Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Putting the work in Teamwork

Recently, I've been involved in some discussions about team dynamics in corporate environments. Specifically, discussions about how teams hold each other accountable, remain focused on the "bigger we," and improve the team's ability to work together.

In my career, I've been part of lots of teams - ranging from the criminally dysfunctional to the high-performing. One of the things I've noticed is that the better the team, the better they want to be - and the more they focus on improving team function.

One of the teams I'm on now is working improving team dynamics, and we're preparing for our first meeting soon. This has sent me back to my bookshelf to review my "top 5" books that have made their mark on me in this area.

I'd like to share my short list with you, and invite you to share any gems of your own with me in the comments.

  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
    • This is an easy read with some hard advice. It describes a team engaged in some destructive, disloyal, and counterproductive habits - many of which sound exactly like some of the screwed up teams I've been on. Through the fable in this book, you learn how to do things the right way (or at least in a much better way) with a strong focus on holding each other accountable. Every team can learn from this book.
    • My top takeaway: Focus on results and insist on mutual accountability through constructive conflict.
  • The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable
    • I've reviewed The Offsite here before. This one (another fable) focuses on team dynamics but on provides some tools to figure out whether you have a process problem or a leadership (or leader) problem.
    • My top takeaway: Create a unifying purpose and don't let ineffective leaders destroy the team.
  • Managing with Aloha
    • This book isn't just about teamwork, but teamwork runs through it. Concepts like "The Daily Five Minutes" are written from the perspective of a manager connecting with their team, but I find this concept - and many others in this book - can be applied to increasing the effectiveness of your relationships with peers / team members. This is another book I've reviewed here.
    • My top takeaway: Effective teams require people to feel respected and valued, even when things aren't going well.
  • Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars
    • Well, Patrick Lencioni gets to be on my short list twice (he also wrote the "Five Dysfunctions..." book above). You've probably seen the dynamic in teams where it's always "their" fault, and the easiest way to get ahead is to make the other people in the room look bad (and you usually do that behind their back). This book helps you deal with these bad behaviors and get them out of your team - they have no place in an effective team.
    • My top takeaway: Work toward "the bigger we" and stop the in-fighting. Your business should be focused on collective success in the market, not individual success inside the company walls.
  • Why Smart Executives Fail
    • OK, OK. So this isn't a book about teams, but it is a book about leadership and leadership debacles. It's useful, however, for anyone in a leadership position to better recognize their contribution to dysfunction. Remember what you've brought to the party. There is a spot-on summary in this post at Aussie Rules.
    • My top takeaway: If your team is dysfunctional, you are probably part of the problem.

I've read lots of other good books, but found these to by my preferred "must re-visit" list around the topic of team effectiveness.

What books are on your short list?

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Loves me some books

The annual "A Love Affair With Books" (ALAWB) is going on this month at Joyful Jubilant Learning. If you're a reader and haven't visited ALAWB yet: what are you waiting for?

Each book is discussed by a different blogger, so you get a ton of different perspectives. Mine went live this week - check out my discussion of "The Red Rubber Ball at Work."

By the way - this year is different than last year. In the past, the books have been mostly business / nonfiction books but a few fictional works have found their way into the mix this year.

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Amazon's Kindle 2 Starts A Fire

I've had Amazon's Kindle 2 for the past couple of weeks, and I am really glad I bought one. I thought I'd take some time to share what I've found with you in case you're considering buying one.

First, I'd like to give you some context to better understand where I'm coming from.

  • Contrary to my gadget-loving nature I didn't buy the first Kindle (though I was chomping at the bit to pick up version 2).
  • This is my first time using an electronic reader, and I've never liked reading long documents (much less books) on a computer.
  • I read quite a few books -- typically 4 or more each month, and usually with more than one going at a time (one or more business / non-fiction, one fiction, etc.).
  • When I travel, I typically have 3 or 4 books with me which can be heavy and bulky.

The Device

I'll start with my impressions of the device itself. Amazon took a cue from Apple and really paid attention to the "unboxing experience" with the Kindle. The elegantly boxed arrived and I felt like I was opening a gift, rather than just some gadget I ordered. The fit & finish are impressive - this is a sturdy, light device - and it has a nice minimalist feel. The only items you need to carry around are the Kindle itself (about as big a footprint as a Moleskine notebook, but thinner than an iPhone), a USB cable that you use for charging and connecting to your PC, and a USB-to-AC adapter so you can charge via an electrical outlet).

I added Amazon's protective leather cover for the Kindle 2, which about doubles the thickness of the device but gives me peace of mind that it won't get dinged up as I carry the Kindle around. Click the image at right for a larger view of all the gear together.

Obtaining Stuff to Read

One of the things that's been a breeze is buying books for the Kindle. The device is integrated seamlessly with my Amazon account, so I can:

  • Buy Kindle books via the Amazon web site, and they show up seconds later on my Kindle 2
  • Browse or search for books on the Kindle, order (with automatic billing to my account)

These are the two most common actions, but there are other ways to get content to read, including:

  • You can email PDF's and Word docs to yourself and (for a cost of 10 cents) they will be converted and appear on your Kindle a few minutes later. If you are a GTD user, this could be an effective way to bring your "To Read" stack with you without adding bulk to your briefcase. You can also add others to your email "good list" so they can send you documents this way.
  • You can subscribe to newspapers (of which there are quite a few) or magazines (there aren't many) from Amazon's Kindle Store.
  • You can subscribe to a small number of leading blogs (more are purportedly coming) so you can read your RSS feeds on the go.
  • You can get free books via ManyBooks - they have Kindle format versions of many books from Project Gutenberg.
    • ManyBooks has over 20,000 free eBooks available, and a bunch of them are available in Kindle format (.awz files).
    • You can also browse to "mnybks.net" from your Kindle to download from ManyBooks directly on the device.
    • If you download the books to your PC, you have to manually copy them to your Kindle 2 via the USB cable but hey - they're free!

In addition to reading, you can listen to things on the Kindle in a couple of ways:

  • Have the Kindle read a book to you in its robot voice (I'm not wild about the voice, but it might be good in some situation I haven't yet encountered).
  • Copy MP3's to your Kindle (again, via USB) so you can listen to music or audiobooks on the device. Warning: MP3 files take a lot of space (but Kindle format books do not).

Book prices are reasonable. First, you can download samples of books to decide whether you want them or not. When you buy, most current / hardcover titles cost $10, while older / massmarket paperback books range from free to about $8 (most of the massmarket books I've bought run about $6 or $7).

The best thing? The Kindle weighs the same and takes up the same amount of space no matter how many books you put in it.

OK, So What About the Reading?

Now, let's get into the reason I bought this device: the reading. In short, "wow - this is cool, and better than I expected." You start with a home page that shows you all of the books currently on your Kindle, with a small, graphical indicator of how much you've read. When you find what you want to read, point to it using the joystick and press in on the joystick to select. Boom - the book comes up on the screen and you're ready to read.

The controls on the Kindle 2 are easy to use and you forget about them after a few minutes of reading (you'll mostly use the Previous and Next Page buttons). At any time, you can mark text, add annotations, add a bookmark, or look up a word using the built-in dictionary. You can also switch to another book, and the Kindle 2 will remember where you left off any time you return to a book already in progress. Very nice.

The on-screen reading experience is surprisingly good. I have read for up to 4 hours at a stretch with no eye fatigue, and find I can read faster on the Kindle than I can using a "real" book. I suspect it's because I can adjust the text to a size that's optimal and because the whitespace around the screen makes it easier to focus on the page that's before me.

The annotation tools are handy, too. Since I often review the books I read (or at least the ones I like), I find myself using the highlights a lot and they're a snap to use on the Kindle 2. In the screen shot at the right, you can get an idea of how easy it is to keep track of multiple highlights and annotations - click the pic for a larger view (and please excuse the wonky angle - I didn't get the camera straight).

Net-net on the Kindle 2

Once again, I'm really glad I bought the Kindle 2. If you read a lot, you'll love this device - and I think heavy readers will be able to justify the expensive price much more easily. There are so many things I haven't even mentioned in this review, but hopefully you've heard enough to get an idea whether this device is right for you or not. If you still want one, pick one up a Kindle 2 from Amazon - and happy reading!

And here are my top 5 pros and cons, to wrap things up.


Kindle 2: Top 5 Pros

Kindle 2: Bottom 5 Cons

Excellent, readable screen with adjustable font size

Expensive

Seamless integration with Amazon account

Joystick is a little stubby and harder to use than I'd like

Huge library of current (and older) books available on-demand

Battery and memory are not user-accessible

Very portable form factor, even with charging cable

No ability to password protect the device or its ability to order
(though you can disable it via Amazon.com if it's stolen)

Easy bookmarking, highlighting, and annotation

Not enough magazines available for subscription yet


Memopal: An interesting online backup option

As you may be aware (since I've written about Mozy in the past), I use Mozy to backup my home computers because I like the ease and peace of mind that comes from automatic, off-site backups.

Recently, I've had the privilege of trying out another online backup product called "Memopal. " I've been running on one of my computers for a couple of months, and it has some interesting characteristics that really impressed me:

  • Memopal allows you to back up as many systems as you'd like for one fee, because you buy a 'pool' of storage rather than a licenser per computer.
    • You pay $49 per year for 150 Gigs of storage, $99 per year for 250 Gigs (they offer discounts for multiple years).
  • Memopal allows you to share files with other people through their service. This is a very handy way to share really large files with other people without clogging up email.
    • In Windows, you simply right-click on a file on your computer and select "Share" from the Memopal menu. There is similar functionality with their Mac client.
    • You are given the option to share the file for 1 day, 1 week, or unlimited (you can revoke sharing at any time).
  • Memopal has an impressive array of supported platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Mac, Linux, and iPhone (yes, iPhone!)

If you don't have a backup solution already, Memopal is a good one to consider and I've been happy with the performance, functionality and ease-of-use during the 2 months I've used the product.

At this point, I'm not going to convert any of my other systems from Mozy to Memopal since I'm still quite happy with Mozy and it meets my needs (plus I still have over a year on my contract). However, I think Memopal is raising the bar on economical, online backups and when my Mozy contracts are up... who knows?

Money-saving tip: Memopal is also currently offering an "Easter special" through April 25, that will save you 15%.

So many choices - what do I do?

Now - if you're trying to decide between Mozy and Memopal, I have some additional thoughts to consider:

  • Company
    • Backing
      • Mozy is part of megacorp EMC, while Memopal is an angel-funded startup. I'm not overly concerned about this because I have multiple types of backups, but make sure the company you pick is stable.
      • Incidentally, Mozy was a startup when I began using it and when it was acquired by EMC I had two reactions: 1) good, they aren't going anywhere, and 2) I hope EMC doesn't raise the price. [EMC did raise the price for business accounts, by the way.]
    • Company location
      • If this is an issue for you, make sure you understand it. Mozy is US-based, while Memopal is Rome-based.
  • Terms of use and policies
    • Both Mozy and Memopal are very clear about their policies, terms of use, etc. and both have very "user-friendly" policies. I've looked at other services where this was not the case.
  • How you'll use the product
    • If you regularly need to share large files with others, Memopal does that while Mozy does not.
    • Platform support may be a consideration - ensure that the platforms you intend to back up are supported (for example, Mozy will not back up Linux or iPhone).
  • Pricing subleties
    • If you are only backing up one system, Mozy and Memopal will cost you about the same per year. If, however, you are backing up multiple systems Memopal can be quite a bit cheaper.
    • The caveat here is that Memopal will charge you more if you outgrow the capacity you've purchased.
      • For example, if you are backing up 2 computers that (combined) have less than 150 Gigs of data, Memopal will be cheaper; if those same 2 computers require you to bump your storage up to 250 Gigs, the price will be the same (and Mozy provides unlimited storage).
    • Bottom line on pricing: Think about it and do the math before you jump in.
  • Try it before you buy it
    • Both Mozy and Memopal offer free trials - give them a test drive before you purchase to make sure you'll be happy.

I hope this information is helpful in your decision - whichever one of these products you choose, I think you'll be happy with the choice.

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"Outliers" really stands out

I've enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's books in the past (I thought "The Tipping Point" was excellent, but thought "Blink" was just Ok in comparison). I just finished reading "Outliers" and it is by far my favorite Gladwell book so far (on a side note, it's also the first book I read on the Kindle 2).

In Outliers, Gladwell seeks to understand why some people excel in life. Is it "natural talent and ability?" Is it hard work? Is it luck? Can it be replicated?

Fascinating case studies

The reason I enjoyed this book is that it presents intriguing findings woven into fascinating stories. Some of the topics include a discussion of lots of odd phenomena and stereotypes:

  • Is there a "best" time to have been born?
  • Are the most successful people those with the highest IQ's?
  • Why are so many successful professional hockey players born early in the year?
  • Are Asians really better at math? Why or why not?
  • Do lower income students tend to do worse, academically, than those from higher income families?
  • Why are there so many Jewish lawyers in New York?
  • Does ethnicity play into likelihood of plane crashes?
  • Why were the Beatles, Bill Gates, and Bill Joy so successful and influential?

The answers to all of these - and more - are covered in this book. Or at least Gladwell's convincing theories are covered!

Engaging reading

Gladwell has perfected the art of drawing you into an intriguing story, then presenting a research-based analysis of why things occurred the way they did, the interactions & influences that were involved, and giving some serious "think about" material.

The best thing about the stories is that they feature real people, including Gladwell's own family. Comparing the opinions, thoughts, and actions with how things turned out can be fascinating - you can see the flaws in some of the thinking, but can also see how you may have made the same flawed decisions if you were immersed in the same situation.

Still not convinced?

I searched this book for a short example I could share in this review to get you jazzed about the book, but they were hard to condense into a paragraph or two. So, here is something to chew on that might get you thinking:

  • Gladwell analyzed the 75 wealthiest people in history - starting with Cleopatra and the Pharaohs of ancient times (Bill Gates is #37 on that list, incidentally, when the wealth figures are normalized)
  • Fourteen of these 75 are Americans born within 9 years of each other in the mid-nineteenth century - that's almost 20% of the wealthiest people in thousands of years - all born in a historical blink of an eye

Curious how that happened? You'll find out in this book. And it relates to the answers to most of the questions I listed above.

If you haven't done so yet, I recommend you read Outliers - and I'd love to hear whether you enjoyed it as much as I did.

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