Book Review | The Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Book Name : The Execution - The Discipline of Getting Things Done 
Author : Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan

Execution is a systematic process of rigorously discussing how’s and what’s, questioning, tenaciously following though and ensure accountability.  This book is a great insight into where things typically go wrong in all big small and medium projects. This book provides a frame work on which values, principles and working strategy needs to be inherited for successful execution. The book talks about dos and don’ts in easy to understand language. Once you start relating the topics covered to your days to day operation issues which you face at work it keeps on becoming more and more interesting. The real time examples and solutions make the book interesting to read. I personally feel that the principles explained in the books can be adopted to our personal life as well as at the workplace•

Summarizing the key thoughts from the book:

1.Most often today the difference between a company and its competitor is the ability to execute. People think of execution as the tactical side of business, something leaders delegate while they focus on the perceived bigger issues.  Execution is not just tactics – It is a disciple and a system. It has to be built into a company’s strategy, its goals, and its culture.

2.Execution is a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies need to master in order to have competitive advantage.

3.THE HEART OF EXECUTION LIES IN THE THREE CORE PROCESSES; the people process, the strategy process, and operations process

4.The skill of coach is the art of questioning.

5.To change a business’s culture you need to set of processes – social operating mechanisms – that will change the beliefs and behavior of people in ways that are directly linked to bottom-line results.

6.COMPETENCIES: Functional skills, business skills, management skills and leadership skills.

7.A ROBUST PEOPLE PROCESS DOES THREE THINGS. It evaluates individuals accurately and in depth. It provides a frame work for identifying and developing the leadership talent- at all levels and of all kinds- the organization will need to execute its strategies down the road. It is based on

  Linkage to the strategic plan and its near, - medium-, and long term milestones and the operating plan target, including specific financial targets

• Developing the leadership pipeline through continuous improvement, succession depth and reducing retention risks



• Deciding what to do about non-performers



• Transforming the mission and operations of HR

8.Succession depth analysis determines whether the company has enough high potential people to fill key positions. It also looks at whether there are high potential people in the wrong jobs and whether key people will be lost if a job is not unblocked for them.

Book Review | The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results.

Book Name: The Art of Action: How Leaders Close the Gaps between Plans, Actions and Results.

Author: Stephen Bungay

The commander in chief always develops a strategy to win the war. All though it is taken for granted that the soldiers in the field will obey the chief as planned to ensure they defeat the enemy.  The chain in command and alignment becomes very important so that they know Why, What and How it has to be done. Business is an interaction between human organizations. It is competitive, highly dynamic, complex and risky. Organizations develop strategy and review it every year. Command is as unavoidable in the business world as it is in the military one. Strategy is dynamic as it only defines the path that management has chosen. At times the organizations fail to execute the strategy.

The Art of Action is a thought-provoking and fresh look at how managers can turn planning into execution, and execution into results. The book is based on the historical knowledge of military campaigns going back to Napoleonic times and moves forwards into the 21st Century military application of strategy in the Western world. The author draws parallels to application of the Mission Command approach in private and public sector organisations today. In war everything is very simple, but simplest thing is difficult as for the complex organizations. Creating great organizations and devising great strategies is not a science but an art. In science our knowledge grows and builds on the past. The big issue is not strategy, but executing strategy and times organization appear to reward compliance rather than initiatives or creativity resulting into non-participation and fear.

A strategy is fundamentally an intent; a decision to achieve something now in order to realize an outcome; that is a, “What” and a “Why”.  The steps of the staircase define the organizations “main efforts: at a strategic level. Even if a strategy is not watertight, energetic leadership can make it work, however business strategy encounters frictions of uncertainty, errors, accidents, technical difficulties, the unforeseen and their effects of decisions, morale and actions. These result into 3 types of gaps (gaps in terms of expected results and reality: outcomes, actions, plans). The gap is described as the difference between what we know and we can do, as the gulf between plan and execution. They are

Knowledge Gap: The gap between plans and outcomes concerns Knowledge; it is the difference between what we would like to know and what we actually know. This means that we cannot create perfect plans. So the need is to formulate the strategy as an intent rather than a plan. Knowledge gap is to limit direction to defining and expressing the essential intent.

Alignment Gap: The gap between plans and actions concerns alignment; it is the difference between what we would like people to do and what they actually do. The need is to be clear on the intentions with the employees. The alignment gap is to allow each level to define what it would achieve to realize the intent.

Effect Gap: The gap between action and outcomes concerns effects; it is the difference between what we hope our actions will achieve and what they actually achieve. We can never fully predict how the environment will react to what we do. It requires the boundaries that are broad enough to take decisions for themselves and act on them. The effect gap is providing individuals freedom to adjust their actions in line with the intent.  The result is to make strategy and execution a distinction without a difference, as the organization goes through PDCA cycle.

A gap in alignment is often pointed to top level frustrations and lower-level confusion. Top –level managers feel increased pressure to specify exactly what they wanted people to do. The lower level imitates and identify problems on their own, which results in local initiatives. These result in creating dilemmas over what to do. Junior people lose the trust in decisions of seniors and they start delegating upwards.  Top level frustration goes up a notch as people thereby demonstrate that they really cannot decide anything for themselves and so the cycle goes on.

A gap of effect is typically responded by increase in control. The favorite control mechanism is metrics. Controls have a cost. Overhead builds up around the controllers, and the reporting burden increases for the controlled. Controls add costs, slow things down further, and increase rigidity. People become demotivated and keep their attention firmly fixed on their KPIs which they were supposed to measure.

People on the front lien are the ones who ultimately crate value since they are the one who determine the kinds of experience that the company generates for its customers. The higher the level of command, the shorter and more general the orders should be. The next level down should add whatever further specification it feels to be necessary and the detail of execution are left to verbal instructions or perhaps a word of command. This ensures that everyone retains freedom of movement and decisions within the boundary of their authority.

The real challenge is how to create an organization which enables average people to turn out above average performance. Most organizations could improve that performance significantly if they could unlock the potential to their existing people, whether or not they are unusually talented. Organizations can use OGSM technique, this starts with the corporate centre defining its Objectives and Goals and its Strategies and Measures. These are then translated down into business and functional levels instead of MBO.

High performing organizations tend to have a strong culture. The Morale drops when organization wastes people’s time. Using an effective briefing technique renders the motivational task of leadership far easier by making the connections between the individual and the collective and forming the basis of mutual respect. The organizational culture is set by two most important organizational processes, budgeting and performance appraisal. They form part of corporate body language.

Scorecard is only one source of information from which that picture can be formed. A scorecard should be used to support strategy execution by monitoring the effects actions are realizing, not to supplant strategy. 

Recommendation: A good book to read on strategy implementation. 

Book Review | The Brand Custodian : My Years with Tatas

The brand Custodian : My years in Tatas

Author : Dr Mukund Rajan

Recently there was a report published in the social media on how long the corporate houses survived post-independence in India.  The Living Company by Arie De Geus who cites a research report that says average life expectancy of a large corporate (Fortune 500) is about 40 years. On the Similarly lines, Rahoul Joshii an Indian scholar studied Indian corporates starting from post-independence and his study, available in LinkedIn, showed that 50% of 1950 companies were wiped out of top 20 in 1990. 75% of 1990 top companies wiped out by 2016. The only company or corporate that could make it consistently on the top from 1951 till today is TATA – Leadership with Trust. 

Many of the small town / rural guys dream is to work in Tata’s, and mostly it’s because of the brand and respect it carries.  Today the large corporate have the treat not from the rival competitors, but from the small entrepreneurs, who establish themselves in a small garage with brilliant concept and technology. The future  business Is driven by two key attributes

1.     Great Brand where the customer has complete loyalty and  trust

2.     Companies that drive great Technology   

Others needs to critically do something to sustain.

The brand custodian : My years in Tatas, I call it as an autobiography of Mukund Rajan – who was the first brand custodian of Tata brand. The author takes his twenty three years of service working with Ratan N Tata and Cyrus Mistry as they headed the Chairmen of Tata Group.  The author has broadly classified the book into three major chapters – Part I - The budding Manager,  Part II – Coming into my own, Part III – From success to influence and part IV – Conclusion.

When reading Part I and II, the author showcase the working with RNT and his thoughts.  The reader gets an essence it’s all about Ratan Tata’s work, culture, influence and corner office. People who admire Ratan Tata would love reading these parts as the author has diligently affirmed the actions, aspirations and leadership attributes that made the Tata group touch 100 billion company.

Part III is all about the moving the ladder, influence, politics and horizontal, vertical growth from TAS to becoming the first brand custodian. It touches the ethos and values the group inherited and the passion to give back to society and Mukunds roles and responsibilities that he successfully sail across with great insights.   This chapter touches every aspect of business and social responsibility engaging employees for volunteering, innovation, engaging etc.

Part IV is a thought on the future on employment opportunity, technology disruption, climate change etc. This chapter touches some of the initiatives that Cyrus Mistry has group chairmen had his vision.  Whether it will wither or not  time can only convey.

A good story telling and beautifully articulated book to read about Tata’s and especially about the corner office, as the author worked with chairmen, then into board and then rose to becoming youngest MD in the telecom industry. Further he narrates the politics, scams and controversies during his time in Tatas, including his surprise on the board cope on Mistry. 

A balanced view !!!!!

Recommend a good time reading !! 

Book Review | Gifted Hands

Book : Gifted Hands

Author: Ben Curson

‘The world this week’ was one of my favorite program telecasted in DD every Friday late night. I used to watch the program without miss, courtesy there was no power cut. One of the story that I remembered was the team of doctors agree to operate conjoined heads of two Boys from Germany. This was very hot news as the boys struggled to walk together and more painful for their parents who needed to take care of them. I think the parents might have worried about the future of these boys as their heads are joined and their activity were different. The operation was successful and  I don’t remember any news about that boys. That operation become a stepping stone for these conjoined children’s where we find many doctors separating at later stage at many countries.

In received an shared video of a Pastor narrating a story of  Single, Black and Poverty Mother who gets married at the age of 13 to a man of 28 years. She give birth to Two Sons, they live in a slum. When the boys were studying in fifth standard, The head master summons the kids mother and informs that he sees the kids future as watchmen, Criminals etc. as they don’t cope with education.  I heard the pastor informing that the mother cried for 2 whole days and see got the vision and she told the kids to read books at the local library and submit the summary of the book they read every week. The kids who were poor, by god’s grace become intelligent and top the class. Over the period of Ben becomes a Doctor and he was the person who operates the conjoined kids for the first time and this becomes history.

This book is a autobiography of man who was judged by the Teacher, that he sees his future would be criminal to a transformation where people of America crowd fund his candidature to become President. The government nominates him as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  

An inspiring read from childhood to become famous neurosurgeon and to raise to the position of Secretary. Nicely articulated story !!   

Once I completed reading the book, I just googled to know what happened to the two boys who were operated. Although Carson was able to separate the boys, they were both left profoundly disabled. Two years after the separation, that Patrick remained in a "vegetative state", following the surgery. He never came out of his coma. Their father was emotionally unable to ever handle them, or share in their care. It is said the twin's father became an alcoholic, spent all the couple's funds, and left their mother destitute and alone. In an interview the mother of the conjoined kids, termed guilt for agreeing to the operation that ruined the boys' prospect of ever having any quality of life. 

Life is such !!

Book Summary | The Huawei Way – Lessons from an International Tech Giant on Driving Growth by focusing on Never Ending Innovation

The Huawei Way – Lessons from an International Tech Giant on Driving Growth by focusing on Never Ending Innovation

Author : Yang Shalong

This book is about Huawei and CEO – Ren Zhengfei, low key entrepreneur operating on a global scale to create a world class organisation using Innovation and learning using core technologies of the information industry. This is a classic case of how within two decades, Huawei was able to innovate new technologies using sustained study of global organisations and constantly innovating with respect to both management and technologies. Huawei has conquered the multinationals through leadership, work culture and innovation as its core resulting as “patent champion” with huge number of international patents. This has become a model of new style of enterprise to lead global change.

The book is divided into 3 parts – Founding the company, Change and Going international. Each chapter has a lessons on personal involvement of Ren in leading the change and captured failures that have overcome. In nutshell, founding the company takes through the hard times and frugality with examples of entrepreneur skills.  change is about dreaming big and building systems in the organisation and Going international is about cultural and managing international footprints.   

Founding the Company: This highlights the tough time due to poverty began the frugal and selfless attitude. This leads to willingness to disperse wealth to others, his courage in delegating authority and selfless nature. One can notice that life’s setbacks often count as blessings rather than as curse. The more prosperous you are, the more you can advance science and technology. The more advanced your science and technology, the more you can focus on education and produce generation of talent and the more talent you produce the more your economy prospers.

Universalizing Customer Relations:

• Focus on all levels of customer hierarchy, not to differentiate between large and small customers, not to think of positions of these customers as low or high. Provide same importance to all levels and set up excellent relationship at each level at each stage of the process from product promotion to tendering bids to ultimately signing the contract.
• Pay periodic visits to any older experts who contributed in anyways. Invite them to head office for events. Always maintain a feeling of gratitude for the help that customers gave us in the past. This not only builds reputation around, but also build positive influence around the world.
• Protect customers’ investment. Make customer succeed. Making customers succeed is the same as making ourselves succeed.

Soul of Independent R&D: Innovation may be hard, but it is the only path to make if an enterprise hopes to survive. In addition to just survival it is the path of success.  

• The key is to apply concentrated force in just the right place, so that a tiny sharp point focuses the pressure using technological breakthroughs using limited resources. This means concentrating human resources, material strength and financial strength on one key point in order to achieve breakthrough. Concentrated pressure to achieve breakthrough technology.
• Technology is not worth anything until it is sold. Research is indeed a kind of gambling. If you are not in the game, however, if you don’t dare to be in the game. You’re left behind. And that definitely dooms you to failure.
• In a knowledge economy age, the methods by which a company survives and grows have also changed in fundamental ways. In the past, one relied on doing things accurately. Now, it is more important to do the right things. In the post people thought that innovations were taking a risk. Now, if you don’t innovate, you are taking a major risk.
• It is better to work quietly than to talk too much.

Culture: Resources can always dry up. Only culture lives on.

• Creating of Cot Culture – when they are tired, they lay down in the office to take short rest. In victory, we raise a toast to one another, in defeat, we fight to the death to save one another. When the going gets tough, it is the brave who win the day.
• Wolf culture – Cultural transformations, from a wolflike culture to an “everybody rowing in unison culture, to a culture that is customer centric and one that gives primary consideration to those who fight.
• Crises, reductions, and even bankruptcy will inevitably come, crises are not what mature a company, they are what kill a company.  Heroes are those who can sum-up the lessons of failure, and they move toward victory.
• Any nation on earth, and any organization, will see its life come to an end if it does not metabolize the old and replace it with the new, if we cling to the past, we will send the company to its very grave
• We are in an age when the IT industry is changing dramatically, an age that moves at 10 times the previous pace. The only thing that doesn’t change is this world is change itself. If we are just a little too hesitant, we fall behind by a thousand. If we are complacent and conservative, reject criticism, then we fall behind by more than a thousand. Should we move towards failure and death just for “face”> or should we face, cast off mistakes, and turn overserves in the right direction? The necessary condition for surpassing is ridding ourselves of mistakes in time. To get rid of all mistakes, we must courageous enough to criticize ourselves.
• Self-criticism is good way to further an individual progress. Self-criticism is not castigation but rather self-confidence. Only the strong can do it. Self-criticism is a kind of weapon as well as a kind of spirit. Ability to correct mistakes grow stronger, the muscle of the organisation become healthier.  The healthier the organization became, the better it was at doing self-criticism.
• Internal start-ups.
• System of Employee forums for employees – for appraisals. Their primary function is to resolve disputes, relating to performance evaluations.
• System of Counselor or Guidance – The aim is to make sure they acclimate to the company as fast as possible to understand its organization atmosphere and principles of fairness and justice, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that they can be as creative and dynamic as possible.

Change Management:

• Spiritual Program – to bring consensus among all employees, by dividing market into three parts – Giving to Country in due, and thereby unifying thinking, actions and fighting goals.
• Only if you dare to dream of doing things can you begin to do them; only if you dream of creating revolutionary change can you ever get good at it; only in the mist of such revolutionary change can new opportunity arise.
• The brave one wins the fight on a narrow road. 
• The market has no time to wait for us to grow up. It is not our mother. It has no patience and no mercy. There is exit for us if we retreat or even if we fall behind.
• Change Management through Integrated Product Development (IPD), Integrated supply chain (ISC), CMMI, IPMT, Integrated Financial Systems, Customer Relation Management

Motivation:

• Each person’s success in fact comes from the selfless contributions of his family. The original driving force of our lives, out work, our endeavours, comes from our mothers, who made us warm winter clothing, from our silent fathers and elder brothers and from that young lady who may be once have loved you and from whom you are now separated…
• Future battles among companies will be battles over patents.
• Competition among enterprises these days is no simply a matter of one enterprise going up against another. Instead, it involves one supply chain going up against another.  A companies supply chain is like the entire chain of an ecosystem. It has all of the lives on board the ship, including customers, partners, suppliers and manufacturers. A company can only expect to survive overtime if it also looks after the interests of the customers and its partners, and if it pursues win-win solutions for all.
• There are no eternal enemies and there are no eternal friends. There are only eternal interests.

Compromise and shades of grey: No river on earth is straight. All have curves. They represent the compromise between river and earth. Such compromises are what allow the waters of a river to reach ocean

Conclusion:

From last one year, Huawei is news for varied reasons, from Canada to United States. The Trade war and high end technology solution of Huawei is giving tough fight to Multinational companies, threatening their monopoly in technology. 

This book provides key insights on Huawei has built an culture that could produce superior product with future technology to lead the change for customers. …

A great book to read, where even failures are shared.

-           

Book Summary | 16 Communication Secrets

Book Title : 16 Communication Secrets

Author : Kim Zoller, Kerry Preston 


This book is very all-purpose in nature and provides simple known solutions on the 16 Communication mistakes we probably have unnoticed. 16 communication Secrets is a holistic view of how we communicate our message. You can have brilliant ideas but if you can't put them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere". This statement of the master strategist, Lee Iaccoca forms the essence of Communication Secrets as it brings forth the rationale for becoming an effective communicator. In the introduction itself, the author clarifies what he means when he talks about communication: "Communication is not how and what we say; it is how we are heard. It is not about us; it is about how the other person perceives our messages and us". The author goes on to emphasize how "thought and planning are the keys to making a difference in your communication style and approach". And the principle is fairly simple, "You really do catch more flies with honey than vinegar". Though it is not really a how-to-do book, it does provide some very valid and useful suggestions. The author advocates positive attitude but "having a positive attitude doesn't mean walking around with a big smile on your face all day, every day". It "means looking at worst-case scenarios and thinking about the solution rather than focusing on the problem and who caused it. It was good to be reminded about having two type of personalities: task-oriented and people- oriented. However, this book deals with 16 communication mistakes, we do and provides best practices to be followed for each of these 16 communication secrets. This book brings the awareness of how your mind can create a negative situation that does not really exist. 

Book is short, practical and with real examples. There are questions in the book for self-introspection, it will definitely help for those in teens.

A good book to read and refresh on communication.

Book Summary | Catalyst : The ultimate Strategies on how to win at work and in life

Book : Catalyst : The ultimate Strategies on how to win at work and in life

Author: Chandramouli Venkatesan

Catalyst: The ultimate strategies on how to win at work and in life is based on experience of the author while working in few reputed organisations.

Foundations & Pillars: This book shares the about authors experience in dealing career aspirations and management.  Typically  everyone aspires to be very successful in their career and wants to grow very fast and climb the ladder of success. Career is broadly divided into two halves, where in 95% of the time people are successful  in the first halve and only 5% of the people are successful in second halve. Career success – easy in the first half, difficult in the second half.  The major factors for success depends upon  (i) The nature of the organization, (ii) The Impact of the boss and supervisors (iii) The preparation required to succeed at each level. Success in the second halves of career is largely a function of the foundation & pillars built in the first halves. 

Algorithm & Target Measure Review Reflect: The author uses “Algorithm & TMRR” ( Target Measure Review Reflect) more frequently, you can find in every sixth page .  Many people post  or tweet messages, experiences etc. in the digital space of Facebook, LinkedIn etc., but few gets noticed and gets shared. This is because an algorithm is inbuilt which tracks the likes and dislikes and prioritize these. Similarly in career growth the algorithm is built with IQ and EQ and therefore career growth is related to Real individual Growth which includes Environmental Aspects. Personal productivity is converting this algorithm into output. To increase the  productivity focus needs to be within the circle of influence.

Learning Cycles : Successful people seems to have participated in more major learning cycles then less successful & successful people seemed to have extracted more experience and real individual growth out of the learning cycles they participate in than less successful people. Career cannot be linear and it should be managed.  A good career management as three fundamental principles –(i) focus on depth over width (ii) Complete major learning cycles (iii) get out there when you can. While doing career planning identifying a good boss is very important. A hint to identify a good boss, may be through a good company – may be company’s rating in talent market, reputation of hiring quality talent.

Decision Making for Quitting  & Joining:  2X2 matrix for decision making to quite – Current organisation – What is good & What is bad | Future organisation – What can be good & What can be bad. Motivation is through hopping on a hobby and leadership is function of Position, Content & Values.

Book Summary | The Tyranny of Metrics - Jerry Z Muller

Book  : The Tyranny of Metrics

Author – Jerry Z Muller

Performance measurement is the buzz word and the time we conceive to funeral we keep measuring. The metrics used may be different based on the status or lifestyle, however we measure. Is it the right measure, will all these measure meaningful everyone has their own opinion on that. Metrics and measurement has become dominant in our life.

The Tyranny of metrics is an introspect on the application of metrics, when it is linked to the performance of pay may lead to gaming. The author provides examples on the metrics that were used in Military, Academics, schools and corporate,

where the dominance of metrics has boomeranged. Greater attention and metrication of the measures linking to performance reward has become gaming. Many of the times, we remember a great quote “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it” however we forget that it could be a game based on metrics fixation. Because we life in the age of measured accountability of reward for measured performance. But the identification of accountability with metrics and transparency is unreliable. Many a times, with the data flow from lower level to upper level there will be too many screening and analysis the real meaning of the metric gets lost or the decision maker will be biased as the true data on the metric doesn’t flow. The metric fixation is the seemingly irresistible pressure to measure performance, to publicize it, and to reward it, often in the face of evidence that this just doesn’t work very well. In 1986 the American management guru, Tom Peters, embraced the motto, “What gets measured gets done,” which became a cornerstone belief of metrics. Some of the common flaws of the measurement systems are

·         Measuring the most easily measurable.

·         Measuring the simple when the desired outcome is complex

·         Measuring inputs rather than outcomes.

·         Degrading information quality through standardization.

·         Gaming through creaming

·         Improving numbers through omission or distortion of data

The problem is not measurement, but excessive measurement and inappropriate measurement—not metrics, but metric fixation. The key components of metric fixations are

·         the belief that it is possible and desirable to replace judgment, acquired by personal experience and talent, with numerical indicators of comparative performance based upon standardized metrics;

·         the belief that making such metrics public (transparent) assures that institutions are actually carrying out their purposes; 

·         the belief that the best way to motivate people within these organizations is by attaching rewards and penalties to their measured performance,

Goal displacement through diversion of effort to what gets measured. Goal displacement comes in many varieties. When performance is judged by a few measures, and the stakes are high, people will focus on satisfying those measures—often at the expense of other, more important organizational goals that are not measured. The result is that the metric means comes to replace the organizational ends that those means must to serve.

Checklist for when and how to use metrics ?

o    What kind of information are you thinking of measuring?

o   How useful is the information?

o   How useful are more metrics?

o   What are the costs of not relying upon standardized measurement?

o    To what purposes will the measurement and to whom will the information be made transparent?

o   What are the costs of acquiring the metrics?

o   Ask why demanding performance metrics.

 “Measurement is not an alternative to judgement: measurement demands judgement: judgement about whether to measure, what to measure, how to evaluate the significance of what’s been measured, whether rewards and penalties will be attached to the results, and to whom to make the measurements available”. Identifying, measuring, and discussing good quality metrics with your staff is key to being able to manage your organization effectively. If we focus on this Metric,  will it drive the desired  behaviour. 

A good book to read, and if you don’t like to read every chapter read the last chapter – which provides great summary of the book !!

Book Summary | Give and Take - A Revolutionary Approach to Success

Give and Take – A Revolutionary  approach to success

Author – Adam Grant

Organisations are driven by people and success of the organisation depends upon people.  Peoples skills and behavior is based on Give and Take to aspire and create meaningful and sustainable changes to their environment. Give and Take reveals the surprising forces behind success and the steps to enhance ownership through encouraging behavior.

In Give & Take – the author categories people by the fundamental styles of social interaction into Givers, Takers and Matchers. All these three different distinct characters are required to achieve the organisational mission. However each of these characters have distinct behavioral and psychological attitudes  that the author narrates with examples and coordination required between these attributes to achieve the goals.  According to conventional wisdom, highly successful people have three things in common; Motivation, ability and opportunity. Success depends heavily on how we approach our interactions with other people. Every time we interact with another person at work, we have a choice to make; do we try to claim as much value as we can or contribute value without worrying about what we receive in return? Takers have a distinct signature they like to get more than what they give. 

Givers prefer to give more than they get.  Across occupations, it appears that givers are just too caring, too trusting and too willing to sacrifice their own interests for the benefits of others. Givers succeed in a way that creates a ripple effect, enhancing the success of people around them.  

Successful givers have unique approaches to interactions in four key domains; Networking, Collaborating, evaluating and influencing. Givers have a track record of generously sharing.  The ability to imagine other people perspectives, rather than getting stuck in our own perspectives, is a signature skill of successful givers in collaborations. Takers want to be admired by influential superiors, so they go out of their way to charm and flatter. As a result powerful people tend to form glowing first impression of takers. The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.  Matchers tend to build smaller networks than either givers who seek actively to help a wider range of people. Many  matchers operate based on the attitude of “I’ll do something for you, if you’ll do something for me.Matchers are better equipped to inspire self-fulfilling prophecies.  

The type of person you are at work has a huge impact on your future success. According to Grant, givers are the people that achieve the greatest success.

https://www.amazon.in/Give-Take-Helping-Others-Success/dp/1780224729/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1547289470&sr=8-1&keywords=give+and+take

Book Summary | How We Die : Reflections of life's Final Chapter

Book : How We Die: Reflections of Life's Final Chapter 
Author: Sherwin B. Nuland


Everyone wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die... However even with the technological advancements, improvement in healthcare and life expectancy so far nobody has been successful in defeating the death. We live today in the era of the art of dying, but on the art of saving life, and the dilemmas in that art are multitudinous. Death is not a confrontation, it is simply an event in the sequence of nature's ongoing rhythms. No death but diseases is the real enemy, diseases the malign force that requires confrontation. Everyone wants to know the details of dying, though few are willing to say so, whether to anticipate the events by thoughts of life's ending. To most people, death remains hidden. 
When we attain old age and we die in old age and for burial we need a death certificate, which a medical officer needs to produce. In the death certificate, the doctor never mentions that the death is due to old age, but he do uses medical term as the reason for the death. How we die; reflection of life is about death in old age and the reasons behind this. The author a medical professional lists that we experience dying due to stoppage of circulation, the inadequate transport of oxygen to tissues, the flickering out of brain function, the failure of organs, the destruction of vital centers as the common reasons for death at old age. 

Modern dying takes place in the modern hospital, where it can be hidden, cleansed of its organic blight, and finally packaged for modern burial. Hope lies not only in an expectations of cure or even of the remission of present distress. For dying patients, the hope of cure will always be shown to be ultimately false, and even the hope of relief too often turns to ashes. 

The greatest dignity to be found in death is the dignity of the life that preceded it. 

A book to read about the causes of death in the old age. 

https://www.amazon.in/How-We-Die-Reflections-Chapter/dp/0679742441

Book Summary | In Search of Excellence

Book : In Search of Excellence

Author: Tom Peters & Robert H Waterman

In search of Excellence is a book on research using 7S (Strategy & Structure (hardware), Style, systems, Staff, Skills, and shared Values (software)) framework of McKinsey as the authors were working with McKinsey. The book was first published in 1982 and thought that was striking the mind is after 22 years is it makes relevant to today’s competitive and technology companies.   To identify the rational of the excellence companies the author had chosen over 43 companies out of the Fortune 500 and held them up as defenders of excellence, measured by six financial yardsticks such as Compound asset growth, Compound equity growth, Ratio of market value to book value, Return on capital, Return on equity and Return on sales to validate the secrete behind driving excellence. The best part is even today these companies are doing well and there are case studies shard in the book. However one drawback is the analysis and comparison of these shortlisted companies are not been reported.  My key insights from the book are

·         Quality and Service are invariable hallmarks. The excellent companies require and demand extraordinary performance from average man. Service, Quality, Reliability are the strategies aimed at loyalty and long term revenue stream growth. Three themes in an effective service orientation

1.      Intensive, active involvement on the part of senior Management

2.      A remarkable people orientation

3.      High intensity of measurement and feedback  

·         Excellent companies has the ability to manage ambiguity and paradox. Excellence companies had gotten to be the way they are because of a unique set of cultural attributes that distinguish them from the rest. The excellent companies have developed cultures that incorporated the values and practices of the great leaders.

·         Tools are biased towards measurement and analysis. Paralysis through analysis syndrome. Tools didn’t substitute for thinking. Intellect didn’t overpower wisdom. Analysis didn’t impede action. Rather these companies work hard to keep things simple in a complex world.

·         Eight attributes of excellent, innovative companies are

1.      Bias for action, for getting on with it

2.      Close to customer

3.      Autonomy and entrepreneurship

4.      Productivity through people

5.      Hands-on, value driven.

6.      Stick to the knitting

7.      Simple form, lean Staff

8.      Simultaneous loose tight properties

·         Good mangers make meanings for people, as well as money. Treating people – not money, machine, or minds as the key natural resource. Majority of businessmen are incapable of original thought because they are unable to escape from the tyranny of reason. Gamesmanship replaces pragmatic action. Mangers job is decision making. Make the right calls. Make the touch calls. Managers job is to keep things tidy and under control. Get the incentives right and productivity will follow. Three items – inventories, profits and sales – form a crucible for managers.

·         The exclusively analytic approach run wild leads to an abstract, heartless philosophy. To be narrowly rational is often to be negative. Today’s version of rationality does not value experimentation and abhors mistakes. The excellent company response to complexity is fluidity. The rational model causes us to denigrate the importance of values. Fluidity, chunking and experimenting are interestingly abetted by the character of the excellent companies’ formal system.

·         Managing process is an interactive flow of three variables; Path-finding, decision making and implementation.

·         Our control systems are designed under the apparent assumption that 90 percent of the people are lazy. Association with past personal success apparently leads to more persistence, higher motivation, or something that makes us to do better.

·         Negative reinforcement will produce behavioural change, but often in strange, unpredictable, and undesirable ways. Positive reinforcement causes behavioural changes too, but usually in the intended direction. Two ways to accomplish shift – First we attempt through positive reinforcement to lead people gently over the time to pay attention to new activities.  Secondly the reinforcement should have immediacy. Third system of feedback mechanisms should be account to achievability. Listening carefully, frequently speaking with encouragement and reinforcing words with believable action.

·         Excellent companies tap the inherent worth of the task as a source of intrinsic motivation for their employees.  Excellent companies know to manage Paradox. Excellent companies are learning organisations. Human needs in the organisation are

1.      People need for meaning

2.      People need for modicum of control

3.      People need positive reinforcement to think of themselves as winners in some sense

4.      Degree to which actions and behaviors shape attitudes and beliefs.

·         Small group is the most visible of the chunking devices. Small groups are quite simply the basic organisational building blocks of excellent companies. The true power of the small group lies in the flexibility.

·         Five fundamental attributes of companies close to the customer

1.      Astute technology manipulations

2.      Pricing skill

3.      Better segmenting

4.      A problem solving orientation

5.      Willingness to spend in order to discriminate.

·    Excellent companies have 5 attributes of communication system that seems to foster innovation

1.      Communication systems are informal

2.      Communication intensity is extraordinary

3.      Communication is given physical supports

4.      Forcing devices

5.      The intense, informal communication system act as remarkable tight control system.

• ·         Excellent companies do acquire; but they acquire and diversity in an experimental fashion.

https://www.amazon.in/Search-Excellence-Americas-Companies-Essentials/dp/0060548789