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Latest Read: The Power of Habit

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. Charles is a columnist and senior editor at The New York Times. He won a Pulitzer Prize in explanatory journalism for the “iEconomy” series. This story examined the global economy through the lens of Apple.

the power of habit

After finishing Atomic Habits, this was an easy transition. Charles has the skill to tell a compelling story.

The Power of Habit begins with such a compelling story of a young woman at a medical laboratory. Over a period of two years she transformed her entire life. She quit smoking, successfully completed a marathon, and was promoted at work. Researchers observe patterns inside her brain fundamentally changed. How? She divorced and chose to change her life by adopting new habits.

Starbucks’ training programs reveal how personal change through adversity is possible. Companies can achieve new success when they focus on habit patterns.

When Paul O’Neill was hired to run Alcoa, he made waves on Wall Street. His stated top priority: improve the company’s safety profile. This is a great introduction to ‘keystone’ habits, a type of habit creates culture. Aluminum production is certainly not an easy process. O’Neill faced stiff feedback from the company’s Board of Directors. However his keystone habits drove Alcoa’s market value from $3 billion in 1986 to $27.53 billion in 2000.

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Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Leading Change

Leading Change by John P. Kotter is a much respected book. There are indeed solid points. However there are no case studies or source companies named. Regardless of the lessons, without fully understanding the company or executive this seems somewhat less credible. John is professor of Leadership at the Harvard Business School. So, my expectations were extremely high.

The opening chapter set the book’s tone for great potential. There is much to consider when addressing the need for change within any organization. John provides good insights and his lessons are true to form.

In addition, Leading Change provides a foundation for shifts across companies that require tackling pain points. Businesses must shift to remain relevant in a competitive global marketplace.

John proceeds to explain his eight-stage process of creating major change. there is no need for me to lay out the key framework for his process. There are plenty of resources that address his work.

So, each of his eight stages are broken down into three manageable segments. The introductory segment is to create a climate for change. The largest challenge is who the company or organization’s leadership views change as risk. In addition, the second segment requires the strong, powerful engagements with employees to set up success for changes coming across the board. Finally the last segments is implement and sustaining change.

The book seems to favor large, global corporations. There are elements of the book however that seem to be set in a pre-iPhone era. The book was based upon his 1996 article in the Harvard Business Review This includes stage three, developing a vision and strategy.

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Latest Read: Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear. What a surprising and enjoyable read. James starts with a rather tragic event in his life and the steps he took to succeed. This places a good foundation to establishing a framework to form good habits and break the bad ones.

atomic habits

Right away James provides good documentation for the reader to achieve the steps necessary to be successful. He leverages a successful experience in college baseball as the base (pun intended) to reveal insights to establish good habits.

Seeing a reference to Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow research felt good to see again on display for us to leverage.

Establishing a habit seems simple, but why do so many of us fail? Life gets in the way. Yet some are too oversimplified.

For example reading a book one page a day. Really? Okay…drop the TV remote and read for 20 minutes – not just one page. Reading one page a day is not really making a concerted effort. So this habit plan could use a tweak.

As a matter of fact, Atomic Habits does move us in the direction towards concerted efforts. This may be somewhat harder to establish (a new brand) around concerted effort vs. atomic habit. You must know your audience.

Atomic Habits in a round about way addresses how technology in fact makes it easy to fail at establishing new habits. James provides good insights about human behavior and technology.

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Latest Read: Thank You for Being Late

Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Tom Friedman. This is just one of his many books that I have read. And from time to time he reflects upon his best sellers: Lexus and the Olive Tree, The World is Flat and Hot, Flat and Crowded. All focus on the impact of globalization.

thank you for being late

Looking back it can be confusing to see why Tom stopped writing books at exactly the precise moment the world changed. The year was 2007 and some very significant events developed. Call it The World is Flat v4.0, when behavior capitalism began.

Consider the introductions of the iPhone, Hadoop and GitHub. Add the launch of Twitter and Facebook. Then Google’s purchase of YouTube should provide the clearest indication of how rapidly technology changed the internet.

Don’t forget Amazon released the Kindle while Airbnb was launched. IBM also launched Watson and Intel launched new non-silicon microchips.

As Tom suggests in his last example, DNA sequencing may have been the most overlooked. The price dropped from $100 million in 2001 to only $1,000 in that magic year of 2007.

So how is anyone supposed to know what all that meant to them 13 years ago? I think many family and friends would say Hadoop and GitHub are names of their pets.

This book is perfect for many, including my family and friends who do not see technology changes coming so quickly. Nor are they used to the fast pace of change. This is where Tom explains very well, for a wide audience where the world is at today. He gives you in this book the permission to slow down and reflect…

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Latest Read: When

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. This was a very enjoyable read. So enjoyable that I restarted chapter one immediately after finishing the book. And then again, a third read. Maybe this is no surprise. I read in 2007 his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future and it was also very enjoyable.

In this book Pink provides a lot of scientific data (big data) that provides insights to our lives. This is so broadly appealing that everyone should read this book. Basically Pink shares that we all have a unique hidden patterns. This really impacts our work performance, studies, exercise and even our mood throughout the day.

Pink breaks our day into three periods: Peak, Trough, and Recovery. A morning Peak is when we apply thinking tasks. A Trough sees a decline in the mid-afternoon. This is best for simple tasks. Finally Recovery reenergizes us in the early evening to be creative.

At the same time Pink acknowledges our personality fits into one of three buckets. These circadian rhythms are Lark (morning person), an Owl (evening person), or a middle Third Bird. These rhythms will change over time. While in college I was definitely an owl, programming into the wee hours of the morning. Owls have their rhythms in reverse: recovery, trough and peak.

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