Max Mednik
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact

Readings and musings

Notes on How by Dov Seidman

12/24/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
I just finished reading ​How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything by Dov Seidman, and I had heard about it from another book I had read recently. It focused on morality, principles, and ethics in business (the "how" behind what companies do).

I really liked its description of the history behind the "wave" phenomenon at sports games and how it used that metaphor throughout the book. I found the book quite high level and abstract and wished for more tactics and examples, though there definitely were diverse stories throughout. It acknowledged this issue itself in the end saying that the book was less about tactics and more about the principles behind "how."

I can recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding how good principles and ethics in business can make people and companies more successful long term and how to incorporate such ideas into one's work.

Some of my notes and takeaways from the book are below.

​Forward by bill clinton

Preface
How vs how to
Differentiation
Outbehave the competition
the era of behavior
Constant: World is connected
Constant: Human passion for progress
Variables: ideas and values
Way of life versus end of life crises
Situational versus sustainable values
Integrity
Honesty
Truth
Humility
Hope
Everything personal is public now
Principal behavior is the key to success
Coerce, motivate, or inspire
Better to rely mostly on inspiration
Connect and collaborate leadership
Replace task based jobs with value based missions
Inspiration begins with in, internal motivation
How is anagram of who
Human operating system
Success vs significance
Hope
Making wave in football stadium

Part 1 how we’ve been, how we’ve changed

Intro the spaces between us

1 from land to information
Land limited but info unlimited

2 technology's trespass
New types of relationships
Expectation of response factor
Persistence of memory

3 the journey to how
The certainty gap between aspirations and reality
Limitations of rules 
Transparency

Part 2 how we think

Intro paradox of journey

4 playing to your strengths
Altruistic helping

5 from can to should
Rules as proxies
Rules govern the past
Apologize when something goes wrong
Values based approach
Should versus can

6 keeping your head in the game
Rules just floor not ceiling
Dissonance due to something against values versus consonance

Part 3 how we behave

Intro How we do what we do

7 doing transparency
Say you are sorry

8 trust
Trust increase profits 
Poverty trap
Trust, risk, innovation, progress
Trust enables risk
Trust but verify
Random checks

9 reputation
Diamond trade based on trust and reputation
Reputation quotient

Part 4 how we govern

10 doing culture
Four types of culture
Five how’s of culture
Self governing cultures

11 case for self governing cultures
Values based self governance
J&J credo
Written values/principles

12 leadership framework
Vision
Enlist and create connections
Build a clock that can tell time without you
Be principled
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All
    Angel Investing
    Cacti
    Cars
    China
    Community Service
    Culture
    Design
    Djing
    Dogs
    Education
    Entertainment
    Entrepreneurship
    Family
    Finance
    Food
    Google
    Happiness
    Incentives
    Investment Banking
    Judaism
    Law
    Lighting
    Magic
    Marketing
    Medicine
    Networking
    Nolabound
    Philosophy
    Professionalism
    Psychology
    Reading
    Real Estate
    Religion
    Romance
    Sales
    Science
    Shangri-La
    Social Entrepreneurship
    Social Media
    Sports
    Teams
    Technology
    Travel
    Turtles
    Ucla
    Venture Capital
    Web Services
    Weddings
    Zen

    Subscribe

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact