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Riding the Waves of Culture - F.Trompenaars (summary)

In Riding the waves of culture, Fons Trompenaars describes 7 cultural dimensions and the effects of this in a time of globalization in which people from different cultures do business with each other. According to Trompenaars, culture describes what products and services mean for a group of people, how problems are solved, and how people interact with each other in an organization.

The Four Hour Workweek - T.Ferriss (summary)

In a 4-hour work week, Timothy Ferriss deals with the eternal postponing of the pursuit of your dreams. You do not have to wait until you retire before you can finally fulfil your dreams and do what you have always wanted to do. Wealth is only partly related to money and you will see that for the majority of your dreams you do not need large amounts of money.

Value Stream Mapping Template

Value Stream Mapping is one of the most used tools in Lean manufacturing to map the flow of your process. I have already written articles about it. In my first article about value stream mapping, I describe how to draw your value stream map using the example of a factory.

5S Audit Templates

One of the most important part of a sustainable 5S culture is the 5S mini audit (Panneman, 2019). There are hundreds of examples to be found on the web. These are the three of the templates that I have found to be useful once you adjust them to your personal department/company needs. 

The Organized Mind - D.Levitin (summary)

In The Organized Mind, Daniel Levetin describes just about everything he has learned about the brain so far. The title is a bit misleading, because most of the book is not about organizing the mind, but if you read through the many pages of this book, there are a lot of interesting facts that can help you to improve your own lifestyle.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck - M.Manson (summary)

In The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck, Mark Manson describes how to let go of everything that you do not need to give a f*ck about is the best way to a happy life. In his own words, his book is so ground breaking, that it is the self-help book for self-book haters.
The most important message is that you can choose what you really care about and where you want to put your energy. You can ignore all other things.

The 80/20 Manager - R.Koch (summary)

The 80/20 Manager of Richard Koch describes how the famous Pareto principle, the 80/20 rule, is translated into a dozen management principles. Pareto discovered through observation that 80% of the wealth of the UK is in 20% of the population. Later it appears that Pareto principle can be found in many other ways. 80% of the results are generated by 20% of the input, 80% of the turnover is generated by 20% of the products, 80% of the problems that arise, arise by 20% of the customers, etc. The basic idea of Pareto is therefore: 'very few things matter, but what matters, does a lot of things right away'.
This article describes 10 interpretations of the 80/20 principle for managers.

Managementteams - M.Belbin (summary)

Management Teams - why they are success or fail is the standard work of R. Meredith Belbin, in which he describes how his famous 8 roles within a team came into being. Belbin has created an overview of the roles that a successful team has on the basis of many experiments in which people in a team had to work together. Each of the 8 roles is needed to be successful as a team and most people can take on multiple roles, depending on the situation and group dynamics. This article describes the 8 roles and their characteristics and also four characteristics of a team man.

Good to Great - J.Collins (summary)

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins describes 6 concepts that a leadership team should apply to transform a good organization into a great one. Collins sorted out the 11 most successful companies of all time based on their performance compared to the market (minimal 3 times better, up to even 18x time better) for a minimal of 15 years in a row (to sort out personal leadership influences of one CEO).

Personality Types part 1: The 4 colors of personal preference

There are multiple theories on the market that can help you understand your own behavior as well as that of others. Based on two axis developed by Carl Jung (introvert versus extravert and Thinking versus Feeling), four quadrants can be made that describe a certain personality. Each personality is represented by a color: red, yellow, green and blue.
This article will describe these two axis in more detail, as well as the four colors that result from them.

 

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