Review: Word$uccess

If you are looking for a simple text which can provide you with some useful tools and habits to improve your communication skills, Word$uccess by Pete Geissler is the right book for you.

Author has demonstrated the importance of articulation and ability to clearly express your views in one's professional career. He has presented the art of communication through interviews of some successful professionals and also tells how they have achieved it.

Your key learning will be:

1. What habits one need to practice, to develop effective communication skills.
2. What are the simple tools to achieve Articulation.
3. Audience Profile Worksheet to understand and know your audience well and form your message accordingly.

To summarize, I learned a lot from this text and have started to practice the tools....

Blink: Power of Thinking Without Thinking

blink: the Power of Thinking Without Thinking, the title itself is attractive enough to make someone interested in reading this text by Malcolm Gladwell. Author has done a great job in weaving examples from a wide variety of professions, functions and areas like relationships, politics, military, medical, crime, personality, connoisseurs, etc. to illustrate his main point:
The Power of Adaptive Unconscious of Human Mind.

Author states that human mind works through two strategies, the conscious strategy and through adaptive unconscious. First strategy is when use data, information and analysis to draw a conclusion and make decision, whereas second is when we make decisions on basis of that "gut feeling". This is when we act instantly on a thought which flashes in our mind and forces us to make a decision. The question now is: Is the accuracy or quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort spent into making it? Per Gladwell, "Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately."

Author has used technique of "thin slicing" i.e. power of our unconscious (the internal computer) to create a subjective impression using very little information., to explain this kind of decision-making. He has also cited some erroneous decisions (Warren Harding Error & an encounter in Bronx) and some great decisions from medical and military, (Cook County Hospital in Chicago & Van Riper, respectively).

In my opinion, our brain certainly has that great power of making a split-second decision, but it is upto us, how we develop and tap that unusual potential. We can use these techniques like mid reading, facial expression recognition etc but it certainly requires practice and a certain level of expertise to utilize them for our benefit. I would recommend reading this book with an unbiased mind and think, don't just blink.

Read my post blink vs Six Sigma

The Essential Drucker

These days I am reading "The Essential Drucker", a compilation of some writings of the father of management, Peter Drucker. This book has really the essentials of management as the title suggests and has impressed me with the vision of the author. Some of the writings included are very old, but hold very well in present-day environment. I expected that with the change in society and the way management has evolved over the past years, some of the writings might be very old school type. But it was actually otherwise, because the topics addressed are very generic and would any person at any level of hierarchy in the corporate structure.

A complete review will be posted here later, once I finish the book.

Da Vinci Code

Last sunday, I read this book by Dan Brown. Once started, I was literally glued to it till I finished it in one go. Its really a good read, very good suspense n thriller....ideal for a hollywood venture.

Some attributes worth mentioning are:
1. It tells you about western religious beliefs.
2. It has very meticulously made puzzles & anagrams.
3. It portrays Da Vinci paintings from a new perspective, in such a way that makes you think in the direction, author wants you to.
4. It talks about the idea that why dont we consider feminine to be sacred.
5. It mentions about the pagan beliefs & symbols,symbology and ways to interpret them.
6. It mentions about the Golden Ratio of 1.61, which has enthused me a lot since last one year.
7. Author is able to communicate what he wants without losing the grip over the story anywhere.

If you have read it, post your comments please.