Seth Godin’s small book explores ”the Dip”, the crucial low point that happens in most projects. It could be a temporary setback or a dead end. Successful people (and organizations) get better at being able to tell the difference. They persist in dips and quit dead ends. This article will summarize the key insights and […]
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I’m reading Eyal Nir’s book Indistractible and Chapter 8 floored me. Eyal debunks the sort of truths we all pick up along the way, and holds them up to the light. In this way I found myself looking at long buried assumptions and realised that they were driving some of my subconscious behaviour. I think […]
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Summary In post 1 and post 2 of this series, I outlined earlier sections of this book Deep Work by Cal Newport. In this post, I complete the series by outlining Newport’s Rules 2-4: Embrace Boredom Quit Social Media Drain the Shallows As before, I have organized these insights, examples and guidelines within the framework […]
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Summary In the previous post in this series, I summarised the book Deep Work by Cal Newport. In this post, I go into more detail, describing how deep work is valuable, rare and meaningful. Then we take a closer look at Newport’s Rule #1: Work Deeply. As before, I have organized these insights, examples and […]
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Summary I purchased Deep Work by Cal Newport a couple of years ago. Soon after, it must have strayed off the first page of my Kindle and I forgot about it. Recently, I was talking to a good friend about juggling many projects and priorities at work. He suggested this book and then I remembered […]
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This post is a summary of the insights and guidelines from an interview with Adam Grant on the Hidden Brain podcast. Adam talks about his book Originals. The discussion focuses on innovators and the challenges they face. He describes what makes an original, how parents can nurture originality in their children, and the potential downsides […]
Read MoreSummary In his classic 1999 HBR article Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker explains how knowledge workers (and indeed all humans) can understand themselves and navigate their careers. In this blog post, I’ll summarise the key guidelines from the article including a brief story about the ambassador who refused to be a pimp. Examples & Stories I’ll […]
Read MoreSummary When you’re trying to get someone to make the right decision or take the right action, provide concrete instructions because that will make it easier for them to do the right thing. Examples & Stories At work I’m currently putting together a field guide for change management based on our experiences with a number […]
Read MoreSummary When something goes wrong, do a learning review as soon as you can. This can be useful for teams in a work setting or for you as an individual (i.e. school projects). Examples & Stories A couple of years ago I did some research on best practices for doing project/incident postmortems. This is a […]
Read MoreSummary This post summarizes guidelines (or patterns) to help you manage your boss or your boss’ boss or beyond. For younger readers, I guess the tips and guidelines here could also be used to manage your parents. I hope my kids read it. Examples & Stories A few weeks ago Niall Larkin (@NiaLLLarkin) sent me […]
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January 30, 2022
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