I love listening to CEOs. Their thoughts & ideas on how to build organizations really excites me as an #HR person.
What kind of #workplaceculture do they want to have?
Would they expand immediately or take it slow?
How did they do their first hire?
How did they grab their first customer?
Those stories have so much depth & learning.
As a #booklover, there’s no great pleasure than reading a book which is written by CEOs.
The last book in my #bookrecommendation series for young HR professionals is REWORK. Written by @JasonFried & @DavidHeinemeierHansson, this book is full of things that made their start-up 37Signals a USD 100 billion company.
In today’s times when start-ups are made with an intent to reach a certain valuation, without worrying too much about #peoplechallenges or Long Term Impact of current policies, this is a refreshing read.
The authors have built a successful company with a very different thought-process.
Some lines from the book that I loved:
– Planning is guessing. Call your business plans business guesses & then stop worrying about them. They aren’t worth the stress.
– Once you get big, it’s really hard to shrink without firing people, damaging morale & changing the entire way you do business. Ramping up doesn’t have to be your goal.
– Workaholics (those who out in more hours at work) aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up. The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.
– Interruption is the enemy of productivity. Long stretches of alone time is when you’re most productive.
– The worst interruption of all are meetings.
– When there’s something new to announce every two weeks, you energize your team and give your customers something to be excited about.
– We decided that if anything takes one of us longer than two weeks, we’ve got to get other people in.
– Don’t be impressed by those people who brag that they sacrificed sleep to get some work done. Never forego sleep.
– Divide problems into smaller & smaller pieces until you’re able to deal with them completely and quickly.
– Never hire anyone to do a job until you’ve tried to do it yourself.
– Hire only when not having a person starts hurting.
– There’s surprisingly little difference between a candidate with 6 months of experience & one with six years. It doesn’t matter for how long someone’s been doing something, what matters is how well.
This book helps to open up one’s mind to endless possibilities. It helps you believe in all things good about a #workplace. It leaves you feeling nice & happy, hoping to get to work with such people some day.