Every once in a while, I'd like to share some reviews of key books that I've read so far in my career that have been particularly useful. For my first review, I'd like to reflect upon Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High - by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler and Steven Covey.

This book has been really key for me in my career thus far (although I still read it cover-to-cover for a refresher). Having a former position as a Master Black Belt, and now as a manager, now more than ever it's been important to work on my communication skills in difficult situations. In Six Sigma, we are all change agents of some type or another, so there are always going to be people that resist change or that want to run interference to making progress. Most likely you have found yourself in a position to have a crucial conversation with these people. Maybe this book can help.

First, this book is copyrighted 2002, so it has been on the market a while - but - the information contained is timeless. The book starts by describing what a crucial conversation is - basically a difficult discussion with the potential for emotion. After this introduction, the first few chapters afterword describe the mechanics and psychology about emotions and dialog. I was really shocked at some of the inner workings on how discussions become heated while going through these middle chapters (like I said before, I use some of this material as a critical reference sometimes), Around chapter 9 or 10, the book moves into practical application of the process of constructive dialog, and in chapter 11, some 'what if' scenarios are presented, which I find very useful to refer to sometimes.

I haven't given any real detail regarding book content in this post, but since I have a few crucial conversations coming up myself, I figured I'd share this gem with you. It's a simple read, and I really believe you'll get a lot out of the book.

Here's an Amazon link

I used to work in the IT business and we were always on the look-out for the next “big thing” to cash in on. It was things like moving from mainframes to open systems and onto Microsoft Windows, relational databases, business intelligence systems, OLAP reporting and CRM systems.

So while I was travelling home from Sydney (around 1995) after a weeks consulting, I read about the next big thing, it was called the World Wide Web. This was going to be big, bigger than big. People working in IT should get ready to cash in on this next big growth market. Turns out to have been more than right, but the article didn’t go BIG enough!

And how the world has changed. In the olden days (pre-WWW) my options to get information were limited. Today I can access just about anything directly on my computer. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but working in such an information rich environment does have its challenges.

I sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, methods and approaches I can choose from. There does not seem be a part of human existence that someone hasn’t studied, developed a methodology and written a best selling book. I struggle to know which to believe or which to follow. Every year there are new crops of ways to solving problems, things like Blue Ocean/Red Ocean and Good to Great. So I have come-up with a way to deal with information over-load

I recently went into a second-hand book-shop and couldn’t believe my luck. I managed to buy a first-edition copy of the Tom Peter’s classic Thriving on Chaos for only £1. I don’t think the copy I bought had ever been opened let alone read! What Tom offers is a series of about 40 lessons in management & leadership.

So here is what I do. Along comes the next radical break-through innovation that will completely change the world, just like the World Wide Web. I thumb through Thriving on Chaos to see how it was done back in 1987. It’s my baseline.

Gianna Clark has been blogging for iSixSigma for over two years. She’s written nearly 80 posts speaking her mind. What’s on Gianna’s mind also happens to be good Six Sigma sense, excellent advice, and plenty of good fun. Outside the iSixSigma Blogosphere, Gianna is the Deployment Leader for Dominion and was recently awarded Deployment Leader of the Year at the IQPC Process Excellence Awards. Congratulations Gianna!

Her latest endeavor is the new eBook, Six Sigma? Glad You Asked. The book compiles many of Gianna’s blog entries along with new material into Q&A format, which makes it a super easy read and reference tool for all those burning Six Sigma questions you’ve got stacked up in your head. Gianna answers questions like:

• Do you have to name it Six Sigma?
• Is this a Six Sigma project or a “Just Do It?”
• Six Sigma: Diet or lifestyle change?

You’ll find that Gianna’s answers are real. You won’t have to read through fluff for her to get to the point. You can also expect some lighthearted humor as Gianna introduces the characters Si Poc & Cora Lation, her very own cartoon duo that will surely make you laugh out loud.

Since Six Sigma? Glad You Asked is available for instant download in PDF format, you can take Gianna anywhere in the world and get the answers to your Six Sigma quandaries. It’s like having your own business process improvement guru on demand. What’s next? I’m hoping for a Six Sigma deployment leader of the year action figure….

Over my career I have taken many personality & skill tests. For example, I know my Myers Briggs Indicator Type, mapped myself across the Insight Discovery Wheel, discovered my rating on the Management Assessment of Proficiency, found the next number in the sequence, found the wrong shaped shape and generally been tested in every conceivable way. Actually I quite enjoy the tests because I have done so many I can predict what score I will get when asked to do a new one.

I like to rapidly read through the results and may say, “yes, that’s a reasonable approximation”. But I dread the HR interviewer who will explain the test scores with open questions like, “did you know you were XYZ?”. You don’t say, I must try to get my left & right brain hemispheres talking more! On one test at the start of my career I got the HR question, “did you know you are too honest?”. That threw me, but with a number of year hindsight I can see the point.

But all of this got me thinking and I once asked the question at an HR interview, “this is me, but how do I relate with people who are the complete opposite of me, the Anti-Me?”. I got given a very interesting book called Dealing with people you can’t stand.

It describes a series of annoying behaviours and the underlying reasons why the person acts the way they do. Behaviours like, The No Person, The Whiner or The Know It All. I read through it and found me in some of the behaviours and then started to understand why people act like they do. This was a great insight. Once you can see past the behaviour and understand what is important to the person you can deal with them much more effectively. Hope this helps.

Mayor Graham Richard of Fort Wayne Indiana recently published a new book called Performance is the Best Politics: How to create high-performance government using Lean Six Sigma. In conjuncton with the book the Mayor launched a new website, http://www.performanceisthebestpolitics.com, that offers previews of case studies included in the book.

In the Mayor’s own words: "This book is for readers searching for best business practices to produce high performance government. I believe in the great talent and boundless energy of the thousands of government employees and leaders who work hard to deliver the best services. "

Visit the website to learn about the book and download a preview copy. The book is available for purchase in hard copy for $14.95 as well as digital download for $6.95. It is 256 pages filled with the secrets of the Mayor’s success applying Lean Six Sigma to the city’s operations.

I purchased the downloadable PDF version of the book and have enjoyed reading the detailed case studies of some of the Mayor’s classic Six Sigma projects including Reducing Missed Garbage Pickups and Pothole Repair Cycle Time. But the book is not all garbage and potholes…The book also describes the City’s Six Sigma deployment model and compares it that of traditional business, showing where government deployment is different. There’s also a great project showing how Six Sigma slashes through red tape.

The Mayor doesn’t stand to make any money on the book, as proceeds will be donated to a non-profit group that supports training city employees. So be a good citizen - do something to get your city on the Six Sigma track and mail a copy of the book to your local government officials and hope they have the sense to take some good advice.

Links

Mayor’s new book shares secrets of Six Sigma governing success, Journal Gazette, January 2007

City of Fort Wayne, High Performance Government Home

The Mayor Speaks at IQPC Conference