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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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.

Another pause for thought last week with respect to Jim Collin’s classic statement.

For those who have known us for a number of years, you might recognise that we’ve come a long way from our “wilderness years”  – we’ve taken some big steps in getting the right people on the bus, and (just as importantly) in the right seats.

However this year we’ve still made a couple mistakes – which has been costly and painful for all involved – and has not helped us in our goal of putting customers first:

In meeting these challenges, I found Jim’s “five things to consider” useful – along with the other materials on the site.

In more general terms, I have also found that there are sections in “Execution – the discipline of getting things done” (part-way through reading) that have been useful.

Looking forward, there are a number of things that we will be looking to do over the coming 12 months or so:

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Picked up “Little Bets” [since reviewed here] by Peter Sims this week, as the underlying theme of the book is something we’ve been striving to base our business around (we’re getting closer every month).

As some background to the main message of the book, the author provides a chapter on the “Growth Mindset”.

I’ve heard a similar dichotomy of views expressed in other contexts before (such as with respect to two conflicting views of wealth creation, and in terms of negotiation) but have not seen it explained in relation to personal development before.

Given where we’ve come from, and where we’re headed, I have included some excerpts here (from p36):

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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)…

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Had almost reached the end of this book and was thinking that (whilst it did contain some worthwhile information), it did not totally do it for me….

The Book	What we thought
“Know-How: the 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t” by Ram Charan	Solid, not stellar – but the letter’s worth reading!

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

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…and then I reached his “Letter to a Future Leader”, included at the end of the book (p265) …

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A whirlwind trip interstate this week to see some existing clients, and some potential new clients, provided a few hours on the plane to catch up on some reading.

Amongst the things I read was “What brain science tells us about how to excel” by Edward M Hallowell in the December 2010 issue of HBR.

Given we have set some ambitious goals in terms of where our bus is headed, and that I have learnt (the hard way) the value of getting the right people on the bus, and in the right seats, I read this article with great interest.

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We’ve had these books in the library at work for a couple of years.

Some time ago some of the guys who were working with us at the time had a read and gave their reviews. Unfortunately the core message was lost in translation – hence, I did not (at that time) form a favourable opinion of the books.

More recently I’ve started reading through them, and found they are well worth a read.  In my view they don’t form the whole picture of what needs to be considered (more on that later), but they do provide valuable insights.

Rather than review each separately I have grouped them together here.  I’ve only read two currently, and so might update this post later, whenever I have had time to read the others.

“First break all the rules” by Buckingham & Coffman	“Now Discover your Strengths” by Buckingham & Clifton	“The One Thing you Need to Know” by Buckingham	“Go put your Strengths to Work” by Buckingham
	Have not read it yet		Have not read it yet

Frequent visitors to the blog might be asking yourself “Why so many book reviews”? – if so, see here…

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