Speak To Win

Until I read Speak To Win (by Brian Tracy) a few months ago, I mistakenly believed that all elements of great speaking and presenting could be observed and understood merely by watching great speeches. But I now realize that's like thinking you can become a great artist just by looking at paintings.

I learned many valuable insights about effective speaking and presenting by reading this book. A few examples:

• Preparation (and lots of it) is extremely important, even if you're giving a short talk.
• You should memorize your introduction and conclusion, even if you have to rely on prepared text for the rest. This allows you to deliver these super-important elements with maximum power.
• You should ensure that your face is well lit and that you're the focal point of the talk -- never let a PowerPoint presentation or other distraction stay up for too long or take the attention off yourself.
• A powerful speech can move people to great actions.

There are hundreds of other great points in the book. Profound gems that can bring improvement to any public speaker.

The Hands-Off Manager

I recently listened to The Hands-Off Manager book on CD. I was very impressed. The principle is that managers should not try to "manage" people, but to mentor them. Very much reminds me of Joseph Smith's great principle "I teach them correct principles and let them govern themselves". Hugh Nibley stated, "Leaders are movers and shakers, original, inventive, unpredictable, imaginative, full of surprises that discomfit the enemy in war and the main office in peace. For the managers are safe, conservative, predictable, conforming organization men and team players, dedicated to the establishment."

When people are aggressively managed, or micromanaged, they're stifled, unhappy, and less productive. When they're coached, mentored, and allowed to blossom in their own way, they're far happier and more productive.

This is consistent with my own experience. I've been most happy at work when my boss gives me lots of latitude and just lets me get the job done in my own way. When I'm constantly monitored, instructed, managed, pushed, pulled...it's unenjoyable and demoralizing and I get less done.

This should be required reading for all managers.

The Elegant Universe

My mind has been blown by this book I'm listening to: The Elegant Universe. It's fascinating. It explains in understandable terms the various theories and explanations of Newton and Einstein. It talks about more modern theories such as String Theory, and others. Some specifics from the book that were particular interesting:

• The speed of all objects appears relative to your own speed--except the speed of light.
• Newton came up with brilliant formulae and explanations around gravity, but he couldn't figure out the "why", or what causes it. Einstein discovered that gravity represents the warping of the space-time continuum, and that the gravitational force travels at the speed of light.
• The universe is not flat in 3 dimensions -- it warps around massive bodies such as stars and black holes.
• The closer you are to a massive body, the slower time elapses for you.
• The closer your speed approaches the speed of light, the slower time elapses for you.
• Space, time and gravity are not independant of each other -- they're very interrelated.

One disagreement I have with the book is over The Big Bang Theory. This theory states that at the beginning of time, the entire universe was compressed into a single space the size of a baseball...or an atom...or smaller. Then suddenly it exploded and the entire universe emerged. I have always found this theory absurd and unprovable. But thanks to this book I finally learned the basis of it.

There is evidence that the universe is expanding. A deep look at Mormon theology makes this idea very acceptable. So scientists saw that the universe is expanding, and assumed that, travelling backward in time, the universe must have been more contracted in the past. And following that line of reasoning, the further back you go, the more contracted the universe was, until ultimately it was all in one tiny point. What a stretch!

Aside from Big Bang, the theories seem plausible to me and extremely interesting. I've tried to read theories about physics, the universe, and subatomic particles before, but it's not very accessible. I was always interested in it, and there was a mystique there, but I'd quickly get lost and bored because of the dryness and inaccessibility of it. All that changes now in this book. The author is eloquent and explains these mysteries of the universe in understandable and elegant ways.