Quotes and Notes

Quotes:

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.
You never learn anything when you're talking.
Spagetti Code to Ravioli Code (more modular)
Most ideas die in your head or around the table of friends or colleagues; start something
Henry Ford was heard to say, "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got!"
Drucker: Culture eats strategy for breakfast (lunch)
Tell me how [and when] you'll measure me, and I'll tell you how I'll behave
What gets measured, gets done.
Nobody ever 'growed' a hog by weighin' it
Plant lots of seeds; 1% of the seeds turn into 50% of the flowers. Basic Garden Math.

Douglas Mc Gregor:
Theory X (managers believe people are lazy and must be motivated and controlled) 
Theory Y (people are basically self-motivated and need to be channeled and challenged)
http://www.accel-team.com/human_relations/hrels_03_mcgregor.html 

Dr.Eli Goldratt
"Tell me how you'll measure me, and I'll tell you how I will behave. If my measurements are not clear, no one can predict how I will behave, not even me." - Dr.Eli Goldratt, gives the direction for a metrics solution, according to a methodology called the Theory of Constraints,or TOC for short

Negotiation:
Always leave money on the table for your partners. Not only will you be very rich, you will be very happy. If you allow your partners to benefit from the deal, they always come back and want to do business with you. There will never be a shortage of opportunity.

It is the man who goes to the table to ask and squeeze for the last nickel who is never happy. Do you know why? It is because that person leaves the table, typically getting the nickel, but then hates himself for not asking for the two nickels. As a result, he is never happy.

I immediately thought about all of the people I knew from Wall Street who were very rich, but also miserable. While I may be driven to the point of driving those around me crazy, I have never let success stand in the way of my happiness. And, as I've put this advice into practice in the years since that meeting, I have also realized the value of many other forms of capital. Again, as described in Goodbye Gordon Gekko:

Capital is not only cash, stocks, and real estate. Capital is any asset that you can store and rely upon, and it comes in many forms. There is capital in economic terms, which consists of investment assets, cash, and things like equipment on a company's balance sheet. There is also human capital, which is made up of those who work with you. When you establish healthy win-win relationships with people, your capital account grows and can earn you a lot of dough. But accumulating enough of any of those can only happen if you trust that your actions are worthwhile no matter what the return.

The method of principled negotiation is based on five propositions:
    "Separate the people from the problem"
    "Focus on interests, not positions"
    "Invent options for mutual gain"
    "Insist on using objective criteria"
    "Know your BATNA (Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement)"


NYT Article on Amazon Culture:

"It would certainly be much easier and socially cohesive to just compromise and not debate, but that may lead to the wrong decision."

Amazonians are instructed to "disagree and commit" and "to rip into colleagues" ideas, with feedback that can be blunt to the point of painful, before lining up behind a decision.