Personal Development, the Peter Drucker way

Thanks to an introduction by Lisa Haneberg, I had the pleasure of discovering Bruce Rosenstein and his book , "Living In More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life."

I've been a long-time fan of Peter Drucker ("The Daily Drucker" is always on my bedside table) for his philosophy on business and management.  However, I have a whole new appreciation for Drucker's insights after reading Rosenstein's book.

Core, guiding principles

One thing that really stuck with me was the clarity Drucker developed about principles, purpose, and focus in his life.  Drucker is typically recognized for his thoughts on business efficiency and process, but in this book I discovered how much emphasis he place on the purpose of his life - and the time he set aside for thinking.

In fact, Drucker considered thinking and reflection to be a critical success factor:

"The effective people I know simply discipline themselves to have enough time for thinking."

I found this to be a very engaging book. Rosenstein brings you through a very thought-provoking process by sharing examples of Drucker's thoughts and guidance.  You're brought into the content with questions and assignments to help you put some of the thoughts into action.  For example, you are asked to think about what your unique abilities and core competencies are, develop a "Total Life list" to expand your perspective, develop your teaching and learning skills, and create a plan for yourself so you can put that plan in motion.

One exercise that I found particularly useful was one in which you create a presentation to teach a topic to someone else.  I've found that I learn far more about any topic when I'm "forced" to teach it to others, and that kind of process encourages much deeper analysis of the topic at hand.

Beyond the business

While Peter Drucker is best known for his contributions to business, he felt it was important to make contributions to the world, as summed up in this quote:

"So, if your goal is to make money, I rather pity you," Drucker said.  "The people I have seen who were happy even after being successful are the people who want to leave something behind.  A hospital that's working, a company that's working, whatever, or who are not money-focused but achievement-focused, because that you're never finished with."

It's safe to say that Rosenstein can be proud of the fantastic book he's created to share Drucker with the world.  I highly recommend you read, "Living In More Than One World."  I also believe this book is ideally structured for a "reading group" approach, which would help you really discover the nuances and depth of Drucker's ideas.  If you conduct a book club around this book, I'd love to hear your take-aways.

What if you lost your laptop or phone?

Today, I had coffee with the Ken Westin, the founder of a company that makes a product called "GadgetTrak."  As the name implies, they have solutions that help you track your gadgets.  Their approach goes far beyond simple barcodes and involves some pretty impressive software that not only lets you tell exactly where your device is (using WiFi or cell tower triangulation).  If the device has a camera it can send you a picture of what the thief is looking at (perhaps even a photo of the bad guy's face).

GadgetTrak can help you find lots of devices, including

• stolen mobile devices (Windows Mobile or Blackberry using advanced features);
• stolen iPhones and iPod Touch devices (free in the App Store -- with basic support now, and the intent to add more functionality when / if Apple improves its SDK);
• stolen Windows PC's and laptops;
• stolen Mac desktops and Macbooks; and
• stolen USB media.

One of the things that impressed me most was the growing list of recovery stories on the GadgetTrak blog, which show real-world examples of how GadgetTrak has helped find stolen devices and even bust open some crime rings.  Check them out - you can even see pictures of some of the bad guys they've snagged.

Also on the blog, take a look at an interesting post about GadgetTrak believes Apple and AT&T actually benefit from stolen iPhones - thought-provoking, for sure.

What Litmus Test Have You Created For Yourself?

I was having a discussion about mission statements, corporate positioning and things of that nature the other day (OK, not the most exciting stuff, I'll grant you…)  But, from this tiring discussion of corporate wordsmithing, I realized just how crucial it is for each of us -- as individuals -- to be conscious of the words we use to describe ourselves. 

Why?  Because the words you use in your claims, aspirations, and defining words can become a sort of 'litmus test' by which others gauge your actions.  If you don't declare yourself, anyone is free to call you whatever they want but you can 'spin' your way out of it.  After all, who are they to label you.

On the other hand, once you label yourself, you've given them a reference point against which to measure your actions.

Google:  Evil or not?

A prime example of this is Google.  For a long time, it seemed everyone loved Google and nobody was suspicious of its near-magical abilities to corral and index information from all over the internet - including the dark corners where no human had ventured in years. 

Google captured private information?  "That's OK, it's just Google - they can search anything.  How cool."

Life was good.

Then, one day, it came to light that Google's corporate credo was "Don't be evil." (see References, below for details).  At that point, some people began to look at their actions differently.  "Wait a minute.  They say they aren't evil… why would they even need to deny they're evil?"

On Bing, there are over 108 million results for 'Google "don't be evil"' and a lot of them are links to people citing examples where they believe Google has done something "evil."

You:  Testable or not?

My point is that once Google declared itself by saying what it was not, they created a benchmark that made it easier for others to analyze and criticize Google, but according to Google's own rules.

Positively or negatively, you can do this to yourself.

• If you declare yourself as "fair" or "just," people will begin to try to catch you doing things that are unfair or unjust.
• If you declare yourself as "open minded," people will begin to try to find examples of when you haven't been

and so on.

Choose your words carefully

My point isn't that we should not declare ourselves - it's that we should be deliberate and careful about the labels we choose to proclaim for ourselves.  Make sure you set standards that you can meet.  Or even better, define yourself in terms of things that are not so "pass / fail."

Another thing to watch out for is creating negative definitions of yourself.  An example?  Unless you're The Beatles or Beck, declaring yourself to be a loser is probably not going to help you.

In short, be positive - in tone, as well as being positive you can "wear the clothes" of the words that define you.

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References:

• Google Investor Relations reference on Google's Code of Conduct
• Wikipedia compilation outlining the origin of the "Don't be evil" credo
• Wired: Google vs. Evil

Gliider: a handy travel planning gadget

I've been experimenting with a new 'travel helper' gadget called gliider, which is a free add-on for Firefox 3.x (alas, it doesn't currently support my default browser, IE 8).  gliider claims to help you "plan funner trips" and, I must say, I think it can deliver on that promise.

Gliider provides an easy-to-use means of organizing trip details and "clippings" of things you need to remember (or simply want to do) for your upcoming trips.

End-to-end Trip Organization

gliider includes a number of elements that will help you when you're planning a trip, all the way from thinking about it, through to booking, then finally deciding what you'll do when you get there.  There are 3 tabs you work with:

• My Trips:  This is a well-organized filing cabinet for each trip.  I'll give you a few more details in a bit…
• Ask Around:  This tab gives you an easy way to ask other people for advice about your destination.  gliider can connect to FaceBook to allow you to ask your FB friends, ask through Twitter, etc.  Pretty cool idea - of course, you can ask using those tools already, but if you ask through gliider, it will capture and associate any responses into the appropriate trip.
• Deals / Alerts:  This tab within the gliider interface will help you find good deals.  Currently, it only looks for hotel deals, but they are planning on adding flights and other stuff.

It's all about the trips

Now, back to the "My Trips" tab.  This tab is a mini organizer for data about your trip.  You can drag sample fares, confirmed itineraries, and related info into the "Flights" folder, drop sightseeing ideas into the "See" folder (as I've done in the screenshot above for my upcoming trip to Berlin), and much more.

Adding the information is pretty simple. Simply highlight the text and images you want to save in your browser, then drag and drop the info onto the appropriate folder icon in gliider.  As you research things you might want to do, this approach makes it very easy to build a list of candidates to choose from.

Some other odds & ends:

• gliider makes it easy to share information about your trips with others (caveat: they'll need to install gliider to see what you've shared)
• there is a function that allows you to print a hard copy "dossier" with all the information you've collected about your trip - this looks awesome as a paper backup with all your reservation details, confirmation numbers, etc.

Try gliider for free

If you find anything you don't like or want them to add, share it with them since this is still in its formative stages (there is a Feedback button right there in the app's window).

My gripes and wishes so far?  Not many, but here is the list:

• I want IE8 support
• The gliider UI has a problem with long passwords (so don't use a password any longer than 9 characters for now)
• I wish Deals/Alerts provided more deal types
• An iPhone app would be nice (you can forward details and access them via the iPhone browser, but hey…)
• I wish I could share info without requiring the recipient to install gliider
• Integration with TripIt would be awesome

Nonetheless, I like gliider so far.  gliider is free to use, and very easy to install.  If you're doing any traveling, it's a good gadget to check out. 

Amazon Prime Just Got Even Better

OK, so I know I’m doing two Amazon-related posts in a row (the Kindle price drop was just before this one).  But I just got an email from Amazon that made me happy – they are improving their already-awesome Amazon Prime shipping features.  In case you weren’t already aware, Amazon Prime is an annual, fee-based program that gives you automatic upgrades to free 2nd-Day Air shipping for any Prime-eligible item.

The big news is that they have improved Prime so that items ordered on Thursday will be delivered on Saturday now, instead of Monday.  Gotta love it – here is the blurb I got:

 

Why is Prime handy?

Other than just wanting things ASAP, I like Prime for a couple of key reasons:

1. I often order presents for friends and relatives in other states.  I love being able to order something knowing it will show up 2 days after I place the order – it makes the gift seem even more special or important, and it gives me the freedom to wait until almost the last minute before ordering. 
• This is especially valuable around Christmas, when I can order things until December 22nd and they’ll still arrive on Christmas Eve. Note that this even helps if you’re going to your relatives’ house – you can ship the gift (pre-wrapped by Amazon, if you wish) and not have to worry about trying to carry it on or putting it in your checked luggage.
2. Sometimes I ‘need’ a gadget before a trip, and I only realize it at the last minute.  Because of Prime, I can order a couple of days before I leave and still get it in time (in some of these cases, I’ll buck up for Overnight shipping for an extra $3.99 – very handy when you need it.

Amazon Prime costs $79 per year (averaging to a bit more than 6 bucks a month), and I know it saves me much more than that every year. Not sure if it's for you? Give it a try - they'll let you take a test drive for 30 days - just click here if you want to take an Amazon Prime free trial.