Rework
While I was up in the cabin in the mountains last week, I finished reading Rework
- “Decide what you’re going to do this week, not this year. Figure out the next most important thing and do that.”
- “Strong opinions aren’t free. You’ll turn some people off. They’ll accuse you of being arrogant and aloof. That’s life. For everyone who loves you, there will be others who hate you. If no one’s upset by what you’re saying, you’re probably not pushing hard enough.”
- “Huge organizations can take years to pivot. They talk instead of act. They meet instead of do.”
- “Limited resources force you to make do with what you’ve got. There’s no room for waste. And that forces you to be creative.”
- “It’s the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify, and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what’s truly essential. Pare things down until you’re left with only the most important stuff.”
- “Start getting into the habit of saying no—even to many of your best ideas.”
- “It’s better to have people be happy using someone else’s product than disgruntled using yours.”
- “When you stick with your current customers come hell or high water, you wind up cutting yourself off from new ones. Your product or service becomes so tailored to your current customers that it stops appealing to fresh blood. And that’s how your company starts to die.”
- “Share information that’s valuable and you’ll slowly but surely build a loyal audience. Then when you need to get the word out, the right people will already be listening.”
- “If you want to get someone’s attention, it’s silly to do exactly the same thing as everyone else.”
- “You need to be able to tell people when they’re full of crap. If that doesn’t happen, you start churning out something that doesn’t offend anyone but also doesn’t make anyone fall in love.”
- “People are creatures of habit. That’s why they react to change in such a negative way. They’re used to using something in a certain way and any change upsets the natural order of things. So they push back. They complain. They demand that you revert to the way things were.”
- “The decisions you make today don’t need to last forever.”
- “When everything constantly needs approval, you create a culture of nonthinkers.”
- “Policies are organizational scar tissue. They are codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again. They are collective punishment for the misdeeds of an individual.”
Have you read the book yet? If so, what were your favorite takeaways?
If you’re interested in picking up a copy for yourself, here’s my Amazon link
“When everything constantly needs approval, you create a culture of nonthinkers.”
LOVE THAT.
M_
I finished this book a few weeks ago…absolutely loved it. It’s hard to argue with 37 Signals success and it is even more impressive when you look at the actual size of the company. There were so many nuggets I took from this book that is easily applicable to leading a church trying to reach people for Christ.
How will you know the most important thing to do this week if you don’t know what you’re doing in the next year? I like to look at the big picture, rather than get hung up on the details.
I read it a few weeks ago … my major take away: be very thoughtful about what you say ‘yes’ to and then be liberal at saying no if it is not in alignment with your yes.