And not management frameworks & structures.
Just tangible things you can do today to promote excellence.
I read it when it came out and just keep quoting it over and over. We even use it to help people who are growing into management roles, to help show them things they should be doing, and it helps them get started.
Very technical, but essentially this is what Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell all do.
They share business stories that teach lessons.
Just the same way legends have been passed down, engaging stories with lessons behind them.
And guess what? It works, presenting the knowledge in that fashion gets cut through and if the objective is message absorption is the objective they (and you) win.
Stories that get through matter, speaking above or beyond peoples capabilities just alienates them. This is the exact reason why these authors do so well.
Workshops & seminars are always great fun, you learn a lot, meet interesting people, get re-enthused with your business.
The real difficulty is taking that away and apply it to your business.
Tom started out by saying that he wasn’t there to introduce something new he was there to remind us of what we already knew when we started out in entrepreneurship but had lost sight of in the heat of the moment.
He was right.
They key points of the day were:
– Write thank you notes. Religiously.
– Small is nothing to be ashamed of.
– Good enough is not a term we should take lightly. We need to be using works like shock and awe.
– #1 word for this market is focus.
– Learn to listen. Not half listen. Really listen. (Hint: take a listening course).
– Adapt small changes which result in behavioural changes.
– The next five years are going to be the defining years of our careers. We need to act on it, not hide from the challenge.
The underlying theme of all this was, the small things matter, they matter now than ever before and this should be our focus.
You can download slides of Tom’s presentation from his blog:
http://www.tompeters.com/entries.php?note=010862.php
Also you can check out my exclusive interview with Tom on Youtube, Ben Young chats with Tom Peters.
The lighting wasn’t great, but audio is, so please listen as the content is mint.
I tweeted this the other day:
“The real problem 99% of the time is people aren’t willing to do what they know they ought to do.”
Tom Peters also iterated this last week, stating that he wasn’t there to introduce something new he was there to remind us of what we already knew when we started out in entrepreneurship but had lost sight of in the heat of the moment.
It’s more true that you first realise.
Small matters.
Enough said.
In my wind down from Tom Peters yesterday, the underlying theme was that small matters, it matters more now than ever before.
Focus on small things that result in behavioural differences.
For example he gave the case of:
“Docs, nurses make own checklists on whatever process-procedure they choose, Within weeks, average stay in ICU down 50%. Source: Atul Gawande, “The Checklist” (New Yorker, 1210.07)”. (from Slide 74, download below)”
The next five years are going to be our defining legacy. It is what we did during this time that we will remember.
Download the slides from the Tom Peters blog, dig through them, print them out, there are lots of gems in there.
Today I have the privilege to be live blogging from a Tom Peters Workshop, I shall be updating on the Results blog.
Check throughout the day and on my twitter at @bwagy
If you have any questions for Tom post them here I hopefully will have an interview with the man himself this afternoon. I shall post a summary on friday of the day.
And off we go.