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Category: Book review

  • Plot of “Care Personally” v/s “Challenge Directly” – “Dimensions of Guidance”

    As mentioned by Kim Scott in “Radical Candor” , guidance provided by our bosses can be classified into the following types based on the intent.

    Based on the two components of Radical Candor i.e. 1) Care personally & 2) Challenge Directly guidance provided by bosses to sub-ordinates can be classified into the following categories:

    Radical Candor  –  High on Care Personally and High on Challenge Directly

    Obnoxious Aggression   –  Low on Care Personally and High on Challenge Directly

    Ruinous Empathy    –  High on Care Personally and Low on Challenge Directly

    Manipulative Insincerity    –  Low on Care Personally and Low on Challenge Directly

    1st category being the most desirable and 4th the least.

     

     

  • Components of “Radical Candor” – The Kim Scott way

    Kim Scott in her book “Radical Candor” has coined this very term very thoughtfully.

    Applied to modern day bosses , there are two components that elaborately explains “Radical Candor” as the way forward for communication to drive high performance.

    1. Care Personally – Deep care for direct reports of bosses ensure flow of trust , needed for high performance  teams.
    2. Challenge directly – The respect and relationship between boss and direct reports should encourage constructive criticism , acceptance of tough challenges in a healthy manner without any ill will.For this again the environment should be one involving high amount of trust.

    Easier said than done though..

  • Importance of “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott

    The book “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott mentions the importance of radical candor as a central theme in the framework all top performing BOSSES should follow.

    Here is the summarised framework:

    1) Relationships with direct reportees to provide guidance , help in team building to drive great results.

    2) Realizing responsibilities towards all communication aimed at direct reportees as well to those who report to each one of these reportees to ensure a proper culture is maintained.

    Wonderfully stated by Kim Scott makes this book worth reading..

  • ”Hunter” Vs “Farmer” – Key takeaway from Seth Godin’s “Permission Marketing”

    In this famous book ,to me,the difference between the easiest & most common form of marketing i.e. Interruption Marketing and the most desired form of marketing i.e. Permission Marketing stands out.

    An interruption marketer is like a hunter who wants to use the power of reach to put across the message to as many customers as possible.

    Whereas a Permission marketer cares about frequency and like a farmer crafts his message to nurture the relationship with only those customers who provide the permission to communicate.

    Wonderful comparison that brings out this difference in the most apt manner.

  • The “Permission Marketing” journey – The Seth Godin way

    The responsibility of a Permission marketer is to convert strangers to friends and friends to customers and then loyal customers.

    At each step through this journey trust increases and so does the responsibility of the marketer.

    As trust increases naturally profit increases.

  • Extending brain’s perception of successful product design to movies

    Don Norman in his book Emotional Design draws a great comparison between successful product design to great movies.

    He mentions the three V concept and relates human brain perception to truly successful movies.

    1st V – Visceral – Lizard brain characteristic that gets turned on by appearance , sounds , lights and external show.

    2nd V – Vicarious – This relates to behavioural characteristic wherein subconsciously a viewer keeps himself in the shoes of the actors and gets turned on momentarily.

    3rd V – Voyeuristic – Most important and leads to memories as a result of which we repeatedly watch certain great movies.

    Awesome analogy drawn by the author in making us realise the role of human Brain in making movies memorable ones.A truly great movie thus should have all the three aspects in the right balance.

  • Conceptual design view of designer Vs End User Mental Perception – The proper balance for product success

    The book “Emotional Design” by Don Norman talks about seamless message flow between the designer and end user for a truly successful product design.

    The conceptual design of the designer should resonate with the mental view of the end user of the product for the product to be a grand success.

    The way this message gets communicated has been mentioned as the system image. A truly great product would involve a proper prototype thorough testing and redesign in an iterative manner.

    A truly illuminating concept brought out by the author linking human brain’s perception of a product.

  • How our brain interprets product design

    Emotional Design by Don Norman makes a mention of this.The three layers of the brain w.r.t product design interpretation summarized as follows:

    Visceral Layer – This is the layer of brain which gets turned on by attractiveness or appearance of product.

    Behavioral Layer – Gets turned on by performance or usability friendliness , robustness of product.

    Reflective Layer – This is the uniqueness of humans where memories caused due to fulfillment result in a everlasting impact.

  • Why is there a need to hire ‘A’ grade employees for emerging start ups?

    The “Art of The Start” by Guy Kawasaki mentions the following famous saying of Steve Jobs , on the need to hire ‘A’ grade employees , for any emerging start up:

    ‘A’ grade employees would hire ‘A’ grade employees , ‘B’ grade employees would hire ‘C’ grade employees , ‘C’ grade employees would hire ‘D’ grade employees and soon the organization will be filled with bozos of no use.

  • Don’t forget this “P” of marketing – Seth Godin’s masterclass

    Aside from the widely accepted “P”s of marketing the most important and often forgotten “P” for marketers is the “Purple Cow”.

    By Purple Cow , what Seth Godin means is creating something remarkable and building a story around it to create customer stickiness.