Traction Heroes

A conversation about something that's emerging as a central theme in the podcast: how to avoid fooling yourself so you can achieve your goals by seeing more clearly.

Show notes:

• The Art of Action by Stephen Bungay
• Sunset Boulevard (1950 film)
• John Boyd
• Traction Heroes Ep. 6: Chesterton's Fence
• Crazy Time by Abigail Trafford

Is your business in service to the bottom line or something higher? Whichever you pick will influence the organization's culture.

Show notes:

• Tim O’Reilly in a Nutshell by Tim O’Reilly
• Rosenfeld Media
• Shai Agassi
• OODA loop
• Thinking In Bets by Annie Duke
• The Art of Action by Stephen Bungay
• Makers and Takers by Rana Foroohar

How do you get useful information from people when the very act of asking might compromise the answer? Harry offers insights from a surprising source.

Show notes:

• Confidential by John Nolan
• Climbing the Ladder of Business Intelligence by James E. Cates, Sam S. Gill, and Natalie Zeituny 
• Precision questioning
• EnlivenWork

A reading from an unexpected source leads to a discussion about the importance of having a clear vision.

Show notes:

• Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life by Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Arnold (Netflix series)
• StrengthsFinder
• Penny-farthing
• Extreme Ownership
• Lincoln (film)

Our running conversation goes meta after Harry reads from a book about how to listen better.

• You’re Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy
• The Informed Life podcast
• Duly Noted by Jorge Arango
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Spurred by a reading from Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Jorge and Harry have a rambling conversation about building resilient businesses during times of disruptive technological change.

• Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Peak Priorities
• unfinishe_
• The Great Mental Models by Shane Parrish
• Xenix
• Cursor
• Lovable

Harry brings to the discussion a four-part model for skillfully navigating change.

Show notes:

• Thresholds of Change by Rebecca Borland Reynolds and Connolly Fox
• ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Community by Jeffrey M. Hiatt
• PROSCI
• Kübler-Ross Change Curve®
• Liminal Thinking by Dave Gray

Harry offers a taxonomy of five "social traps" that can keep us from gaining traction.

Show notes:

• Social Traps by John Cross and Melvin Guyer
• Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address
• Matthew Perry
• Frequency Illusion (the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon)

A reading from a famous director's memoir sparks a discussion about a key trait for gaining traction: boldness coupled with the ability to get things done.

Show notes:

• Every Man for Himself and God Against All (audiobook) by Werner Herzog
• Aguirre, the Wrath of God
• Comedian 
• The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance by Rich Diviney

Harry offers a short reading from a surprising source about an important question: How do you decide when it's time to let go? 

Show notes:

• What Would Harry Do? by Juliana Sharaf 
• Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud
• The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
• Kodak  
• Harry’s newsletter

Jorge and Harry discuss how to proactively shift your mental models to get unstuck.

• Framers by Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, and Francis de Véricourt
• Breakneck by Dan Wang
• Precision questioning
• Iceberg model

Jorge and Harry discuss a classic book about how to avoid getting in your own way through overthinking.

Show notes:

• The Inner Game of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey
• Stick (Apple TV show)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
• Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
• Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Esther Dyson

Jorge and Harry discuss a book focused on using AI to lead better — and has underpinnings that align with the show's themes.

Show notes:

• More Human by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
• The Mind of the Leader by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter
• The Glass Cage by Nicholas Carr

Harry reads a passage from a book by Robert Pirsig that raises questions about what authentic effort looks like — and the traps inherent in its trappings.

• On Quality by Robert Pirsig
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
• Lila by Robert Pirsig
• Traction Heroes Ep. 11: Gall’s Law
• Atomic Habits by James Clear

Harry gives Jorge advice on how to focus on strategically important things.

Show notes:

• The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan
• unfinishe_ – Jorge's new consultancy with Greg Petroff
• The Power of a Positive No by William Ury
• The Harry Max Boot-up Protocol (How to get going in the morning) by Christina Wodtke
• Essentialism by Greg McKeown
• Impro by Keith Johnstone

On the folly of designing complex systems in one go, from the top down.

Show notes:

• Traction Heroes ep. 6: Chesterton's Fence
• Traction Heroes ep. 2: Unprecedented
• The Design Squiggle
• Systemantics by John Gall
• A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram
• Wardley map