Bryan Strawser

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Bob Sutton’s “No Asshole Rule”

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I recently finished reading Bob Sutton’s great book The No Asshole Rule.. Even with a great corporate culture like my employer’s, sometimes a few assholes sneak in here and there — I found the book to be an interesting guide on how to deal with them..

A few highlights….

First, the Top Ten Steps to enforce the No Asshole Rule:

  • Say the rule, write it down, and act on it
  • Assholes will hire other assholes
  • Get rid of assholes fast
  • Treat certified assholes as incompetent employees
  • Power breeds nastiness
  • Embrace the power – performance paradox
  • Manage moments – not just practices, policies, and systems
  • Model and teach constructive confrontation
  • Adopt the one asshole rule
  • The bottom line: link big policies to small decencies

A quote from the book referencing Leonardo da Vinci, which I’ve used before in some discussions:

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end

Bob’s conclusion to the book is my favorite part:

This book isn’t simply meant to be an objective summary of theory and researcha bout the ways that assholes undermine organizational effectiveness. I wrote it because my life and the lives of the people I care about are too short and too precious to spend our days surrounded by jerks….”

Amen!

What’s in my bag 2010

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It’s been three years since I’ve written about What’s in my Bag, so it’s finally time to update this list of what I decide to tote around with me.

The Bag

Four years ago, I switched from my trusty Brenthaven bag of several years over to a Tumi Nylon Briefcase capable of holding my then-17″ Macbook Pro. Four years later, I’m still trekking along with the indestructible Tumi bag. It has nary a tear or a blemish. Hands down the best bag that I’ve ever owned.

Unfortunately, the bag isn’t always suitable for some cross-country trips. In those cases, I switch to a Swiss Army backpack with a laptop padded compartment.

Between the two bags, we’ve been to several states, the UK, Germany, France, and India together over the past four years – and we’ll see some other places together before my time here ends. Both have served me well.

The Technology

  • 15″ Apple MacBook Pro. Earlier this year, my 3.5 year old 17″ MacBook Pro started having some power and logic board issues. Soon after the latest generation of MacBooks were released, I bought a stock lower-end 15″ MacBook Pro and haven’t looked back. The current generation of machines come swimming in hard drive space and RAM – and I haven’t seen a need to upgrade anything with this one. It’s my lead non-work machine.
  • Dell Latitude D630 Laptop. For work, this is my windows based portable machine. It’s a lot heavier than my MacBook Pro and nowhere near as capable, but I live in a Microsoft windows world at work – and when I need to actually do work on the road, this machine comes along. Mine has a privacy screen on it so that folks can’t see what I’m up to as I travel.
  • Apple iPad 3G+Wifi (64GB). I came a bit late to the iPad game, but purchased one, along with the bluetooth wireless keyboard. I’ve taken several trips with nothing but the iPad and my keyboard for computing, email, and communication needs. I’ve found it to be an invaluable tool for reading, entertainment, games, and general productivity. Hopefully I’ll be able to sync my work e-mail on it at some point in the future, then I will be traveling with my laptop far less than I do today.
  • Apple iPhone4 (32GB, Black). I was upgrade eligible and received the new phone on June 23rd. This is been my main personal phone for three years, back to the original iPhone, and my main work phone for well over a year. It has been the single best productivity aid and communications device in my personal and professional career.
  • iPod (60GB). I’m still using my Apple iPod from four years ago – nearly crammed with music and videos at 60GB. I haven’t seen a need to upgrade. Using the new Shure SE420 headphones – expensive, but worth it for the sound. At work, this sits in an iHome dock.
  • Verizon MiFi 2200 portable hotspot. As I have a redundant need to be able to be on-line no matter where I am due to the role I hold at work, the MiFi helps me fulfill that need by providing a portable hotspot for up to four connections at once. I’ve used this extensively throughout the United States to great affect.
  • Levenger Notebook – I use leather three-ring binder from Levenger to hold my daily schedule, executive summaries, tasks, and various notes as I motor throughout my day. My tabs and some forms are custom made based on how I like to organize and plan. I also use several forms from David Seah’s various productivity tools.
  • Amazon Kindle2. Last year, a co-worker talked with me glowingly about his Kindle, I wound up ordering one that very night. It’s been one of the best devices I’ve ever owned, I’ve hardly purchased a paper book since picking up the Kindle last March. I carry it in a simple Amazon Kindle case.
  • Business Cards. I carry between 100-200 business cards for work at all times. I’m constantly running into folks at conferences, etc, that are interested in exchanging cards. Besides, Target business cards are cool!
  • Moleskin notebooks. I use a wide variety of Moleskin products. Some larger notebooks I use for specific projects, the smaller notebooks that are pocket-sized I use for store visits or just for jotting down notes as I wander about town. I’ve never found a better notepad.

What’s in your bag?

I will never be as rich as Bill Gates

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But there will be a point in my life where I choose to walk away and give something back, much as Gates has done since leaving Microsoft:

Indeed, Gates’ notion of an “active” retirement is far more ambitious than most people’s careers. After all, he’s only 54 years old, and he still has an enormous fortune estimated at $50 billion to manage, even after pouring tens of billions of dollars into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Apart from his role as co-chair of the foundation and his side-gig at Microsoft, he also joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway (BKRA) at the behest of buddy Warren Buffett.

And as he has adapted to his new, post-Microsoft routines, he has more aggressively used the bully pulpit of being both the world’s most celebrated entrepreneur and its most generous philanthropist to influence the world in new ways. He’s always had the ear of the business world, but now he frequently meets with heads of state to lobby for more humanitarian aid for the developing world, and he visits CEOs to urge them to consider ways to serve customers there.

After its end, Target proxy fight still puzzling

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Joe Nocera writes at the New York Times about the Target / Pershing Square proxy contest that ended yesterday on Thursday:

You can’t help but suspect that Mr. Ackman’s subsequent proxy fight, one of the most expensive ever mounted, was an act of pique. His dedicated Target fund had lost, according to numerous reports, some 90 percent of its value, largely because of his own bit of financial engineering: he owned options that accelerated his losses as the stock sank. His real estate idea had been rebuffed by management. (They turned him down in part because they feared a ratings downgrade.) He had asked to go on the board and been turned down for that as well. And though the stock was down, he could hardly argue that Target was poorly run, because it isn’t. He was like a spoiled child unaccustomed to being told “no.”

Joe’s column is the best I’ve seen on the issue yet.

Disclosures: I am an employee of Target and own stock in the corporation.

The Notebooks

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Over at Design Observer, Michael Bierut writes about his 85 notebooks that he’s used over the last 26 years:

When I look at these notebooks, many of the references bring back memories, some decades old. But other times I frankly can’t remember why I was writing these things down. Did I ever call Dilland? Whatever happened to Executive Sign? What was the Lefand Alliance? In many ways, the act of notetaking and sketching is an end in itself for me. Many of these pages, filled with trivia as they are, are destined never to be looked at a second time.

I’ve been writing in my own notebooks for the last three years.

On Friday, I was rearranging my office at Target – looking to make some more collaborative space and generally simplify a few things – I came across the drawer with my notebooks in them. They provided me with a nice romp through the last three years of projects, meetings, trips, feedback, things to do, and drawings.

I saw the measurements for my home office before furniture shopping, a great quote from a mentor of mine over breakfast, notes from my annual reviews of the last few years, reminders of things I needed to take care of, and a sketch for the room layout of our crisis center. Great memories.

It was 15 years ago…

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today that I first walked in the doors of a Target store as a team member – Assets Protection Specialist was the title – I was making $5.71/hr.

Fifteen years later, six months, and moving through seven different roles — I’m still here as Manager, Assets Protection Innovation at HQ — the “dessert” party for our floor is later in the month.

Though many opportunities have come my way to move on – leave the company – do something else – it’s the great folks that I work with everyday that keep me inspired and motivated — and challenged…. It’s been a great place to have a career.

Maggie, wherever you are nowadays, thanks again for hiring me. I had no idea this would be so much fun!

Scoble @ Target

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Robert Scoble wrote about his meeting with Target earlier this month:

Target report. Yesterday was an incredible day for me personally. There are so many fantastic people at Target I couldn’t name them all. Having dinner with Paul Singer last night, senior vice president and CIO, was one of the highlights of my life. He’s worked at Target for 21 years. We talked about a range of things from the Tablet PC I was carrying to his “Adopt” pin that he was wearing (he highly recommends adoption and is an evangelist for helping out kids who don’t have parents).

The headquarters at Target just gets my creative juices going. It’s a beautiful building and quite a few separate employees spoke in glowing terms about the art work and culture that’s prevelent there. Yesterday they had cultural dances and hundreds of employees were enthusiastically watching that.

I don’t want to share too much what was discussed in the meeting because that’s a competitive advantage that Target will have and I don’t want to mess that up.

If you think you (people who left comments on the treads, or wrote about Target yesterday) didn’t have an impact, you did. They are looking at this new world and trying to learn from it, and watching their process as they do that makes me understand why Target has such a strong brand. When I say “they” by the way, I mean many of the most important leaders inside Target are reading the blogs this morning.

[…]

One observation. Employees at Target dress to the nines! If Microsoft and Target employees ever got together for a party you’d be able to separate them out instantly. No jeans and t-shirts were seen at Target.

Another observation: far more diversity, both in gender and ethnicity, than I see in the tech industry. We have a LOT to learn from Target on that score.

Thanks for recognizing that Target is a cool place. It will be interesting to see how we proceed in the blogging arena.