Half-Full Book Review

A few years ago (pre-blogging) I really enjoyed reading the book “John Adams” by David McCullough, so it’s been no surprise that I’ve been enthralled by the HBO miniseries of the same name that is in the middle of its seven episode run.

The courage, intelligence, eloquence, and tenacity of Adams and our founding fathers was never so vividly illustrated than in the re-enactments that have been portrayed on the screen.

I have to admit I was nearly in tears watching the final deliberations over whether or not the colonies would declare independence, stirred by the passion for freedom and liberty but balanced by the fear of what was to come from their decision.

I was particularly impressed by Adams, who again and again would remind his fellow congress attendees that the facts were speaking for themselves - the British had already essentially declared war on the colonies by their words and actions against them. There was really no choice but to stand up to the tyranny and declare independence.

It wasn’t the first time Adams publicly convinced other people that facts should rule - in 1770 he conducted the defense of the British soldiers accused of murder in the Boston Massacre, an almost impossible task given the Bostonians’ hatred of British rule.

In his summation to the jury, he said this:

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

He won that case, by the power and persuasiveness of his words, and (of course), the facts.

What a valuable lesson to take from him - it can be applied to our world of business by this maxim - “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it“. That’s what I thought of after the impact of Adams’ words sunk in.

No matter how well we THINK things are going, or we HEAR things are going, if the facts say otherwise - the facts MUST rule. So we must generate the appropriate facts in our businesses that guide our decision making, and temper any feelings or emotions that may obfuscate those facts and put us down the wrong path.

Easier said than done, but if we can stick to our principles like John Adams did so well, we have nothing to worry about.

Take my advice and read the book and watch the miniseries - you will be enriched and inspired too!

Yesterday, around 5:30 EST, Starbucks closed its 7,100 US stores for three hours so it could “retrain” its teammates on the art of making espresso drinks.

(Thankfully, I was not in need of a latte at that time.)

It’s amazing how far this company has fallen, in that it needed to do something this dramatic to revive its fortunes.

CEO Howard Schultz encouraged all of his teammates on a video message by proclaiming “This is not about training. This is about the love and compassion and commitment that we all need to have for the customer”

That’s vintage Howard – the Howard I praised and admired when I reviewed his book “Pour Your Heart Into It”. The “Starbucks experience” was something he originally treasured and nurtured. And it paid huge dividends – Starbucks became a welcoming “third place” that people could visit and linger, savoring the intoxicating smell of the roasted beans and nestling down in comfy chairs with their triple lattes, hand made by smiling baristas.

But alas, something appeared to happen somewhere along the way that fundamentally changed this equation – it seemed that the focus on growth and profit eclipsed the focus on the customer.

Or was there something else going on as well that hastened this almost desperate effort to reclaim the higher ground?

I’ve been going to Starbucks regularly for over 15 years – I too was originally attracted by that “third place” vibe, as well as the boldness of the brew. It didn’t take me long to be hooked. But as every year has gone by, I’ve been less and less focused on it as a “place” and more focused on it as simply a means get my morning latte, and as quickly as possible.

It’s like you discover something that is really best enjoyed in a leisurely and “fuller” way, but reality sets in because you just don’t have the time and so you narrow it down to its bare essential – hot espresso with steamed milk.

Perhaps Howard sensed this same change in his customers as the Starbucks empire expanded – that certainly would explain their switch to automated espresso machines. If you’ve read Howard’s book you’d be hard pressed to believe that would be something he would ever allow to happen.

But it did.

They needed to push more customers through the store. “Need more growth”, the investors and analysts said. “I need my latte quicker” said Terry Starbucker (and most likely many, many more folks like me).

It was a lethal combination. The vibe is long gone, and now Starbucks is just a coffee commodity competing with the McDonald’s and the Dunkin Donuts of the world. Espresso has been “McDonaldized” (see my recent post on that).

From a personal standpoint, I guess I’m getting from Howard what I evolved to ask for – I do indeed get my daily latte quite quickly each morning (and it still tastes pretty darn good). And so I look at this recent action quite ambivalently, since I’m long past sitting in those comfy chairs and reveling in the espresso making experience.

So be careful Howard- I certainly don’t mind a few more smiles and a great deal more competence in your staff, but it’s going to be much, much harder to “retrain” your most loyal customers like me - I still need to get in and get out of your store in 3 minutes.

It’s just too little, too late when it comes to turning the clock back 15 years. The ship has sailed.

It’s always a great moment when the writing of one of your fellow friends and bloggers gets recognized in the national press.    In an interesting way, we share in that success because of the supportive environment we’ve nurtured - almost like a family would with a brother or sister.

So it was especially gratifying to see that my good friend across the pond, “Mr. Simplicity” Trevor Gay, was mentioned in none other than the New York Times the other day.   Trevor and I have known each other now “virtually” for nearly two years, and I’ve found him to be a wonderful writer who brings a warm and fresh perspective to the craft of leadership, a perspective that I greatly admire and respect (and learn from).

The mention was in association with Trevor’s book, “Simplicity is the Key“. The NY Times was outlining the distinctions between a good boss and a bad boss, and Trevor’s lists of the attributes of each type were quoted directly from the text (along with a link to a blog post he wrote on the subject).

I’m as proud as I can be that Trevor got this well deserved recognition, because his messages about leadership are such good ones - that the “soft stuff” is vitally important, and that we should trust and support our front line staff.

Simplicity indeed.  Well done Trevor!

Just remember us when you make the NY Times bestseller list.

My buddy Phil over at Make it Great! tagged me for the “book meme” (he was tagged by Matthew ,who had been tagged by Karen, who was tagged by Lisa, who was tagged by Liz, who was tagged by Flowerpot, and that’s as far as I could go - great blogs everyone!).

Here goes:

Total Number of Books Owned: I’d say around 50; I really didn’t come around to a lot of book reading until the past few years

Last Book Read: “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” by Patrick Lencioni. Pretty good- I’m actually going to buy a bunch of these for my teammates.

Last Book Bought: “This is Your Brain on Music” by Daniel Levitin. If you like music at all, buy this book. A wonderful read - in a previous post I wryly noted some of the cool facts that were revealed in it.

Five Meaningful Books:

1. “Einstein“, by Walter Isaacson. I now look at the Universe in a totally different (and magical) way
2. “Good to Great“, by Jim Collins. Provides an essential understanding of what it takes to be a long-term business success.
3. “Citizen Soldiers” by Stephen Ambrose. I could have picked three books by Ambrose, but this one left the most lasting mark on me about the courage and bravery of these men during WWII.
4. “Pour Your Heart Into It” by Howard Schultz. As I said in my review, “The book serves as an excellent case study in “leadership with heart”. Schultz is an undying “inclusive optimist”.”
5. “1776” by David McCullough. A real and gripping profile in courage (and great leadership).

I tag:

Rick
Mary
Joe
Karen
Dave

And a 11/16 special tag: Derrick

Ordinarily one doesn’t associate the world of physics with the world of business, but yesterday these two spheres collided for me in a wonderful way.

As I noted on my “burning question” post the other day, I recently read a biography of Albert Einstein by Walter Isaacson that fascinated me. I never really got “into” physics in high school – in fact, I hated it. But time and life experience has changed that view, and consequently I was intently curious to find out about what Einstein’s unlocking of the universe was all about, and how he figured it all out.

I’ll write more about Einstein the man in a future post, but today I focus on the physics. And what radical physics it was – it essentially challenged the “common knowledge” that had been accepted for 200 years as to what was “absolute” and what was “relative”.

Here was the bombshell – space and time are relative, and the speed of light was absolute (it was the other way around for those 200 years – since the days of Issac Newton). In other words, time goes slower the faster you go. (note: unfortunately this difference is very, very small unless you are traveling close to the speed of light). And the highest speed is the speed of light- nothing can go faster.

This revelation then led to the most famous equation of all time:

E=MC²

Energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.

The bigger it is the more energy it produces.

Now what does this have to do with business?

Yesterday I was on the road talking to a group of teammates and we were discussing team building and the importance of supporting each other. I made the point that if we could keep increasing the number people really committed to supporting each other to a critical “mass”, there was no telling what we could achieve as a company.

Then I made the connection – more mass brings more energy. The energy that will fuel our engine of success is dependent on the collective mass of committed individuals.

It’s pure physics! I should have paid closer attention in high school.

Imagine the looks on my teammates faces when I then presented this analogy – I guess there are a lot of other people who didn’t pay much attention to their physics teacher.

And I bet there are not a lot of businessmen using this equation as a motivational tool. But I don’t want to be conventional. There are such interesting and amazing out–of-the-box “connections” out there to be discovered, especially when it comes to the laws of the universe.

Einstein knew this when he said “one cannot help be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality”.

Yep. A marvelous structure. All there for the taking – and borrowing - to make an important point in building a powerful team.