About 11,000 business books a year are published. Most of them aren't worth reading, either because you've heard it all before, they are badly written, not especially useful, and -- perhaps the most common flaw -- they are just no fun to read. But, even though they are business books, there are always a few gems that you owe it to yourself to read. Peter Sims Little Bets is one of those rarities. I was blown away when I was asked to write blurb for the book, as I wrote:
“Peter Sims buries the myth that big talkers with brains and big ideas move industry and science forward. This modern masterpiece demonstrates that the most powerful and profitable ideas are produced by persistent people who mess with lots of little ideas and keep muddling forward until they get it right. Little Bets is easily the most delightful and useful innovation book published in the last decade.”
As the book is now out, I took some time to visit with it again this morning -- I remain impressed. Ye3s, Peter is a friend of mine, but most of my friends don't write books this compelling. The first thing that struck me was the power of Peter's writing voice. He exudes curiosity and optimism, which as I read the pages, provoked a feeling of joy that I've hardly ever experienced when reading a business book -- I guess for me, Orbiting the Giant Hairball and The Art of Innovation had this effect, but it does not happen often.
The second thing that struck me was the range of examples and the deftness with which Peter applies them to make points about small bets and in his lovely chapters (I especially like "Problems are the New Solutions" and "Questions are the New Answers.") He uses everything from Chris Rock, to architect Frank Geary, to Pixar's Ed Catmull, to a U.S. Army General in Iraq, and many others. He does this with such skill that I occasionally had to stop and admire how he had written a sentence or paragraph -- I struggle to do this kind of thing day after day,it is a lot harder than it looks.
Third, although Small Bets has many twists and turns, perhaps the core idea is the power of small wins, Karl Weick's powerful concept. This is a message that comes through in other business books (including Good Boss, Bad Boss -- see this post -- and in at least one other forthcoming business book I just read called The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer). The power of small wins is not only supported by strong empirical research, it provides an antidote, and at times a useful companion, to all the management theorists who spew out stories of big hairy goals, bold vision, exciting futures, and all that without providing resources or specifying just what people need to do day after day to achieve such magnificent ends. Little Bets is so useful to read because it shows, on page after page, what you can do and how to think day after day about things like problems, solutions, failure, and fun to make great things happen.
I could go on and on... but you would be better off using your time reading the book than reading more of my words about it!
P.S. You might also want to check out Peter's website.
Bob, Thanks for steering us towards some good reading to enrich our lives. The very idea of small wins makes so much sense and makes every one a contributor which in essence what the world is all about. This is one book I am definitely going to read.
Posted by: Daniel Christadoss | May 07, 2011 at 05:58 AM
This book sounds wonderful. I love the power of small wins idea. It can be so hard to keep shining, far-off goals in mind every day. But taking baby steps toward those goals each day can remind us that we are making progress and keep that nagging fear of failure from driving us crazy!
Posted by: Sarah | April 18, 2011 at 03:32 PM
Thanks for sharing this. I have found that my greatest accomplishments are actually a series of much smaller successes.
As a software quality assurance manager, I'm always pushing teams to incorporate testing throughout the development process rather than leaving it all to the end. I'm excited to read this book to get more ideas for how to explain this concept to project teams and clients so they accept it.
Posted by: Kevin Rutkowski | April 15, 2011 at 07:08 PM
Thanks for the review, I'll add it to my list. 11,000 business books published a year and most aren't worth reading?! What about Doreen McGunagle's new release: Good Boss Bad Boss?
Posted by: davidburkus | April 15, 2011 at 03:32 PM