Issue No. 637 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features the second review of a brilliant book on how to change what’s not working. Plus, click here for my 2024 Top-10 Books and Book-of-the-Year. And go here for four lists of books reviewed from 2006 to 2024. Plus, find more book reviews at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog—and click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). Click here for Part 1 of 2 of the two-part review of Reset: How to Change What's Not Working.
FOR YOUR NEXT WEEKLY STAFF MEETING! In Chapter 9, “Tap Motivation,” of Dan Heath’s new book, Reset, he describes a staff retreat assignment. Using sticky notes, “write down one task that's on your plate today that you would pay someone to take over for you. Then…on a second sticky note, write down one task you'd be so excited to do that you'd pay for the privilege.”
The Twin Mistakes! “They undercoddle their best customers and overcoddle their worst.” (Part 2 of 2)
Since writing my Part 1 of 2 reviews of Reset, I’ve done another deep dive into this phenomenal book. I urge you—and your team and board—to read or listen to:
This bestselling author is often hilarious (see his footnotes)—yet insightful. With practical and pragmatic examples, the book also delivers contrarian counsel. Don’t skip Chapter 8, “Do Less AND More.”
In that chapter, Dan Heath spotlights a consulting firm—zealots for the Pareto principle (the 80/20 rule)—that helps clients change their operational approaches based on the 20 percent that yield 80 percent of the revenue. One problem though:
The firm had “found that his clients make twin mistakes: They undercoddle their best customers and overcoddle their worst. Often those mistakes derive from a noble desire: These companies aspire to treat customers the same.” Heath adds, “But to treat a $1 million customer the same as a $100 customer? It’s like treating your hamster the same as your daughter because they’re both mammals.”
The consultant discovered that “paradoxically,
the biggest customers are often treated worse than the smallest.”
the biggest customers are often treated worse than the smallest.”
Personal example! A colleague told me years ago about a nonprofit organization that invited every donor to give an extra $15—over and above their regular giving—to meet a special need. Sounds reasonable, right? “Dear John…Last month you gave $25. This month, please consider giving $25 + $15 = $40.”
Except…a major donor received the same ill-conceived generic one-size-fits-all appeal: “Dear Jane…Last month you gave $1 million. This month, please consider giving $1 million + $15 = $1,000,015.”
Oops!
LOL! I recently had my car serviced. When reading Chapter 2, “Consider the Goal of the Goal,” I couldn’t stop laughing! Similar to the story of Ryan, who was inundated with customer satisfaction surveys from his car dealership (Heath labels the looney practice, “the customer shakedown”), I was also the victim of way too many texts and emails—begging me to respond to their incessant surveys.
I did not complete the surveys. But I'm thinking about bringing a copy of the book (and my two reviews) over to the dealership and presenting them to the General Manager! (Too cheeky, perhaps? I think not. It’s a great dealership, but reading “How to Change What’s Not Working” will be helpful to the leader and her team.)
LISTEN TO CHAPTER 2. Dan Heath’s entertaining podcast, “What’s It Like to Be…” featured a bonus podcast last month on his new book, Reset, with the full audio of Chapter 2, “Consider the Goal of the Goal.” Listen here. (He begins with the "customer shakedown" story.)
CHAPTER 8 WILL SHOCK YOU. You may find, like one organization did, that 80 percent of their customers were costing them money! Have you applied the 80/20 test to your customers, clients, or donors? The wisdom in “Do Less AND More” is jam-packed:
• Family and Relationships: “What if we are undercoddling the most important people and overcoddling the least?” (Gut check!)
• Why a consultant skipped a client dinner to play ping-pong with his son.
• The value of a 2x2 quadrant (Stop, Start, Less, More). See also Mark Matlock’s three headers in Faith for the Curious.
• Read why—before he said yes to being CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago, the candidate volunteered for the organization and made a $25 donation “to experience the organization from the outside.” (See also Chapter 1, “Go and See the Work.”) He got the job and “within a month, a third of the board and a quarter of the staff were gone.” (Sound familiar to today’s news?)
WAIT…WHAT? Are you telling me that after reading my Part 1 of 2 review of Reset, you still haven’t visited DanHeath.com for a one-page summary of the book? And you still haven’t listened to Heath’s 10-minute video summary of his book? (Do it now. I’ll wait.)
REFRESHER! Reset has two parts:
• Part 1: Find Leverage Points. (Go and see the work. Consider the goal of the goal. Study the bright spots. Target the constraint. Map the system.)
• Part 2: Restack Resources. (Start with a burst. Recycle waste. Do less AND more. Tap motivation. Let people drive. Accelerate learning.)
Don’t ask me for my favorite chapter—because every one of the 11 chapters are seminar-worthy. (Your consultant is reading this now and will be poking-you-in-the-ribs yet this quarter!) And get this: every chapter includes a "Whirlwind Review." There's even more at the author's website: end-of-chapter resource recommendations, with live links to articles and value-added resources. Brilliant!
MORE INSIGHTS:
LET PEOPLE DRIVE. When Guy Krueger was not selected for the US Olympic archery team, he switched to coaching. He wasn’t a great coach and after a humiliating experience, he enrolled in a training program for coaches. Finally—he stopped “bossing” his athletes. “Because the coach can’t shoot the arrows for them. The coach should let the athletes drive.”
My suggestion: read Chapter 10 and then post the book cover on your office wall—to remind yourself that you can’t shoot the arrows or throw the darts. “Let People Drive.”
ZINGERS:
• Cool Cats! Read about the dangerously overpopulated animal shelter in Jacksonville, Fla., and the question that the new director asked—that started a national movement. “He didn’t know what he didn’t know. But that ignorance would turn out to be genius.”
• Church “Deadtime.” In Chapter 7, “Recycle Waste,” learn how one pastor cut out “watching” and trimmed 5 to 10 minutes from the service time without cutting any of the actual worship.” (Just one of many examples of early wins—“putting points on the board in weeks or months, not quarters or years.” Plus eliminating “deadtime” gave church members “a precious head start in beating other congregations to local restaurants for Sunday lunch.” LOL!)
• “Nitpicked Every Decision!” Heath pulls a few punches from Ed Catmull’s book, Creativity, Inc. The co-founder of Pixar could see that the “oversight group” (re: budget and deadlines) was basically at war with the creative team. Solution: “They eliminated the oversight group.” Yikes! (The brilliant explanation will give you courage. Heath also recommends the “Type 1” and “Type 2” decisions at Amazon.)
FINALLY… (Finally? This is pure torture—because I still have dozens of teasers that I can’t squeeze into this review. A third review maybe?)
• In Chapter 4, “Target the Restraint,” Heath discusses the “constraints” (aka “bottlenecks”) at Chick-fil-A. Fascinating and timely. See the recent WSJ article on Chick-fil-A*.
• For more on constraints, Heath recommends the novel, The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox. Or read my review of The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel (2017, 129 pages).
*And speaking of Chick-fil-A, congrats to Orange County Rescue Mission for receiving the company's very generous "True Inspiration Award" in 2024. Bryan Crain leads the executive team at OCRM.
TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Reset: How to Change What's Not Working, by Dan Heath. Listen on Libro (6 hours, 17 minutes). And thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy.
BONUS! Read The Wall Street Journal review, by Daniel Freedman, of Reset. It was featured in the Feb. 14, 2024, print edition: "How to Turn Things Around. Successful leaders ‘go and see the work.’ That means factory owners on the floor with employees, principals in the halls with students."
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) Lifelong learning advice: never skip a book’s concluding chapter. Dan Heath’s last chapter spotlights “Joy at Work” and how to move an enormous boulder uphill (one of Heath’s themes). A gutsy hospital nurse and director in Brazil asked team members to post “What matters to you?” and “What are the impediments to what matters?” SHOCKER: The public bulletin board was crammed with 300 Post-Its! Brilliant: the leaders focused first on “quick wins” (fix the coffee maker!) and “stone in the shoe” issues. QUESTION: Are you gutsy enough to ask this question at work?
2) “You get what you celebrate,” preached Frank Blake, the former CEO of Home Depot. His view: no one cares what your memos say! At your next weekly staff meeting, read the story in Chapter 9, “Tap Motivation,” about the Home Depot cashier who was ringing up the lumber purchases of an elderly gentleman—and then asked him about his project. He replied that “his grandson had passed away, and he had decided to build the coffin with his own hands.” QUESTION: If you were the cashier, what would you say and do next?
2) “You get what you celebrate,” preached Frank Blake, the former CEO of Home Depot. His view: no one cares what your memos say! At your next weekly staff meeting, read the story in Chapter 9, “Tap Motivation,” about the Home Depot cashier who was ringing up the lumber purchases of an elderly gentleman—and then asked him about his project. He replied that “his grandson had passed away, and he had decided to build the coffin with his own hands.” QUESTION: If you were the cashier, what would you say and do next?
SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books
You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time!
Book #7 of 99: How to Deal with Annoying People
For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #7 of 99 in our new series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books and niche chapters still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring.
How to Deal with Annoying People:
What to Do When You Can't Avoid Them
by Bob Phillips and Kimberly Alyn
(Harvest House Publishers, March 1, 2005, 320 pages)
What to Do When You Can't Avoid Them
by Bob Phillips and Kimberly Alyn
(Harvest House Publishers, March 1, 2005, 320 pages)
While this book's title is humorous, the content is extremely serious.
• Read my review (Issue No. 67, Dec. 17, 2007)
• Order from Amazon.
• Management Bucket #7 of 20: The People Bucket
My SECOND READ Insights/Ideas: I missed this brilliant idea the first time I read this. From the first hour of the first of many all-day social styles training sessions led by Don German—I would be hard-pressed to name anything that has been more helpful to me (personally and professionally), except my Christian faith.
I’ve read and recommended numerous books about the four social styles (Analyticals, Drivers, Amiables, and Expressives)—yet I’m always looking to learn more. When I picked up Bob Phillips’ book again, I was shocked that I had not underlined anything in Chapter 15, “Dispelling Ten Stereotypical Gender Myths.” (Excellent reminders!)
I’m a Driver (see the charts on the People Bucket website), so perhaps I rushed through this book unwittingly. I also missed Chapter 16, “Mottos and Sayings of Annoying People,” especially the two pages of “Conflicted Sayings.” (Two styles affirm, “Look before you leap” and two styles believe, “He who hesitates is lost.”)
And how did I miss the page, “Quotes of Famous Leaders”—including their social styles? You’ll love the quotes from Dale Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, Norman Vincent Peale, Golda Meir, and others, and this from Winston Churchill: “Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
BONUS! View this 10-minute video, “The 4 Social Styles in the Boardroom,” I presented at the 2020 virtual conference of Christian Ministry Advancement (formerly Christian Management Australia).
• Read my review (Issue No. 67, Dec. 17, 2007)
• Order from Amazon.
• Management Bucket #7 of 20: The People Bucket
My SECOND READ Insights/Ideas: I missed this brilliant idea the first time I read this. From the first hour of the first of many all-day social styles training sessions led by Don German—I would be hard-pressed to name anything that has been more helpful to me (personally and professionally), except my Christian faith.
I’ve read and recommended numerous books about the four social styles (Analyticals, Drivers, Amiables, and Expressives)—yet I’m always looking to learn more. When I picked up Bob Phillips’ book again, I was shocked that I had not underlined anything in Chapter 15, “Dispelling Ten Stereotypical Gender Myths.” (Excellent reminders!)
I’m a Driver (see the charts on the People Bucket website), so perhaps I rushed through this book unwittingly. I also missed Chapter 16, “Mottos and Sayings of Annoying People,” especially the two pages of “Conflicted Sayings.” (Two styles affirm, “Look before you leap” and two styles believe, “He who hesitates is lost.”)
And how did I miss the page, “Quotes of Famous Leaders”—including their social styles? You’ll love the quotes from Dale Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, Norman Vincent Peale, Golda Meir, and others, and this from Winston Churchill: “Personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”
BONUS! View this 10-minute video, “The 4 Social Styles in the Boardroom,” I presented at the 2020 virtual conference of Christian Ministry Advancement (formerly Christian Management Australia).
New AI Podcast:
BucketCast
Welcome back to our new mini-feature, “BucketCast.” Click on this link to listen to the AI-generated podcasters who comment on my book review of A Comedian’s Prayer Book, by Frank Skinner, plus 2 additional LOL books (7 minutes). For more podcasts, click here.
Someone on Your Team Should Read This!
Is DeepSeek for real? While this book was published just 12 months ago, someone on your team and/or your board should digest Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. The book’s not for everyone. In fact, I’m surprised I read it—I’m hardly a tech guy. Yet the author, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, hooks you into the history, the promise, and potential of the Internet and AI. For more book reviews, visit the Pails in Comparison Blog.
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