LEARNABILITY 23 April

In my adopted home city of Barcelona, the 23rd of April is celebrated with the beautiful tradition of giving books and roses.

While I can't send you flowers, in this newsletter, I'm featuring 5 books that have made an impression on me during these past 12 months.

I hope you find one of them relevant to your current development needs.

?? Entrepreneurs

The Lean Startup

When I embarked on my latest business venture - to be announced soon - I reread this book and found it refreshingly useful.

Entrepreneur and blogger, Eric Ries , revolutionises the approach to business by proposing a lean startup model that improves speed, efficiency, and agility.

This method involves rapid prototyping, validated learning, and other iterative tactics to develop products that meet consumer needs, but without requiring large amounts of initial funding or extensive product launches that might fail.

Ries uses his own experiences as a startup advisor, employee, and founder, combining these insights with case studies from other companies to effectively illustrate his case.

Is this book for you?

This book is for entrepreneurs, startup founders, business managers, and product developers who aim to innovate and grow in today's fast-paced environment. I'd also recommend it for students in business and management fields, as well as corporate leaders seeking to implement new, efficient practices in their development processes.

Key Quote

"The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else."

Actionable Takeaways

1. Implement Validated Learning: Continuously test your product with real customers; use their feedback to make adjustments. This process helps avoid the trap of building something nobody wants.

2. The Build - Measure - Learn Loop: Embrace this feedback loop mechanism. Start with a minimum viable product (MVP), measure its performance, and learn whether to 'pivot or persevere'.

3. Just Try It: In an environment of uncertainty, detailed forecasts and plans may lead to waste; experimentation allows for more flexibility and real-time adaptation.

Summary

"The Lean Startup" provides a thoughtful and actionable framework for developing businesses and products that succeed by altering product development cycles to include customer feedback, effective problem-solving, and iterative product releases. Through a series of dynamic and practical insights, Eric Ries outlines how startups can structure their efforts to improve their chances of making a product that truly resonates with customers. The book is not just a guide but a detailed roadmap to building a successful, sustainable business by embracing the principles of lean thinking. It’s an essential read for anyone involved in the dynamic world of startups.

?? Leaders, HR & Business Development

Will It Make The Boat Go Faster

I know I recommended this recently in a previous newsletter, but it's so good, I'm recommending it again!

WIMTBGF combines the challenge of Olympic-level sports with actionable strategies for personal and professional growth. Authors Ben Hunt-Davis MBE , an Olympic gold medalist, and performance coach Harriet Beveridge , draw parallels between athletic and business achievements, centred around the key question that guided Hunt-Davis’s rowing team to Olympic victory: "Will it make the boat go faster?".

It provides a detailed guide for improving your performance by simplifying decisions and focussing relentlessly on the things that count.

Key Quote

"The only thing that matters is whether it makes the boat go faster."

Is this book for you??

If you want to get better at doing what you do, (whether in sports, business, or personal life), then this book contains some great ideas. It’s particularly valuable for leaders, managers, HR, coaches, and anyone who wants to streamline their path to success through focussed decision-making and discipline.

Actionable Takeaways

1. Prioritise Relentlessly: Always evaluate actions and projects taking into account your primary goal. If an activity does not make a direct positive impact, it might not be worth pursuing.

2. Set Clear Objectives: Define what success looks like with clear, measurable goals that can be broken down into daily actions. This clarity will help maintain focus and drive.

3. Embrace Process Over Outcome: Invest in creating and refining processes that lead to desired results, rather than fixating on the results themselves, fostering a more adaptable and resilient approach to challenges.

Summary

"Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?" offers a look into how disciplined focus and clear goal-setting can transform challenges into triumphs, both in sports and in life. By applying lessons from the elite world of Olympic rowing to everyday situations, the book provides a great framework for anyone looking to enhance their effectiveness and accelerate their progress towards personal and professional goals. With its engaging narrative and practical advice, it serves as an essential guide for achieving excellence in any arena.

?? Language Learners and Teachers

Learning a Language: How I managed it, How you can, too.

I know this is a shameless plug for one of my own publications. But I still think it's an extremely user-friendly and practical book that can help learners of any age master a new language efficiently and enjoyably.

Applying all the ideas from my first book, (The Sorites Principle) it allows the reader to create their own tailor-made learning strategies. It is structured around building confidence, enhancing retention, and developing linguistic intuition, using a combination of cognitive science, anecdotal evidence, and practical exercises.

Some people have even described it as a holistic approach, that focusses not just on language acquisition but on the cultural immersion and personal growth that accompany learning a new language.

Is this book for you??

This book is ideal for students, professionals, and casual learners who are beginning or continuing their language learning journey. It’s also a valuable resource for language teachers looking for effective, research-backed strategies to incorporate into their instruction.

Key Quote

"You don’t learn a language - you live it."

Actionable Takeaways

1. Immerse Yourself: Engage with the language daily through media, conversation, and writing, not just in formal study settings.

2. Use Multi-sensory Learning Techniques: Combine reading, speaking, listening, and writing to enhance memory and make learning more dynamic and effective.

3. Connect with Native Speakers: Yes, that's right. Interaction with native speakers provides practical experience, cultural context, and real-time feedback, which are critical for mastering a language.

Summary

I've tried to make "Learning a Language," an engaging and insightful guide to the process of language learning. I've combined my own experiences, scientific research, and practical tips, to create an approach to acquiring a new language that goes beyond traditional classroom methods in a down-to-earth way. It's a valuable read for anyone looking to learn a new language quickly.

?? Life Long Learners

Humankind: A Hopeful History

For decades, Hollywood has been telling us about the evil and selfish who are a threat to humanity.

But in "Humankind: A Hopeful History", Rutger Bregman challenges this cynical view and backed by historical evidence and scientific research, argues that benevolence and cooperation are defining traits of human society.

Through anecdotes and analysis, the book explores incidents from real-world events and experiments to demonstrate that kindness and altruism often prevail even in the direst circumstances. This refreshing perspective offers a new way to view history and human behaviour, promoting a more optimistic outlook on our societal potential.

Is this book for you??

This book is aimed at readers interested in psychology, history, and social sciences, as well as anyone seeking a deeper understanding of human nature. It's particularly valuable to those depressed by the never-ending negativity in the news, offering a hopeful and scientifically grounded counter-narrative.

Key Quote

"Most people, deep down, are pretty decent."

Actionable Takeaways

1. Reevaluate Prejudices: Consider how negative assumptions about human nature may be affecting judgment in personal and professional relationships and try to approach interactions with more trust and openness.

2. Community and Cooperation: Actively work to create environments — at work, at home, and in the community — that cultivate cooperation rather than competition.

3. Promote Positive Narratives: Share and highlight stories of human goodness and cooperation in order to counterbalance the often overwhelming negativity in media and discourse.

Summary:

"Humankind: A Hopeful History" is a refreshingly positive view of human nature that is both uplifting and well-supported by historical and current examples. It is a persuasive, well-researched plea for us to rethink how we view ourselves and others. It’s a must-read for those looking to understand the capabilities of altruism and cooperation in a new light, providing not just hope but a strategy for creating a kinder world.

?? Professional Speakers

The Refereable Speaker

If you're one of my friends involved in the speaking business, here is one for you.

The Referable Speaker by Michael Port and Andrew Davis gives a strategic approach to becoming a speaker who consistently gets referrals, ensuring a steady stream of engagements and a successful speaking career.

The authors identify and analyse the key elements that make a speaker referable, not just memorable, emphasising that the real success lies in the audience's willingness to recommend a speaker to others. It contains practical advice, research, and anecdotes from successful speakers to illustrate how to captivate and engage an audience in ways that extend beyond the stage.

Is this book for you??

This book is not only aimed at professional speakers, but also trainers, consultants, and anyone who uses public speaking as a key part of their career. It's also useful for event planners looking to understand what makes a speaker truly impactful and how to maximize audience engagement.

Key Quote

"Your speech should be designed to change the way your audience feels, thinks, or acts."

Actionable Takeaways

1. Focus on creating content that genuinely impacts the audience, aiming to alter their perspectives or behaviors significantly.

2. Connect with your audience on an emotional level to create memorable experiences that are worth talking about and sharing.

3. Treat each speaking engagement as a chance to expand your reach, considering the broader network effects of every audience member.

Summary:

The Referable Speaker focusses on what it takes to not just be a good speaker, but a referable one, whose influence and message carry far beyond the initial speech. It is full of actionable insights that help the reader understand the mechanics and art of creating speeches that lead to more bookings and broader influence. This book is a must-read for anyone serious about making a significant impact through public speaking and building a sustainable career in the process.

What I'm Doing

• Impact Spring Conference: It was a pleasure to be part of PSA U.K.'s event this month as part of their Ask The Expert about business growth. Thank you Chantal Cornelius for making it happen.
• Speaker Reel: If you haven't seen?it already, after 4 years, I got my speaker reel updated. Thank you Inma Alcario for a great result.
• Coaching 4Voices: Next Saturday I'll be at 4Voices The Digital Jungle at CaixaForum here in Barcelona providing moral support to my teenage coachee, Pedro.
• JOBarcelona: In a few weeks I'll be giving 2 talks at the Job Fair - one in English and one in Spanish - on the importance of Learnability once you've got your first job. Thank you, Claudia Garcia De Pomar .
• New Business: If all goes well, I hope to be announcing a new business venture which, according to those I've spoken to, is a brilliant idea.
• Event Planners: Following advice, I'm actively reaching out to event planners in Spain to get on their radar. If you're an event planner and haven't heard from me yet, don't worry - you soon will!
• Business Growth: Today I will be hosting the third PSAS Business Growth meeting along with my wonderful team - Maria Kelly and Nur Garriga Communication Coach - T.
• And finally, if I'm not answering your messages, it's because I'm avidly following the World Snooker Championship live from the Crucible in Sheffield from 20th April to 6th May.

?? If you want to set up a performance accelerator group in your company, DM me now.

?? If you want your audience to get 300% more from your event, invite me to speak about Learnability.

?? If you have found any of this newsletter useful, please forward it now to someone who might also find it useful.

Thank you for taking the time to read all the way to here. I truly appreciate it.

All the best and keep learning ??