All in business

Wiring the Winning Organization

Jack Vinson
book review, business, continuous improvement

The new book from Steven J. Spear and Gene Kim takes a look at what makes for winning organizations and develops what they call a new theory of performance management - why do some organizations really seem to fly year-over-year while others do not? Why is it that some organizations can really take advantage of the tricks and techniques of Lean or DevOps or Theory of Constraints or agile software development or <pick your approach>, while others never seem to find their footing? Wiring the Winning Organization attempts to answer these questions. The book takes the readers through three key areas that leaders wire up winning organizations: Slowification, Simplification, and Amplification.

SPIN Selling - practice, practice, practice

Jack Vinson
book review, business, continuous improvement

Neil Rackham’s SPIN Selling was written back in 1988. Does it still make sense? The obvious thing for me in re-reading and discussing the book with some colleagues is that the concepts apply more broadly than only sales environments. In any large change project, the change agents are always selling - working to make the change happen and make that change become an embedded way of operating.

This reading’s key takeaway: Practice!

HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflcit

Jack Vinson
book review, business, theory of constraints

The HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict by Amy Gallo is a quick read, directly on topic. As I read the book, it became clear that my idea of “conflict” has been colored by my close work with Theory of Constraints and the way TOC thinking processes talk about conflict and conflict resolution. The conflicts in this guide are the interpersonal conflicts we run into all the time in business, be they created by disagreements on the what (task) or how (process) of work, or who is ultimately responsible (status) - which often devolve into relationship conflicts. The TOC perspective on conflict is more about understanding the system which creates the conflict, rather than resolving the personal challenges that result from the conflict. Both aspects are important to successful business.

Ways of managing for flow

Jack Vinson
business, continuous improvement, personal effectiveness

Knowledge work is challenging enough without throwing in difficult work environments. Consider the nature of the work you have with your colleagues. Is it known with clear handovers (have the handoffs been defined)? Or is there ambiguity and uncertainty that needs to be cleared up? Work in the right way for the scenario you have. And allow for both modes of work - collaborative and serial - in your day.

High Five - Blanchard

Jack Vinson
book review, community, culture, business

Ken Blanchard’s High Five is a blast from the past. It was published in 2001, on the heels of several popular management books like Raving Fans and The One Minute Manager and Gung Ho! They are all based around “common sense” ideas that might not be terribly common practice. High Five is about creating teams that perform at top levels, and there are plenty of folksy aphorisms peppered throughout the book.

Flinchbaugh on the 4 C's of Trust

Jack Vinson
business, culture

Trust impacts almost any initiative, whether that is relatively small local efforts or big organizational changes. Jamie Flinchbaugh has been thinking about the topic, and doing some of his own research recently. He’s come up with The 4Cs of Trust: Demonstration of Care, Communication, Competence, and Consistency.

Email etiquette

Jack Vinson
personal effectiveness, business

Some thoughts on email inspired by a recent New York Times opinion piece by Adam Grant, “No, You Can’t Ignore Email. It’s Rude.” My favorite rule of thumb: To get less email, send less email. Other people will be less inclined to fill my mailbox with replies if I don’t send requests/replies to them in the first place.

Two (or more) perspectives of change

Jack Vinson
business, theory of constraints

Change management is always an entertaining topic. It usually starts with some version of "they don't want to change" and then variations on how to make it work. Thinking about it a little more, it's not that people always resist, but there is something about the change that doesn't work for them or maybe they don't understand. Maybe it's time to step back and take a look at their perspective.

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