Choosing Your World
Advice from a conductor, Benjamin Zander - some good points on how to view life and leadership - I would be surprised if you don't identify with him, laugh or learn something.
Fixable - How to finally make meetings more productive
Anne and Frances are joined by their first “Master Fixer," author Claire Hughes Johnson, who’s here to help you fix your meetings! Her book Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building draws on her executive experiences at Stripe and Google and reveals her techniques for getting the most out of the people she’s leading – especially while they’re gathered together. In this episode, Claire shares her recipe for better meetings, including how to make them more inclusive, why it’s crucial to delegate tasks, and how to make space for dissent.
^ADJ - Great podcast series
What I have been reading
Beside's a few HBS case studies ...
Compete Against Time - recommended by Tim Cook to his senior team, thought that was a decent recommendation - some good reminders and validation for some of the work we do at both IT Partners and Lightwire.
Smart Brevity - how to communicate faster and more efficiently whilst increasing reach and understanding.
The Three Box Solution - a new way to think about emergent strategy
13 Tips for New Lieutenants from a Former SOCOM Commander
Editor’s note: This month, around the United States, cadets at service academies and ROTC programs are commissioning and taking the next step in their careers as members of the profession of arms. We originally published this advice for new lieutenants from Gen. Tony Thomas in 2018, while he served as commander of US Special Operations Command.
^ADJ: So this advice is for new Lieutenants, but can still be applied to business I especially like: Active Metorship (under point #2 - Care for your People), Be the Example and Keep the Long View in mind - some good reminders for all of that are leaders.
Meetings *are* the work
Every day I see people trying hard to avoid meetings. I hear it from teams (“We’re cancelling this so we can get some work done”). A common theme on social media laments the challenge of balancing meeting and work time. Meetingphobia is deeply embedded in tech’s prevailing mindset: for example, in 18F the 👼 emoji is used for meeting cancellation because, “every time you cancel a meeting, an angel gets its wings.”¹
^ADJ: Some good points about the value of meetings, but how we all need to lift our game when it comes to meetings. Key message - good meetings can create real value.