Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

My twelve year journey with this company – seeing it grow its customer base, and product range, from nothing to be quite substantial – has been one of great learning for me.

Of my greatest areas of learning has been with respect to others within in the company.  I have struggled, at times, due to my lack of prior experience and preparation.

For some time I’ve been pondering the apparent paradoxes across a variety of books and other materials I’ve read – with respect to the concept of Strengths and Weaknesses.

Where I have read this, it has been with respect to an individual’s own strengths and weaknesses – however I believe that the pointers that I’ve learnt are also applicable at an organisational level (where a strength is more commonly termed “competitive advantage”).

After quite a bit of reflection, it currently* seems that to be truly strong, an individual (or a company) needs to have the right combination of all three of the following factors:

* I say “currently”, as it seems that the learning journey I am on almost guarantees that my view will become even more nuanced in future.

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Picked this book up some time ago, perhaps after seeing Daniel Pink give this presentation of the importance of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

Read it back then, and have re-read recently as I’ve been casting my mind forward to the next recruitment initiatives.

The Book	What we thought
“Drive – the surprising truth about what motivates us” by Daniel Pink	Well worth it for us

I’ve posted separately about why we read, and review, so many books (and about the links above)…

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The content of this book is very much along the lines of the talk at TED – which  means that, if you are not aligned with the belief that Intrinsic Motivation is more important than Extrinsic Motivation (after watching the lecture), then the book will probably do nothing further for you.

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In more recent months, I’ve read a number of books on the topic (seems to be gaining prevalence, at least in terms of people willing to write – and buy – books).

Not that I mind, because it’s an approach that’s close to our heart.

The Book	What we thought
“Little Bets – How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries” by Peter Sims	Worth reading

I’ve posted separately about why we read, and review, so many books (and about the links above)…

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Early in reading “Self-Theories” by Carol Dweck, I came across the following passage (p37-38) which explains the dichotomy of views that influences what each person achieves in life:

“Once students adopt a theory of intelligence, it affects what they value, how they approach intellectual tasks, and how they interpret and respond to what happens to them.

A belief in Fixed Intelligence raises student’s concerns about how smart they are, it creates anxiety about challenges, and it makes failures into a measure of their fixed intelligence.  It can therefore create disorganised, defensive and helpless behaviour.

A belief in Malleable Intelligence creates a desire for challenge and learning.  In fact, some incremental theorists tell us that they worry a task will be too easy for them and, essentially, not worth their while.  Setbacks in this framework become an expected part of long-term learning and mastery and are therefore not really failures.  Instead they are cues for renewed effort and new strategies.”

For anyone who’s been following our company as we grow and mature, you’ll appreciate that I’ve been grappling with really understanding both: read more »

As a brief PS to this recent post about people who are right for our bus, I saw this HBR interview with Heidi Grant Halvorson pop up on my iGoogle page.

Heidi references this earlier post about “Nine things successful people do differently” and promotes her new ebook of the same title.

These nine behaviours/beliefs are food for thought – both for us, as possible selection criteria for new recruits, and also as focal points for anyone interested in achieving better performance, over time.

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As a further note to Heidi’s point #5, have started reading Carol Dweck’s “Self Theories”, which expands on this concept.