Market-Based Management®

Friday Links

I enjoyed this infographic called "Art of Complex Problem Solving." I don't know how useful it is, but a fun infographic.

This "videographic" explains that people often underestimate how much TV they watch. It's an interesting way to look at TV watching.

Lifehacker has an open thread about personal project management tools. I love when they try to harness the dispersed knowledge of their readers!

Bob Sutton has a post about "The Difference Between a Bad Job and the Wrong Job." The idea of "fit" rings true to my experience. I think that's why the V&T Matrix is based on the role (especially the knowledge and skills portion of it).

Okay, I've not had time to read this, but the title made it seem worth pushing out there. It's called "John Stewart Mill vs. The European Central Bank."

If you come across any interesting internet resources, please leave them in the comments and have a great weekend!

Light-Bulbs

As a teacher and student of MBM, I relish experiencing and helping others experience those "light-bulb moments" when something about MBM clicks. 

Please share!  What's your favorite light-bulb moment with MBM? 

Personal Growth

Recently I've revisited some of Peter Drucker's work. I can't pick out the exact piece of his work where he wrote this, but he somewhere suggests that personal growth can be facilitated by writing down what you expect to happen in the next six months. Then, have the discipline to go and look at what you wrote in six months and compare it to reality.

I've discovered a nice little "hack" to help with discipline on this is to make an appointment in my Outlook calendar and type my predictions there. Then, in six months, I'll stumble upon the predictions. Since I just thought about doing this, I've only gotten to the "write down your predictions" part.

However, I wrote this post to ask the readers for some simple ideas to promote long run personal growth. Have you discovered any simple ideas that lower the costs to reflect on the past? Or any neat ways to help promote the discipline to change?

Over Half Way

We're just over half way through the year (there's about 159 days left).  What will you do with that time to better yourself? 

Often when I think about trying to better learn MBM, I go into a mild seizure of sorts where my brain is overloaded with the myriad aspects of MBM.  The 5 Dimensions, the 10 Guiding Principles, the 100+ mental models.... 

If you're interested in trying to better understand, say, the Guiding Principles, you can steal a page from Dave Robertson's playbook and try the one-at-a-time strategy he outlines in this video (note: you need access to D-Net to view this).  Basically, he suggests focusing on one aspect of MBM at a time, struggling with it until it helps you get results, then moving on to the next one. 

With 159 days left and 10 Principles, you could devote half a month to each and end up better off than when you started (of course, applying formulaic strategies to learning nuanced concepts isn't usually the best strategy, but it might be a good starting point).

Where will you start and how?  I plan to focus on Principled Entrepreneurship first--maybe I'll brainstorm how the various aspects of the PE definition apply to getting results in my consulting role (since it's relatively new to me) and translate those into action steps.

The Role of Passion

I've been trying to get my mind wrapped around the ideas of Michael Polanyi since I first encountered his ideas while first studying MBM. One of his ideas that I have found to be particular fascinating is the role of passion. From what I have read Polanyi makes a connection between passion and discovery. I boil this down to some points:

• To make discoveries, we have to be immersed in what we do.
• Long run extended immersion is tied to being passionate.
• Passion is an ingredient to discovery.  

I think this is hard to explain because the modern day use of passion has more an emotional connotation. I don't think that type of passion is what Polanyi meant.

Think of something you value deeply. It could be an activity, an idea, or a goal. Then, think of all that you have done for that value. Was it always fun? Was it always joy? In my personal experience, the things I am passionate about do have a lot of joy and fun associated with them, but they also have pain, endurance, despair, contemplation, peace, and a myriad of other emotions.

So, what does this have to do with MBM? If we want to make value-creating discoveries over the long haul, we have to have passion for what we're doing. Not the emotional passion, but the value that causes our minds to drift back to the seemingly unsolvable puzzle, the vision of something better that wakes us up at night with a brilliant inspiration or the simple commitment to excellence in our work that leads us to ask questions and find a better way.

I wonder if this is why the Guiding Principle of Fulfillment has some real "teeth" to it. It's not fluffy; it's tied to action. I guess for me, it's about passion in a Polanyi-sense.

Fulfillment: Produce results that create value to realize your full potential and find fulfillment in your work.

What do you think of when you think of Fulfillment? Is it a principle you've spent time thinking about recently? How can managers help their teams think clearly about this principle? Moreover, am I thinking clearly about it?

My Summer Reading List

Here's what I am reading this summer - how about you?

• The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Gude by Seth Lipsky
• The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley
• The Argument by Matt Bai
• Stone's Fall by Iain Pears
• The Blueprint by Rob Witwer and Adam Schrager
• Athwart History: A William F. Buckley Jr. Omnnibus (Kimball and Bridges, editors)
• The Ambiguities of Experience by James March

Friday Links

Ben Stafford sent me this link that will let you hear Russ Roberts discuss communication.

The Consumerist reports that the new airline regs may have been unintentionally causing cancellations of flights.

I think rental markets are amazing, but I don't know what to think about Snoop Dog trying to rent the entire country of Liechtenstein!

Here's an article that uses the BP fiasco to talk about risk. It's a bit long and text-heavy, but somewhat interesting.

American Thinker has an interesting article about the psychology of independence.

I love when Mark Perry does his "Market in Everything" posts. This one is about renting friends, and this one is about a service that will drive you home in the comfort of your own car after you've had too much to drink.

If you stumble across a cool link, leave it in the comments or shoot me an email at ann.zerkle (at) cgkfoundation.org.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

One thing I always struggle with as a manager relates to Change.  As an individual contributor, I am completely comfortable with changing my plans on the fly--abandoning the old for the new as the opportunity arises.  I think this openness to change allows me to adapt quickly, which can be a benefit. 

As a manager, however, sometimes this can create tension with my team.  Just as entrepreneurs in society benefit from stable, predictable laws that they can plan around, individuals in the organization benefit from predictable environments that they can analyze, find opportunities in, and then invest resources to take advantage of those opportunities.

For example, let's say as a manager--after getting input from your team and others--you decided to implement a strategy focused on selling Product X to stay-at-home moms.  A month goes by, and a new report indicates that stay-at-home dads might be a better market to go after.  You know your team has invested a lot of time in the stay-at-home-moms strategy, but the new information suggests that you could get 5-7% better returns with the change in market.

What do you do?

If you opt to change, what strategies would help this process (either in implementing the change, or in preparing your team to be open to such a change)?  If you decided to stay the course, why?

 

From Poverty To Prosperity

Next week, the Associates will read a new book on the KAP Curriculum: From Poverty to Prosperity. Here's an interview with the authors that give a nice overview of the book.

What books have inspired you lately?

Value. Value?

What is the definition of "value"?

I have no idea.  Well, some idea, but--after trying to define it this morning--less than I thought.

Er....  It has to be subjective; and it has to be dependent upon time; and it has to be dependent on place; and it has to be make someone better.  Or the most people better.  Or something....   We just spent thirty minutes debating this simple question on the MBM team, and I feel dizzy from chasing our collective tail. 

So, I throw it open to you, our MBelovedM readers:

What is the definition of "value"?  [In one sentence.]