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Category: Self Help

  • “The Free Mind” by De Bono – Funny fact about the Chinese

    This fantastic book by Edward De Bono makes a mention of the fact that the Chinese because of small eyes tend to have near sighted ness and hence a majority of them use spectacles.

    Since the invention of spectacles dates back to only as late as the 14th century hence the author mentions that majority of plain & ordinary looking girls would have got married to such innocent Chinese because of their near sighted ness.

    This explains the high Chinese population 😀😅

  • 7 step framework for providing “guidance” to teams

    For bosses to provide proper guidance to their teams , the following 7 step continuously evolving framework has been mentioned by Kim Scott in “Radical Candor”.

     

    Listen————–>

    <————–  Learn                                                                      Clarify   —–>

    < ————    Execute                                                                                         Debate —–>

    <——       Persuade                           <————   Decide

     

     

  • “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott – Takeaway on strengthening social bonds

    Kim Scott makes a mention that a warm hug for 6 seconds can release Serotonin & Oxytocin (leadership and love hormone respectively) in our bodies.

    This is the pre-requisite for long lasting relationships and formation of true social bonds.

  • 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.

  • Successful products vs Magical products – Key takeaway from “Emotional Design”

    “Emotional Design” by Don Norman beautifully highlights the difference between a successful product and a magical product.

    Successful Product – A product born out of prototype creation , repeated testing and re-design.This is the standard process of creating a product that sells and enables the maker to make profits.The recipe is very simple , follow the standard processes of product design.

    Magical Product – Now there is no clear receipt for creating such a product for e.g. iPhone , iPod etc.The only pattern that we see is that such products have been created by visionaries and have involved high financial risks worth the final outcome when the product sell gathers momentum. Had there been a clear recipe , had these followed standard processes and been time boxed  all successful products would have become magical products.

  • 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.