Book Review: Influencer, the power to change anything

December 5, 2011 Leave a comment

It is a common experience: “if only I had more influence, I could have prevented/changed/enabled…”  Anyone with positive intentions for change likely felt this way one time or another.

With many books on individual influence or courage, Influencer, The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson stands out for one simple reason: it focuses on having lasting influence, even on large populations, while having a simple framework. I have seen it work for individuals. I have seen organizations benefit broadly from its language and approach.

The framework introduces concepts and language such as “Positive Deviance”, where something is already working to study and learn from it,”Vital Behaviors” that make the difference, and the “Crucial Moment” to pay attention to for everything to come together.  These concepts are explained in detail through the power of real change stories, which are interesting on their own right.

For me, audio edition worked well. I had learned previously my crucial moment for reading business books was picking the right time and place as evenings after a long day at work did not leave much concentration once personal and late night emails were done.  By switching to the audio format during my morning walk, I paid more attention, and I could still pause and take digital notes on the most important points.

Cheers…

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Book Review: RecrEAtion

September 16, 2011 1 Comment

After FruITion, I was looking forward to this sequel by Chris Potts. recrEAtion is another creatively written, fiction-style book, focusing on effective organizational principles and how IT architecture itself can support the unique needs of the enterprise based on geography, profitability, …

Main character of this book is an IT executive, the newly hired head of Enterprise Architecture. The book starts when the CEO meets his latest executive, and after hearing the ‘IT guy’s “I am an Enterprise Architect”, the CEO responds “Me too”. Thus starts a journey, figuratively and literally, on what makes a roadmap valuable, ways of leveraging structure to drive value and cost effectiveness, and an effective framework to think about the centralization vs. decentralization question.

I liked this book for two main reasons:
1. It describes how common architectural and management tools, such as metrics and roadmaps, can support the overall life of an organization
2. Through expressive personalities of the executives, it gives a glimpse at the thoughts and political dynamics often not openly shared in organizations.

The book has many good frameworks and quotes. One of my favorites is “a roadmap with only one road is not much of a map”. recrEAtion is a good read for any leader, not just in IT. The customer centric process framework itself (on a single page, in a single chapter) alone makes this book worth getting, though other aspects, especially the global perspectives are of high value as well.

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Book Review: FruITion

September 11, 2011 Leave a comment

What’s the role of an IT manager or leader? I felt this is the fundamental question that is challenged in Chris Potts’s book fruITion, written creatively in a fiction format.

The hero is the CIO of a company who starts a two week journey of self re-discovery on the role of a CIO. The book both provides a business executive perspective on how IT can be more effective and struggles of an individual seeking to embrace feedback, opportunity to make an even greater difference, and struggle of stepping significantly out of one’s comfort zone to achieve it. Fiction format works extremely well, highlighting many of the main characters for those of us in Corporate IT, reminding us change management needs to consider many facets of an organization.

While the hero is a CIO, it could easily be about an enterprise or solution architect, a project manager, or even a data modeler. Through this journey the hero answers the universal question of “why am I here?” in an IT leadership role.

I won’t give away the answer completely but when I first read this book, it had a strong impact on me. It clarified the language I had sought to simply define my own role as an IT leader, people manager, and architect: I am here to help my organization make the best overall “investments”. This may mean different technology, project, budget, or organization structure decisions. Yet, by focusing on this fundamental question, which we can tie to why our organization exists, we can make the better decisions.

I like the book because it effectively mixes management philosophy with the inner struggle that go with change and difficult decisions. It is an easy read, over a few evenings, a shuttle flight, or few train rides, depending on your commute. I highly recommend it to IT professionals and management consultants alike.

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