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One of our central focuses back in our Business Autopsy in July (which we’re now starting to think of as Autopsy 1 - as distinct from the current Autopsy 2), was the fact that our software development processes were not up-to-scratch. read more »
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Whilst there is some debate about the order in which they should be ranked (i.e. is it customers-employees-shareholders or employees-customers-shareholders) it is fair to say that employees are central to any business’ success (including ours).
With all the changes we have had on the go in the company since the autopsy, I have been very conscious of the need to ensure that all employees are still engaged and aligned (despite the fact that I might not do a great job at this at times).
Hence this book was of great interest to me:
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “People Glue” by Ian Hutchinson |
A great framework |
| Full Disclosure – nope, not an Amazon link this time. Picked up this book at the AIM’s Management Bookshop, so the link above is to this source. Well worth reading, even for our overseas stalkers. |
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Read this book in spurts, but all together, it probably only took a couple of hours to get through it all. Definitely a framework to apply in our company.
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In the book “The Myth of 9-to-5” the authors note that it is a mark of growing maturity when an individual can reconcile the truth in two apparently paradoxial points of view.
Given this is aligned with my own personal philosophy, and the fact that I’m likely to need to refer to this point again-and-again, I thought it would be easier to extract this point to a separate post (here). read more »
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Paul Klaptocz pointed me at this interesting blog post from Stephen Few entitled “Malcolm Gladwell, modern problems, and the analytics age”.
With us having read two of his books many months ago (Blink and the Tipping Point – sorry, no book reviews up yet) and having previously discussed the follow-on from his 3rd book (Outliers) in my post about the 10,000-hour rule, I was curious to read further. read more »
Not sure where I first heard about this book, but it has been one of a number that have sat in our bookshelf for a while (we run a quasi-LIFO reading line).
Something prompted me to pick it up, and I am grateful I did.
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “Simply a Great Manager” |
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A useful slant on uncommon “common sense” |
| Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you… |
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Having completed our business autopsy back in July and implemented a number of changes resulting from this, we have not left it at that. Rather, in a similar way to our philosophy of lifetime learning, we also support a principle of lifetime improvement (from a combination of numerous small increments, or larger step-changes).
Hence, we met with Ross Jolly of Sound Reasoning recently (following on from Evan Fortune’s presentation at an IIB event), and he mentioned this book.
This had been read and reviewed many months ago by someone else, but I did not recall the details**.
** This is one reason why we have instituted the process of having book reviews posted on the blog, for future reference as memory joggers (basically, to ensure we actually gain better value from what we read).
Maybe because I could not recall the previous review, this book was not what I expected….
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “What got you here won’t get you there - how successful people become even more successful”by Marshall Goldsmith |
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… but I found it excellent! |
| Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you… |
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Having previously written about my views of the differences between the cultures at the Tarong and Stanwell power stations in the 1990’s, the former manager of the Stanwell station and inaugural CEO of Stanwell Corp (Ted Scott) sent me a copy of this book in order that I could gain a fuller view of his philosophy.
I am very grateful that he chose to do so.
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “The Myth of Nine to Five”by Ted Scott and Phil Harker |
.Great content (lots to consider) |
| Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above. We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you… |
Unlike the Richard Branson book, which I read in a couple of hours during the same holiday, this one is a small book that takes longer - as there is plenty of food for thought.
The tagline for the book = “a little book with a big message” does (in my view) reflect the contents.
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After spending about 18 months working at the Stanwell Power Station, I began by round-the-world odyssey as part of the ES Cornwall Scholarship back in 1995. A companion on the journey was this great book.
One of the “original” in a new stream of “self-helpish” books, and still one of the best…
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The Book |
What we thought |
 “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R Covey |
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You must read this book (it’s so good it’s one of 3 books that I give to all employees) |
| Full Disclosure – yes, that’s a tracked link to Amazon shown above.
We buy quite a large number of books on a wide range of topics, all relevant to our business in some way. If you did happen to purchase the book from Amazon, they’d throw a few shekels our way, which would help us to buy (and hence publish reviews of) even more books. Hence, Karma would return the benefits to you… |