Elements Design

My May business read was “Growing Great Employees” by Erika Andersen.

Now you may remember my comments about a previous book I read back in December called “Good Boss, Bad Boss”, so you already know that I never planned to be a boss, but fell into this role when I decided to start my own business … so I wouldn’t have a boss. Well, now I am the boss. And the learning continues …

It is difficult to review a book as helpful or not until I’ve had the opportunity to put the items I’ve learned into practice. Further, to really really have a fair assessment of whether this book was helpful, we should probably need to ask my staff to comment back in a couple of months, since they are the only true judges here.

Until that entertaining day arrives, I can report that this book gave me much to think about, want to practice and study.

No pressure, but here is a direct quote that gave me night sweats right from the beginning chapter:

“Your employees are, like you and I, flawed and hopeful human beings whose success is at least partly dependent on your skill as a manager; human being who will thrive with skillful and consistent attention and wither without it.”

Yikes. If I was ever motivated to keep reading, that would be it.

The author continues:

“Kind of like plants. (Thus the gardening metaphor you’ll notice throughout the book, from which I intend to wring every last drop by the end of the final chapter.)

And she does. Ad nauseum. And I have a thing about overworked metaphors. She keeps running back and forth over this one, but I bravely read on … and on. {You have been warned}.

Just to get the things I didn’t like about this book out of the way, the only other issue I had was where she role-played with made-up boss-to-employee scenerios. They were so forced … and honestly, a little uncomfortable to read. It’s difficult to explain, but there are no conversations that are that linear or endings that perfectly wrapped-up.

Okay, enough of the critisicisms, here are the bits and pieces that I found really helpful, which far out weighed the negative.  These are in no particular order and taken directly from my own notes of things I’d like to go back and read, explore, study learn and test on my staff in the near future (heads up to my team!). You may read this book and take different notes — there’s a lot in here and I may be focusing on different areas where I need help/advice more than your own takeaways, but here it goes:

• Uncover where I can offer opportunities for my team to learn, advance, create professional connections and where I can mentor;
• Listening well (and sincerely) is the key to creating an environment that suports employee growth;
• Managing our “self-talk” (a way of making sure what we say to ourselves inside our head is always supportive and of the results we are trying to achieve – no more negative thinking). When we change our self-talk, we can have a significant impact on how we feel and in-turn, on how we behave;
• Create job descriptions that focus primarily on responsibilities and results;
• Learn how to ‘scenario-base interview’ (detailed in Chapter 3) to get better information from candidates of their skills, knowledge, and core competencies leading to better, more informed hiring decisions;
• Getting an employee started on the right path by answering critical questions such as the “who, how, and what” about my agency, for example: “Who do I need to know?”; “How do things get done around here?”; “What is expected of me?”;
• I believe this anyway, but a helpful reminder was this mantra (as the author referred to as the ‘coach’s mind-set’): “Believe in your employee’s potential and want to help them succeed”;
• Learn the “Social Style™ Model” (Chapter 6) which is a simple, practical tool for understanding the differences between my employees (from one another, but also from my style) so that I can work with their strengths to bring out their best potential and help them grow;
• Teach myself how to make clear agreements with each employee to ensure we continue to grow as a team;
• Learn how to better provide corrective feedback;
• Ask my employees ‘curiosity-based questions’ to check their levels of interest and motivation in certain areas;
• Stick with continuing my learning path towards being the best manager/employer I can be. To quote the author, “Mastery arises when you’re passionate about something, you have the capacity to excel in that area, and excelling in that area will give you some reward that’s deeply important to you.”

{image: flickr} 

“A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” ~Mark Twain

That is so true. But why?

And it’s not only lies – but scandals, rumors, urban legends, ghost stories, dirty jokes …

Every wonder why some ideas stick while others die on the vine?

Brothers and co-authors Chip and Dan Heath have figured out how to make our ideas memorable. In my April read, “Made To Stick”, they clearly and succinctly break it down to – yes, another dreaded acronym – SUCCESs. This one, I may actually remember.

• Simple: hone in on the core of any idea and strip away anything unnecessary. “Simple ideas are core and compact” (direct quote from the book).
• Unexpected: surprise your audience to capture their attention and have a fresh, new perspective all your own.
• Concrete: convey your idea in such a way that it can be easily understood and recalled using real world examples
• Credible: it must be believable, vivid details help credibility
• Emotional: we know when you can touch someone’s emotions, it will stick with them and move them to act
• Stories: when you narrate an idea into a story, it is remembered. Think of Aesop’s fables or fairytales. Stories are powerful vehicles to captivate, learn, and pass information along.

This book is helpful for those of us who are in sales, marketing, public relations, managers, and communicators. The chapters are broken down by the acronym I shared above where they get into more specifics, provide entertaining examples, and left me with several usable, solid takeaways that will help me with my writing and presentations – and help me with my clients’ marketing.

Here were a few of the points in the book that (sorry!) stuck with me:

“Belief counts for a lot, but belief isn’t enough. For people to take action, they have to care.”

“Core messages help people avoid bad choices by reminding them of what’s important.”

“Avoid burying the lead. Don’t start with something interesting but irrelevant in hopes of entertaining the audience. Instead, work to make the core message itself more interesting.” {Confession: I did go back and read this posts lead. See, it’s working already! And I’ve added a nice quote from Mark Twain to make it interesting. I hope you like it}.

“The first problem of communication is getting people’s attention. The most basic way to get someone’s attention is this: Break a pattern.”

“Curiosity … happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge. Our tendency is to tell people the facts. First, though, they must realize that they need these facts.”

The above were just a selected few of the many passages I highlighted to share with you. In addition, sprinkled throughout are some spot-on examples that illuminated their points perfectly and were quite entertaining.

I enjoyed reading this book and just now as I was looking back over my notes to write this post, I realized that I have already been incorporating much of the advice already without my having to go back to my notes or think too much about it. Clearly, some of their imparted wisdom stayed with me (I’m avoiding using a cliché word here. And, you’re welcome).

Have you read this book? Did you find it as helpful as I did? Or, have you not read it yet but think it might be interesting and useful to you? Let’s discuss!

~Amy

I just finished reading “Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company” by Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery.

This book had such a promising title, but sadly, fell short of its promise. For me, anyway, it just didn’t deliver. The first reason was because the example of how Apple, Brunner’s former employer, runs its company was way over used. It was used in every single chapter. I understand that Apple is an awesome company built on a philosophy of being a design-centric business. And to be fair, the authors did use some other examples such as OXO and Whole Foods, however, I grew tired of the Apple examples because no matter what other company was referenced, they always came back to Apple.

Next, I thought the book would be more about designers and the importance of our role in corporations and society on the whole. It – (sigh) wasn’t exactly focused on that. Instead the authors spoke mainly to CEO’s in companies who make products. Not service-based companies or to professional designers. Just companies who make products. Leaves out quite a few of us, don’t you think?

On the plus side, this book did give me several great examples of why design is so important in business that, okay, wasn’t exactly news to me – but was put in such a way and packaged with a solid example (usually about Apple and Apple products) that I wanted to jot some passages down and share them with my clients if only to make a point that I would otherwise struggle to convey.

And that was the best take-away I can offer from this book as the “CEO” of a service-focused company or as a graphic designer. If you are a marketing director, I hope you keep reading while I excerpt the best of the best – and save everyone a whole lot of time from reading this entire book (that’s again, mostly about Apple).

Here are my notes all excerpted directly from the book “Do You Matter?”:

1. “Become brillant at using design to provide an amazing customer experience.”
2. “The difference between a great product and a merely good product is that a great product embodies an idea that people can understand and learn about – an idea that grows in their minds, one they emotionally engage with.
3. “When it’s all said and done, your customer doesn’t care about your process. In the end, none of this matters if the design experience is wrong.”
4. “Great products are about ideas; they are not just objects.”
5. “Effective design establishes the emotional relationship you develop with a brand through the total experience, to which a service or product provides a portal.”
6. Here is the core idea of this book. I printed this excerpt out and pinned it to my wall: “Who are you? What do you do? Why does it matter? Would the world be a darker place without you? If someone took a poll today of your customers, constituents, followers, whatever, and asked if you matter to them, how do you think you would come out? If you ceased to exist tomorrow, do you think anyone would really care? In other words, has your product, service, or brand established an emotional connection with your customers to the extent that they are invested in the interest that you not only survive, but also prosper?”
7. “Developing an awareness of excellent design as the connective tissue that defines and ensures an excellent experience for your customers is a vital key to the future of your business.”
8. “Don’t just play the game, change the game.”
9. “Design is a living, ongoing process that has to learn from mistakes, refresh itself, and take new risks all the time.”
10. “The idea behind Whole Foods is more than being a market. It is an informative, rewarding experience.”
11. “Learn what you can change, because that’s how you achieve longevity.”
12. Oh, how I love this one: “If, on the other hand, you start by saying, ‘OK, we’re going to do this product – let’s ask people what they like,’ you wind up with the sort of mediocre outcome that comes of designing by committee. When people think as a group, they end up liking a bland type of product because that’s what makes most of them feel comfortable.” Raise your hand, designers, if you’ve ever been part of that scenario. I know, right? Design by committee = EPIC FAIL.
13. “Mediocrity is what you end up with if you try to make something everybody likes.” Yes, yes and YES.
14 “Most customers have a difficult time articulating their design preferences. You can do far better by watching, listening, and observing.”
15. “When your brand communicates well, you create a context of expectations. The product is emotionally prequalified before the purchase is made.”
16. “There is still a gap in business culture, at least American business culture, of really viewing design as a business partner.” True!
17. Another good one: “You need to believe that design matters, you need to believe that experience is important, and you need to look at the things that create great experience. We are talking about emotional reality here, and you can’t put emotions on a spreadsheet.”
18. “Look to design to uncover new territory.”
19. “The core aspects of a design-driven company … can be arranged to form the acronym FLAVOR. Here is what the letters stand for: Focus, Long-term, Authentic, Vigilant, Original, Repeatable.”
Focus: on the customer experience;
Long-term: “Becoming a design-driven company takes deliberate practice and time.”
Authentic: “If your slogan is ‘We Care,’ this had better be the case.”
Vigilance: “It is also ‘forward looking’ as well as keeping track of what is going on around you. In a way, it’s like continuous due diligence.”
Original: “We apply the 80/20 rule. You want 80 percent of the market to love it. But you’d also like 20 percent to be challenged by it.”
Risk: “You have to take chance to keep moving ahead. Try to balance risk with research. It doesn’t mean that you can’t cross a boundary when designing – it just means you have to know when you’ve crossed it so you can assess and discuss.”
20. “The creative process is really hard to compress; it really is very difficult. You just need time to experiment and try things. Because when you get compressed, what you do is revert to what you know.” So to all the owners,CEO’s and marketing directors reading this post – please think about this critical point the next time you ask your design agency to ‘rush’ a project. When you do, you risk compressing the creative process which will give you a sub-par result when we have to take shortcuts in our thinking to meet a hurried deadline. It is worth it? Sometimes, we understand, it is a necessity. But overall, it’s probably not worth what you lose. It is far better to give your creative team the time they need to think, observe, research, test and then create for you the best possible result.

That pretty much sums it up. I hope you found my notes and excerpts useful and enlightening – not to mention, time saving.

Onto my April book, “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath.

Meanwhile Readers, any feedback on my above book review would be greatly appreciated. Did you find it useful? Have you read this book and agree or disagree with my review? Did any of my 20 takeaways resonate with you and why? Thank you for sharing!

~Amy

This weekend, the kids, husband and I headed north to Vermont for a little R&R. As I was packing for our trip, I grabbed “Rework” by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson off the bookshelf. This turned out to be a good idea. A very good idea.

The drive was approximately three hours and I was able to read the entire book in the three hour drive finishing in about an hour after the drive. While I was reading the book, I wrote two pages of notes which consist mostly of questions I want to dive more deeply into over the next several days. {I love books that give me ‘homework’.} So although the book was a quick read, I will be thinking about all of the points and working on answering the questions for much longer.

The book was written in conversational tone filled with common sense (meetings suck, stand for something, workaholism doesn’t work, and so forth), but still communicated in such straight-to-the-point way that this time, the good advice might actually stick.

What was different about this business book was how it challenges all other business books. Melissa Coleman, who works with us here as a designer part-time, said it best, “I appreciated the way it challenged typical business practices. I’m not business minded, but this book made perfect sense to me.” And another graphic designer, our good friend Gary Holmes of Gariphic, added this comment to our conversation, “One of my all-time fave business books. Many pages bookmarked.”

I’ve owned my own company Elements for over 14 years now, and when I read this book I felt re-energized. This is a motivational book that lights a fire under you to make you want to run, not walk, towards getting stuff done. There is an immediacy to it, a sense of urgency, running through every page urging you on to do the thing you were meant to do. Now. Today. Don’t wait! Even how it is written – to be digested quickly – I’m sure was intentional by its authors so that we may move onto the actual act of doing.

The overall message of Rework is to not get caught up in minute details or plans or policies or meetings that don’t move you forward today. There is a faster way to do things, and people need to see progress – repeated quick successes – to stay motivated and advancing. This is, after all, our life’s work. We don’t have forever to create our legacy.

I am looking forward to answering all the questions this book made me want to think about and taking the energy and urgency of its message to surge ahead. If you need a kick-in-the-pants to get that business idea going or re-invigorate your current work, this book will do just that.

And with that, let’s get started!

~Amy

{image: amy graver}

When I started my business some 14-years ago, I never imagined I would be in the position I am today = The Dreaded Boss.

No one prepared me for this unexpected roll of being an employer. There were no manuals when I filed for my LLC. I had no college business course on how to manage others. Heck, I started my own business so that I wouldn’t have a boss. So why on earth would I want to be one?

Well, as my parents always warned me, to have success is to be responsible. So there I sat. Now what?

I decided I could use some advice. I mean, if you’re going to take on new responsibilities and manage folks, why not aim to be the best you can be, right?

So over the holiday break this year, I luckily found the time to read cover-to-cover {with notes!} ”Good Boss, Bad Boss” by Robert I. Sutton, PhD and I found it to be very helpful.

It’s not earth-shattering, change-my-life level of helpful, but helpful enough that I can at least feel fairly confident and relax knowing how to avoid turning into a “Bosshole” {pardon my language – it’s his term, not mine, I swear!}.

So after that long introduction, here is my short review:

The book was well written, contained several helpful takeaways and gave me quite a few opportunities to pause, think and consider my answer to a number of thought-provoking questions or alternative points-of-view. For example, Dr. Sutton asks us to imagine if we were our own boss – would we like us? Do you continuously press forward, or do you treat life as one emergency after another and give up – or worse, disappear – when the going gets tough? Would you hire yourself? Would your past employees ever want to work for you again? Do you give credit to your team in front of others? And so forth.

It was certainly worth the time spent reading it if only to give me time to concentrate on what type of boss I think I am currently and how can I be better. As a small business owner, at times, I felt the author was writing directly to me. Other times he was speaking to managers or supervisors in larger organizations – but I could still relate to the material and get something out of it. Also, some of the information is self-evident, however, it may not be the same information that is self-evident to every reader. Thankfully, Dr. Sutton doesn’t dwell on any one point too long and you move quickly through the material.

From my personal notes on this book, here were a few of my key takeaways:

• Confidence is Contagious: I can inspire others to achieve great things by being a confident leader.
• Make crisp, quick decisions. I can always change my mind later if need be, but employees without clear answers stop workflow waiting for your decision. (Which I realized I need to get better at and not allow items which need my reply linger for more than an hour in my in-box when they are holding up someone else’s project).
• Never be late for your staff meeting and come prepared.
• The best bosses keep hunting for little ways to use everybody’s time and energy more efficiently and respectfully.
• Give pointed and persistent feedback immediately when asked.
• Clearly define each employees goals and what they need to do individually to reach them (working currently on this one).
• Dress and act the part. Take every call {especially the unpleasant ones}. Act like a leader.
• Don’t get caught up in the day-to-day drama – no open forums for complaining!

That’s just a taste, a tease, an appetizer to the many helpful, direct and honest suggestions found in this book. It’s the first “rule book” since managing others I’ve ever read. My gauge for whether or not a book has been helpful is if – upon completing it – I cannot wait to being implimenting tactics I’ve learned and this is what I have done.

Can you recommend any good books you have ever read {including this one} on the topic of managing others that you found useful?

Thanks, and next month, I’ll review my current read “Website Analytics An Hour A Day” . Until then, happy reading … AND GET BACK TO WORK!

~Amy