STRATEGY CENTRAL

A couple years ago Dan Roam published a book called The Back of the Napkin.  Loved it!  I wrote a review on it and have used the ideas extensively in my consulting work.

I got my copy of Roam’s follow-up, Unfolding the Napkin earlier this week.  Let me tell you right now, if you didn’t pick up the earlier book, you need this one!  If you lead any kind of meeting that involves brain-storming, if you lead a team or are part of a team that looks for solutions, if you’re a consultant…you need Unfolding the Napkin.

I love the way it’s set up!  Designed as a do-it-at-home version of one of Roam’s Back of the Napkin workshops, the book gives you the tools you need to become a proficient visual thinker.  Better yet?  Maybe you move in the direction of making your whole team better!

Sometimes you trip across a book and you know right away that this is a book that will influence your conversations for a long time.  Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by award winning Harvard Business School professor Youngme Moon is that kind of book and a very intriguing read.

Well written in a style that is equal parts Malcolm Gladwell (full of surprising anecdotes that make her point) and Jim Collins (memorable insights into the underlying truths), it is easy to see why her course is one of the most popular in the school’s curriculum.

Different first sets the table in part 1 with an eye-opening look at how best practices and hyper-competition have produced “heterogeneous homogeneity” and “masters of a particular form of imitation.  Not differentiation, but imitation (p. 13, Different).”

Moon continues in part 2 with a careful examination of the most compelling stories of the past two decades (think IKEA, Google, JetBlue, In-N-Out, Cirque du Soleil and Apple) and finds that “a disproportionate number of those stories, in category after category, could best be described as exceptions to the rule (p. 13, Different).”  I’m certain you’re going to be fascinated and love insights like this one: “Google is a ‘reverse-positioned brand’ that ‘says no where others say yes.  And they do so openly.  Without apology (p. 110, ).’”

Moon introduces and develops three heuristics as she writes about reverse-positioned brands (like Google and IKEA), breakaway brands (like HBO and Cirque du Soleil), hostile brands (like the MINI Cooper and Red Bull).  All three heuristics come into play as she uses them to describe what she calls an idea brand (Apple or Harley Davidson).

Part 3 “begins a conversation about a new way of thinking about competition generally, and competitive differentiation specifically (p. 15, Different).”

I think this is an important book for all of us.  If you’re working to make a difference, you’ve got to keep in mind that “if you want to reach people no one else is  reaching, you’ll need to do things no one else is doing (Craig Groeschel).”  Step one might be to learn how to be different.

There is already some good media that helps describe the book.  One of the best is this very interesting presentation on youtube.  You can pick up your copy right here.

Picked up a new book this week in my ongoing search for innovation ideas and strategies.  Innovation X, by Adam Richardson came to the top of the stack.  30 pages in, this is going to be a great addition to my thinking.

A creative director at frog design, Richardson has worked with companies like HP, Intel, Yahoo, Motorola, and Logitech.   In describing his work, he points out that much of his time is focused on “strategic issues and sitting down with executives and product managers whose fundamental question is, ‘What should we make?’

Sound familiar?  Aren’t many of us asking that same question?  What should we make? After all, if we’re mindlessly making the same product we’ve been making for years or generations…you probably have already lost the market.  So you’ve more than likely been tweaking the product, trying to stay relevant.

And yet…in many, many cases…tweaking the product has not worked.  It’s like we have missed the moment.

“But often,” he continues, “they do not even know exactly what the problem is they are trying to solve.”  That sounds very familiar, doesn’t it?  Don’t many of us feel like we know things aren’t right…but we’re not sure why.

This feels like a great book right at the outset.  Want to come along?  You can pick up your copy right here.

Where did business strategy originate?  When was it that understanding the business idea might make a difference?  The Lords of Strategy, by Walter Kiechel, III, is a fascinating new read that details the history of business consulting.  The short course in determining interest in it?  If you’ve read Michael Porter, Tom Peters, Jim Collins or Gary Hamel and found yourself highlighting, dogearing pages and underlining…you’ll like where Kiechel takes this one.

Tracing the history of strategy by recounting the four biggest players (Bruce Henderson, founder of the Boston Consulting Group; Bill Bain, creator of Bain & Company; Fred Gluck, longtime managing director of McKinsey & Company; and Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter), The Lords of Strategy is 330 pages of stories that detail how the field of business consulting developed.

If you’ve been around the business world at all, you’ll recognize many of the strategies and practices that were developed by these four men and their firms.  Lords of Strategy is a very compelling recounting of how these strategies were developed.  The backstory, the actions and attitudes of the players, and the state of business as the strategies were developed all provide a level of detail that put the reader right into the backrooms where business changed and the competitive landscape changed.

At the same time, this is more than a history or collection of anecdotes.  I found myself dogearing pages, underlining and starring sections for later review.  If you’re building a consulting practice this will be a helpful resource.  If you ever deal with consulting firms it will provide some important insights into their development and practice.  Regardless of the reason you pick it up, if you’ve been in business in the last twenty to thirty years…you’ll recognize a lot of the strategies that are developed…and I think you’ll enjoy hearing how they came to be.

Picked up Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky.  Very practical.  All about how to get organized to actually make ideas happen.  50 pages into it, this is a great book.  I picked up some great ideas from Getting Things Done.  This is similar, but way more focused on the practical steps that help ideas to make it beyond the ideation stage and into implementation.

I am really excited by the very practical nature of the book.  Each chapter is a very thorough examination, really a step-by-step guide to implementing Belsky’s ideas.  In addition, there are many spot on illustrations of companies that are seeing progress by putting these concepts into practice.

Belsky is the developer of a website called The 99 Percent, devoted to the forces that push ideas forward.  The idea is taken from a quote by Thomas Edison who said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”

If you’re looking for a way to get from envisioning a new idea to living it out…I highly recommend Making Ideas Happen.  This is a book that will help you and your organization whether you are on a team, lead a team or lead an organization.

Every once in a while a book comes along that is really packed with ideas.  Way more often a book will have an idea or two…maybe even a few.  Steering Through Chaos is one of the former.  Packed is the best way to describe it.

The subtitle gives a very good overview of the content: “Mapping a clear direction for your church in the midst of transition and change.”  Now that I think about it, that’s actually a pretty good mission statement for what Scott Wilson has pulled off in Steering Through Chaos.

Beginning with a chapter on turning points and transitions and ending with one on staying the course (endurance), the book is extremely readable.  With no shortage of engaging stories that make point after point, this is a page turner…and one that you’ll end up making up, highlighting and folding down pages.

A feature that I found to be an added bonus was a collection of short vignettes from other ministries around the country.  Larry Osborne, Dino Rizzo and Greg Surratt are a few of the better known.  Equally engaging are monographs by John Bishop, Troy Gramling and Tim Stevens.

As I worked my way through the book I recognized hints and traces of practices and principles from books that have long been part of my library.  What I appreciated about Steering Through Chaos is not its originality.  Rather, I found it to be a great example of a handbook on ministry in the year 2010 when so much is at stake and up for grabs.

I love Wilson’s closing quote on the promo video:  “To steer the church through the chaos of change and live to tell about it.”

If you’re looking for a resource that will help you navigate the challenge of transition and change…I highly recommend this book.

The last few months have taken me on a fascinating journey into design thinking.  Books like The Design of Business by Roger Martin, Tim Brown’s Change by Design, and Design-Driven Innovation by Robert Verganti have given me a language and a way of thinking about organizational design.

The latest step in the journey?  Design Thinking: Integrating Innovation, Customer Experience, and Brand Value.  Edited by Thomas Lockwood, Design Thinking is a collection of articles mapping the development of the discipline.  Very interesting and packed with ideas.

Although I find design cool and interesting in its own right, its really the design of organizations that I’m drawn to.  And it turns out it makes sense.  According to Richard Buckman, there are four orders of design:

• Communication: the creation of signs and symbols to be used in mass communication (we’re all at least at this level)
• Construction: the creation of objects via traditional industrial design
• Interaction: the actions and behaviors of people, as affected by design (many of us are working this edge as we try to design experiences that are conducive to interaction)
• Organization: design considerations in the context of organizations, environments, systems and cultures (this is the piece that is lacking for many of us)

I love Lockwood’s take on the fourth order of design, calling it:

“the sweet spot–the point at which the organization can involve design more integrative and holistic, building design methods into some of the internal systems and processes, and moving design towards a core competency.  This is the desired end state because the real value of design is in discovering and solving all manner of problems (p. 82).”

I’m intrigued by the possibilities of organizational design.  What if all of us learned to be more purposeful about the way our organizations were put together; the way our systems were designed?  Think it might make a difference in outcomes?  Want to come along?  You can pick up your copy of Design Thinking right here.

What motivates what you do?  Is it money?  Is it reward or recognition?  Turns out that what motivates most of us isn’t what we’ve thought.  You may remember author Daniel Pink from his bestseller, A Whole New Mind.  He’s back with an intriguing take on motivation.  His newest, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, will no doubt fill in some blanks about the underlying truths that set us in motion.

What motivates us?  If you think it’s about carrots and sticks…you’re going to find Pink’s conclusions very surprising.  If you’ve already concluded that there must be something more, a different way to motivate, you’re going to love this book.  Drive skillfully articulates the difference between motivation 2.0 (carrots and sticks) and 3.0 which taps into the intrinsic motivators that change outcomes.

Because the carrot and stick concept is so well entrenched, Drive takes its time, carefully establishing the background and foundation to motivation 2.0 and thoroughly outlining its history.  Once established, Pink shifts to an examination of the holes in the carrot and stick concept and finally a very detailed demonstration of ways that motivation 3.0 can be implemented.  Finally, the last section of the book is a really helpful toolkit designed to further enhance your practice.

Whether you’re simply leading a team, a staff or you’re an HR professional, this is a must read.  On a side note, it turns out purpose (along with autonomy and mastery) plays a role in the kind of intrinsic motivation Pink is writing about.  This is a great read…and I highly recommend it.  You can order your copy right here.

How tuned in is your organization? I asked a friend who had just moved to a new organization, “How’s the new reality?”  He said, “To borrow a phrase from Leonard Sweet, I live in the Google Era, but my work environment is Gutenberg Era.”

Makes you think, doesn’t it?  How many of our organizations are operating as if the Gutenberg press was still an exciting new idea?  Okay…maybe none.  But how many are operating as if yesterday is still the present?

It’s not easy to stay up with the times. It is a challenge. But if you’re looking for help, I want to recommend Chief Culture Officer by Grant McCracken.

I get sent a lot of books.  I skim a lot of them.  There are some that I make a serious attempt because it’s on a topic that grabs me.  A few pull me in from page one and never let me go.  One of those arrived on Thursday.

Chief Culture Officer by Grant McCracken develops from the premise that culture matters and “until an organization masters culture, it makes the world needlessly mysterious” and “it multiplies risk.”  McCraken’s argument is that culture matters for good and bad reasons.  An understanding of culture “is the place to discover advantage, opportunity, and innovation.”  It’s also “the breeding ground of cataclysmic change.”

This is a book that is packed with stories.  Right off the bat you’re immersed in accounts of companies that missed culture shift (i.e., Levi Strauss missing hip-hop, Quaker Oats overpaying for Snapple, and Coca Cola late to the game of non-carbonated drinks).  On the flip side you’ll hear the stories of companies that got it right.

What’s the point?  It’s McCraken’s belief that although Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Martha Stewart have a guru reputation, their sensibility for culture can be reverse-engineered.

35 pages in…this will help you.  If you’ve been at all concerned that your organization exists in some kind of time warp, you need to pick up this book.