Jun
3
How to read a business book
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Having written one of my first posts on “How to Read and Digest a Book!” the post by Seth Godin on How to read a business book, really caught my attention. In the post Seth makes the following observation on how people go about reading a business book…
“…..They cruise through the case studies or the insights or examples and imagine what it would be like to be that brilliant entrepreneur or that successful CEO or that great sales rep. A pleasant adventure…. [however] … There’s a huge gap between most how-to books (cookbooks, gardening, magic, etc.) and business books, though. The gap is motivation….. The fascinating thing is this: I spend 95% of my time persuading people to take action and just 5% of the time on the recipes…. The recipe that makes up just about any business book can be condensed to just two or three pages. The rest is the sell. The proof. The persuasion.”
Given the difference between “how to books” and business books, to be effective we need to read to extract maximum value for the investment we’re making of our time and money. This is the initial reason I wrote the post on “How to Read and Digest a Book!”, in which I recommend that to be effective one needs to have a system to extract insight and plan for their implementation…
Seth Godin, in his post How to read a business book, recommends the following tips which complements and builds on what I have already recommended, making the following points:
1. Decide, before you start, that you’re going to change three things about what you do all day at work. Then, as you’re reading, find the three things and do it. The goal of the reading, then, isn’t to persuade you to change, it’s to help you choose what to change.
2. If you’re going to invest a valuable asset (like time), go ahead and make it productive. Use a postit or two, or some index cards or a highlighter. Not to write down stuff so you can forget it later, but to create marching orders. It’s simple: if three weeks go by and you haven’t taken action on what you’ve written down, you wasted your time.
3. It’s not about you, it’s about the next person. The single best use of a business book is to help someone else. Sharing what you read, handing the book to a person who needs it… pushing those around you to get in sync and to take action–that’s the main reason it’s a book, not a video or a seminar. A book is a souvenir and a container and a motivator and an easily leveraged tool. Hoarding books makes them worth less, not more.
Effective managers hand books to their team. Not so they can be reminded of high school, but so that next week she can say to them, "are we there yet?"
These a great insights and take my thoughts a step further. So, how purposeful are you in your reading? Do you have a system to extract, process and implement the insights you’ve gained from your reading? How many of these insights you actually implemented over the past year?
Technorati Tags: Reading, Book, Leadership, Management, Development, Growth, Business, Execution, GTD, Lifehack, Lifehacks, Getting Things Done, Effectiveness
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I do think there is a place for reflection but that Behavioral Psychology has it right. Change occurs through action; knowing my needs before reading a business book helps me to frame it up and know what I am looking for, while still being open to new ideas that present themselves. In writing my 2nd business book(for introverted leaders)I am staying focused on practical suggestions. I also think authors need to avoid overwhelming the reader with too many ideas. I also love the idea of passing it on and making folks accountable for changes. Thanks for the great insights!
[...] interested in reading it as well. Even though I put up a review of many of the books I read here on LearnThis.ca , I always make a habit of telling someone in person about my latest book I’ve read as well. [...]