Tag Archives: Adrian Gostick
Reverse Innovation; Abundance – Our 2 Books for the July 6 First Friday Book Synopsis
We had a wonderful gathering this morning for the June 1 First Friday Book Synopsis. Karl Krayer presented his synopsis of All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. I presented the best-selling and much-talked-about The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. These are both genuinely useful books.
(Our synopses, with handouts + audio of our live presentations from this morning, will be available soon on our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com).
On July 6, Karl will present his synopsis Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere by Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble (foreword by Indra K. Nooyi).
I will present my synopsis of Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler. Peter Diamandis is the founder of the X Prize, and you can watch his TED talk, Abundance is Our Future, here. So this book will give us a big hefty dose of optimism, which I suspect we could all use right about now.
Click on the flier below to read all the details. We begin at 7:00, and conclude right around 8:05. And you eat a great buffet with made-to-order omelet bar breakfast, experience great visiting and table conversations, and receive a quick, substantive jolt of content. Come join us.
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The Power of Habit, & All In – Coming for the June, 2012 First Friday Book Synopsis
How do we keep getting better at what we do? One way is to keep a commitment to the task, the discipline, of life-long learning. And so we keep learning, and then try to put this learning into practice.
To quote Peter Drucker, we all need to cultivate and maintain the “habit of continuous learning.”
We can help you with this “keep learning” task with our monthly book synopsis event. Now in our 15th year of monthly gatherings, we have a large group of life-long learners at the First Friday Book Synopsis. This morning, we presented synopses of Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer, and Take the Stairs by Rory Vaden.
Next month, on June 1, I will present my synopses of The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (a terrific and important book), and Karl Krayer will present his synopis of All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.
Corporate culture; personal and corporate habits. Pretty good issues to focus on.
If you are in the DFW area, come join us for the June 1 First Friday Book Synopsis. Great conversations, wonderful food, and useful content – all fast-paced, in just over an hour. Hope you can join us. (You will be able to register soon from this web site).
An Item Not to Forget About Concerning Teamwork
Many of you will enjoy the new insights and data about teamwork that I will present on Friday at the First Friday Book Synopsis in Dallas from The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton (Free Press, 2010). If you miss the synopsis or live outside of our area, you can find it soon on our companion site, 15MinuteBusinessBooks.com.
As always, I am impressed by the research methodology employed in books like this. The findings and recommendations from this book come from a 350,000 person survey conducted by the Best Companies Group (BCG), which has been instrumental in establishing “Best Places to Work” programs.
One item that is missing from this book, as is true of most that I have read on teamwork, is the fundamental question of how teams “work” when they “work as teams.” I am asked all the time what a group needs to do in order to work as a team. And my answer is they must do their work as a team!
What I mean is that the work that everyone does must be interdependent, not independent. You cannot have teams if the work that participants do is not designed so that they work together. Therefore, teamwork depends upon the fact that at minimum, there is an extra set of eyes, or an extra set of input to everything the participants do and contribute.
Throwing independent contributions together into a package is not teamwork. Assembling interdependent contributions together into a package is teamwork. This is because the result comes from the blended aggregation of each person’s input. And, when you have teamwork, you have great difficulty identifying “who did what,” because the product belongs to the team, not any individual. That is why MVP (most valuable player) of a team has never made any sense to me – you can have one for a league, but you should not have one for a team!
So, if you want teamwork, you must design the work where you accomplish it in teams. The work must be interdependent, not independent. If you fail to do this, you will only have a group, and not a team
How do you see this issue? Let’s talk about it soon!
Coming Next, February 4, for the First Friday Book Synopsis – The Orange Revolution, and All the Devils are Here
Nearly 120 gathered this morning for the January, 2011 First Friday Book Synopsis. Karl Krayer and I have been presenting these synopses/briefings on best-selling business books every month since April, 1998. This morning, Karl presented Buy-in by John Kotter, and I presented Power by Jeffrey Pfeffer. They were both practical, useful, important books. (Note: Karl’s handout had a terrific, valuable breakdown of the major objections, and solutions to meet these objections, for those seeking to get their ideas across).
You will be able to purchase our synopses, with audio + handout, in a couple of weeks on our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com. (Many other book presentations are available on the site).
For next month, Friday, February 4, Karl will present a synopsis of The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Transform an Entire Organization by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. (Free Press. 2010). You can read Bob Morris’ review of this book on our blog by clicking here.
I will present a synopsis of All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis by Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera. (Portfolio Hardcover. 2010). This book is currently #1 on the New York Times Hardcover Business Best-Sellers list, and is considered by many to be the top book regarding the financial crisis of 2008. (Note: one of the other top best sellers regarding this crisis is The Big Short by Michael Lewis. You can also purchase my synopsis of this book at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com).
The First Friday Book Synopsis provides a great breakfast, in a spectacular setting (the Park City Club), with great networking, and substantive, useful content – all in a fast-paced gathering. If you will be in the DFW area on February 4, come join us. Registration will be open soon – in a day, or two, just click the Register Now! sunburst on our home page.
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