Book Report: Click

Ever wonders what makes people click?  Brothers Ori and Rom Brafman tackle this timeless question (well!) in their new book Click.

They cite five primary factors that make people ‘click’:

1. Vulnerability.  While certainly not a risk-free activity, sharing a personal vulnerability is an immediate way to appear authentic (you are placing truth over pride) and confer trust.
2. Proximity.  Most relationships (personal or professional) are dictated by distance.  Be where the people you want to meet are.
3. Resonance.  Sympathize with your audience and communicate your authentic understanding of them and their situation.
4. Similarity.  The shocker here was volume trumps quality.  People are more likely to perceive more closeness with another that shares a number of trivial similarities (same hometown, birthday, favorite ice cream) than a singe large one (career choice).  While counter-intuitive to me, I can understand how the discovery of each new (even trivial) similarities is a cue that re-enforces your bond each time it occurs.
5. Safe Place. This can be determined by frame (we are the most similar people in this room) or by a common adversary (we’re in it together!).

So if most of these factors are pre-determined what is one to do to improve the situation?  Of the many ideas outlined my takeaways were:

• Personal Elevation.  The vast majority of people have a complimentary person.  Be it personal or professional, there are people out there that make you more than the sum of your parts.  Find them.
• Modulate expression.  The ability to match your expression to the common level of the group demonstrates a strong awareness and creates comfort (see similarity).
• Be the Hub.  Helping people meet is the most powerful way to meet others yourself.  There are always those that are at the center of communications.  If nothing else, identify the hubs in your life!

While I approach many of these pop-psychology books with a healthy does (or two) of skepticism, Click really delivered on some intuitive observations followed by quite a few actionable recommendations.

All the factors that make you Click are current.  It will align your present selves, but not your future goals. I think of the aspects of Click as an emotional fit (heart) – don’t forget about the intellectual fit (head)!

Book Report: Rework

I’ve long been a fan of the 37 Signals folks.  They really are the heralds of the lean movement.  The build super simple tools to run small companies and they do it using the best practices in the lean movement.  So, I was excited to dig into their book: Rework – a compendium of their best practices.

The book is organized in to 87 lessons that read like blog posts (just a few pages a piece).  Here are my seven favorites:

1- Scratch your own itch – build a product you will use.  Customer research becomes easy and part of your company DNA when you are the customer.

2- Interruption is the enemy of productivity – whether meetings, calls, emails, or colleagues stopping by – these little interruptions make sure nothing actually gets done.  I’m a big fan of arranging my work/communication in blocks. I will code or write for 3-4 hours with my phone off and outlook closed.  It’s good practice to carve out this time for your company on a regular (ie daily) basis.

3 - Go to sleep.  While everyone differs, my world revolves around sleep. Sleeping less makes me stupid and careless – often to the extend that I’m only creating more work for myself down the road.  Sure there are times where you need to pull an all nighter, but usually those events are preventable.  If you’re up all night – you’re doing it wrong.

4 - Welcome obscurity.  I think many misinterpret the lean startup methodologies to mean that you need to launch and build a product asap.  This often leads to a team maintaining the wrong business.  Lay out your theses and do the least amount of work possible to validate them in obscurity.  By the time you’re hunting for PR your business should be rock solid and ready to scale.  If it’s not spend more time on product and none on promotion.

5 – Press Releases are Spam.  Many young companies go chasing big press as a marketing mechanism.  Rework points out that they get far more customers from blogs/trade publications than big media.  In my experience I’ve certainly found this to be true.   I’ve gotten more useful leads from the HARBUS (the HBS student paper) than CNN.

6- Do it yourself first.  I’m a huge fan of this mentality.  I’ve done every job at my startup.  I know what it entails so I know what person I need and I can be a better manager (since I actually understand what they’re doing).  Also, if anything goes wrong, I’m never left helpless or blocked.  I can always pitch in to make sure the show will go on.

7 - Test Drive Employees.  Despite working at Microsoft – famous for their love of the brainteasers and intellectual horsepower tests – I don’t find that relevant to finding good hires at all.  If I’m going to hire for a position I look for comparable experience (ie this person has successfully done a similar job in the past) and then I watch them do their job.  Whether this is a 1-2 hour coding session where they work on a current company problem or even a weeklong period making sales calls – taking the time to watch someone work before hiring is the only way to make sure you’ve got the best candidate.

As the new year rolls in. These are great lessons to live by – the top two will definitely make my list of resolutions!

Book Report: Do More Faster

With the good weather and barren inbox (thanks Olympics!) I had time to plow through Do More Faster - a compendium of startup short stories by the founders of TechStars (Brad Feld and David Cohen).  Based on the Amazon sample I felt some trepidation as it seems like another useless brag-a-thon of successful start-ups.  However, based on rave reviews I plowed ahead.

The first half o the book was largely as expected - repetitive and cliche stories about listening to customers and making good products.  *yawn*  When I have real conversations with start-up junkies there is usually some secret sauce or unfair advantage they have/discovered/acquired to win in their market.  Its usually messy and held together with lots of hope and duct tape, but it's true.  I want to hear that - not 20 iterations of the obvious.

That being said, the last two chapters of the book on on legal issues and work-life balance made the slog worth while.  Stories told by many (but especially Brad Feld) unveiled some sinister issues almost any entrepreneur will face (equity battles and upset spouses) when going all in on a company.  These problems fall into the easy to prevent, but hard to solve category.  So, getting a good feel for the warning signs is absolutely critical (write a great vesting schedule and set up regular conversations with loved ones).  And the genuine, unique and heartfelt stories was a fresh infusion of life experience.  Wish they'd led with that!

Not one of my bibles, but worth a weekend read!
http://www.amazon.com/Do-More-Faster-TechStars-Accelerate/dp/0470929839