Monthly Archives: March 2009

Book Discussion: 3/15/09

Attendence: Chris, Saad, Roger, Mike

I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion of Peter Drucker’s Effective Executive. The overall theme of the book is to help the reader understand what a person can do to make his or her contribution to the organization more effective.

The content of the book was well suited for discussion, but we also tried a new discussion technique. Instead of reading the questions out-loud myself, we each took turns reading the questions. This really seemed to keep everyone involved in the discussion and contributed to the overall flow.

Here are the questions we used for discussion:

1) Why do you think Drucker felt it was necessary to write a book on the topic of effectiveness?

2) Does the Effective Executive offer a central idea or premise? What are some of the problems or issues are raised?

3) Paraphrasing Drucker, “the realities of an executive’s situation can easily push their efforts into futility.” What realities do you think the modern knowledge worker deals with that pushes efforts away from effectiveness?

4) One reality Drucker discusses is the notion that many activities in an organization are often time wasters getting in the way of effectiveness. What time wasters commonly pull against you, and how could you go about reducing them?

5) An excerpt from the book:

When asked“And what do you do that justifies your being on the payroll?” The great majority, he reports answer: “I run the accounting department,” or “I am in charge of the sales force.” Indeed, not uncommonly the answer is, “I Have 850 people working under me.” Only a few say, “It’s my job to give our managers the information they need to make the right decisions,” or “I am responsible for finding out what products the customer will want tomorrow,” or “I have to think through and prepare the decisions the president will have to face tomorrow.”

What is the difference between looking downward and looking upward? Looking at your own job, do you tend to focus downward; can you think of how you would perform your job differently looking upward?

6) As a crucial step in becoming more effective, it is suggested that an executive ask ones self “what can I contribute?” Can you or the author offer solutions to answering the question?

7) Drucker has noticed that many times an organization tends to deal with “the problem of the day”, spending more time focusing on putting out fires than on developing real strategy. He advises us to instead “feed the opportunities and starve the problems.”

Do you think this is a realistic goal? Who’s responsibility is it to achieve this?

8) In the chapter first thing is first, Drucker says if there is any secret to being effective, it is concentration. What does he mean by using the word concentration, and what are some suggestions for obtaining it?

9) The latter part of the book discusses decision making. How do you think people can make better decisions? Do you think organizations are effective at making decisions?

10) Do the issues raised in this book affect your life? How so—directly, on a daily basis or more generally?

11) What did you learn from this book that you can apply this Tuesday?

Book Discussion: 3/1/2009

Attendance: Chris, Justin, Harry, Saad

The discussion of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich was very interesting. While two hours was not enough to cover the book in it’s entirety, we did get to cover a substantial portion of the philosophy. For this blog, I just wanted to go over the questions that were posed to the group and provide a very brief synopsis of the answer.

Many of the discussion questions came from a discussion guide at www.ideamerge.net.

1) What do you think is meant by “thoughts are things?”

No matter how big or small, achievements begin with a basic thought. One of three things can happen with the initial thought:

-it can be dismissed

-it can be kept as a wish or dream

-it can be acted upon

The focus of Hill’s work is on the third action. A large part of success depends upon the thoughts that one has and how they are nurtured and cultivated.

2) Are thoughts alone enough? What else do you need to do to be successful?

Thoughts of course are not enough. There is an essential ingredient list of success. Most of these ingredients are a result of thought. Thought is a huge component because it will determine how one responds to the other essential component of success; action.

3) Why is desire the starting point for all achievement?

Success requires hard work. There are very few actual stories of “overnight success.” You must carefully listen to your desires before you will be able to develop the intense focus needed for achievement.

4) What value do you place on your thoughts?

5) Why is it important to choose a definite goal?

The human mind is very powerful and it is constantly thinking. The problem is, for most people this thinking is unfocused. Lack of focus is a real inhibitor when it comes to achieving things. Listening to your desires and developing a definite goal will help you to develop the focus needed to make your endeavors successful.

6) What separates successful people from unsuccessful people?

Successful people are focused. They generate plans, then act upon them. They do not let Unsuccessful people go from one thing to the next and allow life’s noise to be the main driver of their efforts.

7) What should a person do who has a definite purpose but know plan?

Put your purpose onto paper and repeat it aloud once in the morning, and once at night. Picture yourself as already possessing the definite purpose. This will allow your brain to go to work and figure out the steps needed to accomplish your purpose.

8) How does hill specifically suggest a person develop faith and plans?

Hill has something called the self confidence formula. It is based off the principle of auto suggestion which consists of believing that one can accomplish his goals, reading aloud his goals and imagining himself in possession of his goals.

9) What does it mean to be truly educated?

The example given in the book is the story of Henry Ford in court who exclaims that it is a waste of his time to memorize useless facts because he has an army of staff that can provide him any answer he wants if he should he have a need to know.

An educated person does not need to know everything already, but instead he needs to have the skills and resources needed to obtain information that is required.

10) Why is imagination the “hub” of all of the lessons in the book?

One can have desire, and action and plans, but all of these may be rather meager without imagination. Imagination allows the mind to create things that may be of value which are not in existence.

11) How is marketing yourself similar to marketing merchandise?

People are judged in similar terms to that of merchandise. Think of the qualities that people look for in merchandise and they will most likely apply to your work as well.

12) What is the single most important thing in developing persistence?

A definite chief aim is the most important thing in developing persistence. Without this, one cannot truly be persistent. The problem is, very few people actually have a definite chief aim. Napoleon Hill contends that 98 out of 100 people do not have a definite goal.