“The Virgin Way: Everything I Know About Leadership” by Richard Branson (Portfoio/Penguin, $29.95).
Branson, who started his first business when he was 16, quickly learned that “life is not a dress rehearsal” experience. Continuous improvement is not an option; you have to love life every day. That includes being equally adept at learning from your hits and strikeouts. Here are some highlights of Branson’s leadership-life advice:
Listening, one of the key lessons Branson learned early on, came courtesy of a line in a John Wayne film: “You’re short on ears and long on mouth.” If you hear but don’t listen, you’re bound to miss something. In order to remember and reinforce what was said, he takes copious notes. Because people often exercise selective memory, notes come in handy when revisiting issues at subsequent meetings.
Listening also pays attention to body language and tone. When the words don’t match the lyrics, you will also hear what has not been said. This prompts questions to ask. But don’t interrupt; that’s rude. Save your questions for the Q&A session.
Another lesson: Manage by walking around (MBWA). Running a business requires execution by those at all levels of the organization. Don’t use MBWA to shake hands and say “Hi.” Ask questions about the projects on which they’re working. Sit in on mid-level meetings from time to time. This shows your interest in your employees. They notice.
When it comes to customers, “Always try to look at what we’re doing from the customer’s perspective.” If you want input from your customers, forget the focus groups because they tend to produce input based upon the most vocal in the group. Instead, become a customer. Try navigating your website to find information and answers to their questions. Make sure, that “Contact Us” can be easily located. Call your call center to see how long it takes before you get to a real person — and what happens when you do. When there’s an article about the firm online, pay close attention to reader comments.
And when it comes to getting things done, play to your strengths. Use the skills of others to fill in your gaps.
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“Scrum — The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time” by Jeff Sutherland (Crown Business, $27).
Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, shows that Gantt charts (created in 1910) and still used by many businesses today to monitor projects from cradle to grave “are always, always wrong.” Why? First, nothing ever goes as planned. Second, the same people/business units are involved in many projects simultaneously, which leads to competing priorities and “Stop that; do this.”
How does Scrum differ? It’s based on “Inspect and Adapt” from the bottom up. In short cycles, the project workers review what they’ve done and question ways to proceed — given the project remains relevant. Scrum allows companies to “fail fast and fix it early.” Management facilitates getting obstacles out of their team’s way, and ensures it has the resources to move forward. In many ways, Scrum adapts the W. Edwards Deming lean-manufacturing protocol of Plan, Do, Check, Act to non-manufacturing projects.
The key to executing Scrum, and any project, remains the team and its focus. Sutherland points out numerous studies that show small, cross functional teams (seven + or — two) with clearly defined tasks and roles get more done than large ones. The larger the team, the longer it takes to get people up to speed and to maintain velocity. Teams must be given the autonomy to make decisions because they’re closest to the work.
Key takeaway: Scrum makes work visible. Team members have a daily pulse on a project’s progress.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.
