Something for you, Mr. Bezos :)

Tags

Alexa, Amazon, Bezos, invention, Kindle, text to speech

I own the first (at least I think so) version of Amazon Kindle. It has a function called “text to speech” which does what is says – it reads book for you, somewhat mechanically. I think it is because it reads word by word, and that sounds “robotic” and not at all natural. It misses feel, punctuation, flow of normal read.

Add to this the following theory: if we will have endless number of monkey hammering randomly on some typewriter, we are bound to find one which will write some coherent book.

Finally, Amazon’s “Alexa” comes to picture. As far as I know, Alexa listens to everything that happens in its vicinity. Well, Mr. Bezos, I think that you already know what I am about to say: from all that Alexa listens to you are bound to find sentences fitting a book where the flow is right (money principle from above). You can even find whole books read by parents to their children. Get those, give it Alexa’s voice and voila – you have your text to speech pretty much for free. And it will be much better than the old one.

What I Read – “Now, Discover Your Strengths – How To Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

Tags

Advice, character, Discover your strengths, Donald Clifton, management, Marcus Buckingham, theme, trait

Part two of yesterday’s post…

This is how you are supposed to manage people with themes I mentioned yesterday (in alphabetical order this time):

1. Achiever

• When there are times that require extra work, call on this person. Remember, that the saying “If you want to get a job done, ask a busy person” is generally true.
• Recognize that he likes to be busy. Sitting in meetings is likely to be very boring for him. So either let him get his work done or arrange to have him attend only those meetings where you really need him and he can be fully engaged.
• Help him measure what he gets done. He may well enjoy keeping track of hours, but, more important, he should have a way to measure cumulative production. Simple measures such as number of customers served, customers known by name, files reviewed, prospects contacted, or patients seen will help give him definition.
• Establish a relationship with this person by working alongside him. Working hard together is often a bonding experience for him. And keep low producers away from him. “Slackers” annoy him.
• When this person finishes a job, a rest or an easy assignment is rarely the reward he wants. He will be much more motivated if you give recognition for past achievement and then a new goal that stretches him.
• This person may well need less sleep and get up earlier than most. Look to him when those conditions are required on the job. Also, ask him questions such as “How late did you have to work to get this done?” or “When did you come in this morning?” He will appreciate this kind of attention.
• You may be tempted to promote him to higher-level roles simply because he is a self-starter. This may be a mistake if it leads him away from what he does best. A better course would be to pinpoint his other themes and strengths, and look for opportunities for him to do more of what he does well.

2. Deliberative

• Do not position this person in a role that requires snap judgements. She is likely to feel uncomfortable making decisions on gut alone.
• Ask her to join teams or groups that tend to be impulsive. She will have a temporizing effect, adding much-needed thoughtfulness and anticipation to the mix.
• She is likely to be a rigorous thinker. Before you make a decision, ask her to help you identify the land mines that may derail your plans.
• In situations where caution is required, such as situations that are sensitive to legal, safety, or accuracy issues, ask her to take the lead. She will instinctively anticipate where the dangers might lie and how to keep your flanks protected.
• She is likely to excel at negotiating contracts, especially behind the scenes. As far as you can within the confines of her job description, ask her to play this role.
• Honor that she may be quite a private person. Unless invited, do not push to become too familiar with her too quickly. And by the same token, do not take it personally if she keeps you at arm’s length.
• Do not ask her to be a greeter, rainmaker, or networker for your organization. The kind of effusiveness that this role requires may not be in her repertoire.
• In her relationships she will be selective and discriminating. Consequently, do not move her quickly from team to team. She needs to be confident that the people she surrounds herself with are competent and can be trusted, and this confidence takes time to build.
• As a manager she will be known as someone who gives praise sparingly, but when she does, it is truly deserved.

3. Input

• Focus this person natural inquisitiveness by asking him to research a topic of importance to your organization. He enjoys knowledge that comes from research.
• Position him in roles with a heave research component.
• Pay attention to his other strong themes. If he is also strong in Developer, he may excel as a teacher or trainer by peppering his lesson with intriguing facts and stories.
• Keep him posted on news within your organization. He needs to be in the know. Pass along books, articles, and papers you think he would like to know about and read.
• Encourage him to make use of the internet. He will use it to find information he thinks he needs. Not all of his facts-finding will be immediately useful, but it will be important for his self-esteem.
• Help him develop a system for storing the information he collects. This system will ensure that he can find it when he and the organization need it.
• When you are in meetings, make a point of asking him for information. Look for opportunities to say something positive about his recall, such as “It’s amazing. You always seem to have the facts we need.”

4. Learner

• Position this person in roles that require him to stay current in a fast-changing field. He will enjoy the challenge of maintaining his competency.
• Regardless of this role, he will be eager to learn new facts, skills, or knowledge. Explore new ways for him to learn and remain motivated, lest he start hunting for a richer learning environment. For example, if he lacks opportunities to learn on the job, encourage him to take courses that interest him at the local college or association. Remember, he doesn’t necessarily need to be promoted; he just needs to be learning. It is the process of learning, not the result, that energizes him.
• Help him track his learning progress by identifying milestones or levels that he has reached. Celebrate those milestones.
• In the same vein encourage this person to become the “master of trade” or “resident expert” in his field. Arrange for him to take the relevant classes. Be sure to recognize his learning with the appropriate certificates and plaques.
• Have this person work beside a master who will continuously push him to learn more.
• Ask him to conduct internal discussion groups or presentations. There may be no better way to learn than to teach others.
• Help him secure financial support to continue his education.

5. Strategic

• Position this person on the leading edge of your organization. His ability to anticipate problems and their solutions will be valuable. For example, ask him to sort through all of the possibilities and find the best way forward for your department. Suggest that he report back on the best strategy.
• Involve him in organizational planning. Ask him, “If this happened, what should we expect?” “If that happened, what should we expect?”
• Always give him ample time to think through a situation before asking for his input. He needs to play out a couple of scenarios in his mind before voicing his opinion.
• Recognize this person’s strength in the Strategic theme by sending him to strategic planning or futurism seminar. The content will sharpen his ideas.
• This person is likely to have a strength for putting his ideas and thoughts into words. To refine his thinking, ask him to present his ideas to his colleagues or to write them for internal distribution.
• When you hear or read of strategies that worked in your field, share them with this person. It will stimulate his thinking.

Again, it does ring true… Now, if you know me, you know what to do 🙂

What I Read – “Now, Discover Your Strengths – How To Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

Tags

character, Discover your strengths, Donald Clifton, Marcus Buckingham, self test, talent, test, theme

This post will have at least two parts, today here is what I learned about myself… According to this book, my five dominating themes are (strongest first):

1. Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

2. Input

You are inquisitive. You collect things. You might collect information—words, facts, books, and quotations—or you might collect tangible objects such as butterflies, baseball cards, porcelain dolls, or sepia photographs. Whatever you collect, you collect it because it interests you. And yours is the kind of mind that finds so many things interesting. The world is exciting precisely because of its infinite variety and complexity. If you read a great deal, it is not necessarily to refine your theories but, rather, to add more information to your archives. If you like to travel, it is because each new location offers novel artefacts and facts. These can be acquired and then stored away. Why are they worth storing? At the time of storing it is often hard to say exactly when or why you might need them, but who knows when they might become useful? With all those possible uses in mind, you really don’t feel comfortable throwing anything away. So you keep acquiring and compiling and filing stuff away. It’s interesting. It keeps your mind fresh. And perhaps one day some of it will prove valuable.

3. Strategic

The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, “What if this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?” This recurring question helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at the chosen path—your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward. This is your Strategic theme at work: “What if?” Select. Strike.

4. Deliberative

You are careful. You are vigilant. You are a private person. You know that the world is an unpredictable place. Everything may seem in order, but beneath the surface you sense the many risks. Rather than denying these risks, you draw each one out into the open. Then each risk can be identified, assessed, and ultimately reduced. Thus, you are a fairly serious person who approaches life with a certain reserve. For example, you like to plan ahead so as to anticipate what might go wrong. You select your friends cautiously and keep your own counsel when the conversation turns to personal matters. You are careful not to give too much praise and recognition, lest it be misconstrued. If some people don’t like you because you are not as effusive as others, then so be it. For you, life is not a popularity contest. Life is something of a minefield. Others can run through it recklessly if they so choose, but you take a different approach. You identify the dangers, weigh their relative impact, and then place your feet deliberately. You walk with care.

5. Achiever

Your Achiever theme helps explain your drive. Achiever describes a constant need for achievement. You feel as if every day starts at zero. By the end of the day you must achieve something tangible in order to feel good about yourself. And by “every day” you mean every single day—workdays, weekends, vacations. No matter how much you may feel you deserve a day of rest, if the day passes without some form of achievement, no matter how small, you will feel dissatisfied. You have an internal fire burning inside you. It pushes you to do more, to achieve more. After each accomplishment is reached, the fire dwindles for a moment, but very soon it rekindles itself, forcing you toward the next accomplishment. Your relentless need for achievement might not be logical. It might not even be focused. But it will always be with you. As an Achiever you must learn to live with this whisper of discontent. It does have its benefits. It brings you the energy you need to work long hours without burning out. It is the jolt you can always count on to get you started on new tasks, new challenges. It is the power supply that causes you to set the pace and define the levels of productivity for your work group. It is the theme that keeps you moving.

What can I say… It does describe me pretty good. I was actually quite surprised when I got my results. By the way, there is updated version of this book – and the test that goes with it – on the market, so look for the newest one. I was told that it does not make any sense to buy both. But the book is definitely worth reading.

People are bunch of liars

Tags

Clinton, election, forecast, Nate Silver, people, politics, populist, president, Trump, USA

Have a look at this picture (it comes from Nate Silver website here):

This image was on his web site on the 8th of November, meaning that his forecast was wrong right up to the last minutes of the election. Why? I can only speculate, but I base this speculation on election results in Poland and in Hungary and on recent successes of all populist parties in Europe. My speculation is this: all polls check what people say, not what people feel or really think. We live in times where all issues where politics have failed us (income inequality, immigrants, refugees, unemployment, lack of future) have become playing field for all kinds of populists. They know how people feel and use it to gain power – but have no real solutions to those problems. Look at Brexit. It was easy to play on people’s feelings, but after it was done, masters behind that referendum disappeared, leaving a big mess behind (here too, all sorts of forecasts showed Britain staying in the EU). I am sorry to say to all Americans, Trump will not leave. You are stuck with him for at least 4 years – unless you will impeach him for something. Which is not that unlikely.

Similarly I guess all the recent elections were lost to populists, and there is plenty to come, next one being Germany. Those parties promise money, or building walls, or whatever – and sometimes really keep their promises by paying for them with taxpayers money – and even though your reason tells you that they are not the best solution, your heart wins, because you feel in your heart that this is what you would like to happen, even if it logically cannot as there are no easy solutions to all current problems. And you vote for them. Lying at the same time to all polls you came across, so you don’t look stupid.

My advice to Nat Silver and all other guys (including the one from Stanford who ate a bug on national TV) is to add “feeling factor” to their algorithms. The more all issues are hot in terms of beliefs and feelings, the bigger impact that factor should have over cold data based on interviews. Eventually you will be able to adjust over people’s lies.

 

 

What I Read – HBR November 2016

Tags

article, change, Harvard Business Review, reorganization, Stephen Heidari-Robinson, Suzanne Heywood

This is what I found interesting in Harvard Business Review, November 2016 issue, in article “Getting Reorgs Right” by Stephen Heidari-Robinson and Suzanne Heywood:

Whole article is fine, but what drew my attention was this (copy from article are marked by Italics):

A McKinsey survey of 1,800 executives identified the most common pitfalls for reorganizations (in order of frequency).

1. Employees actively resist the changes.
2. Insufficient resources – people, time, money – are devoted to the effort.
3. Employees are distracted from their day-to-day activities, and individual productivity declines.
4. Leaders actively resist the changes.
5. The org chart changes, but the people work the same.
6. Employees leave because of the reorg.
7. Unplanned activities, such as an unforeseen need to change IT systems or to communicate the changes in multiple languages, disrupt the implementation.

All of the above are true. But one is missing: Executives do not support the change enough themselves. It seems that mostly they think that simply by saying-so Change will happen… But I guess since they are the ones being asked, none of them would admit their own lacklustre approach to Change.