Win Fast By Siimon Reynolds

Win Fast By Siimon Reynolds reveals some cutting-edge techniques

that one  can apply quickly to be more productive, disciplined and

healthy.  Once the suggested methods are applied regularly and

become a habit then one can achieve high levels of success both in

personal and professional life.

The Art of being indispensable at work by Bruce Tulgan

This book talks about how to collaborate and become  a go-to person at the
workplace without affecting your mental peace and health.

Review: The Art of Being Indispensable at Work: Win Influence, Beat Overcommitment, and Get the Right Things Done

The Art of Being Indispensable at Work: Win Influence, Beat Overcommitment, and Get the Right Things Done by Bruce Tulgan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

These days doing your job has become a lot harder, it requires a lot more that it ever did. You collaborate with a lot more people than ever before. you have to collaborate not only with your boss and your peers, but all over the organization chart - up, down, sideways and diagonal. In addition to your direct boss, immediate teammates, you probably serve a seemingly unlimited number of people in these internal teams in your organization. And your colleagues are also in the same boat with you.

You and most of your colleagues make commitments and promises to deliver for each other. Most everybody wants to be that indispensable go-to person and depend and deliver for each other.

But if you are not careful about your commitments then you may end up doing over commitments which can muddle your priorities and your important tasks are left undone or done ineffectively. If you are not able to finish your own work, how would you become indispensable for others ?

As collaboration is the latest revolution sweeping across the workplace because of the globalization, We need to look at it more closely. Collaboration manifests in different ways with different names in any organization. It can be called matrix management, dotted-line reporting, cross functional coordination, self managed project teams, lateral cooperation, interdependency etcetera.

The main goal of collaboration is speed up and improve -
-- information exchange,
-- decision making,
-- planning,
-- resource sharing,
-- execution.

In a collaborative working environment you should be ready to work with everyone and anyone. Think about corporate departments that provide common services to all other departments, like the IT department or the Payroll department. If Anyone in the organization has a problem either with their computer or paycheck they come to these two departments. In a collaborative environment you are required to manage more working relationships and produce richer, more flexible products and services faster.


What is the main problem with collaboration ? Getting what you need from your lateral colleague is difficult because there is no way to hold them accountable without clear authority. The author here talks about something called over commitment syndrome. Which is defined as -

Inundation of requests + No Accountability + EIMJ (Everything is my Job ) = Over commitment Syndrome

This syndrome emerges when everything in your list is told to you as urgent and important by the persons who made the request. New priorities are added to the list everyday. There is competition for resources. You keep saying yes to each other but at the end of it you let down each other.

And, if this continues and you remain over committed then the time will come that you would start feeling to resist any new work coming towards you and you will also become more aggressive while making requests to others for some work. It ends up with spoiled working relationships. and , it becomes detrimental to your goal of becoming that GO-TO person in the organization that you always dreamt to become. Author calls this - Siege mentality which is more like you are fighting your rescuer when you are in over your head.

Most people bounce back from the siege mentality sooner or later but they start saying “Yes, Yes, yes” again and it leads them back to the overcommitment syndrome which again leads them back to the “siege” mentality and which again leads right back to saying “No, No, No”.

So, How to get out of this no-win cycle ?

It is a fact that in any organization everybody needs something from others all the time. And above all the lines of authority are usually unclear and there is always a room for confusion. In this situation the author suggests to use real influence where people work for you because they want to. But he wants us to adhere to two things.

What is the first thing ?

The First thing is, Regardless of how much influence you have, never ignore authority. Somewhere someone is making decisions. You should ensure that you are aligned with your boss and the leadership.

What is the second thing ?

The Second thing is, do not put pressure of any kind on people to get them to comply. That will make people root against you, and wish for your failure.

Now the author says that, The real influence a go-to person achieves by serving others. Stop focusing on what other people can do for you and focus instead on what you can do for them. Make yourself super valuable to others. The more value you add, the more truly invested others become in your success. The author says that - that’s how you become indispensable. That’s how you use real influence and become a real go-to person.

As per the book following are the characteristics of a go-to person with real influence -
#1 incredibly valuable to others.
#2 Are very good at their job.
#3 have positive attitude and double on hard work
#4 Take personal responsibility and get things done.
#5 Are creative and tenacious but do the things by the book and follow orders.
#6 Do all the things consistently, almost every time.

Now, if we talk about the structure of the book, There are 8 chapters in this book .

The first chapter “Fight over commitment syndrome” talks about the over commitment and it’s affects..

The second chapter “The peculiar mathematics of real influence” is on how to create real influence.

The third one “Up and down chain of command” talks about alignment on ground rules, priorities etcetera with your boss and leadership.

The Chapter 4, talks about when to say no and how to maximize your gains while saying yes.

In the chapter 5 “Work Smart”, the author talks about mastering the best practices, repeatable solutions and job aids.

In chapter 6 “finish what you start”, the author talks about how to finish one work at one time and how to have and manage a long to-do list.

In chapter 7 “Keep Getting better and better at working together”, the author talks about building long lasting work relationships.

In chapter 8, Go-to-ism is the art of being indispensable at work, the author talks about finding and building new go-to-people wherever and whenever you need them.

Finally the verdict, This book is highly practical in the suggestions that it makes and the approach that it suggests. I liked this book and now I think that I have some idea about how a person can become indispensable in any organization.


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Infinite Gamification by Toby Beresford

Review: Infinite Gamification: Motivate your team until the end of time

Infinite Gamification: Motivate your team until the end of time by Toby Beresford
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is about Gamification and its application to improve the motivation of your team. It talks about the 3 phases that are required to complete any Gamification program. These phases are - Analysis, Design and Evolution.

I have never read a book on Gamification and after reading the title of this book, the first question that came to my mind was - What is Gamification ? Is Gamification good or bad ?

With a little bit of research I found that Gamification may be a new term but the idea of using game-thinking and game - mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences isn’t exactly new. The Military has been using games and simulations for hundreds of years. These days It can be used to increase engagement in any area like online marketing of a product or a service or to increase learner’s engagement in education.

Gamification is also being used heavily in the health sector to change behavior, to aid in cognitive and physical development of children.

Humans like playing games. And, Gamification works by encouraging people to engage in desired behaviors by taking advantage of this tendency of humans.

A typical finite Gamification program has a beginning, middle, and end. The end reflects in an epic win, a top level, a complete collection of badges.. But, an infinite Gamification program works well in situations where you desire a continuous improvement and the program is designed to continue forever. The book talks about both of these two concepts but it’s main focus is on Infinite Gamification.

As I said earlier the Most of the programs fit into the finite gamification model and the programs end when the learner passes the final hurdle and achieves supposed mastery.

But, in real life, mastery doesn’t happen just because you have completed the education process - there is still the need to adopt the skills into your day to day life and then perform them well.

It is in these two latter stages - adoption and performance - that infinite gamification becomes more important.

The Book says - A sustainable program that motivates teams and individuals to continuous improvements is the goal of infinite gamification. Examples of infinite gamifications are -

• The Oscars - where status is awarded every year
• Time Magazine’s person of the year - where status is accorded based on the media coverage
• English Premier League - where status is based on the results of games played.
• Transparency Index - where countries compete not to be shamed at the bottom of the index.

In Fact in most businesses you can find infinite gamification such as -

• Employees of the month
• Scores in loyalty programs and so on.

The next question comes to mind, why does a manager, a marketer or a leader need to Gamify ? the author answers this by saying that - Leadership usually involves an infinite gamification program to influence colleagues or direct subordinates and infinite gamification equips them with a new powerful influence tool. At some level leaders signpost the behaviour they want to see in others. It might be as simple as ‘doing or not doing’ with a graded level of achievement. One example of this could be whether a salesperson contacts 10 prospects or not per day. In return we calibrate our behaviour to the score given to us as we all are sensitive to scores from childhood. And this is where Gamification becomes a powerful effective tool for leaders.

Most Infinite gamification programs are based on scores, be it the Oscars or the English Premier League, Because consciously or not we all keep track of the score that matters to us. With the rise of the digital world, we are now presented with more scores than ever. How many followers do I have, likes for the post etc. the book says that a well- designed score enables you to succeed. A badly designed score drives negative behaviors - like apathy, cheating, or other wrong behaviors.

Sometimes, the badly designed scores can wreak havoc. For example - People taking selfies from roof tops risking death in the quest for more social media likes.

So a badly designed infinite gamification program can kill you. It’s worth taking the time to design the score well.

The book says that any new Gamification program comes into fruition in three main phases -

• Analysis
• Design and
• Evolution

What is done in the Analysis phase ? In the analysis phase the requirements are clarified. Target players are located. And, Existing infinite gamification programs, score cards, leagues are identified for the target players. In this phase you will hear the terms like - Prime Directive, Data Sourcing, Score Context, Stake Holder Analysis, Player Motivation, Players Opt-in Spectrum etc.

The Next phase is Design. In this phase you would come with a design for a Scorecard and a League. A Scorecard will be based on some score algorithm evaluating many metrics. Using Score card players will get feedback on their progress. And using League, Players can compare their progress with others. Please note that, A player can be an individual person or a team who is participating in the league. In this phase you will talk about - Vanity and Clarity Metrics, Lag and Lead Metrics, Score Methods, Ranking methods, Later Arrival Handling, Leader board Layout, Scoreboard Layout, Badge Design etc.

The third phase is - Evolution. The infinite gamification program iterates and changes over the time. The best programs have processes in place to manage change. Without Evolution, Program can break and result in unwanted side effects and disengagement. In this phase you will hear about the maturity model, Metric Maturity, player Maturity and committee which will affect Evolution.

Finally the verdict on this book. This book is nice and it can give you ample information to start an infinite gaming program to change the behaviour of your team or their responses in certain situations. The book nicely explains the basics of Gamification.

You may want to explore another book on the same subject -

Gamification by Design : By Gabe Zichermann.


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Review: Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization

Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization by Scott D. Anthony
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Innovation is something different that creates value but it is an unnatural act in most of the organizations. This book is about innovation and how to make it a day-to-day habit in any organization. This book can be used as a practical guide for building a culture of innovation in any organization. The book suggests to ingrain certain habits by using behaviour enablers, artifacts, and nudges.

The book is divided into two parts - the first part sets the foundation and The second part provides practical tools and tips and inspiring stories to help drive cultural change.

The approach that the book suggests is the convergence of four streams of research -
-- Organizational culture
-- Habit change
-- Innovation enabling behaviors
-- Innovation enhancing structures and systems

Let’s talk about how organizational culture impedes or enables the innovations to fail or succeed.
Organizational Culture
Now the first thing, How do you bring cultural change in any organization that enables innovations to succeed ? The enemy of innovation inside most organizations is institutionalized inertia that is reinforced in systems and norms.

Cultural change is not a paint-by-number exercise. The solution for your organization needs to be tailored to your unique goals, current context, and history.

How to create a culture of innovation ? the authors say - don’t bring foosball tables at the workplace. Don’t run useless campaigns exhorting people to give their new ideas on a particular day called “Free thinking friday” . Don’t do all these things. The authors suggest use of BEANs to hack habits. Beans are inspired by habit-change literature. A bean is - behaviour enabler, artifact and nudge.

The organization will have to work at the ground level with the employees where they will have to define specific behaviours that succeed in enabling innovation. those behaviours are like -
Innovators are curious,
Innovators are customer obsessed
Innovators collaborate,
Innovators can work efficiently even if there is ambiguity in the system or work space.
Innovators feel empowered.
Innovators think about future requirements while addressing the current needs.

Now how to ingrain these behaviors into any organization ? The book says that success requires focussing on changing people’s daily habits through a series of interventions, and then ensuring that the new habits stick and scale.

How Do you change a habit ?
Habit change requires engaging people’s rational, logical side and their emotional and intuitive side.
Habit change requires a multi front battle which uses a combination of mantras, nudges, and social interaction to change people’s behavior pattern.
To Reinforce the desired behavior - goal setting and achievement and social comparison and encouragement can be used.

Here the authors suggest use of BEANs to change the impeding behaviour and engrain new habits which enable innovation to succeed.

What are the behaviour enablers - these are the direct way to change behaviour -
-- Developing a daily ritual
-- Building a wider community
-- Having access to a coach and counsellor
-- Create simple checklists or user guides.

Artifacts are physical and digital reinforcers that connect the first two ideas. Artifacts include -
-- Prizes and trophies
-- Physical Avatars that reinforce the desired changes
-- Picture and visuals that serve as background reminders
-- Physical objects that sit on desks or in conference rooms.

What are nudges that can be used to change behaviour ? nudges are an indirect way to change the behavior.
Making the desired behavior default.
-- Having reminders.
-- Creating and sharing stories
-- Using physical office design to facilitate specific behaviour.
-- Providing some form of comparison

The book also talks about a case study where it provides a step by step guidance on how to conduct a six week sprint to develop practical interventions and catalyze a group of change agents for innovation to succeed.


PART II

Part II contains practical tips and tools and inspiring stories to help you drive culture changes that sticks and scales. Short sections are organized into chapters tied to the phases. A phase is what a would be innovator should follow :-

Phase 1 - Discover Opportunity by Being curious and customer obsessed. In this phase you discover the problem that you want to solve.


Phase 2 - Blueprint compelling ideas by being collaborative and customer obsessed. In this phase you come up with tangible idea that solves the problem that was identified in phase 1

Phase 3 - Assess and test ideas By being adept in ambiguity and by being empowered. This phase involves picking up an idea, looking at it from multiple angles, separating facts from assumptions, testing rigorously and adapting quickly.

Phase 4 - Move ideas forward by being empowered and collaborative

For each phase the book talks about 4 things -
beans that include behaviour enables, artifacts and nudges. The book lists around 101 BEANS used by various companies and book talks about around 40 of them in detail in this book.

, There are also bean boosters that help maximize the impact of selected beans.

Each section has one or two inspirational case studies.

Each chapter has a tool to help. For example in phase 1 - Being curious is a must for being innovative. The book suggests a tool called - curiosity quotient which can give you an idea of how curious you or your team are ?

Finally, the verdict. The book is good. It has a lot of examples in the form of beans, case studies. This book gives a fair idea of how to inculcate the habit of innovation in your team at granular level by using various tools. It can be started with a small team and then scaled to the whole organization. I liked this book and certainly learnt that building an innovation oriented team may not be that difficult.


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Eat Sleep Innovate By Scott D Anthony

Innovation is something different that creates value but it is an unnatural act in most of the  organizations. This book is about innovation and how to make it a day-to-day habit in any organization. This book can be used as a  practical guide for building a culture of innovation in any organization. The book suggests to ingrain certain habits by using behaviour enablers, artifacts, and nudges.