Genius Machine: Part 2

In case you missed part 1 of my interview with The Genius Machine author Gerry Sindell, catch up here.

On with the show!

Part 2 of the interview focuses on the usability and maximization of this great book, and the things you can do to put The Genius Machine into action in your management career!

The Genius Machine: Interview with Gerry Sindell (part 2)

Phil: How do you recommend we use this book right, to achieve maximum effectiveness?

Gerry: Doing this book RIGHT means:

Realize there are no quick hits, no shortcuts, no genius lite. ALL the steps are essential, so take your time and go through it. The whole book is only 136 pages plus some extras here and there. And once you’ve used it a few times, all you have to do is answer the 11 questions until you’re satisfied with the answer.

And the only really hard part is the last part — advocacy. You can’t delegate the promotion of your creation to others until you and your team have made the first pass.

Phil: Gerry, there’s got to be thousands of ways to innovate and think of new ideas. Why and how did you settle on 11?

Gerry: This is the system that has evolved over some twenty years. I simply looked at everything I do when I’m developing ideas, whether its a movie for Disney, a book with Yahoo!, a change management simulation with Accenture. I’ve put some 75,000,000 books in print, with a lot of bestsellers along the way.

Ken Dychtwald says using the system we get done in 6 months what he’s spent 6 years doing with others. A consultant I know wrote me to say that she had been struggling with a problem developing an offering for her own consultancy. She took The Genius Machine on a plane ride and by the time she’d landed she had found her solution. She wrote all the members of her organization and they agreed that she’d nailed it. As the book continues to grow in circulation, new stories come in every week. So it clearly helps people move a lot faster.

Maybe the best part of this process is peace of mind. Once you’ve run something through The Genius Machine, you know the results will be as good as they can be. You won’t have overlooked anything. You’ve seen the opportunity from all sides, thought it through, and you’ll know you’ve done a really good job.

I think it’s very important for everyone to understand that what they see can not be the same as what anyone else sees. We need to pay attention to our observations, hunches, and understandings. We need to take care not to gloss them over as we try to be accepted. Those distinctions are the essence of thinking, so we need to pay attention to what we see and value our uniqueness.

Now is that the most important part of the book? I think that’s going to be different for different people. Some people get an Aha! here and there, but I hope for most people and for most teams, it will be that the book gives them a complete system to work together and have great outcomes.

Phil: What are some questions managers and leaders need to ask themselves about their products/solutions/services?

Gerry: Focus first on need — who needs what we’re doing MOST?

That will then guide what we are doing. If we’re thinking about training those folks, then if we structure our training around those who urgently need us, we’ll be guided to create the best training possible.

Phil: Why do we miss this? Seems like a no-brainer?

Gerry: Most of us get wrapped up in solving the problem we’re working on, and we continue to see it it from out point of view. There comes a time when we have to forget about ourselves, think about our user, realize that the user could care less about how brilliant we were in creating the solution and all the things it can do. The user just wants to get something done and to spend as little time and energy as possible learning how to use what we have created.

Phil: What else would you like to share Gerry?

Gerry: A team needs to share values and be able to say what it is they stand for or what it is they want to do.  That will guide every team to see what success looks like.

Finally, everyone needs to ask themselves as they approach any problem or project, “What does success look like in 6 months, a year, 3 years.” And it will help a lot of we take success seriously. Success needs to be a fulfillment of what it is we’re trying to make better about our company or about the world.  Success can only be defined in terms of who we are. You can’t achieve someone else’s success.

Thanks, Phil. Talking with you is always a pleasure!

Phil: The pleasure is all mine Gerry. Thanks for sharing yourself and your ideas so freely with my readers!

Questions:

Have you bought a copy of The Genius Machine yet?

Does it sound like one worth reading?

I loved this book (and yes, I am working on a full review of it).

More Resources from and about Gerry:

• Is Progress Possible? – A short manifesto about progress
• Are you a thought leader? – Questions to ask yourself to see where you are in the process
• Endleofon – Gerry’s blog
• Thought Leaders International (Gerry’s company)

Phil Gerbyshak and Gerry Sindell courtesy of Phil Gerbyshak