Book Review: Rules of Thumb by Alan M. Webber

I love Confucius. And Sun Tzu. And Tom Peters.

I love profound little learning nuggets, so when I saw a book titled "Rules of Thumb", I bought it immediately.

Title: "Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self"
Author: Alan M. Webber

Genre: Business
Summary: The cofounder of Fast Company Magazines shares 52 insights that he learned from the best...

Favorite Quote: Here are my three favorite rules from the book.

1. Rule #11: Speed = Strategy
2. Rule #23: Keep Two Lists: What gets you up in the morning? What keeps you up at night?
3. Rule #34: Simplicity is the new currency.

Strengths: A quick read. Clearly written. A number of good stories.
Weaknesses: Of the 52 rules, only 5 were 'a-ha' to me. Too many of them seemed like a Tom Peters remix to me. If you're going to respin old standards, you had better write brilliantly. Mr. Webber writes functionally, not brilliantly.

Conclusion: If you've never seen a book like this, you'll probably enjoy it. Otherwise, flip through it in a bookstore.
Post-it Flags: 6 flags

* Each time I find an interesting quote, model, image, or idea in a book, I mark it with a Post-it flag. The more flags, the more value I found in the book.

Let's Stop Meeting Like This - Information vs. Action

I've been keeping a list of activities that strengthen me and activities that weaken me. At the top of the list of things that weaken me is the word "meetings".

I did a quick thesaurus check for 'meeting' and found:

conference, assembly, summit, seminar, consultation, get-together, gathering, convention, and board (bored) meeting

Damn... none of those sound very sexy, do they?

Here's a little 'rule of thumb' I invented for testing meeting agendas. 

Ask how many of the items on the meeting agenda are actionable, and how many are informational.

In order to keep me engaged in a meeting, the ratio should be 80% actionable and 20% informational. Otherwise, just send me an email with the information... okay?

Of course, that's not the case. I've audited a fair number of meetings, and the informational items always (yes, always) make up more than 60%. 

Sorry, but that's some sleep inducing shit...

So, here are two suggestions:

1. Go for the 80/20 mix. 80% of the items on your agenda must be actionable.
2. Don't use the word 'meeting'. Personally, I'm starting to use the phrase 'jam session'.
   Other ideas are 'festival', 'carnival', or 'workout'. If you're in a more adventurous culture than mine you might try 'orgy'. Yeah, I'd attend an 'idea orgy'...

'yawn' image by Jean-Pierre Knapen