American Ingenuity

The theme for this year’s National Book Festival is American Ingenuity. Sponsored by the Library of Congress and held in Washington, DC, the Festival was originally held outdoors on the National Mall. In 2014 it moved to the Washington Convention Center. Among the reasons for that move was protection from both heat and rain for festival goers. Barbara and I can relate to that reason. One year, we stood in line on an oppressively hot, humid day to meet David McCullough. Despite the weather, the experience was superb. 

It should be no surprise that the 2020 Festival will make another move to a virtual format necessitated by the COVID-19 crisis. Ironically, the theme of American Ingenuity now takes on a whole new meaning. As reported by the Washington Post on May 28, 2020, American Ingenuity is “a quality that will be required to effectively reimagine the event in a new virtual format.” A silver lining growing out of this pandemic is that the Festival can now reach a wider, global audience and “demonstrate how authors and their stories help to connect and illuminate the world.” Mark the dates—this year’s Festival will be held the weekend of September 25-27.

Ingenuity and creativity can grow out of crisis. The world of books and book publishing, where Barbara and I spend a great deal of time, is no exception.

BookBaby is a firm that helps authors partner with professionals to ease the process of self-publishing. We met their president, Steven Spatz, at a Writer’s Digest Conference and have been following the company ever since. They offer a wide array of services to authors and turn out quality products, all the things we were looking for in a publishing partner. Now, as we get closer to self-publishing our next book, we are more excited about working with them. Here’s why.

BookBaby and its sister company, Disc Makers, which serves independent musicians much the same way BookBaby serves independent authors, joined the battle against the COVID-19 virus.  Recognizing the urgent need for protective face shields, manufacturing engineers and operations pros came up with a prototype within two days. Supplies were ordered, specs were finalized, and workstations were set up on a Monday. Manufacturing started the next day. Employees from both companies—folks who work behind the scenes in production, packaging, and administration roles—became part of the effort and joined the production process. Instead of worrying about surviving and saving jobs, at the height of production, the companies began to worry if they had enough staff to fill the demand for the face shields. As Tony van Veen, CEO of Disc Makers said in a video, “it’s the first time in our 74-year history that we are literally saving lives with the products we make.” Talk about American Ingenuity.  

Speaking of BookBaby, Barbara and I will be working with them to get our next book, They Did What? Unbelievable Tales from the Workplace, self-published. We’ve introduced you to Maryanne, the main character, with some stories over the past months. The book is coming out later this year. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.

Find Your Own Way

Frank Sinatra sang about doing it “My Way.” Finding your own way to do things is important—

important for setting strategy for your organization or setting strategy for your career.  That doesn’t mean you can’t learn lessons from others.  When I first started consulting, someone told me, “Listen to other people’s ideas, try things out, but keep in mind that what works for someone else, may not work for you.  If it doesn’t, alter it or try something different.”

I read something interesting recently in a blog by Steven Spatz, President of BookBaby. He wrote, “Now, you can find all sorts of advice and read the success stories of independent and traditionally published authors. Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, or we’d all be using it and congratulating each other on our mutual good fortune. My advice? Any time you hear a success story, study it, parse it, and pick the elements of the story that resonate and seem applicable to your life and aspirations as an author. Your path won’t look exactly like anyone else’s, but you can take good ideas from a lot of different sources and create your own.”  Sounds an awful lot like the advice I received about consulting.  Bottom line is that we all have to find our own way to success.

In The Manager’s Answer Book we have a section on Creating Your Personal Brand. On page 113 we talk about the importance of being a courageous manager. A courageous manager is comfortable speaking up, especially if they think a mistake is about to be made or the organization may be heading in the wrong direction. They confront situations they think can be improved, and they present alternative options. They advocate for new ideas.  That doesn’t mean they dismiss an option that’s being presented. Rather they approach it in the way that Steven Spatz advises: they study and parse it, take good ideas and use them to shape a path for the organization. 

The same strategy can be applied to managing your career. Talk to other people who’ve been successful managers in your organization, and others, find out what they’ve done. Seek their advice, but don’t assume you have to do everything they did. Their circumstances may have been much different. Study it. Parse it. Pick the elements of their success story that may apply to your journey.

Speaking of finding your own way, Barbara and I are finding ours in the publishing world. We will be self-publishing our next book, They Did What? Unbelievable Tales from the Workplace. We’ve introduced you to Maryanne, the main character, with some stories over the past months. The book is coming out later this year, and we are working with BookBaby to get it printed and distributed. We’ll let you know how things progress.