Fantastic Quote

"I don't believe bigger is better, I believe better is better. Period."

Leslie Wexner, CEO, LimitedBrands

Bahamas Wedding

A funny sight welcomed us to the Bahamas on Friday - our JetBlue plane pulled up alongside a Bahamas Air plane. Its name was partially hidden by the jetway. It looked like:

Hamas Air

Hiatus

Has it really been one month since I last blogged? Things have been so busy that I haven't had time to concentrate on many of my hobbies.

Working in a university environment is truly thrilling - every day I can chose between dozens of lectures, workshops, and classes. How can one not learn from such abundant knowledge?

Once such example is a recent event I attended that was sponsored by the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. It was a conversation between CPL Director David Gergen and noted author Dr. Spencer Johnson. Spencer Johnson published a few books many of you may be familiar with, one of them is "Who Moved My Cheese?", a parable about change and how we deal with change. He also co-authored (with Ken Blanchard) a book called "The One-Minute Manager", which Yoav has said could be one of the best management books he has read in a while (and he's read quite a few).

These books are based on the ideas of honesty and simplicity. We often fall into the trap of using our intellect to make things more complex than they need to be. If we just stop our frenzied activity, we can see how we can be much more effective if we focus on some simple ideas.

Below are some quotes and thoughts from Spencer's talk:

“Simplistic is naïve and not enough;
Simple is enough and nothing more”

Spencer was the second of three people in the past week who talked about the need for introspection and self-reflection.

“Don’t confuse activity with productivity,” he said. He used the 80-20 Law as an example: 20% of what you do brings in 80% of your results. So identify the other 80% of what you do and spend less time doing it.

Learn to respect the simple:
• Some teachers make things complex, so you think “Wow, he’s smart!”
• Great teachers make things simple, so you think “Wow, I’m smart!”

“Insecure managers create complexity…real leaders don’t need clutter. People must have the self-confidence to be clear, precise, to be sure that every person in their organization – highest to lowest – understands what the business is trying to achieve.” Jack Welch, interview in Harvard Business Review.