Chapter 3: New Objectives in the Working World (Pages 93-101)

Personal take-aways:

Being innovative requires time – time to think, and time away from daily activities and processes. This is impossible when one’s calendar doesn’t allow for this. Thus, when trying to increase the innovation ability of a company and employees, leaders need to understand if sufficient time can be freed up by the staff to truly immerse itself in the innovation task. In others words, it might not be the lack of ideas or innovative abilities but simply time to develop existing ideas in addition to completing current and possibly inefficient processes and working habits.

On another note, once more, the wording and framing of working concepts appears to be very important. The book gives the example of profit-sharing and paying bonuses. One can see these things as additional costs or as necessary contributions to the efficient operation of the enterprise. Both views create very different financial models and motivation tools…but are also based on very different views on the importance of employees in a company. Combining this idea with the concept that people improve their performance if they can identify with the objectives of their organization AND the behavior of management, it becomes clear how different views influence company efficiency based on different behaviors of management that are seen as just or unjust by their employees.

Notes:

• Leadership Ability as a Determinant of Success
  • all cultures have confirmed that humans beings by their nature need andseek community
    • personal freedom must be accompanied by a sense of duty and responsiblity if the individual AND community are to thrive
    • it is important to question continuously culture’s design
      • cultures are supposed to facilitate human life and must continue to evolve
  • people appreciate that they can contribute to develop management techniques through their personal committment
  • the correct choice of objectives is often undervalued
    • leaders are usually best qualified to develop objectives
      • BUT leaders may not fall back on their own experiences for this purpose -> they must anticipate future developments
  • criteria such as maximizing profit and shareholder value will not any longer suffice
  • people need time to think about their objectives and strategies -> this is impossible when overburdening staff and management
    • people will master their daily routines but not more
  • it was believed that capital and labor were crucial forces exerting pressure on the economy
    • this is misleading as development has in the last two centuries not been based on capital but the initiative of creative entrepreneurs
  • PEOPLE WHO ARE WITHOUT HOPE LOSE THEIR STRENGTH AND POWER; THOSE WITHOUT DIRECTION AND GOALS LOSE COURAGE
  • progress demands the ability to find new paths
  • people improve their performance if they can identify with the objectives of their organization and the behavior of management
    • management must be willing to cooperate and be kind
      • the behavior of management will determine the company climate of motivation or opposition
        • the working atmosphere is always determined primarily by the direct superior
    • capital must be used to help people identify with the enterprise
      • if performance, success, and quality of workers is not acknowledged , company is felt to be unjust
        • the question of justice decides whether employees work to rule or endeavour to do their best
      • bonuses or profit-sharing are investments in the value of motivation; it should not be seen as costs
        • it is a necessary contribution tot he efficient operation of the enterprise

Chapter 3: New Objectives in the Working World (Pages 116 – 135)

Personal take-aways:

While talking about the French Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment as times when people demanded progress, the books makes a particular statement that goes hand in hand with what leadership might be all about. It states that during these times, people started to see that ruling hierarchies had been poor guardians of the individual’s hope for better conditions.

Applying the meaning of this statement to management, and the art of motivating people and getting them to identify with the leadership at hand and the company, one needs to understand how one can satisfy this call for better conditions. Maybe it is human nature to always want more, and always want better conditions and improvements, but when assuming that one of the first questions that people have when a new leader is put in place is whether or not this person is able to improve the current conditions, then the leader might have found the first tasks to tackle to create the fellowship s/he needs for future projects to come.

In previous chapters the book talked about profit-sharing and motivation in connection with creative freedom. Bertelsmann has a specific procedure for this, which is the following:

1. After paying employees’ capital returns and income, half of the remainder is paid as a share of profits to each group
2. The employees’ profit share is reinvested in the firm and is available for sale on the stock market

The consequences of this approach are:

• employees’ stake consists today of around one-third of the company capital
• employees’ investments have contributed to the ability of the company to finance high rate growth over decades without outside capital
• the company’s independence eased the development of the corporate culture
• employees have additional financial security, which they can make use of now or later in life

Notes:

• objectives for corporate culture are as follows:
  • ultima goal of a business it to contribute to society
  • capital can strive for a high return but the way it defines its own interests contributes to this
  • management personal should receive entrepreneurial opportunities and share in success
  • employees expect career opportunities, fair pay, and security -> they need to be accepted as partners
• size management will be another managerial problem in the future
  • in the past, and still today, growth symbolizes success and power
    • huge inventory turn  + number of employees
      • it is easy to convey size and associate it with success
  • –> we should NOT value companies for the size but for their management style and productivity
    • innovation, growth rates, finance strategies, continuity of management, and corporate environment tell us more about a company
  • however, if growth is unavoidable, we should think about breaking size into more manageable units
• in the past we used regulated, decentralized managed units to achieve uniform results
  • now we want the opposite: escape stagnant hierarchies and grant creative freedom within a framework of delegated responsiblity
• today we no longer work with people that we can give orders to, but with citizens who think for themselves and are capable of assuming responsibility
• you need to INVEST in the motivation of your colleagues
• we need to delegate responsiblity and motivating people and encouraging them to identify with the firm are prerequisites for this
• Guaranteeing Continuity
  • management must see as one of its tasks guaranteeing the viability and continuity of the business
    • continuity as a corporate goal is expressed in the company’s strategy, management, finance and objectives
      • management must choose this goal in the interest of all participants
  • creative people and managers need: incentives for success, courage to take risks, and freedom to be creative
    • OWNERSHIP CARRIES AN OBLIGATION
• Family Traditions
  • not all goals are useful
    • the overemphasis on profitability – for example in shareholder value and profit maximization – can interfere with a company’s competitiveness
    • paths need to be reassessed from time to time as the conditions for success might have changed
  • !!cultures are founded firmly upon their people’s self-confidence!!
    • changing a culture involved providing people with a new self-perception, a new social system, and new customs

The Art of Money Getting: E-Book Pages 91-100

Notes/Excerpts:

• Advertise your business
  • the whole philosophy of life is, first sow, then reap
    • that is the way a farmer does it; he plants his potatoes and corn, and sows his grain, and then goes about something else, and the time comes when he reaps
  • …sometimes a man makes himself popular by a unique sign or curious display in his window; recently I observed a swing sign extending over the sidewalk, on which was the inscription in plain letters, DONT READ THE OTHER SIDE. Of course I did, and so did everybody else, and I learned that the man had made all independence by first attracting the public to his business in that way and the using his customers well afterwards
  • STORY:
    • Genin, the hatter, bought the first Jinny Lind ticket at an auction because he knew it would be a good advertisement for him. “Who is the bidder?” said the auctioneer. “Genin, the hatter,” was the response. Here were thousands of people from the Fifth Avenue, and from distant cities in the highest stations of life. “Who is Genin, the hatter?” they exclaimed. They had never heard of him before. The next morning the newspapers and telegraph had circulated the facts from Maine to Texas, and from five to ten millions of people had read that the tickets sold at auction for Jinny Lind’s first concert amounted to about twenty thousand dollars, and that a single ticket was sold at two hundred and twenty-five dollars, to * Genin, the hatter.’ Men throughout the country involuntarily took off their hats to see if they had a ‘Genin’ hat on their heads. At a town in Iowa it Ava.s found that m the crowd around the post office there was one man who had a ‘Genin’ hat, and he showed it in triumph, although it was worn out and not worth two cents. ‘ Why,’ one man exclaimed, ‘ you have a real ‘Genin’ hat ; what a lucky fellow you are.’ Another man said ‘ Hang on to that hat, it will be a valuable heir-loom in your family.’ Still another man in the crowd, who seemed to envy the possessor of this good fortune, said, ‘ Come, give us all a chance; put it up at auction !’ He did so, and it was sold as a keepsake for nine dollars and fifty cents ! What was the consequence to Mr. Genin ? He sold ten thousand extra hats per annum, the first six years. Nine-tenths of the purchasers bought of him, probably, out of curiosity, and many of them, finding that he gave them an equivalent for their money, became his regular customers.

 

The Art of Money Getting: E-Book Pages 58-73

Notes/Excerpts:

• Use the best tools
  • if you get a good one, it is better to keep him, than keep changing
  • he is worth to you this years more than the last
  • if, as he gets more valuable, he demands an exorbitant increase of salary; on the supposition that you can’t do without him, let him go
  • those men who have brains and experience are the most valuable and not to be readily parted with; it is better for them, as well as yourself, to keep them, at reasonable advances in their salaries from time to time
• Don’t get above your business
  • there is no greater mistake than when a young man believes he will succeed with borrowed money. Why? Because every man’s experience coincides with that of Mr. Astor, who said: it was more difficult for him to accumulate his first thousand dollars, than all the succeeding millions that made up his colossal fortune.
  • money is good for nothing unless you know the value of it by experience
  • nothing is worth nothing, unless it costs efforts
  • there is no royal road to learning
    • the road to learning is a royal one; the road that enables the student to expand his intellect and add every day to his stock of knowledge, until, in the present process of intellectual growth, he is able to solve the most profound problems, to count the stars, to analyze every atom of the globe, and to measure the firmament this is a regal highway, and it is the only road worth traveling.
    • FOR THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND IS MAN
    • let your motto then always be “excelsior” foy by living up to it there is no such word as fail

 

Chapter 6: From Action Orientation to Change: How Brain Science Can Bring Managers and Leaders from Action Orientation to Action (Pages 165-175)

Personal take-aways:

A lot has been said about transparency already. When talking about change, transparency makes it easier for every stakeholder to understand what will happen in the future. This is part of a chain reaction as this understanding can trigger commitment while making it easier for people to actually remember the changes that are on the way. In other words, what Einstein said becomes even more clear: simplicity is the key because it makes change possible…and easier to remember when confronted with old habits and working processes.

Another aspect to keep in mind is that change requires a proactive effort to go against these old habits, mastery and cognitive dissonance among others. This means that in times of change it is key to control the flow of energy within all stakeholders. Powernaps, yoga and places to take a knee are easy to implement parts that might go a long way. In other words, the fact of having to use more energy might be a reason for resisting change in an environment in which people cannot find another source for the energy they need; sometimes this energy might be time, sometimes it might be something else.

Notes:

• Memory and the Brain: Relevance to Change
  • details of proposed changes need to be remembered at all times in order to execute the changes
  • after information is learned it is converted into an “easy access” form so that it can be used with less energy than was used to form the memory
    • easier to repeat past mistakes because long-term memories are stored in this easy access
    • accessing short-term memories for action is more difficult than the easy access
  • Ironic Process Theory
    • under situations of mental load or stress, we often do what we are trying to avoid
    • when people are trying to forget something in order to act, they are able to do this as long as they are not distracted under mental stress of any kind
      • under situations of mental stress, don’t have enough energy to suppress unwanted memories and they come flooding back
    • power naps is one way to consolidate memory (15-30min rest)
    • overall: change requires holding on to new information, which requires are reduction of conflict with old information to allow new information to be registered
      • new brain regions and energy is needed for new learning
      • rewards do not promote remembering in HIGHLY ANXIOUS individuals
• Action and the Brain: Relevance to Change
  • action requires initial cognitive dissonance
    • cognitive dissonance in THIS context: what one holds to be true vs what one knows to be true

 

 

 

The Art of Money Getting: E-Book Pages 50-58

Notes/Excerpts:

• Whatever you do, do it with all your might
  • the old proverb goes: whatever is worth doing at all, is worth doing well
  • ambition, energy, industry, perseverance, are indispensable requisites for success in business
  • fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself
    • depend upon your own personal exertions
  • the eye of the employer is often worth more than the hands of a dozen employees
  • Note: there is a little information to be gained every day
  • you must exercise your caution in laying your plans, but be bold in carrying them out
    • you must have both, the caution and the boldness, to ensure success
  • never have anything to do with an unlucky man or place
  • THERE IS NO SUCH THING IN THE WORLD AS LUCK

Chapter 4: Of Innovation, Intuition and Imposters: Intangible Vulnerabilities in the Brains of Great Leaders (Pages 91-101)

Personal take-aways:

Making “problems” part of innovation appears to be a substantial mindset change to discover new solutions. Knowing that a problem is something “normal” will relax people to take their time to find the similarities across great semantic differences. The saying “just give it time” makes even more sense now. This goes hand in hand with other topics discussed in other parts of the book; a focus change away from the perception that a problem is something negative towards something positive: that a problem is one way of innovation calling to be discovered. 

It also seems to be important to have created a context for innovation in terms of the company culture. Although the book doesn’t specifically state it that way, but the fact that there may be tensions between madness and creativity, might explain the following thought process: “I don’t want to sound like a fool in front of my employees/the others.” Leaders might fall short of their own creative potential because they are afraid to say something “stupid” because they think that if the people they work with don’t understand it, they will have lose the leadership status they have had in the past. The same might be the reason why sometimes innovation is so hard to come by: because people are afraid to say something “stupid” that cannot be understood by the mindsets and paradigms of the people they work with. Changing this context by creating an “idea-free zone” might help people and leaders to truly open up without feeling the pressure of having to sound “intelligent” or to be understood. To challenge the status-quo might call for “stupid ideas.” Let´s think about the great inventors such as Bell, Tesla, the Wright Brothers and Babbage. 

On another note, finding out if intuition truly works can only be done by listening to intuitive thoughts and acting upon them once in a while. As the books says, intuition is not always accurate because it is faster than deliberate thinking; however, taking the time to say “lets observe what my intuition tells me” while connecting this with deliberate thinking afterwards might lead to more effective decisions. These “gut feelings” are moments anybody has had at least once. Now the question is, are we merely not being able to understand them correctly or are we afraid to act upon them.  

Notes:

– Becoming a great leader is one thing; staying there is another

– Sometimes people need to look deeper

• Don’t need to be more analytical,
• Don’t need coaches to tell them how to listen more etc
  • BUT need to understand
    • Why after a repeated series of success, they still think they are failing
    • Is intuition real?

– The Neuroscience of Innovation

• “The Innovator´s DNA:” associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and networking
• Stimulation of management innovation:
  • A big problem that demands fresh thinking
  • Creative principles/paradigms that can reveal new approaches
  • Evaluation of the conventions that constrain novel thinking
  • Analogies to redefine what can be done
• Semantic = the extent to which two concepts are related
  • Innovation = identifying similarities across great semantic differences
    • When presented to the brain for long enough time, the left frontopolar cortex will map similarities
      • Don’t stop, even if connections seem to distant
  • One way to measure creativity is by “divergent thinking (DT)”  = thought process that explores multiple solutions to a given problem
• Brain imaging studies show that there be a tension between creativity and madness (same brain regions responsible for creativity when “over-recruited” could lead to madness; e.g. multiple examples of musicians)
• Before integrating the how and why, stick with initial thought and grow it

– The Neuroscience of Intuition

• Many leaders are intuitive, but struggle to trust them
  • Intuition: preemptive sense that something is happening
    • The brain decides on an action long before knowing what the goal is = pattern recognition before entire scene is understood
  • Our bodies respond before strong emotions are seen
  • Step-by-step reasoning and intuitive reasoning active different brain regions
  • Intuitions occurs because our brains make up their “minds” with early subtle information
    • Quick and dirty fix – faster than deliberate thinking; not always as accurate
    • Early detection needs to be balanced with accuracy but should not be ignored
  • Brain regions that integrate inputs and are deeply unconscious increase intuition
    • You may not know why you make the choices you do, but your brain may know before you do

The Prince: E-Book Pages 271- END

Notes/Excerpts:

• Chapter XXVI: An exhortation to liberate Italy from the barbarians
  • …and nothing hours a man more than to establish new laws and new ordinances when he himself was newly rise
  • THE END

The Prince: E-Book Pages 260-271

Notes/Excerpts:

• Chapter XXII: Concerning the secretaries of princes
  • first opinion which forms of a prince, and of his understanding, is by observing the men he has around him; and when they are capable and faithful he may always be considered wise, because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful
  • on the other hand, to keep his servant honest, the prince ought to study him, honouring him, enriching him, doing him kindness, sharing with him the honours and cares; and at the same time let him see that he cannot stand alone
• Chapter XXIII: How flatterers should be avoided
  • there is no way of guarding oneself from flatterers except letting men understand that to tell you the truth does not offend you; but when every one may tell you the truth, respect for you abates
  • a wise prince ought to hold a third course by choosing the wise men in his state, and giving to them only the liberty of speaking the truth to him, and the only of those things of which he inquires, and of none others
  • a prince ought always to take counsel, but only when he wishes and not when others wish; he ought rather to discourage every one from offering advice unless he asks it
  • a prince who is not wise himself will never take good advice, unless by chance he has yielded his affairs entirely to one person who happens to be a very prudent man

Srini Pillay: The Science of Possibility/Wired for Success

Notes:

• possibility is a force that has transformed the world
• what is the powerful driving force of the human brain?
  • brain has developed from being a perceptual organ to being an inferential organ that is wired for possibility
• brain has a GPS -> connect with your intention when you are lost, you are more accurately able to remember pervious actions and their consequences -> that’s more powerful than connecting things with the outside
  • if all fails, IMAGINE as imagination feeds the GPS system in the brain,which activates the action center in the brain
• Quote by Richard Bach: “The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”