The Amazon Management System

 

Issue No. 426 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Jan. 21, 2020) highlights a digital wake-up call in just 138 pages. Learn why frugality is an Amazon core value! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my Top-10 books of 2019 and my Book-of-the-Year pick. Two-Pizza Team Meetings!  Emergency alert! Bestselling business author Ram Charan says the disrupter is in the building—and its name is Amazon. “Our 21st century prevailing management systems are still largely inherited from the oldest forms of human organization, such as the military and the church,” he writes. Designed for “command and control” in the pre-Internet era, these hierarchical bureaucracies mimicked the only management systems they knew. Until the digital age and Amazon. Whew. This tightly written book, The Amazon Management System (just 138 pages plus helpful appendices), is a wake-up call for nonprofits, for-profits, and churches. If you’re wondering… • …why your credit card bill is populated with Amazon purchases, read this book.  • …how to learn more about Amazon’s focused obsession on the customer, read this book.  • …how Amazon (online in 1995) was worth $1 trillion in 2018 (it goes up and down, of course), read this book. In addition to the big ideas—and bold management risks—there’s plenty of fun stuff in this quick-reading book, with one-page bullet-point summaries for every chapter. For fun: Why did Jeff Bezos pick “Amazon” for his company name? According to Ram Charan and Julia Yang, Bezos had experimented and then rejected numerous other suggestions like:    • Awake.com    • Browse.com    • Bookmall.com    • Relentless.com    • Makeitso.com    • Cadabra.com “Still searching, Bezos referred to the dictionary. Luckily the name hunt didn’t last long. Amazon jumped out at him. It was love at first sight. Amazon ‘is not only the largest river in the world. It’s many times larger than the next biggest river. It blows all the other rivers away,’ Bezos said.” That’s just one interesting sidebar in this serious—but short—analysis of the Amazon management system. It’s a must-read assignment for every senior leader (and perhaps your board members). The authors aren’t suggesting your organization becomes an Amazon clone—but, instead, “understand how it works and pick the valuable ingredients and inspirations for your own digital way.” And you will think differently about digital immediately. The digital future is scary, but brimming with opportunity. The book highlights six building blocks:    1. Customer-Obsessed Business Model    2. Continuous Bar-Raising Talent    3. AI-Powered Data and Metrics System    4. Ground-Breaking Invention Machine    5. High-Velocity and High-Quality Decision-Making    6. Forever Day-1 Culture A very helpful one-page checklist of the Amazon Management System is on page 135. One page only! And—throughout this gem—it’s the rare page in my book that isn’t underlined. Examples: • On Amazon’s relentless drive to invent, “Seek and build big ideas continuously [using a brilliant press release process]…and construct cross-functional full-time and co-located ‘two-pizza’ team with the right project leader.” Why? If two pizzas aren’t enough, the team is too big! • On making high-velocity decisions: a brilliant segmentation and process for decision-making: Type 1 decisions (one-way doors) and Type 2 decisions (two-way doors). “For Type 2 decisions, speed matters. Let the metrics owner make the call. If approval required, one level only.” • To create a “Forever Day-1 Culture,” Amazon does this: “Operationalize by observable behaviors, create forcing mechanisms, live and breathe them yourself, and invent memorable symbols and rewards. (See page 132 for the “Just Do It Award.” The authors add, “Given his constant reinforcement of frugality, Bezos came up with the totally unorthodox idea of having old sneakers, worn and torn, mounted and bronzed.” (It reminded me of my 2017 book-of-the-year, The Power of Moments.) • “Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdotes differ.” Oh, to have observed an executive meeting when Bezos—skeptical when the head of the Customer Service Department said that customer wait times were “well under one minute” (without “offering any supporting evidence”)—used the meeting room speakerphone and dialed the call center’s 800 number. The wait time: four-and-a-half minutes. Yikes! If you’re looking for weekly staff meeting topics, consider using the “Amazon 14 Leadership Principles” on pages 141-143. Succinct, with three to four lines of commentary, they include: 1) Customer Obsession (there was an empty seat at early meetings—representing the customer), 2) Ownership (leaders are owners), and 3) Invent and Simplify. The fourth principle is noteworthy and arresting: 4) Are Right, A Lot. Amazon notes: “Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.” Others include: 5) Learn and Be Curious, 6) Hire and Develop the Best. “Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion.” 7) Insist on the Highest Standards, 8) Think Big. “Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.” And 9) Bias for Action. When hiring, a designated “Bar Raiser,” independent of the team that is hiring, also interviews the applicant. Bar raisers are “meticulously trained to be the stewards of Amazon’s leadership principles.” (Read more here.) The tenth principle is Frugality. “There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.” 11) Earn Trust, 12) Dive Deep [no task is beneath a leader], 13) Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit. “Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting.” 14) Deliver Results. Oh, my—there is SO much I should add to this review, like: • Avoiding “the creep onto the treacherous slippery slope called ‘Day 2’” • Amazon’s flywheel (per the Jim Collins concept) • The amazing impact that Jeff Bezos’ grandfather had on his thinking • “Nothing overcomes the wrong person. In the wrong hands, great ideas will not blossom.” • “To invent you have to experiment, and if you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment.” (See the 18 failed innovations on page 80.) • Charlie Ward, the junior software engineer, who proposed the idea for Amazon prime in 2004. As of 2018, Amazon had over 100 million Prime Members! • Start with the customer (see what questions to ask on page 86). • “Eat your own dog food.” • The Jeff Bezos 70-90 Rule (When you have 70% of the info—make the decision. “If you wait for 90%, in most cases, you’re probably being slow.”) • Why Bezos resists “the overrated importance of harmony.” • July 9, 2004: The day Amazon banned PowerPoint presentations at the core executive team level—and honed the “Six-Page Narratives” (sometimes two pages) approach. (See Bezos’ email on page 108!) And finally, “A wrong decision may not be career-ending at Amazon, but Bezos will make sure the lesson is well learnt.” (Note: Read this book and it will be career-enhancing. Guaranteed.) To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Amazon Management System: The Ultimate Digital Business Engine That Creates Extraordinary Value for Both Customers and Shareholders, by Ram Charan and Julia Yang.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) The authors say that Amazon’s emphasis on Forever Day-1 is not rocket science. But organizations must notice the “usual suspects” to Day-2 thinking: “complacency, bureaucracy, and interdependency that blurs the lines of accountability.” What are the “usual suspects” that inhibit results in our organization? 2) Originally, Amazon had five values, but those morphed into 14 Leadership Principles. Many “experts” would say 14 are too many—and can’t be remembered or lived out. But Amazon has “operationalized” their principles into daily life. Example: read the blog post, "What's It Like to Interview at Amazon." Pop Quiz! From memory, recite our core values—and share when you saw one value lived out in the last seven days.   Ram Charan: Prolific Thinker! Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  One of the big ideas in the Drucker Bucket, Chapter 4, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is that you must be “a disciplined lifelong learner in the art of management.” I’ve appreciated Ram Charan’s consistently helpful books on management, leadership, and board governance. In addition to his latest book, The Amazon Management System (Dec. 2019), check out my reviews of these Ram Charan books: • Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (Order from Amazon.) • Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Done, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan (Order from Amazon.) • Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) • Owning Up: The 14 Questions Every Board Member Needs to Ask, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) • The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers, by Bill Conaty and Ram Charan (Read my review.) • Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way, by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem (Read my review.) • The Attacker’s Advantage: Turning Uncertainty Into Breakthrough Opportunities, by Ram Charan (Read my review.) REMINDER: TO DOWNLOAD 3 LISTS OF 400+ BOOKS REVIEWED BY JOHN PEARSON, visit The Book Bucket (click here): • List #1: Books by Management Buckets Categories • List #2: Chronological List of 425 Issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (400+ books) • List #3: John Pearson's Top-100 Books List (updated every 2 years)                      JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video), including the new book by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love.    MORE LESSONS: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! Click here to order More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Click here to follow the new blog with 40 guest bloggers. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's new blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including how to inspire your board members to be "leaders who read." See Tool #13: Board Retreat Read-and-Reflect Worksheets (with seven reading options).  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon.

Call of the Chair - Leading the Board

 

Issue No. 363 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (June 28, 2017) warns CEOs and boards—don’t speed-vote an unsuspecting person into the board chair! David McKenna says the board chair “has responsibility for the speed, spacing, and sequence” of the governing process. (That will preach!) And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies). 2026 Update: I was recently asked by a podcast host to recommend "the best book for a CEO and the best book for a board." As you know, it's impossible to name just one or two--but he wanted an answer. So in light of the podcast topic, here's the book I recommended for board chairs. Here's one for ministry CEOs. Before Electing Your Board Chair--STOP! If you’ve been around the nonprofit block for a few years, you’ve certainly experienced this scenario: “Quick! While Jane is out of the room—I move that she be elected the new chairperson of the board, effective immediately.” And presto! Without warning, Jane returns to the boardroom only to be handed the gavel—accompanied by the delightful dysfunctions of a nonprofit or church board of directors. Stop the madness, says David McKenna. His new book should be required reading for all nonprofit board chairs and CEOs. (Chairs of faith-based for-profit companies would also benefit.) Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, published in March by ECFAPress, is jam-packed with 119 pages of wisdom, insights, and practical help for the board and their board chairs. Example: McKenna writes that “The chair for a Christ-centered ministry must be called of God as well as elected by the board.” That would eliminate the speed-voting trick that landed Jane at the head of the board table. “When the time comes for a board to elect a new chair,” McKenna adds, “all business should stop while the members reflect in silence and ask that the Spirit of God might give them discernment in their selection.” Then this: “In the induction of the chair that follows, there should be the question, ‘Has God called you to this leadership position?’ “The prayer that follows should seal that call with the sacredness of the moment. If done in a consecration service for the board, its officers, and its members, the significance of the chair is communicated throughout the organization.” McKenna cautions: “Discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit that comes with spiritual maturity. It may well be the gift that defines Christ-centered leadership.” That defining moment—and that powerful question—will eliminate speed-voting and will weed out chair candidates who aspire to resume-building versus Kingdom-building. By the way, that solemn moment suggested by McKenna reminded me of the drama/comedy film, We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam). (View on Amazon Prime.) McKenna has more—and it’s convicting:     • 4 assessment questions for the board chair    • 5 deficient ways that boards elect chairs: Successor, Exemplar, Rotator, Politician, and Dissenter    • Commenting on the Rotator chair scenario, McKenna notes: “The idea is that the ministry can survive incompetence for a short period of time.”    • 1 priority: why being board chair must be that person’s number-one priority    • 9 board chair roles: Missionary, Model, Mentor, Manager, Moderator, Mediator, Monitor, Master, and Maestro    • 3 results when the board chair fails to focus on the clarity of the mission: “mushy, muddled, and almost meaningless”    • 60 words in 30 seconds: Jesus’ elevator speech! McKenna, retired president of two universities and one seminary, is author of numerous books, including Stewards of a Sacred Trust: CEO Selection, Transition and Development for Boards of Christ-centered Organizations. Read my review to learn how he helps boards segment CEOs into six descriptive categories (several are unsavory!). In Call of the Chair, McKenna defines an important fork-in-the-road for boards: “A major difference between Christ-centered ministries and for-profit or nonprofit organizations is in the question, ‘Who gets the credit?’” The Transcendent Moment Trust me—this book is very, very convicting. I am privileged to serve as board chair at Christian Community Credit Union (and so I run the ad in this eNews at no charge). But when I reached the last few pages of the book—ready to wrap it up and move on—I was blown away by “The Transcendent Moment” on pages 116-119. Whew! I won’t spoil the drama and impact for you—but recently I asked our board’s vice chair, Mike Pate (he has a great radio voice), to read those pages during our agenda segment, “10 Minutes for Governance” (a life-long learning feature at every board meeting). Here’s just one taste: “…if the board is to rise to its spiritual potential, it needs a chair who brings the personal experience of Pentecost to the leadership of the board.” Oh, my. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Call of the Chair: Leading the Board of the Christ-centered Ministry, by David L. McKenna. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) “Like a one-stringed banjo player, the chair will always sound the note reminding the members that the board’s role is policy, not execution.” How knowledgeable is our staff on the roles and responsibilities of the board—and the board chair? 2) On the policy governance term, “executive limitations,” McKenna illustrates: “In effect, God gave Adam and Eve a policy of executive limitation, saying, ‘Go until I say stop.’ He did not say, ‘Stop until I say go.’” Are the board’s executive limitations crystal clear to your CEO and all staff? News Flash: "Millennials Give in Traditional Ways" Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit The Donor Bucket in Mastering the Management Buckets notes Randy Alcorn’s Treasure Principle Key #1: “God owns everything. I’m his money manager.” So while your development team may be obsessing on the giving habits of Millennials, here are two reminders:    • 1. “When you spend your days in fundraising, you raise money. But when you invest your life in growing God-honoring stewards, He raises up extravagantly generous givers.” (What’s your approach to Millennials?)    • 2. According to the just-released report by ECFA, The Generosity Project: “While millennials are more likely to give online or on social media than older generations, they are as likely as or more likely to support ministries using traditional channels just like prior generations.” (Download a free executive summary from ECFA here.) For more resources on communicating your important mission and message to givers, visit the Donor Bucket webpage.   MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s 2017 series on Max De Pree's book, Called to Serve. Read the 19th blog, "The Phone-Book-Size Board Packet Syndrome."

The Power of Passion in Leadership

 

Issue No. 324 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 21, 2015) recommends a very thin—very persuasive—book on passion in leadership with 12 ways to know if it’s time to leave your current position. Number 12: “Your heart has left the building.”  2026 Update: I was recently asked by a podcast host to recommend "the best book for a CEO and the best book for a board." As you know, it's impossible to name just one or two--but he wanted an answer. So in light of the podcast topic, here's the book I recommended for ministry CEOs. (Here's one for board chairs.) When Your Passion Has Left the Building  Hear, hear! Time for some high fives and Starbucks cards for this week’s author, Hans Finzel. Three reasons: High Five No. 1: If there was an award for the most impact per page—Finzel would win the trophy. (Hans, you nailed the point in just 73 short pages. Others would wring the guts out of the subject—at triple the page count.) Thank you! High Five No. 2: My goodness—you bared your soul and it makes us listen even more thoughtfully. (Transparency times three.) Thank you! High Five No. 3: You talked to us—you didn’t talk down to us. And the value-added links to extraordinary materials—superb! (Check out the 18 “Passion Piranhas” out to get your heart.) Thank you! Finzel begins with Proverbs 4:23 in the NIV: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  He confesses, “It was time for a change. I used to find fulfillment in my career, but not anymore. I needed to start paying attention to my heart.”  Then he grabs your throat with this: “…the higher you go in leadership, the more the heart counts. People do not enjoy working for mechanical micromanagers or passive worn out leaders—they love following leaders who lead from their place of passion.” That’s the stuff of The Power of Passion in Leadership: Lead From Your Heart, Not Just Your Head. So this former ministry CEO, and bestselling author of The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make, shares his journey, and the journey of others—with conviction, depth, and a fork-in-the-road story: “When it comes to leading at the top, we have to be all in or all gone. One of my own senior leaders pulled me aside one day and said, ‘Hans, we need a one hundred percent leader. You need to be all in or all gone. There is just too much at stake.’ “It took a lot of guts for him to say that to me, but he was right. When I got over my anger and defensiveness, I realized that God was whispering to me through this man. We leaders need to move on when our passion has left the building. That man saw it in me, and had the courage to call it out. “It is not fair to the organization or the team to hang on for the wrong reasons. It’s better to leave too soon than to stay too long. Tentative leadership kills the momentum of the whole ministry. “So, after 20 years in the first chair, I decided it was time for me to step down as the leader of our international ministry. I was no longer all in, so I needed to be all gone. It was a job I once loved, but no longer enjoyed. I asked the board to start the process of finding my replacement. This was one of the hardest decisions of my career, but a good one.  “The number one issue for me was passion. My heart was no longer engaged in my job—the fire had gone out. My heart had left the building.” Whew!  That’s just a taste of Finzel’s feast on the power of passion and there’s more to chew on:    • The slogan inside his baseball cap: “Do what you like, like what you do.” He said to himself, “I am doing neither.”    • The lottery question to gauge your heart: “If you won the lottery tomorrow, what would you do with the rest of your life?” In describing the passion zone, he asks: How much does “The Leader” circle (gifts, abilities, strengths, personalities, values, calling) overlap with “The Role” circle (followers, culture, responsibilities, activities, situation, history)?    • “When who we are lines up with the role we are in, then we are in a place of passion.”    • “Feed your heart with great books and seminars. One of the best ways to guard your heart is to feed your heart.” (This is one of 15 suggestions for regaining your passion from the chapter, “The Road to Passion Recovery – Option One: Stay Put and Get Your Groove Back.”)    • From his list of 12 on “You Know It’s Time to Leave When…” he notes: “The juice is no longer worth the squeeze. You’re worn out.” Finzel has packed a punch in this thin little book. He recommends Henry Cloud’s book, Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Move Forward (my 2011 book-of-the-year). But if you’re nervous about taking the plunge, you’ll appreciate this personal testimonial: “Jumping was one of the best decisions of my life…scary but exhilarating. One of the Joshua’s in the ministry I left took over for me and is doing a great job. That is what I call a win-win for everyone. I get to follow my heart and my former ministry is doing just great without me.”   Hmmm. Reminds me of Parker Palmer’s appreciation for Frederick Buechner’s inspiring insight: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” To order from Amazon, click on this title: The Power of Passion in Leadership: Lead From Your Heart, Not Just Your Head, by Hans Finzel. Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions: 1) A young leader, on a fast track to be a CEO somewhere, asked me recently, “Is it OK to have passion about leading—being the CEO; or must I also have passion about the specific cause and mission of the organization?” How would you answer him? 2) Finzel counsels leaders who have lost their passion: “You might be at this crossroads. I get it. You have two choices to make [see chapters 6 and 7]. Whatever you do, make one of the two. The worst mistake is to do nothing. Time will not take care of it.”  Are you at a crossroads? Mentor Team Members With Niche Books    As we cycle through the 20 buckets, here is an insight from The Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets. “Mentor your team members with niche books—and leverage their strengths with thoughtfully selected chapters.” Example: Who’s on your team today that could be at a career crossroads? Sure, their leaving would cause you short-term pain—but, maybe, you are the God-appointed mentor to help them in their journey toward greater joy and passion. Bless a person this week with a gift copy of The Power of Passion in Leadership. (And ask a close friend or family member if you should read this book too!) For more resources and ideas on creating a culture that embraces healthy appetites for leadership and management books, visit The Book Bucket webpage. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA BLOG on “Governance of Christ-centered Organizations” – Add your thoughts and comments to John Pearson’s latest blog, "There's an Elephant in the Room--But Let's Just Keep the Peace."

Lessons from the Bench

 

Issue No. 677 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (April 15, 2026) asks if you’ve ever read a book on coaching bench players? (Me neither.) Plus, click here for recent issues posted at the new location for John Pearson’s Buckets Blog, including my recent review of three coaching books. Also, check out the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and more book reviews at the Pails in Comparison Blog. ATTN: BENCH WARMERS! Here's Bench Lesson #4 in Brandon Bakke’s new book: “Don’t Underestimate How Much You can Improve.” Read my first of three reviews of Lessons from the Bench. “Healthy and Successful Teams Need the Bench” Raise your hand if you’ve ever coached or mentored someone—or plan to do so. Now…raise your hand if you’ve ever read a book about the unique role of coaching “bench players.” Yeah—me neither. I’ve never read anything like this. (My bad.) So how about you just trust me on this one—and read the book and then inspire others to read it. It’s perfect for your next nine weekly staff meetings.   Lessons From the Bench:  Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players  on Teams and in Organizations by Brandon H. Bakke (March 16, 2026) Brandon Bakke writes that this book is for players, coaches, and anyone who’s ever been part of a team—on the court, in the workplace, or in life. He notes that “hundreds of books have been written about how to be a successful team and teammate [he notes two Lencioni books including The Ideal Team Player]. But almost none of them address what it’s like to stay motivated, connected, and still contribute meaningfully from a role like the one I held for much of my time playing for Jerry Tarkanian’s Fresno State Bulldogs." How about you—and your colleagues? How are they (and you) labeled? Backup? Benchwarmer? “Riding the pine?” “Sometimes we get a more dignified name like ‘role player’ or ‘supporting cast.’ Regardless of the label, we know who bench players are—team members who are not the stars. We don’t get the postgame interviews. We aren’t the captain. We don’t play as much, if at all. We’re not the ones leading boardroom meetings, delivering keynote speeches, making the major business deals or becoming the face of the company.” No—this is NOT a downer book. Just the opposite. Bakke adds, “Lessons from the Bench will explore what I learned from my time on the bench and what other athletes and coaches I have encountered have shown us from their experiences—that healthy, and successful teams need the bench.”  WARNING! This book needs two reviews, maybe three (stay tuned this summer)—but trust me—you’ll thank me. And the people you’re coaching and mentoring now and in the future—they’ll thank you. Ditto your kids and grandkids and their coaches. But for this first review, enjoy this transparent story from Brandon Bakke on “Bench Lesson #2—Embrace Your Role.” (One of nine bench lessons—all insightful.)   Brandon Bakke on “Coach Knows More Than I Do”    As a young player, I needed a wake-up call. I needed to better grasp that I simply didn’t know as much as the coach. One day, Coach Tark was frustrated with what he perceived to be players questioning the coaches. So he stopped practice, grabbed a basketball and called us together. “This ball,” he said, holding it up, “represents all the knowledge there is to know about basketball.” Coach took out a pen and drew a circle on the ball, about the size of a softball. “See this small circle?” he continued. “This represents all I know about basketball.” Then he put a tiny dot inside the smaller circle. “This dot isn’t what you know about basketball,” he said. “One microscopic spec of ink on that dot is what you know about basketball. Stop questioning the coaches!” Questioning coaches happens all the time—even Coach Tark, a hall of famer and national champion, faced it. Bench players are notorious for it, but it’s really a universal challenge. In schools, workplaces, teams and families, we sometimes operate as if we know more than the principal, the CEO or whoever is in charge. It is a hard pill to swallow: accepting that the coach might see something we don’t—that the situation is more complex than we understand. But learning to make that mindset shift is a critical step toward embracing our role from the bench. OH, MY! Don’t wait for my second review (and maybe a third review) this summer. Read the book now and learn why Brock Huard [NFL backup QB] wrote the foreword, and why some coaches allocate “fun tickets” to some players unequally (is that fair?). And why “great bench players are masterful nugget thieves.” (Brilliant concept!) Bakke, by the way, leverages his three decades in business, education, and athletics—as a high school and college basketball coach, teacher, and principal and as a former bench player for “Coach Tark’s” FSU men’s basketball team. (Learn more and download resources from his website at Lessons from the Bench.) TO ORDER FROM AMAZON, click on the title for Lessons From the Bench: Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players on Teams and in Organizations, by Brandon H. Bakke. Listen on Libro (5 hours).   See my short reviews of three short coaching books: BOOK #1: Ten Marks of a Coachable Leader, by Gary P. Rohrmayer (Sept. 4, 2024, 92 pages). Order from Amazon. BOOK #2: Coaching the Other Way: How to Effectively Coach and Be Coached, by Brian Burman and JD Pearring (Nov. 27, 2025, 191 pages). Order from Amazon. BOOK #3: Good Coach Bad Coach: Build A Practice Where You Belong, by Simon Harling (Dec. 2, 2025, 138 pages). Order from Amazon. PLUS! Check out the mini-blurbs on 27 books for coaches, wanna-be coaches, and those wanting to be coached—at the Pails in Comparison Blog. NOTE: I’m taking a short break from this eNews, but I’ll be back in May. If you need more books, check out the four lists at The Book Bucket webpage.   YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: #1) Brandon Bakke is quick to acknowledge coaches and others he’s learned from, including his uncle Dennis Bakke, author of the bestseller, Joy At Work: A Revolutionary Approach to Fun on the Job  (I named this my 2006 book-of-the-year). Question: Describe a “bench-warming” period in your life—and what you learned from your coach, your boss, and/or your colleagues. #2) Brandon Bakke writes, “My issue as I entered this final college season is I quietly doubted that there was much improvement left in me.” (Read “Bench Lesson #4—Don’t Underestimate How Much You Can Improve.”) Question: Can you think of two people in your life that have put the brakes on improvement? How about you? Have you stopped growing—or is there any improvement left in you?       SECOND READS: Fresh Solutions From Classic Books You have changed—and your problems have changed—since you read this the first time! Book #45 of 99: Tales from Q School For your team meeting this week, inspire a team member to lead your “10 Minutes for Lifelong Learning” session by featuring Book #45 of 99 in our series, “Second Reads.” The big idea: REREAD TO LEAD! Discover how your favorite books still have more to teach you and the people you’re coaching and mentoring. Tales From Q School:  Inside Golf’s Fifth Major John Feinstein (May 2, 2007)  If you enjoyed golf’s spring extravaganza, the Master Tournament this last weekend, you’re reminded of all the great golfers that did not make the cut this year. There’s more to the story in this page-turning book by celebrated sportswriter John Feinstein.    • Read my review in Issue No. 41 (June 11, 2007).    • Order from Amazon.    • Management Bucket #5 of 20: The Book Bucket John Feinstein, the bestselling sportswriter, chronicles the agony and the ecstasy (to borrow a cliché) of the winners and the losers at the 2005 PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, often described as professional golf’s fifth major tournament. It’s an annual competition for the 30 new spots available each year on the PGA Tour. In 2005, more than 1,200 already-vetted golfers paid up to $4,500 each for a shot at the big time.  The book is a page-turner and the management and personal insights are frequent. You’ll read about the classic golf “catastrophes like Joe Daley's two-foot putt in 2000, which somehow went to the bottom of the cup and then popped out like a jack-in-the-box (he missed getting a card by one stroke).” The golf stories are memorable, but if you’re not a golfer, you already know not to buy this! See also my 2023 review of Feherty: The Remarkably Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf's David Feherty, also by John Feinstein. I slotted this one in the Hoopla! Bucket.   CLICK HERE FOR BOOKS BY JOHN      On page 57 in the Book Bucket chapter of the Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook, you'll find Scott Vandeventer’s wise insights about “management-by-bestseller syndrome," which he says is "due to a kind of corporate attention deficit disorder, probably systemic to its leadership.”  "COACH! CAN I GO FOR 3?" Brandon Bakke (see above) urges basketball coaches to give one-on-one feedback to players. Example: If and when they can go for a three-point basket. Tool #16 in the 22-tool resource, ECFA Tools and Templates for Effective Board Governance, features the “Prime Responsibility Chart”—denoting who has prime responsibility and approval responsibility for key tasks.  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. 27 Coaching Books! Check out the mini-blurbs on 27 books for coaches, wanna-be coaches, and those wanting to be coached—at the Pails in Comparison Blog. Reminder from Pat Williams: “Coaching is not easy. It’s like a nervous breakdown with a paycheck.” See more reviews at the Pails in Comparison blog. MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations

Talking to Strangers

 

Issue No. 426 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (Jan. 11, 2020) features the latest Wall Street Journal bestseller by Malcolm Gladwell—but be warned. It’s depressing! And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my Top-10 books of 2019 and my Book-of-the-Year pick. Don’t Read This Depressing Review! If you’re looking for an upbeat you-can-be-anything-you-wanna-be positive-thinking, inspirational page-turner for Year 2020—THEN QUICK!—delete this eNews. This book is depressing. Malcolm Gladwell’s new bestseller, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know, is mistitled. Had the publisher asked me, I would have suggested these titles: • We Are Rotten at Spotting Liars and Deceivers! • The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and Desperately Wicked! • Why Neville Chamberlain Should Have Skipped the Meeting With Hitler! • The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth: LOL! • Dishonesty and Stupidity Are Everywhere: Don’t Trust Large Organizations or Bernie Madoff! I could go on. But if you insist on reading my review of Talking to Strangers (and even worse—reading the book), please remember that I warned you. This will be short—because it’s too depressing to write a long review. THE BIG IDEA: Really smart people (the CIA, military intelligence, regulators, university officials with Ph.D.’s, the list goes on…) are not that smart when discerning if people we don’t know well are hoodwinking us (think spies, double agents, Ponzi schemers, football coaches, job applicants, the list goes on…). So…what chance is there for the rest of us with average intelligence? Gladwell: not much! The author elaborates on two puzzlers: PUZZLE #1: “Why can’t we tell when the stranger in front of us is lying to our face?” PUZZLE #2: “How is it that meeting a stranger can sometimes make us worse at making sense of that person than not meeting them?” EXAMPLE: The brazenness of a female employee of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (a Cuban spy), who won honors from the CIA and then was chosen for a stint in Cuba as a CIA distinguished intelligence analyst. Shocking! (Did I mention “shocking”?) BEST QUOTE: “The issue with spies is not that there is something brilliant about them. It is that there is something wrong with us.” What’s wrong? We’re rotten at spotting liars. Citing numerous studies, Gladwell notes: “What [the researcher] discovered is what psychologists always find in these cases, which is that most of us aren’t good at lie detection. On average, judges correctly identify liars 54 percent of the time—just slightly better than chance.” He adds, “This is true no matter who does the judging. Students are terrible. FBI agents are terrible. CIA officers are terrible. Lawyers are terrible.” In typical Gladwellian fashion (to be clear—I love his books), the author paints page-turning narratives with both familiar and unfamiliar accounts: Chamberlain and Hitler, Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Cox (fascinating), the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State University, and the never-should-have-happened death of Sandra Bland (the result of a routine traffic stop). There’s more (and caution—some of the verbatim courtroom accounts are raw and R-rated). AHA! MOMENT: There are many, but I was particularly intrigued with Gladwell’s focus on “location” and why local police tend to misunderstand criminal data about location—or just ignore it. I found just a modicum of hope to mitigate the depression: Discussing the “Law of Crime Concentration,” the author writes, “Like suicide, crime is tied to very specific places and contexts. Weisburd’s experiences in the 72nd Precinct and in Minneapolis are not idiosyncratic. They capture something close to a fundamental truth about human behavior. And that means that when you confront the stranger, you have to ask yourself where and when you’re confronting the stranger—because those two things powerfully influence your interpretation of who the stranger is.” FINAL THOUGHT: The book is depressing, but you should read it—or delegate your reading to someone on your team. To order from Amazon, click on the title for Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know, by Malcolm Gladwell. And special thanks to Dave Barton for recommending this depressing book! To listen to the audio version (8 hours, 42 minutes), visit Libro.fm YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS: 1) Malcolm Gladwell said the reason we’re so bad at spotting liars is because “we’re truth-biased” and “…we nearly always miss the crucial clues in the moment…” Yikes! So…who would like to read and report on this book BEFORE we interview our next job applicant? 2) In a footnote about training U.S. military personnel who might some day be water boarded and/or tortured (page 244), Gladwell contrasted two schools of thought. "The Navy wanted to show their trainees how bad things could get. The Air Force felt their trainees were better off not knowing that.” How would you approach this subject—wanting the best for the people you’re training?   Outliers: 1 of My Top-100 Books Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook  One of the big ideas in the Book Bucket, Chapter 5, in Mastering the Management Buckets, is is to create your Top-100 book list. This week, I posted three updated lists on my Book Bucket webpage (click here): BOOKS REVIEWED BY JOHN PEARSON: • List #1: Books by Management Buckets Categories • List #2: Chronological List of 425 Issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting (400+ books) • List #3: John Pearson's Top-100 Book List (updated every 2 years) One of my Top-100 book picks is by Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success. (Click here to read my 2008 review.) Here’s a snippet: You will insist that Gladwell’s conclusions cannot possibly be true. Are they? You’ll sense sadness at how we fail to understand culture—and the incredible harm of wasted years and lives—all preventable, claims the author. He makes a compelling case about luck, timing—and the extraordinary power of the 10,000-hour rule and how it contributed to the success of Bill Gates and the Beatles. Read Outliers and then host a team discussion on the vast implications for your organization, such as what to consider when recruiting new team members and how professional development programs might need to change based on a person’s ethnicity. For example, Greeks and Guatemalans are in the top five of the “uncertainty avoidance” countries (high reliance on rules), while Swedes and Jamaicans represent the top-five cultures best able to tolerate ambiguity. (Did I mention I’m Swedish?) P.S. To read my 2013 review of Gladwell’s excellent book, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, click here.                    JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Are you leveraging the extraordinary power of visual media to inspire your members, clients, or customers? Check out the innovative work from Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video), including the new book by Jason Pearson and Doug Fields, THIS. 52 Ways to Share Your World With Those You Love.    MORE LESSONS: Effectiveness, Excellence, Elephants! Click here to order More Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom, by Dan Busby and John Pearson. Click here to follow the new blog with 40 guest bloggers.  NOTICE! Effective Oct. 1, 2025, all 657 eNews issues, previously archived on Typepad.com are slowly (!) being moved to a new website here. New book reviews will also be archived at John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. Or, click here for John’s recent book reviews on Amazon. ECFA Tools and Templates Blog Click here to read John's new blog series on 22 downloadable tools and templates for effective board governance, including why you must include "heavy lifting" on your agenda. See "Tool #12: Quarterly Board Meeting Agenda and Recommendations." MORE RESOURCES: • BLOG: Pails in Comparison • SUBSCRIBE: Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews • JOHN'S BOOK REVIEWS: on Amazon  • WEBSITE:  Management Buckets • BLOG: Governance of Christ-Centered Organizations