January 2022

In The Culture Code, author Daniel Coyle explains the factors that enable powerful group cultures to accomplish amazing things. The book is structured around the three skills that successful groups master: Building Safety (generating bonds of belonging and identity), Sharing Vulnerability (learning habits of mutual risk that drive trusting cooperation), and Establishing Purpose (creating shared goals and values). Throughout, the author uses stories from specific high performing groups (Navy SEALS, Pixar, Google, WIPRO, the San Antonio Spurs, Zappos, KIPP Infinity charter school, Gramercy Tavern, the Upright Citizens Band, IDEO, Bell Labs, and others) to uncover the ways in which these teams developed these skills and then generalizes those observations into approaches organizations can take to similarly gain these skills. 

The Culture Code is one of those books that’s is rich in storytelling which leads to deep lessons. While culture is notoriously difficult to change, the author represents the building blocks of healthy culture as skills that can be learned. He provides practical guidance for specific things that can be changed to instill safety, vulnerability, and purpose into how organizations operate. If you are starting a new company, or if you desire to improve the health of your organization, The Culture Code can provide insights and instructions to help you.

Click here to read the full review.

Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban has just announced the launch of the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company: “We started this company as an effort to disrupt the drug industry and to do our best to end ridiculous drug prices.” That’s no small task, so in the article linked below I explore the strategic frameworks behind the business. 

Click here to read the article.

God Owns My Business tells the story of Stanley Tam’s two businesses — a silver reclamation business and a plastic products company, and how he was called to first make God his senior partner and then hand ownership of both companies over to God. God has blessed both businesses with tremendous financial success, but more importantly, has taught Tam how to operate those businesses in a way that is loving to neighbors and honoring to God. Tam is generous to share those lessons with us through this and other books he has written.

Click here to read the full review.

Exponential by Jeff Rosenblum practices what it preaches. The book is about how brand advertising is changing. The author refers to an advertising revolution that is replacing the traditional one-way broadcast/interruption model with a relational model that empowers consumers through the entire customer journey. This model is purpose-driven, embraces transparency, relies heavily on inspirational content, and generates irrational enthusiasm so that customers literally ignore the competition. The author practices all of these methods in Exponential to draw the reader in and win them over to his model for building a brand.

I really enjoyed Exponential. While it provides very few practical lessons or tools, the stories engagingly teach how the world is changing and how the reader can be more effective in building and selling their big ideas in this new world. If you are a marketing professional, I strongly recommend Exponential to challenge how you think and act. Even if you’re not in marketing, if you seek to influence others, I believe that you will benefit from what this book has to teach you.

Click here to read the full review.

VisuALS won’t be celebrating its 5 year anniversary in April. The founding members chose to dissolve the business effective December 31, 2021. Despite the best efforts of the management team, a series of unfortunate events convinced us that there wasn’t a viable path forward for the business. 

When that reality became clear, I think all of us involved in the business felt a sense of loss, even a sense of failure. We certainly failed to provide a financial return for our investors. However, as my wife reminded me, Janice Phelps would never let us call VisuALS a failure, and neither would the many other families touched by VisuALS. The company’s mission was to “Love our neighbors by restoring independence, dignity and hope through affordable assistive technology solutions.” The company lived that loving mission from beginning to end.

But we want even more families to be blessed by the VisuALS technology. Therefore, we are working towards open sourcing the VisuALS software. Doing so will allow anyone to download the software for free. Open sourcing VisuALS will also enable developers around the world to continue to enhance the software and provide new and improved capabilities. We believe that the VisuALS mission can outlive the company.

Read the full story here.

When I went to college, I chose to study engineering because my brain was wired that way. I started my career as a software engineer, designing and implementing algorithms by applying a logical step-by-step problem solving approach. I think this structured approach to getting things done has served me well in my career as a strategy executive, entrepreneur, and consultant. When I was looking for a book to help me learn more about corporate culture, the title and description of Robert Richman’s book seemed perfectly suited to me. 

However, despite the title, I’m probably not the target audience for The Culture Blueprint. Rather than a structured approach to culture building, Richman favors a more touchy-feely approach to culture. His definition of culture is literally that “culture is a feeling” and much of the book is full of good ideas for how to manage interpersonal relationships in order to engage everyone in co-creating a winning culture.

The Culture Blueprint is full of ideas, some of which may be helpful to you. It’s probably not the best reference for someone wanting to understand the process of building and strengthening company culture, but is an easy read that can be done in bite-sized pieces to provide encouragement and inspiration.

Read the full review here.

Traction introduces the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), seven primary tools and twelve supporting tools for running the system, and an approach to implementing the system within your business. The EOS identifies six key components of any business: Vision, People, Data, Issues, Process, and Traction. The tools bring clarity and structure to those components, creating consistency and accountability in how the business operates, resulting in more aligned and engaged employees and improved performance.

I recommend Traction for any business leader, whether or not your business fits the author’s profile ($2–50M, 10–250 employees). Even if the tools won’t work in your environment or for your business, the thinking behind them might make you a better manager. If you do fit the profile (including being growth-oriented, willing to change, open-minded, willing to admit weaknesses and face reality), then I strongly recommend you read this book. Even if all the specifics of EOS aren’t the perfect fit, it should encourage you to think about what operating system would make sense for your business and the challenges it faces.

Read the full review here.