Weekly Bookmarks
27th Edition — August 11, 2019
Management debt is incurred when you make an expedient, short-term management decision with an expensive, long-term consequence. Ben Horowitz
1. V2MOM
There is no be-all, end-all management tool that leads to consistently great results to every company under the sun. That’s because business is as much art as it is a science, and probably much more so. Yet, I’m still fascinated by the so-called secret management processes used by successful CEOs and founders.
Marc Benioff is the founder of Salesforce and he applied his own framework after seeking wisdom from many leadership gurus. He settled on the V2MOM process:
V – Vision to define what to do
V – Values to establish what was most important with the vision
M – Method for how to get the job done
O – Obstacles to identifying challenges and problems
M – Measures for specifying desired results
I find the similarity to OKRs striking, yet the V2MOM framework is not a household management name. If you want to learn more about this and the Salesforce growth story, Behind the Cloud is a good read.
2. Do You Plan on Living to 156?
When I attended my first Strategic Coach workshop, our group completed The Lifetime Extender exercise created by Dan Sullivan. All participants wrote down the age we thought we’d live to and discussed it in small groups. It’s a positive, mind-altering activity. It’s not about the number. It’s what you do with the number after you commit to it. And as Dan says, you can renegotiate it in the future.
When I read Dan’s, My Plan For Living to 156, I was not expecting anything new. Wrong. Furthermore, the audio experience is one of the best I’ve ever heard in years where Shannon Waller of The Strategic Coach interviews Dan. Very well done.
The best story is about the workshop participant who wrote down 47 when he was just a year younger. No spoilers, sorry.
Consider conducting the exercise found in this short book during your next quarterly offsite with the management team.
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3. Management Debt
Are you familiar with the term technical debt? This is when firms make short-term technical decisions with negative long-term outcomes.
Since I work with small companies, management issues come in many flavors. And with technical debt floating around in my head, I was wondering if there are any books addressing management debt head-on. None, I’m 99.99% certain of it. However, there are some short articles on this concept:
Management Debt by Ben Horowitz
How to Avoid Accumulating Management Debt – 7Geese Blog
How Great Leaders Get Out of Management Debt and Stay That Way
4. The James Patterson of Management Accounting Books
Geesh, how many books has Steven Bragg written? More than the number of answers I’ve given on Quora? Seems like it. Over the past week, I’ve been skimming Constraint Management. I’m enjoying the book, and it’s an excellent follow-up to all of Goldratt’s books on TOC. Are you new to the manufacturing space? If so, get it.
5. The Book to Give Your Teens and Other Family Members
In light of the recent tragic news in Texas, consider picking up a copy of Spy Secrets That Can Save Your Life by Jason Hanson. My favorite chapter is the one on situational awareness. After sharing many of the details of this book with a retired highway patrolman a couple of years ago, he told me he still applies these tactics in public.
Thank You Very Much
Thank you for reading. If you like the content above and the posts at CFO Bookshelf, may I ask a favor? Feel free to share this with other readers along with commenting on your favorite blog posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
Take care and have a great week. Always be learning.
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