Tedded - Business Book Review

I looked at many succesful CEOs in the business world. There is a shared characteristic that they all possess, communication.

“A key, perhaps, to leadership … is the effective communication of a story.” - Howard Gardner

How do we master an ability to communicate?

Firstly, I’ll look at those who are “the masters” of communiation.

And I will look at how they did it.

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I thought of many great and successful businessmen who are great communicators. However, there is a person that stands out. He is ahead of others in terms of communication especially public communication.

Steve Jobs

It is not necessary to write too much on what a great communicator he is. I browsed through many sites in search of the ingredients or the elements of his communication power.

I read:

1. An article by Carmine Gallo in BusinessWeek (here). The author wrote that Steve Jobs 1) Sell the benefits 2) Practice 3) Keep it Visual 4) Exude Passion, Energy, and Enthusiasm 5) “And one more thing” (how he adds the drama in the ending)

2. An article by the same Carmine Gallo in BusinessWeek one year later (here). Gallo added that Steve Jobs 1) Build Tension 2) Stick to One Theme Per Slide 3) Add Pizzaz to Your Delivery 4) Practice 5) Be Honest and Show Enthusiasm. They are basically similar to the previous article.

3. An article in a blog called “Communication Nation” by Dave Gray (here). He stated that Steve Jobs 1) Prepare carefully 2) Create Drama 3) Use Pictures 4) Make It Personal 5) Have Fun

4. An article by Guy Kawasaki in his blog (here). He summarised into 10 points mainly about Minimalism, Visual, Guests, “But wait, there’s more” Moment, Human Touch, etc.

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It is easy to detect the pattern from everyone’s view that he’s enthusiastic, energetic, passionate, dramatic, and make it visual. He connects. He understands the audiences. He knows how to make them (us) feel excited. He puts massive energy into the room.

So, what should we do? Should we be more enthusiastic in everything we speak out? Should we use more pictures in our presentation?

The answer is yes; we should do what Steve Jobs does in order to communicate to other people better. However, we might not have the opportunity of Steve Jobs everyday. I’ll tell you a simple (very simple) concept from a book and I’ll connect Steve Jobs to the concept. The book is Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.

I have my book review method based on the idea of this book and I will show how an ability to communicate of Steve Jobs is made to stick. The book outlines the characteristics that make ideas sticky which are SUCCES (Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotion, and Stories)

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Simple

Presentations of Steve Jobs are always simple. He always started with a “theme” of the presentation. The 2008 Macworld is themed “There’s something in the air.” and that simple concept is linked with the product he presented.

This video from youtube.com is the first introduction of iMac in 1998. He clearly spoke out that iMac is for the number one use that customers were telling them what they want the computer for. Which is to “get on the Internet, simply and fast.” And that’s what “i” stood for, Internet. He later listed out other advantages of iMac but the core is simple, the computer that connects, simply and fast. Keep everything minimum.

Unexpected

The famous “one more thing” Steve Jobs love to say is one of the tools he used to drive the “unexpectedness”. Actually, it is not hundred per cent “unexpected”. It is rather that people “expect” to see the “unexpected”. The “unexpectedness” is created through long hours of practice and practice and practice.

This video is the first introduction of iPhone in 2007. Steve Jobs knew that most customers knew what was coming. However, he built tension. he made twists. He diverted customers psychologically. From the video, he tricked audiences that he was going to introduce three products, and iPod, a phone, an an internet communication device. He then built up the atmosphere of the place and hinted until the audience found out (mostly unexpectedly) and he said “Are you getting it? These are not three separated devices, this is one device. And we are calling it, iPhone”. Twist the plot.

Concrete

We all know that Steve Jobs’ presentations are highly visual. You can always see it. He showed you how to use the product. He maximised the image and visual of his products. All of us do not have that priviledge. However, from a different aspect, he can communicate in a wonderfully concrete way like the video below.

The first iPod introduction in 2001, Steve Jobs started a music industry revolution with

“1,000 songs in your pocket”

The phrase “1,000 songs in your pocket” is not only simple, but also highly concrete. People understand it right away. People know what they will get. People know what he is talking about. Make audiences understand.

Credible

Matter of fact, when Steve Jobs says anything, you should better believe that he is telling the truth. Credibility is earned by trust. Credibility is also gathered by references but Steve Jobs could not just say “Bill Gates told me that…”.

This is the video of the first iPod nano in 2005. He showed audiences that previously the original iPod and iPod mini could be in your pocket. He then pointed to the little pocket on the sides of your jeans and said that he did not know what it is for. He then cheekily said “Well, now we know, because this…” and he picked iPod nano out of that little pocket. “Is the new iPod… nano”. He demonstrated that this thing is really thin. Don’t just say it, show it.

Emotion

Steve Jobs always presented with enthusiasm and energy. The reason is that he “understands” people. He knows the audience. He exactly knows what the audience “want”. He speaks to the heart of people. He tells them what they want to hear. He connects. However, from the video below. I want to show the opposite.

The introduction of Macintosh in 1984! He did not speak much. He let Macintosh communicate! Only a man who was a genius in communication could make a computer communicate for him, well, 24 years ago. And look at the standing ovation at the end of the video. Tell me that those people were not emotional! Understand your audience.

Stories

“It is now 1984. It appears IBM… wants it ALL. Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money. Dealers initially welcoming IBM with open arms, now fear an IBM dominated and control future. They increasingly and desperately turning back to Apple as the only force that can ensure their future freedom.”

“IBM wants it all and it is aiming its gun on its last obstacles to industry control, Apple.”

This video is more like a war cry than a corporate keynote speech. He used this speech, this story, to lay out the theme “1984″ the year he launched Macintosh. He used this story to create the sense of ownership and freedom of customers. He made customer feel that the product was not just a personal computer. It was a revolution and a symbol of freedom. Don’t talk facts, tell stories.

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Although I picked each video for each element, each video has ALL the elements. His presentation or public communication is always simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, and with emotion and stories.

During the past week or two, I wrote “how to choose you career” in different aspects.
- You have to choose it with your passion in “How Should We Choose Our Career?”
- You have to choose it with your strength in “Matching Personalities with Your Career?”
- You have to choose it because of money in “Choosing a Job Because of Money”

Now, you might think “What exactly are you trying to say?” So, I present you this simple diagram

Career Choice

This simple diagram is pretty much self-explanatory. When choosing a career, we rely on one of these factors; passion, stength, or money. You either say

“I like the job.” or

“I am good at it.” or

“The job pays huge.”

If you are lucky, you will have both. The perfect case would be all three. I, for instance, chose the career that suits my strengths. The pay is absurdly little now and in the future. And I do not particularly like the job (but I like most people and environment here though). How did you choose?

By the way, there are some other minor factors such as people, environment, distance from home, working hours, and so forth. However, these factors might be in consideration but they are not decisive factors and most of the times, they are tightly related to the three mentioned earlier.

For example,

- Nice people or good environment probably make you like the job more (which falls into “passion” category).

- Flexible working hours will benefit the strengths of people who are laid back and/or dislike routine job.

- Reputation of the company is closely related to how you will have higher pay in the future.

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Is it possible to find a job or career that falls into the centre of the diagram enjoying passion, strength, and money?

I strongly believe that we can have it! And my suggestion on the way to find it is to follow the order: passion-strength-money.

1. Passion: I don’t know how other people think but passion should always be the first factor considering any job in the world. If you find the job you like it passionately, or love, you will not have to “work” for the rest of your life. You will “live” it. As I wrote in the past article that the easiest way to find your passion is to think of what makes you “talk about it all day and never shut up”. If you still can’t find any, spend the whole day talking to your family member or close friend. Talk until you’re tired! There are sometimes when I talked to my close friends and we were literally having different conversations. He would talk about golf (some do talk about stock market, some talk about cars, etc.) and I just nodded and replied something like; “Really, I never know that.” And when it was my turn to talk, I talked about books and their brains turned off immediately!

2. Strength: After you list all your possible career paths or jobs from your passion. Take time to make your strength inventory and select the jobs that match your strength most. There are times when you might think that you like the job terribly much but you are not good at it. What comes into your brain would probably be “Well, PR manager is my childhood dream; I will never cross it out! I know I’m the worst public speaker ever but I think the job might not really need that skill, does it? Nah, I think I can just be a quiet PR manager!” Be honest, know yourself. There are times that we like the job so much that you do not realise that being a loser or a bozo in it is the fastest way to crush your passion.

3. Money: The third and the last step is to consider money. I discourage you to put money above passion and strength. Yes, money is important but there is no money in the world that can buy you joy and self-fulfillment. Nevertheless, always consider money. If you don’t, there might be some times in the future that you regret. Changing the course of your career (or company) is not always easy. My advice is to take your time, don’t rush into every opportunity. Study it through and evaluate different options.

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Is this the only way? No, and there are many people that chose strength or money first and became successful (some are insanely successful). However, the logic behind this order is that it is the most difficult to change your passion. Strengths can be developed although it takes time. And money comes and goes, it is the most volatile factor.

Money is in your pocket

Strength is in your body

Passion is in your soul

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What do you think? How should we choose our career? Out of the three, which factor are you enjoying? Which one are you suffering? How can you improve it?

I’ve followed Mike King’s blog and his most recent post on Maximum Productivity: Focus. In order to avoid being labeled as a paparazzi; I will be more cautious!

From his post “Productive focus is narrowing your actions and time in on the areas that produce results.”, this is spot on an Mike later wrote about his technology distracts us, how can we focus on productive works and build our mind to be capable of doing them.

I’ll get back to my previous post: “Your Choice”. The post in Learnthis.ca by Mike King resonates with the quote by Sir Richard Branson in my previous post.

“To me business is not about wearing suits or pleasing stockholders. It’s about being true to yourself, your ideas, and focusing on the essentials.”

Here is the hardest part: “How do you focus on the essentials?”

My assumption is that your essence of living is your contribution; your contribution on what’s important.

I’ll borrow the words from “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey that we need to identify our roles. His example includes;

1. Family

2. Work

3. Friend

4. Church/Community/Service

We have to specify the activities we need in each role. We thought of them separately;

We have different activities in each role.

Family: Take care of parents, have regular dinner - at least three times a week - with our spouse, take a dog out for a walk, or go to children’s football matches.

Friends: Have occasional parties, visit close friends quarterly, consult and support their businesses, or keep distant friends in touch.

Work: Work forty hours a week, close enough deals, initiate new business ventures, have regular informal dinners or lunches with subordinates, or encourage our boss through tough times.

Community: Go to church every Sunday, go to temple and meditate if you are a Buddhist (like me!), donate at least once a month to causes that need urgent help, etc.

I only state the activites omitting the personality or character such as “be a supportive friend”, “be a humble boss” because we will focus solely on “activites” or “what we do”.

The problem that most of us face is typical;

activities in our different roles are, more often than not, contradictory.

We always find out that, in order to have regular dinners with our spouse, we need to sacrifice our work hours and skip parties with friends. Sometimes, if we are eager to close urgent deals on Saturday, we could not go to our children’s football match.

Stephen Covey suggested us to be principle-centered but sometimes, we see a principle as a principle in loan that we need to pay back!

However, we have another approach; we “focus”; we cut all the unproductive, unethical, or useless activities such as partying with friends, pleasing our boss, and so forth, out.

From the diagram above, if we are successful focusing on our activities, we will be more productive and enjoyable in each role. It does not mean that less activities in work (as shown above) will deteriorate our work capability. Actually, it is quite the opposite, you can focus on the area of your work that you are most capable and productive while ceasing to do anything out of focus.

Successful focus is a challenging journey.

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You are probably thinking that “this is what we are all trying to do” this is just a paraphrase of everything we have learnt with two corny circle diagrams! What a waste of time!

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If you think like that, maybe you are right.

I would like to give you another idea…

Instead of defining our roles and specify activities in each role, there are some people who could have activities that benefit all the roles we possess.

Sir Richard Branson could do activities that are enjoyable without losing his friends, families, or communities because they are also parts of his work because his work is not his “job”. His work is his life.

He has a gravitational force that could bring all these together. Money is a factor but could we do the same?

Success in bringing all the roles together with maximise the benefit and productivity of our activities. Simply said, it’s like killing four birds with one stone. In this approach, instead of cutting activities, we focus on merging activities.

An easy example is  what I notice from many people. Their working behaviours change; people work at home via e-mail and there are internet communities bringing freinds together without traveling. These activities will allow us to have more time with a family.

My belief is that this is another journey; a journey to converge activities in our lives.

We need to evaluate our work; whether it is contradicting with our family, friends, or community or not.

We need to leverage our activities with friends; whether they are enhancing or undermining our work, family, and community.

We need to understand our family; whether it is overwhelmed by our work life or it is threatened by our time with friends.

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And switch off the television.

First of all, I have to tell you this; writing about self-improvement is brain-twisting. For me, who have no study whatsoever on self-improvment, psychology, etc. And for me, who have lived most of my life in a fast lane.

This is challenging

I read the latest article by Mike King from his website Learn This; Maximum Productivity: Attitude. The second topic he explained is attitude (the first is perspective). The five areas we need to master in order to have the “healthy” attitude are; self-confidence, motivation, creativity, health, and happiness. Please read his article, it’s worth your time.

I read it and my reaction was “whoa, I couldn’t have one issue to discuss on, let alone argue” but from the time he posted and now; I tried to investigate myself very deeply on attitude and how it is related to the five areas.

I tried to simply conceptualise Mike King’s idea and I came up with two simple diagrams;

The first one is the “causal” model meaning that the 5 areas affect attitude directly. At any time, it might be possible that one area, say Motivation, is dominating your attitude making your other four areas less relevant. Each area can take turn dominating the health of your attitude; there might be two or three or four or all of them dominating your attitude at a time.

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The second interpretation is slightly different; I’ll name it the “comprehensive” model. “Attitude” is not affected by the five areas; “Attitude” IS self-confidence, motivation, creativity, health, AND happiness.

This model is different that each area cannot be separated, they work together. In this model, you cannot say I am motivated, thus, I have a healthy attitude.

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The first “causal” model will determine “attitude” quantitatively; for example, ranging from 1 to 10; what is your level of attitude taking into account the five areas (or some of them that affect your attitude). The 1 to 10 range can be bad attitude to good attitude or unhealthy attitude to healthy attitude.

The second “comprehensive” model determines “attitude” qualitatively. You NEVER have healthy or unhealthy attitude. You never have good or bad attitude. You might have “good-natured attitude” or “fiery attitude” or “calm, tranquil, yet determined attitude”, etc.

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From my perspective of attitude; I though slightly different. I construct my model based on Mike’s idea (I could not think of anything better!) and I am truthfully grateful that he could provide me (and the rest of us) with a great input.

From my point of view, from my deep investigation of my attitude, I could not separate “attitude” from “happiness” and “health”. However, I could separate self-confidence, creativity, and motivation from my attitude. I called the blend of “attitude, happiness, and health”

the “condition”,

or “the state of being”.

You need the right “condition” to be productive.

I’m waiting for the six books I ordered from amazon.com. Yesterday, I went to the bookshop and grabbed Leander Kahney’s Inside Steve’s Brain.

I obviously want to know more about Steve Jobs and I would also like to know whether the book lives the claim “Inside his brain” or not.

I thought about it and in order to be inside someone’s brain, you need to be more than looking from his point of view. I’d like to borrow the unfinished series of Mike King, the six issues required to maximise your productivity; perspective, attitude, focus, persistence, adventure, and connections. I am waiting for the explanations of all of these but I could not wait so, hey, I’ll try them first (sorry, Mike :))

In order to be inside someone’s brain; not only you have to see from his perspective, your need to feel his attitude, you need to focus on the same focus, your level of persistence must be similar, you need to experience the same adventure, and you need his absolute connections.

An absolute paradigm shift.

I believe it will be an ultimate freedom if you can liberate your paradigm and let it flow to the place or person you want it to be, any time.

To be paradigm-free.

Paradigm is a pattern, the world, or the model one must have. Your paradigm dictates how you think, feel, live, breathe, or perceive.

If you can liberate your paradigm; you can fully control your choice, as Steven Covey put it in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”; the choice comprises of “self-awareness”, “imagination”, conscience”, and “independent view”.

If you can not only liberate your paradigm, but also be inside someone else’s paradigm and thoroughly understand their choices.

The question is: “How can you be paradigm-free?”

I, for one, do not know. But wouldn’t it make the world a better place if people “understand” other people better.

I’m not saying that people should know what other people think but “why” other people think that.

Knowing “what” other people think will lead the world to chaos, absolute anarchy

Knowing “why” other people think will lead the world to peace, ultimate happiness

That would make this world a better place.

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“You may say I’m a dreamer,

but I’m not the only one.”

My breaking news this weekend was that I had a fan in digg! Not really a fan in that sense but at least somebody found my blog interesting. His name is “Mike King” and his blog is Learn This which is a gem about self-improvement. I sensed strongly that his blog sounds much like Steven R. Covey or maybe I just haven’t read enough book! And I found his latest post on “Maximum Productivity” very interesting indeed.

From his post “Maximum Productivity” involves six topics

1. Perspective

2. Attitude

3. Focus

4. Persistence

5. Adventure

6. Connections

I, again, do not want to be a smartarse- know-everything-amateur-blogger but I want to raise a “perspective” from his latest post “Maximum Productivity: Perspective”. He divided the post into three parts; first you need to understand “productivity” and how it can be applied to your life, second, you need to know your true “identity”. And finally, you need to know who you do it for.

You can read in great details and insight from his post.

My question is “Is perspective enough and long-lasting?”

I do believe that changing and expanding perspective is going to help you maximise (or improve) your productivity substantially but I am doubtful whether the change you bring to your perspective, to your mind, to your belief is going to last in the long run.

Perspective is, by my definition, “how” you look at things, situations, or your life and “what” it is (they are) that you interpret. It is when two different persons look at things and intepret them differently; because they have different perspectives. And if you can change your perspective to the better, you can change “how” you react to things, tackle problems, or manage situations and you can change “what” you believe they are.

However, my point is that “how” and “what” are difficult to manage unless you have tremendous discipline in yourself. Because “perspective” of ourselves resides in, an overused-and-I-will-use-it-again word, our paradigm.

Paradigm, by my definition, is also a “how” but unlike “perspective” which is “how” then “what”; “paradigm” is “why” then “how”.

Our process is;

Paradigm is before you start processing the input, it is “why” things or situations came to your mind in the first place and “why” you perceive it. It is “why” you think of nice and fancy cars while priests and monks never thought of it. It is “why” beggars and homeless people think of the food while you don’t think of it until you are hungry.

I’ll get back to paradigm later.

I owe a big thank to Mike King who inspired me to think of this, to put this issue to my “perspective”.