【第139回】“How will you measure your life?”, Clayton M. Christensen

He says that he doesn’t have an answer to the students and clients who questioned to him. He only answers right theories which may match the questions, because the theories are helpful for them to think deeply and contemplate.

In my opinion, this is the best attitude of teachers and consultants to do with the problems by students and clients. It is better for them to face problems by themselves not by teachers and consultants.

In this book, he is adapting many theories into real business and life.

At first, let’s begin with about motivation.

Citing Herzberg’s theory about work motivation, he suggests that we should keep on looking for opportunities which we believe are meaningful in order to find happiness. In order for us to find good opportunities, we have to learn new things constantly. Doing so makes our motivation higher and higher.

Second is about strategy.

As Mintzberg says, there are two types of building strategy. The first source of option is anticipated opportunities, which we can see and choose to pursue. The second source of option is unanticipated opportunities, which emerges while we are trying to implement the deliberate plan or strategy that we have decided upon. Considering today’s changing environment, what’s more important is to get out of peaceful and static place and try stuff until we find out our hidden talents, interests, and priorities.

Third is about high-achieving.

Of course, being high performance in our business is admirable thing. But we have to care about the risk of this. The danger for high-achieving people is that they’ll unconsciously allocate their resources to activities that yield the most immediate, tangible accomplishments. So, we have to care about too focusing on outer motivation.

Fourth is about outsourcing.

He suggests that we shouldn’t outsource our capabilities and job opportunities. In order for us not do so, not only we should take a dynamic view of our suppliers’ capabilities, but also we should figure out what capabilities we will need to succeed in the future. One of the points is dynamic view, because we tend to have static view about capabilities of our own and others. And the other point is future capabilities, because we sometimes see only current market condition.