Book Review: The Fifth Discipline

Grade: C+

This is the third book I have recently chosen not to finish.

Time is precious.  I am not a businessman.  I am not a CEO, or a manager.  This book was not worth the time and not worth the energy needed to learn a new language.

The Fifth Discipline is very dense, very detailed, and it makes up its own terms and then uses them extensively. 

There were many parts I loved, examples that were eye-opening, and stories that were inspiring.  I finished 85% of the book over 11 months of reading and finally gave up. 
The author appears to have spent too much time inventing terms.  He has his own name for each kind of system, and interaction, and leadership style etc...
After about 300 pages I got lost in the new lingo and couldn't even understand what he was trying to say.
Others will say this book is the businessman's bible.  To me, it is now a book to be given away or sold in a garage sale.  As my friend Jim would say "The juice ain't worth the squeeze."

Here are a few parts I liked and want to remember:

"Today's problems come from yesterday's 'solutions'."
 

"How do we see a business, as a human community or as a machine for making money?"

"If people don't have their own vision, all they can do is 'sign up' for someone else's. The result is compliance, never commitment."

 

Book Review: The 5 Laws that Determine All of Life's Outcomes

Moved Me to Action.  That's what this book did for me.

At first - the book looks like all the rest: It's a business book written by a man who teaches others how to perform better and more efficiently to make more money.

The lessons within apply to everyone and can be used outside of business in most every walk of life.

That sounds an awful lot like dozens of other books I've read in the last 3 years:  
7 Habits of Highly Effective People

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Good to Great

Crucial Conversations

The One Minute Manager 

Leadership and Self-Deception,The Anatomy of Peace,Outliers, The Tipping Point,Multipliers,

and the list goes on...

Is this just another "also ran?"

Luckily - it was refreshing and insightful.  How do I know?  Because it caused me to actually DO something.

I read books all the time.  Leadership books, parenting books, business books, marriage books, relationship books, therapy books, as well as religious books, scripture and church sermons.

In short - I read a lot of good advice written by smart people.

This book starts with quite the claim:  The author says the 5 laws are just like the law of Gravity: They are laws.  They affect everyone and everything equally. They are consistent, never change, don't show favoritism, or apply themselves differently based on morality or judgement.

I was pleasantly surprised when the author delivered on his claim. The things he teaches make sense, they are based on natural laws – cause and effect. He teaches us laws we’ve already known because we’ve observed them a thousand times over in our own lives, we just haven’t named them or figured out how to use them to our advantage.

I won’t name what the 5 Laws are here – because just writing the names or a one sentence description seems useless. Without the examples and explanations it doesn’t teach you anything. They would sound like empty affirmations that look good stenciled on an office wall, and are forgotten by everyone who reads them.

I WILL, however, write some of my favorite quotes from the book.  (To entice you to read it.)

“We find ourselves spending the work day thinking about being at home with the kids, while the time we actually spend with the kids finds us worrying about what’s going on at work. At work we dream of play, at play we stress about work. Yet the most successful people we know seem to have an abundance of time in spite of all the same sorts of activities, and even more, that also demand their attention” – p. 26
 
“The other person always determines the value that you create in a relationship.” – p. 111

“It’s impossible to immerse yourself in something you don’t want.” – p. 31

“The moment we make any type of investment in a given endeavor, we start to lose our sense of objectivity and it becomes difficult to reverse the course we’ve chosen, even if we know it’s leading us astray.” – p. 59

“Being a victim can elicit sympathy, attention, and pity, which are actually enticing counterfeits for the genuine love most humans crave.” – p. 131 

“His need to see himself as a great father was more important to him than actually being a great father.” – p. 71

“We almost always think we see the big picture. More so than those around us.” – p. 83

“What others see is the only thing that matters to them. It determines how they act and what they do. Unless we can see what they see, we won’t reach them.” – p. 94

“When we find ourselves feeling like someone doesn’t appreciate us or something we’re doing “for them,” then there’s a good chance we aren’t tapping in to what they value.” – p. 122

"When you’re in a conversation with another person, notice that there are usually two conversations going on” The verbal one, and the one in each person’s head “wherein we fill in the gaps with what we know or think we know about the other person and what they are saying.” – p. 138

“It’s funny how much more open people are with you when they know you see your own biases.” – p. 147

“The word ‘but’ immediately renders the first part of the statement as dishonest.” – p. 147

“The most accurate predictor of future events is, believe it or not, gambling… because people are betting real money, they are compelled to state how they really feel without the rhetoric that is likely to seep in when there is less at stake.” – p. 167

Book Review: Good to Great and the Social Sectors

I'm having a hard time figuring out Jim Collins.  I thought his book "Good to Great" was all right.  It had good points, but was overdone and full of awkward parables.
Now he's published a 35 page addition to his book called "Good to Great and the Social Sectors"

He says he was going to add it as a chapter in his next edition of "Good to Great" but he didn't want to force people to buy an entire new book, so he published it as a tiny little paperback by itself.

It costs $12!  (34 cents per page)

I can buy his original book: new, online, for $6.  I can buy it from the publisher for $18.
I feel like this was another money grab - not a "help the people" move.
Things like this make me really dislike him.

Then my coworkers tell me that he is one of the best speakers they've ever heard.  When others come and give their canned stump speeches, Jim Collins instead learns about his audience ahead of time and completely tailors his words to the people listening.  He sounds engaging, smart, funny, and very helpful.  He has done tons of research, and written six best-selling books.

When I reviewed "Good to Great" (here) my brother called me and laughed at me.  He said "you gave it a bad review because you didn't like his writing style.  His ideas have changed entire business models and helped innumerable companies.  You've never run a business in your life and yet your reading a reviewing one of the great business books."

My brother is right - which is why I thought I'd be better at reviewing THIS BOOK about greatness in social sectors.  This correlates with my line of work.  I work in both the State and VA health care systems.  I spend my evenings and weekends volunteering with the Boy Scouts and with my church. 

So - now that you've read this long diatribe about what led up to this review, here it is:

This book is good with a few moments of genius.  It gives about 4 examples of how business models don't work in the social sector.  Collins points out that the key isn't the business model, it's the greatness model.

The best insight he had was about the nature of leadership in the social sector:

"There are two types of leadership skill: executive and legislative." - p. 11
"Legislative leadership relies more upon persuasion, political currency, and shared interests to create the conditions for the right decisions to happen." - p. 11
"True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to." - p. 13

I work daily with people who I don't employ. I may even be their "leader" at times but they are not paid, or they are underpaid. I could tell them all to do what I want,  but they could choose to ignore me and go on with their lives. I have no executive power. The only real power I have is legislative. I can help create the right environment where everyone will come to and agree with the best decision.

This is where Jim Collins nailed the difference in the social sector.  We work with volunteers.  We work within a system we don't control.  We often can't fire anyone.  We can't choose "who is on the bus."  We have influence, and that is all.

So when he says: "Those that failed to become great - placed greater emphasis on using incentives to 'motivate' otherwise unmotivated or undisciplined people. The great companies, in contrast, focused on getting an hanging on to the right people in the first place" - He is speaking the truth, but it's difficult to apply.

His words were much more applicable when he said: "It might take decades to change the entire system, and you might be dead or retired by the time those changes come. In the meantime, what are you going to do now?"

I work in health care and most everyone believes the system is broken.  While I do plan on working to fix the system, I'm also not going to sit back and just complain about it until it's fixed.  I'm going to figure out a way to make my little portion BETTER.  I can influence those around me.  I can change my little section of the health care world, and make it better for patients, providers, everyone.

The last line of the book is common knowledge - but it's great nonetheless:
"Greatness is not a matter of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline."