I have recently had the joys of attending some training at work. The training in question was designed to make me, and my colleagues, better leaders. Over the course of six modules I will learn how to get better results from myself and those around me. Perhaps I am addressing a deficit in leadership capabilities. Perhaps we all have room for improvement. Regardless of the rationale, part of my homework involved reading two books that would, I was told, assist in my learning experience.
Book one was a tale of two mice who lived in a maze and undertook daily missions in search of cheese. The cheese was a metaphor for whatever you want in life, and the mice had to contend with occasional inexplicable cheese relocations to see how quickly they adapted to change. For anyone who wants to learn about change, or who just wants to read about mice and/or cheese, the book was called 'Who moved my cheese?'.
Book two was a more straight up telling of a student of leadership, who learned from the 'One Minute Manager'. This technique involves getting the best from those around you by being clear with your goals (one minute goal setting), by praising good performance (one minute praising) and reprimanding poor performance (yes, predictably, the one minute reprimand). The book took longer than one minute to read.
Both books were sufficiently short and simple to allow absolutely everyone to understand them, and sufficiently logical for everyone to wonder why we hadn't all one-minute managed all of our lives, or gone in search of new cheese. Both reiterated that the messages learnt within them were most effective when shared, thus generating vast sales figures for each of them and no doubt making the authors millionaires in the process (one minute millionaires - who needs new cheese now?!).
Because they were both short books, I read them on the train on my way down to my regional office in Exeter. Part way through the trip, I suddenly felt very self-conscious, as though I was engaging in some form of self-help ritual. I'm not sure why that should make me self-conscious - I'm sure self-help has self-helped millions of people globally. But with my headphones in I felt as though I may also be listening to an audiotape with someone repeatedly telling me very loudly that 'I can do it', and inviting me to repeat it along with them, which, ironically, I couldn't bring myself to do.
One of the books had a lot of reviews on the inside cover, including one from Jack Bauer! I suspect this was a different Jack Bauer to the one found in 24, but I like the thought that, in between saving America from a catastrophic terrorist atrocity over the course of a day, Jack takes time to learn leadership lessons and how to adapt to change more quickly. Useful skills when undertaking counter-espionage no doubt.
Having discussed these books with other colleagues, we came up with a couple of potential titles of our own, including a book for overzealous talkers, 'Is anyone really listening anyway?', and one for nervous interviewees, 'Who moved my anti-perspirant?'. Such cynicism carried through into the course where, I'm delighted to say, I was sufficiently open-minded enough to have taken on board some of the points raised, not least when I showed quality leadership skills by initiating a (one-minute) conga through our regional office. I think the title of my self-help book will be 'You put your left foot in...'!
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