Category: 3. SHELF it

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Psychology · Skills

BR 89: Yes! by Robert Cialdini

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Robert Cialdini doesn’t disappoint with this book. Well researched and well delivered piece of work. Lots of little nuggets and learnings.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. I recently blogged about ‘Even a penny will help’. And I am sure you will see more of these nuggets pop up.

2. Another one I remember is that we negotiate better when we are happy. Staying positive is of extreme importance to serial negotiators.

3. Our desire to be ‘consistent’ with who we have been in the past is very important to us. Hence, it matters a lot to us that we keep promises we made in the past, act in accordance to the way we behaved in the past.

4. Social proof matters a lot. The wisdom of the crowd does matter.

5. The best way to get people to buy into a big decision is to have them buy into smaller bits first. Before you request people to join a campaign to add more speed breakers for example, requesting them put up a sticker on their door that says ‘we love safe drivers’ (seemingly harmless step) goes a long way in increasing their probability of saying yes.

and many more..

(I took the liberty to exceed ‘3’ thanks to the nature of the small bite sized learnings in the book. Definitely Enjoyable..)

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Self Improvement

BR 88: Instant Genius: Etiquette by Letitia Baldridge

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: This book might have been rated higher had I read this before starting work (of any sort). Over time, at work, you tend to learn the basics of etiquette (or at least think you do).

A good collection, nevertheless. And worth the 1 hour listen.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Always introduce the younger/lower in hierarchy person to the older/younger in hierarchy person. I’ve reversed the order many a time.

2. When you drop a napkin in a very formal dinner, let it stay down. Request for another.

3. Understand which spoons and forks are used for which serving. If unsure, look around.. (covertly of course).

These may seem ‘minor’ but they are WELL worth learning to avoid any kind of embarrassment during an occasion of importance!

3. SHELF it · Book Reviews · Marketing · Novel Concepts and Interesting Research

BR 86: Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Classic Gladwell – very journalistic with a few pretty powerful stories and example. I am not entirely sure if the book is entirely accurate but it does succeed in communicating a few key learnings.

Top 3 Learnings:

1. Snap judgments are innate. We make them about everything. The point of differentiation between a snap judgment we make about strawberry flavored ice cream with that of an ‘expert’ is that we will never be able to explain (correctly) as to how we arrived at that judgment. When you become an expert in a field, you hone your gut in a way that a novice cannot match. (understandably)

The application is apparent when we ask for customer feedback. Asking a customer whether they like a food item on display may work well but asking them to rationalize why would probably take us down an unwanted path.

2. The product is the packaging. I was pretty amazed by some of the examples here.

One that comes to mind is – When 7UP was sold in bottles with a yellowish shade, they had customers complaining that there was too much lime – even if there was no change in the drink!

That explains why the famous Pepsi taste challenge failed because drinking Coke out of a Coke can means something entirely different to drinking Coke out of a plastic un-labelled glass.

3. Going back to the fact that snap judgments are innate. It reminded me of a question a friend of mine posed – We are all innately discriminatory (color, race etc). How do we stop those judgments from taking control of us the moment we see a symptom? That one’s just ‘food for thought’.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Leadership · Management

BR 84: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: This was the story of how a man-manager turned around an under-performing but team. This parable has a lot of truth in it and there is definitely something to learn from the approach.

Like all “good” books, the framework didn’t stand out. :)

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Self Improvement

BR 82: Success Principles by Jack Canfield

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Very nice book for the wealth of stories. Lots of cliches but nice all the same. I don’t really remember many of the principles but as is the characteristic of a good book, there were many anecdotes that flowed nicely. I am realizing more and more that while many of these books are good on stories, they don’t do well in linking the ‘overall thread’ or message. And that’s exactly what was missing in this book.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Psychology · Self Improvement

BR 80: 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W Smith

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: A particularly good time management book that, for a change, is grounded in principles.

What to expect: I have blogged about Hyrum’s Prioritized Daily Task Lists here and here. And there is more to come. In short, this is an experienced time manager who believes (rightly so, in my opinion) that your daily task list should be indicative of your core values.

Add on Mar 16, 2016: I had long forgotten about this book but can see why I rated this highly. I think there have been better books since though.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Psychology · Self Improvement

BR 78: The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: This book is a popular self help book but it didn’t have as much of an impact on me. I actually read it a few months ago but as I was about to pen down a review for it, I realized I remembered nothing. So, I had to re-read it to write this review.

What to expect: Lots of very very good ideas and suggestions. The only issue is Schwartz never uses stories to illustrate his ideas. There is a lot of ‘telling’ which is easy to forget. Nevertheless, many good learnings – a couple of them are here and here.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Entrepreneurship · Leadership · Technology

BR 77: Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: The book revolves around the life of Tony Hsieh and Zappos.com. Tony Hsieh is a co-founder and CEO of Zappos.com – which grew from a tiny Silicon Valley start-up to an online shoe retailing behemoth with 1 billion dollars of sales. Zappos.com was eventually acquired by Amazon and Tony talks us through the building of the company and it’s distinctive culture.

Everybody with some experience working in a traditional start-up can relate to the story and difficulties that Tony Hsieh describes. What I personally liked most about the book is that it felt very personal – touched a chord, this one.

Post script in 2023: Sadly, Tony’s principles didn’t age well.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · Leadership

BR 75: Leadership by Rudolph Giuliani

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Category: 3 – SHELF it (All Categories are 1 – Read ASAP!, 2 – BUY it!, 3 – SHELF it, 4 – SOMEDAY it)

Comments: A colorful book by a very colorful character. Giuliani is a controversial person and claims credit for many New York city changes like reduction in crime rate, which may not entirely have been down to him (Read Freakonomics, The Tipping Point) for more. All that aside, one thing that can never be taken away from him was his leadership during the 9/11 attacks. And this book is  a great read for that story alone. As one might expect, the team that ensured New York city’s admirable response to the 9/11 attacks was not built overnight. Giuliani delves into his style of leadership and how he built the team. I have written about his insight on ‘Breakfast meetings’ here.

The one aspect that can be a turn off is Giuliani trying to ‘sell’ his political agendas and inclinations. Aside from that, pretty good book.

3. SHELF it · Book Review Actions · Book Reviews · History

BR 74: Worlds at War by Anthony Pagden

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Category: SHELF it (All Categories are 1) Read ASAP! 2) BUY it! 3) SHELF it 4) SOMEDAY it)

Comments: Note – I couldn’t finish this book thanks to some corruption in the audio of the 3rd part. From my experience of 2/3rds of this massive massive book – it starts very well with fascinating insights about the greeks, the romans etc and then fizzles once it enters into the middle ages and become a collection of facts, names and dates.

The first part was excellent. The second part not-so-great. Still, likely a book worth reading if you love history..