Recommended Resource – Creative Thinkering

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Creative Thinkering: Putting Your Imagination to Work
by Michael Michalko

About the Reference

Creative Thinkering by Michael Michalko provides readers with actionable methods to tap into and broaden their natural creativity. Aimed at those who question their imaginative abilities, Michael reveals a systematic approach to generating new ideas through the association of two or more dissimilar subjects; resulting in the generation of entirely new products, services, and methods.

Throughout Creative Thinkering, Michael provides detail rich examples of his method’s application as well as challenging the reader to develop his or her own capabilities through numerous thought experiments. These elements transform this book from one that simply provides a method into one that is a teaching manual; helping even the most rigid of thinkers expand their creative horizons.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like Creative Thinkering because of its immediately implementable methods for expanding one’s creative output. Michael clearly illustrates that anyone can be highly creative and through his plentiful thought experiments convinces even the most rigid thinkers that they too can be the source of highly original ideas. In a fast moving world that requires continuous adaptation, Creative Thinkering can help arm any professional with a crucial skill needed to remain competitive.

StrategyDriven Contributors have long benefited from Michael’s insights on creativity. We thoroughly enjoyed his earlier book, Thinkertoys and have applied the methods he prescribes therein to our work almost every day. If we had one criticism of Creative Thinkering it would be that Michael’s new book is not as ‘fun’ as his last – but it is by all accounts just as valuable.

Overcoming ones creative doubts is a key ingredient to taking the actions necessary to remain competitive in our highly innovative and rapidly changing world. Michael’s book provides those with such doubts a clear method for dealing with their rigidness and conceiving the truly unique; making Creative Thinkering a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Recommended Resource – Great by Choice

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Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All
by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen

About the Reference

Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten Hansen represents a detailed assessment of companies thriving in times of uncertainty compared with similar organizations not performing so well. In the analytical tradition of Built to Last, Good to Great, and How the Mighty Fall, Collins and Hansen imperially demonstrate that organizations performing well in tumultuous times:

  • Have leaders who were more disciplined, more empirical, and more paranoid
  • Believed that a ‘fast world’ necessitated ‘fast decisions’ and ‘fast actions’ was a good way to fail
  • Changed less in reaction to the radically evolving world than their poorer performing comparison companies

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like Great by Choice for its data-driven analysis of organizational performance in turbulent times. We believe this assessment and its findings are particularly relevant given today’s highly uncertain marketplace.

However, StrategyDriven Contributors believe there are some flaws in Collins and Hansen’s analysis. First, it appears that a majority of the 10x companies were small, fragile, and subsequently more nimble than their comparisons during the early portion of the comparison period. We feel this difference in organizational structure materially influenced the results each company was able to achieve; the 10x companies having ‘less to lose’ were better positioned to take the actions necessary for a higher long-term payoff whereas their peers were laden with ‘historical scaring’ – legacy contracts and obligations, well established shareholder expectations, etcetera – and were subsequently more confined in what they are able to do and so were less likely to be able to take the action needed to achieve 10x gains.

Another flaw was the comparison of Microsoft to Apple. While both were high tech companies during the assessment period, Microsoft was a software company whereas Apple was an integrated software and hardware company; placing it in a very different business. We disagree that these companies were comparative.

Finally, Collins and Hansen do not broaden their analysis to include companies such as Microsoft and Apple that change performance positions over time. Subjectively, if a company can be great by choice, then turnarounds such as that which Apple orchestrated in the 2000s should not only be possible but, given the vast number of businesses in the marketplace over the past 100+ years and the several periods of market turbulence, should have occurred in other instances. Validating the Great by Choice principles against several turnaround examples would help strengthen their assertions – assuming they are true.

In spite of our analytical reservations, StrategyDriven Contributors like Great by Choice and believe it offers significant, if not groundbreaking, insight to the principles for building a successful organization regardless of the marketplace environment. For its data-driven insights of how to succeed during uncertain times, Great by Choice is a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Recommended Resource – The No Asshole Rule

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The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t
by Robert Sutton

About the Reference

The No Asshole Rule by Robert Sutton provides methods for constructively dealing with the workplace bullies, creeps, jerks, tyrants, tormentors, despots, backstabbers, and egomaniacs – regardless if they are seniors, peers, or subordinates. His research provides insight to the financial costs such hostilities have on an organization as well as the proven methods for effectively dealing with such ill-mannered individuals.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like The No Asshole Rule because its well researched strategies for dealing with hostility in the workplace provide effective methods for isolating these negative influences and restoring personal effectiveness. We further appreciate the insight Dr. Sutton presents to enable the reader to recognize instances where his/her behavior creates workplace hostility and how to eliminate such behavior.

We believe workplace hostility is a leading contributor of diminished moral, reduced productivity, and elevated attrition; all of which poison an organization’s culture and hurt its bottom line. (See StrategyDriven‘s Diversity and Inclusion topic area.) Effectively dealing with such hostility not only benefits the organization but helps the individual by reducing stress and increasing effectiveness. Dr. Sutton’s actionable methods for recognizing, isolating, and dealing with workplace hostilities – for becoming part of the solution rather than a perpetuator of the problem – in a manner that improves individual productivity makes The No Asshole Rule a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Recommended Resource – How to Win Friends & Influence People

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How To Win Friends and Influence People
by Dale Carnegie

About the Reference

How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie is the timeless classic that reveals how leaders can engage and motivate individuals to become teams; joining together to achieve a common purpose and produce more than the sum of their singular efforts. This book unveils:

  • The six ways to make people like you
  • The twelve ways to win people to your way of thinking
  • The nine ways to change people without arousing resentment

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like How to Win Friends and Influence People because is provides the reader with easily understood and actionable methods of influencing people without being manipulative; engaging and motivating them to achieve more together than they could as individuals.

StrategyDriven Contributors believe that while leaders naturally act to serve and promote their self interests, it is equally important to benefit those who are supporting those initiatives. Dale Carnegie’s prescription for advancing one’s agenda is a benevolent, win-win approach that influences instead of manipulates. His ‘honorable’ approach to winning people’s support makes How to Win Friends and Influence People a StrategyDriven recommended read.

Recommended Resource – Finance Without Fear

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Finance Without Fear: A Guide to Creating and Managing a Profitable Business
by William S. Hettinger and John Dolan-Heitlinger

About the Reference

Finance Without Fear: A Guide to Creating and Managing a Profitable Business by William S. Hettinger and John Dolan-Heitlinger unveals the mysteries of financial statements in this easy-to-understand, example filled book. William and John arm leaders with the knowledge of what is in each financial statement, how statements relate to each other, and, more importantly, how business operations impact reported financial outcomes.

Benefits of Using this Reference

StrategyDriven Contributors like Finance Without Fear because it imparts the appropriate level of financial report understanding needed to be a successful executive or manager while not requiring the reader to be a CPA. Additionally, the illustrative examples relating business operations to financial statements clearly conveys the relationships and importance of strategic and day-to-day decisions to the financial well-being of the organization.

StrategyDriven Contributors believe it is vitally important for all executives and managers to understand how operational decisions impact financial performance and its conveyance in financial statements. Likewise, it is critical that these leaders be able to draw conclusions about business operations from their financial statements. While newly ascending managers may not have this knowledge, they should seek and be provided this information early in their management careers. Finance Without Fear can be used to impart such knowledge; making it a StrategyDriven recommended read.