Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

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 »

Five hours on a plane to and from Melbourne this week for the EUAA’s Annual Conference was a great opportunity to get most of the way through Roger Martin’s earlier book “The Opposable Mind”.

More about the book at some later stage – but just want to highlight a few quotes from the book that help to clearly explain what I mean when I say that “Openness” needs to be one of our core company values.

If there’s one overriding lesson to take away … it’s that:
(1)  anything we think is real is actually (JUST) a model of reality; and
(2)  that model is probably imperfect in some important respects (from p123)

If anything but your model is wrong, every other model is a problem to be eliminated or ignored.  If instead your model is one of many, all of them imperfect, then the existence of a clashing version is to be expected, not feared (from p124)

My perspective is that these clashing models are to be welcomed, and even to be actively sought out, pragmatically.

‘Contented Model Defence’ is by far the most prevalent (mode of behaviour) – it is the factory setting for most people, who are generally unconscious of its operation (from p125)

In past years, I have invested considerable hours in trying to shift some employees paradigms from this ‘Contented Model Defence’ to what Roger calls a ‘Optimistic Model Seeking’ paradigm (this has been akin to seeking to facilitate the “warm–to–cold–to–hot” transition).

However our success rate has been low.  I’ve recognised it far more important to ensure that anyone new on the bus shares this ‘Optimistic Model Seeking’ paradigm as a pre-requisite to coming onboard.

As noted a while ago, I picked up this book and  found it a very engaging read.

The Book	What we thought
“Who says elephants can’t dance?” by Louis V Gerstner Jr	An enjoyable read - some great lessons too

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

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What struck me, time and again in reading this, was how the IBM situation Lou describes shows so many similarities to the situation we found ourselves in a couple years ago, when we started our own turnaround project (albeit on a much smaller scale).

I’ve titled this post in a similar way to the one I made 2 years ago following a Google talk as a similar challenge to us to ensure that we learn the lessons from IBM that Lou outlines in his book.

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Let’s get one thing out-of-the-way straight away, for those who are easily distracted – yes, it is an unfortunate choice of acronym.  Back in 1988, when the book was written, political debate was not as lightweight and sound-bite-sized as at present.

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I can’t recall who it was who first suggested I read the book, but it was some time ago and (since that time) I have read the book several times.

The Book	What we thought
“Spin Selling” by Neil Rackham	It’s certainly worth it, for us, given the nature of our business

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

With this book in particular, I’d strongly recommend you pick up a copy in order to gain the value – what follows is my attempt to just hit the highlights.

The book describes the SPIN technique, which evolved based on some fairly extensive studies of sales effectiveness completed by the author during the time he was founding the Huthwaite business.

Here’s a brief 5-minute video in which Neil outlines what SPIN selling is all about.

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Started reading “Who says elephants can’t dance?” this weekend [later reviewed here] – Louis Gerstner’s account of the turnaround he helped create at IBM from 1993 to 2002.

Though we’re a massively different size of business, I am intrigued by his recount of the position the company was in at the time, and the steps taken to rectify.

I’m particularly intrigued to read on, to find out more about what he did to ensure that the company focus returned to the customer – as this has been one of our central challenges in the changes we’ve been making in the past year or two.

We’ve certainly made some good progress, though I know that there is much more we can do.  The week before last was not one of our better ones – but it won’t be wasted, if we can learn from it.

Back around November 2009 read an article by Roger Martin promoting his new book, and posted about it here.

The book arrived and I read it some time ago, but some developments more recently prompted me to pick it up again.  Given the reliance our company has on product innovation, it was worth reading (even a 2nd time).

The Book	What we thought
“The Design of Business – Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage” by Roger Martin	Not a large book, but packs a punch

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

read more »

Picked this book up off the shelf this weekend and read it straight through (to the consternation of my wife – what will they write about next, she says).

The Book	What we thought
“Getting Naked – a Business Fable” by Patrick Lencioni	Easy read, and worthwhile

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

As the title implies, it’s written in fictional story form, about the cultural difference between a large downtown “up or out” management consulting firm and a smaller close-knit entrepreneurial one.

It was an quick and easy read – both because of the way in which it was written, and also because it parallels with some of what I’m keen on embedding deep within our own culture as part of our Core Value of Openness.

At a deeper level, my view is that it’s also predicated on a primary value of “Customers First”.

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Noticed this post from Shirlaws echoed through my Twitter account this evening, and it gave me pause for reflection on how far we’ve come in the 18+ months since Shirlaws first started helping us.

It’s a bit of a case of “half full, and half empty” in that we’ve come a long way – but still have so much further to go.

The Shirlaws post is pretty short, but does list the “7 Asset” framework that they use to describe the value of an enterprise.

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In some ways, I believe that it is.

I’ll spoil the punch-line -  eighteen months ago I posted about how 10,000 hours of “dedicated practice” are required to reach true mastery of any discipline.

This book is one of several that take up this theme, and which were referenced in the news articles linked in the post above.  Other books include “Outliers”, plus many others we have not read.

The Book	What we thought
“Talent is Overrated” by Geoff Colvin	Well worth reading for greater depth than the articles quoted in the post above

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

read more »