Book review - Body language

So I'm reading an excellent book, but I'm really annoyed with the title. For a while I debated not telling you the title at all, just give you a non-descriptive link, but here it goes. Don't judge a book by its cover is a cliche, but this is really one of those moments. 

Winning Body Language: Control the Conversation, Command Attention, and Convey the Right Message without Saying a Word

And why do I not like the title? Because it sounds like one of those "how to win friends" books. This isn't a book filled with postures and how-to's, its a book that goes deep into the human psychology and history and looks at why and how we react to non-verbal communication the way we do.Why are we so nervous in front of a public? Bowden argues that it is because we've activated the same triggers in our brain as we would have activated if we were attacked by a mountain lion, its a pure fear thing, hormonal. And because of another hormone, oxytocin, its natural for us humans to mirror each other. So if you are standing up there on stage sending out fear signals, guess what the public is feeling?

The book its an easy - and entertaining - read. The concepts aren't easy, and its Bowden's experience as a speaker and his grasp of these concepts and the English language that makes it easy to read. Well worth your time.

Book review: "Collaboration" by Morten T. Hansen

I've just finished a very good book,  Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results by Morten T. Hansen.

The book has given me great inputs and powerful tools on how to evaluate and enhance collaboration in JCI London, and also inputs for how we can implement the JCI UK Impact Plan and develop "connected autonomy" in our chambers throughout the UK.

Inspired by the book, I made this collaboration quadrant for how the chambers in the UK are working now, and where we want them to go. I really like the term "Connected Autonomy", coined by Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsicCo.

The book looks at both bad and good collaboration, opportunities and barriers for collaboration (no - collaboration isn't always right), right into the very organizational culture, analyzing what supports collaboration and what works against it.

How can we collaborate without anyone feeling threatened? How can we avoid that people think their input is not acknowledged, that their contributions are not recognized. Sometimes in teamwork, the individual disappears, the individual value disappears, and that would be of no help to JCI UK. Luckily, Mr. Hansen deals with exactly that (and a million other things, like how to build networks, how to set goals...), and I'm hoping to finish a plan of action for JCI UK this weekend that looks at how we can achieve "Connected autonomy" in our chambers.

New Directors

This week has barely begun and I'm already on the hunt for two new directors. When we learned that two of our dear directors are leaving the council, Sarah (my deputy) and I talked about what our options are.

Martina is leaving her role as International Director because she is leaving London for Barcelona, while Tamas is leaving the role as Strategic Partnership Director because he wants to focus more on his job. Tamas and I have not had the best of communications, something we have both been aware of, and as the role is a new role taking upon itself things the President used to do earlier, I think that bad communication between the President and the Strategic Partnership Director, in addition to it being an entirely new role, made it a particularily difficult and time consuming role.

I have a council of almost 18 people, with 14 different nationalities, and I would be lying if I said that communication is not an issue. Its not normally been much of a problem though (at least not that I am aware..).Instead it is challenging and fun. I deal a lot with different styles of communication and cultures in my job, and what I learn in JCI I can use in my day job, and vice versa.

I have already several people showing interest for both director roles, so the option Sarah and I discussed if we did not get anyone interested does luckily not seem to be relevant. Instead we have a different challenge; how to select the new directors from all the interested applicants! Luckily there are lots of other great opportunities to get involved, so I hope I will not leave anyone hanging...