Tedded - Business Book Review

“Everything I did was for us, not for me, I didn’t manage; I led”

Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, a latest book by Seth Godin, again, amazes readers in many aspects. “Tribes” is a concept by Seth Godin denoting “leadership and technology”. “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and conncected to an idea.” And undoubtedly, this book is essentially for the tribe of Seth Godin.

I’ll compare, in my honest opinion, this book, Tribes, to the ideal business book that is “easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience”

Ease of Understanding: 7/10: Tribes is a typical Seth Godin’s work, easy language, no mind-numbing models or data, and short. However, the lack of structure is quite frustrating. There is no chapter, no storyline; this book is a cluster of blog posts.

Distinction: 6/10: The outstanding distinction of this book is how Seth Godin made this book feels more like printed blog posts rather than a typical book. He said he cherishes change and heretics; but I believe it has gone too far (or too tiny within his tribe). As for the contents of the book, it is nothing new. It is about leadership (things like communication, passion, or everyone-can-be-a-leader-if-you-want-to) and technology (twitter, facebook, (his) squidoo, yahoo, etc.).

Practicality: 1/10: From his second to last topic (or post), “You made it to the end. And it’s posible you missed the checklists, the detailed how-to lists, and the For Dummies-style introduction manual that shows you exactly what to do to find a tribe and lead it.” he continues “I think that was the point.” This book might inspire and motivate you to change but it does not tell you how. That is Seth’s point, and one point in practicality is fair.

Credibility: 4/10: The words from the marketing guru should be credible and I believe him but I do not believe what he wrote. This book, unlike his previous books, seems like a quick composition. His idea of tribe is not truly refined and he labeled it onto every possible thing, music concert, philanthropy, Barack Obama, Toyota Prius, Wikipedia, Twitter, a restaurant, Steve Jobs, fitness website, rock climbing, or the X prize. We all know that they are succesful but labelling them “this is an Apple tribe”, “this is an Obama tribe”, “this tribe, that tribe” without enough justification is not convincing.

Insightful: 4/10: I would like to state once more that they are a series of blog posts (126 altogether). This book has no in-depth finding or groundbreaking research. However, they are full of intelligent, clever, and somewhat inspring phases like

“This is a book for anyone who chooses to lead a tribe. Inside or out, the possibilities are huge”,

“Leaders have followers, Managers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change.”,

“…most organizations are waiting for someone like you to lead them.”

“Fans, true fans, are hard to find and precious. Just a few can change everything, What they demand, though, is generosity and bravery.”

“If you’re not over the top, you’re not going to have any chance at all of making things happen.”

Reading Experience: 5/10: If you are in Seth Godin’s tribe, make it 10/10. If you are not, don’t bother. Reading “Tribes” is like reading Seth’s blog, the difference is that it is in a book and it costs money. The contents are very random (surrounding the idea of leadership and technology) and you might be amazed by new and unrelated topics every a couple of pages or you might by annoyed by them.

Overall: 4.7/10: On the criticism of this book, Seth Godin wrote “People might say that it’s too disorganized or not practical enough or that I require you to do too much work to actually accomplish anything. That’s okay. In fact, criticism like that almost always accompanies change.” I feel that this book is useless and then, I am branded change-resistant. I admire lots of Godin’s previous books, his presentations, and continuously read his blog. However, I think this book is way below his standard and the quote from “Tribes” that sums everything up is on page 85

“Boy, are you in trouble. Better get rid of this book.“

“The HR Department is the most important staff group”

Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage by Edward E. Lawler III is another book on talent management and HR in general. The key content of the book is the four types of organisations. Hierarchical bureaucracy or low-cost operator (Struture-centric approach) and high-involvement organisation or global competitor (HC-centric, HC is Human Capital). Lawlar describes the current state of most organisations and how to move forward.

Contents:

1. Talent Matters

Talent matters due to the changing business environment in the world and the world is more competitive than ever before.

2. Making the Right Management Choice

This chapter describes the four types of organisation mentioned above and their advantages and disadvantages.

3. Designing Organizations

Lawler adapted the classic five star model of an organisation design including the elements which are People, Structure, Rewards, Processes, (Competencies, Capabilities, and Strategy), which are all related. While Identity is in the middle of all. Lawler describes effect of those elements to the organisation.

4. Managing Talent

The author wrote on how to get the right talent and how to retain them in depth.

5. Managing Performance

Chapter on performance management, full stop.

6. Information and Decision Making

I seriously think that this chapter is unnecessary, Lawler wrote about the information sharing. knowledge management, and technology.

7. Reinventing HR

To sum up the chapter, HR should not only do administration but also business support and strategy development and implementation.

8. Governing Corporations

The chapter talks mainly about the boards of directors (?!).

9. Leading

Typical leadership topics.

10. Managing Change

Typical change management topics (seriously)

…

Now, I would like to compare this book to the ideal business book; or a business book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.

Ease of Understanding: 7/10: Although, as you can see from the contents, the structure of the book is straightforward, there are some repetitions. Descriptions of HR tools and theories are well written but they can be a bit too overwhelming.

Distinction: 4/10: This is a typical HR or people management book. The colourful front cover might be a bit deceptive; there is nothing particularly new about the contents apart from a model tweak and some updated (cannot really say new) concepts here and there.

Practicality: 3/10: This book is very acedemic. The author wrote beautiful and refined concepts with a few examples but there is no such thing as “do this, do that, do it, now!”. This book will be practical when I construct an HR checklist of activities that are needed to be done. But if I want to actually implement those activities, I will find good methods elsewhere.

Credibility: 9/10: As an acedemic thesis, this book deserves an “A” without a doubt. Researches are sound and a list of references is longer than many textbooks. Anyway, an experience of Ed Lawler should be credible enough.

Insightful: 8/10: Following a long list of sound references, the author wrote each topic thoroughly. Explanation between and within chapters is clear.

Reading Experience: 4/10: I am not going to lie here, this book is quite boring. This book is pretty much like a textbook, an HR textbook. I think that is enough for you know how will you feel.

Overall: 5.8/10: For HR managers and officers, this book might be useful but it is likely that you already know them all in general. For others, this book might be too detailed without straight and practical method. However, if you need to be an HR guru, the book is compulsory and check out the list of 98 references for your next stop towards an enlightenment in human resource management.

I’ve started a new life. Simply put, it’s a new career life. That’s why I’ve stopped writing for quite a while; I was stunned.

I never thought that life in a big organisation is very different from as an entrepreneur. It’s a big change; and it’s a big leap.

I’ll get into details later on how I cope with it. However, I’ll tell you the first impression.

Adaptability

Only the strongest will survive. And the strongest is always the one who is the most adaptable. In my previous company, I was a business developer. I was overwhelmed with the urge to create, the urge to invent. It has been fun. Now, things are different. I cannot solely do the strategic thinking and imagination. Now, everything is in my hands.

How am I adapting?

I forget

I did not forget my strengths. I did not forget my principles. I did not forget my past. I did not forget my belief.

I forget the curse. The curse of knowledge.

I realised that what I knew that worked might not work anymore. What I thought is correct might not be correct anymore. I realised that “I am right” in one place is not going to be “I am right” in another place.

I learn

I learn to adjust to the new working environment. In the past, I was surrounded with people with degrees. Now, I am with people with less education background. I learn that education means nothing without passion. I learn that people with less education background with higher passion are more productive. I am learning the new way of business. It’s intriguing.

From my point of view

Adapt = Forget + Learn

Why coackroaches have been in this world longer than dinosaurs and possibly human beings?

They have no ego, no ambition, and no arrogance. They have always been willing to “adapt”. They forgot dinosaurs, they learnt how to live with homosepiens. I’m not saying that we should not have ego, ambition, or arrogance (confidence) but we need to keep them under control.

T-Rex might be physically stronger than a cockroach. But a cockroach adapts better. It lives on.

Human beings are smarter than coackroaches (by a million lightyear) but cockroaches will still be able to adapt better.

…

Forget

and learn

…

Life’s too short; don’t be afraid of change. Embrace it. Good luck to you all.