Week 10

I really liked the videos this week. I shared the main ideas with my wife because I thought they were so interesting. One video talked about how his team got to be in the top 100 boat dealerships in North America 2 years in a row. He made a point of saying that he is just a normal guy, but as just a normal guy, he was still able to get into that top 100 of North America. Dream big, don't underestimate what you can achieve. Strive for greatness because the amount of effort is about the same and the reward is so much greater. I also really liked the video about the 20% at Google. By giving employees 20% of work time to work on whatever they wanted, half of the products that they came out with were a result of that 20%. The other half was the other 80% of their time. These people are smart enough and creative enough to use their top quality equipment to come up with good ideas and products. It also builds a trust between the company and the employee. The employee knows that the company trusts them and obviously wants to do well, apart from being even more motivated to make something they came up with work well. Also from the interview this week I learned a lot about a person who focused on running their own business without studying business to start their own business. It was eye opening to see that sort of perspective. I feel I could run a business at least partially well, but I don't have a product or service to give directly. I interviewed my father, and he went to school to be an orthopedic surgeon. His focus was on the service and the business experience followed. It had to, because he wouldn't have been able to stay in practice had he not learned the things that you have to do to run a business. Granted he said he may not be doing everything perfectly, but he does it enough.

Week NINE

A few of the videos focused on customer service and how important it is. Good customer service comes when you trust your customer. And when you trust them they will trust you. Another thing that was mentioned about customer service was that it shows how the company will perform. Financial statements show how the company performs based on decisions you already made. How customers respond to your business and service will show how you will do. Customers know what they don't like whether or not they know what they actually want. Another video that sort of tied in to this idea as well was about hiring the right people. By hiring people with good ethics and morals you will do well because in groups and teams, the people will get along well and get the work done well. If you are focusing on customers than those people will be trying to help the customers instead of just trying to further themselves in their careers. This ties into something that I really liked from Good to Great. "First Who, Then What". You need to pick your team and who is going to work with you before you formulate a plan. If you have the right people on the bus then everything should flow quickly and efficiently.

Week Eight

All of the videos and reading was inspiring for this week. the thing that most especially caught my attention was about the 5 whys. So, he did not explain too much about what they were but I think I got it from his example. He said that every problem can be traced back to a human problem. His example was about a code that was added to a website that then made the website crash. They traced it back to a problem in the code that made it crash. Then to the programmer who coded it and that he was new. Then that he wasn't trained well. And then finally to the manager who didn't train him very well because he didn't think it was that important. This was eye opening for me. That just because you think you have found the solution to the problem does not mean that you have found the ultimate solution and that it can probably be fixed fairly simply and that potentially could fix other problems before they start. Like in this example of the manager. You could leave it at the programmer and get him to code better and now that he is aware of this mistake you can solve some problems, but with the manager not wanting to train then you have a bigger problem that will spread to more than just that one programmer. I loved that video. Keep asking why even if it seems pointless or even like overkill, but if you can find your manager that doesn't want to train then you are miles ahead of where you where before. I also liked his insight about the manager saying he won't change anything but then he gives a solution to fix this manager problem. Each time there is a problem give him an hour of training to fix it and eventually he will have given enough training or things in place to have people stop making these mistakes.

Week 07

Passion is more important than money. Many people desire to change the world and most of the time they make money. Some people desire to make money and they don't. So if you can pick between the two, follow your passion and the money will probably follow, but at least if it doesn't, you're doing something you are passionate about. Being passionate about what you do is far more important than anything else in your goals about what you want to do as your career.

Another part of our reading this week was a talk by President Hinckley. He mentions be true to yourself. Be true to God and be true to others. Be honest in all your dealings. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first and foremost. I must not be stained by moral sin, especially in the workplace. Other people count on me and I need to be able to count on them. If I am not honest in my dealings with others, how could I expect honest behavior of them?

Also we got an summarized version of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. What I thought was interesting was that it is split into 3 "categories". Private victories, public victories, and overall effectiveness.