Sagostund

Två texter och tv böcker som förgyllt min förmiddag.

Text ett handlar om hur man ska förhålla sig till nördar. Känner igen mig mer än vad som är rimligt (stackars min fru :)

"Your nerd has built an annoyingly efficient relevancy engine in his head. It’s the end of the day and you and your nerd are hanging out on the couch. The TV is off. There isn’t a computer anywhere nearby and you’re giving your nerd the daily debrief. “Spent an hour at the post office trying to ship that package to your mom, and then I went down to that bistro — you know — the one next the flower shop, and it’s closed. Can you believe that?”

And your nerd says, “Cool”.

Cool? What’s cool? The business closing? The package? How is any of it cool? None of it’s cool. Actually, all of it might be cool, but your nerd doesn’t believe any of what you’re saying is relevant. This is what he heard, “Spent an hour at the post office blah blah blah…”

You can be rightfully pissed off by this behavior — it’s simply rude — but seriously, I’m trying to help here. Your nerd’s insatiable quest for information and The High has tweaked his brain in an interesting way. For any given piece of incoming information, your nerd is making a lightning fast assessment: relevant or not relevant? Relevance means that the incoming information fits into the system of things your nerd currently cares about. Expect active involvement from your nerd when you trip the relevance flag. If you trip the irrelevance flag, look for verbal punctuation announcing his judgment of irrelevance. It’s the word your nerd says when he’s not listening and it’s always the same. My word is “Cool”, and when you hear “Cool”, I’m not listening.

Information that your nerd is exposed to when the irrelevance flag is waving is forgotten almost immediately. I mean it. Next time you hear “Cool”, I want you to ask, “What’d I just say?” That awkward grin on your nerd’s face is the first step in getting him to acknowledge that he’s the problem in this particular conversation."

Text två handlar om dåligt ledarskap. 10 commandments of management enligt Fake Steve Jobs (påhittad karaktär som är motsatsen, eller... till Steve Jobs).

3. Only promote stupid people. But not just any stupid people. You have to find the certain type of stupid people who actually believe they’re super brilliant. They make insanely great managers and are incredibly easy to manipulate. It’s easy to spot them. Former McKinsey consultants are top candidates.

4. Never tell people what is expected of them. Hold people to an impossibly high standard, but here’s the twist — don’t tell them what that standard is. And fire them if they fall short. You know what that does to people? It makes them crazy…Crazy people are more creative. And more productive. Every shrink in the world knows this.

5. A manager should be inconsistent and unpredictable. Be random. One day say something is great and the guy who made it is a genius. The next day say it’s crap, and he’s a moron. Watch how hard that guy will work now, trying to impress you.

De två böckerna är Green Marketing Manifesto av John Grant och A master class in Brand planning av Stephen King (nej inte den Stephen King).

När flytten äntligen är klar (snat snart) så ska det läsas.

Nu måste jag förbereda mig inför lunchmötet om nästa års strategi för det kända men än så länge ganska konturlösa företaget.

Andra bloggar om: planning, planner, stephen king, john grant, green marketing, nerds, management