The great thing is, improv isn’t about winging it or flying by the seat of your pants; improv at its core is about listening and responding. It’s based on rules and techniques, and it taps directly into your soft communication skills. By incorporating it into your prep work for professional situations, you’ll learn how to retrain your brain for the unexpected and get out of your own way in those unexpected―and expected―professional situations. Practicing improv isn’t about being funny. Instead, it’s about developing the mental agility to spin any surprise in your favor and to communicate with confidence. Source: https://theengagingeducator.com/think-on-your-feet/ Links Find out more about the improv classes that Jen’s company runs here Watch Jen’s TEDx Talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yNb5Dhfguw
BIG IDEA 1 (5:44) – Improvisation equals preparation. It’s easy to think that improv is all about ‘the moment’, but thinking on your feet is only really possible with enough preparation. Preparation might be a mix of knowing what’s coming up, knowing your audience, and ideas on the potential things that can happen so that you can think on your feet in the moment. The techniques to start and maintain a conversation (important in any type of communication) are all based on listening and responding. One example of an improvisation technique is called SIT-PROB-SOL – situation, problem, solution. It is talking about the situation, the problem and how you or your team became a part of the solution. It’s great when used in interviews to concisely share your experience and stay on point, rather than disappear on a tangent. BIG IDEA 2 (8:13) – Need to reflect. In the book there is constant recurring advice to stop and reflect by asking yourself questions about your own performance. The ‘performance’ can be anything from a small conversation with one other person, a feedback discussion with your team or a presentation to a group. The need to reflect is critical to getting better. By reflecting it allows us to ask much more objective feedback on what we could do better. It also means we know what elements to practice. You can practice some of the improv techniques in the book to help with more formal communication with your friends or colleagues and use it into the situation that you expect going to be into. BIG IDEA 3 (10:24) – Improvise to collaborate. One part of the book is about collaboration and how you can use improv techniques to build creativity and teamwork. This is around the concept of feeding each other’s ‘gifts’. A core principle of improv is that everytime you ask a question or respond to someone, you are actually giving the other person a gift (and they are giving you one in return). So we need to avoid dropping the gifts (or stopping the conversation). In the book, Jen also talks about using questions effectively by using open-ended questions. She goes as far to say that these are the only types of question we should be asking in a professional context. It is a great way to keep the conversations running to help teams think more creatively or collaborate in a better way. The improv technique of ‘yes, and’ is also a powerful one for helping teams think beyond the barriers they face. It can effectively be used in a meeting or workshop to build on ideas to find solutions or new angles, rather than endless roadblocks. Music By: Take It to the Top – Instrumental Version Song by Ofrin
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| Ish by Lynne Cazaly: Why chasing perfect is not good enough | 01 Mar 2020 | 00:19:07 | |
About the Author Lynne Cazaly helps individuals, teams and organisations transition to new ways of thinking and working. Lynne is an international keynote speaker, author and a master facilitator. She is the author of 6 books. Lynne is an experienced radio broadcaster, presenter and producer having Lynne can help you think better, make sense of information and handle the realities of information overload with her clever hacks and ingenious processes, tools and methods. She is a cognitive load coping expert. Lynne is an experienced board director and chair and an #avgeek, loving everything aviation and air traffic control. Source: http://www.lynnecazaly.com.au/ Click here to buy on The Book Depository https://www.bookdepository.com/ish-Lynne-Cazaly/9780648297314/?a_aid=stephsbookshelf About the Book It’s natural to want to do well – at work, in study, in life, to do our best. But what happens when striving for the best becomes something more … the pursuit of perfection? Perfectionism is on the rise and it has dire consequences for how we think and feel about ourselves and others, how we think, live, and work. Perfectionism has been seen to cause over-thinking, over-working, burnout, sleeplessness, and mental health problems like depression and anxiety. We can’t keep going like this! But what’s the alternative if it’s not perfect? Lynne Cazaly uncovers how to think, work and achieve in clever ways adapted from the productive and creative worlds of software development … and improvisation. How do they get things done? How do they put their ideas out there? And what can we learn from them? Excellence, quality and continuous improvement are important. But the pursuit of perfection … not so much. Here’s a helpful alternative that guides you to making great progress and achieving what you want in life. Source: http://www.lynnecazaly.com.au/ Links Find out more about the book here: http://www.lynnecazaly.com.au/the-ish-book/
BIG IDEA 1 (6:00) – Nothing is perfect This is the fundamental of the book and even Steven Hawkins says that perfectionism is not possible and in fact, without imperfection, not of us would exist. The pursuit of it causes frustration, procrastination, and fractured relationships. Perfectionism is therefore never-ending because it doesn’t exist. It’s like a vicious cycle of pursuing the idea of perfection, hitting the reality that you can’t be perfect, which we then perceive as a failing and berate ourselves… and start all over again. BIG IDEA 2 (10:10) – Perfectionism comes in different looks Lynne talks about the research on the three flavours of perfectionism. The first is self-oriented where you hold yourself to very high standards, second is socially prescribed, this is about our expectations of other people towards us (ie, thinking that others hold us to higher standards than they do) and the third is other-oriented perfectionism where we hold other people to very high standards. But what are we afraid of by letting something be ‘good enough’, whilst still being fit for purpose. By striving for perfection, are you trying to hide what’s really going on? Are you hoping people will envy you rather than you envying other people? Are you trying to prove someone wrong? It is a human need trying to be met in our strive for perfectionism. What does yours look like? BIG IDEA 3 (12:56) – Ish is the answer This is the transition from ‘not good enough to good enough’. It’s about deciding when to stop. Of course, good enough has to be acceptable, feasible and doable – so if you are a surgeon or a pilot, you probably can’t apply ‘good enough’ to all of your work, but there will be tasks or activities where ‘good enough’ is perfectly fine. You can plot your task or project you’re doing against the acceptability, feasibility and doability test in the book. The important thing is to define what done looks like and what does good enough mean? It’s important to have clear communications and expectations setting to avoid conflicts in ‘the gap’. Ish also has to be intentional by challenging yourself to know when enough is enough and find those perfectionist triggers. Also, try allowing others to be Ish, ask where you are holding other people to higher standards than are necessary. Music By: Seine River Song by Loya
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