Review: This Is Now Your Company

A week and a half ago, I attended a 90 minute talk by Mike Rognlien in Denver thanks to VitalSmarts. A bonus was getting a free copy of Mike’s 2018 book, This Is Now Your Company. That unexpected gift was quite serendipitous given I’ll be presenting “Counterintuitive IT™: How Do We Change Culture?” at my company’s April 1st Agile Community of Interest meeting. As he did during his talk, Mike shares plenty of unexpected, consummate insights in Now This Is Your Company.

Why am I giving his work five stars? Because it is the right mix of focusing on what needs to change in companies, those you interact with, and (most importantly) in you. (Well, let’s be painfully honest and admit that it helped me focus on what needs to change in me. And there is plenty.)

This physically striking book (it is truly a beautiful thing to hold and look at) is broken into three sections:

1. You and Your Company
2. You and the People Around You
3. You and…Well, You

Notice something in common in the title of each section?

Right. You. As Mike notes, ultimately your success with others is tied to your ability to become a “scientist of your own behavior”:

Whether you are thinking through the questions about what you have already done or debating what you would do in a hypothetical scenario, you will get the best results when you are willing to become a scientist of your own behavior. Take a moment or many moments to really think about how you behave, why you behave that way, and what results that behavior generates. And, as scientists do, stay objective, neutral, and curious throughout the process, open to whatever the results tell you and wherever they lead you.

It is an honest book about being honest with others, but most particularly, with yourself. “Owning the full responsibility of the impact of your behavior on the culture of the organization at large,” because…

The end result is the same: every action you take makes a company better or worse. Period.

If I do not stop soon, I’ll be breaking “fair use” rules. 🙂 However, an especially cogent, additional point Mike made is that our impact is not only through what we do, it’s through what we accept:

We are, I’d argue, the biggest part of the problem because, while most big problems are started by small numbers of people—let’s call them a******s—they are perpetuated and grow because of the ambivalence and silent approval that come from the non-a*****e majority.

Ultimately, it is an effective piece because Mike is not an expert just because of book knowledge; experience drives his wisdom.

As does his recognition of his own humanity.

Buy the book.

“Easy for you to say Alan, you got a free copy.”

I bought the Kindle version so I’d have it electronically too. 🙂

Buy the book! Your company, those you love, and you will benefit from it!

P.S. As a Christian minister, I should note that as part of being honest to his real self, Mike uses profanity in the book’s pages. It does not offend me, but when I put my on my virtual minister’s collar I have to admit I wish he didn’t, let you know it’s there, and star it out in the quote above. 🙂