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www.HartfordBusiness.com May 30, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 29 BIZ BOOKS 10 laws of positive business-building "T he 10 Laws of Trust: Building the Binds that Make a Business Great" by Joel Peterson (AMA- COM, $15.95). Peterson's 35-plus years in the business world spans entrepreneurial ventures, com- mercial real estate, academia, venture capi- tal and dozens of private and public boards of directors. He's seen what trust builds and what a lack of trust destroys. His 10 laws are the foun- dation of business-building; I found the basis for imple- menting the last six in the first four: 1. "Start with personal integrity." There aren't per- sonal and work-life compart- ments for trust, character and values. Regardless of where you are, you are who you are. People see through facades; once they do, they won't follow. Integrity also involves com- petence. Getting the right things done right and on time reinforces trust because it demonstrates follow-through commitment. 2. "Invest in Respect." Spreading trust throughout an organization "depends more on the value placed on individuals than on management techniques or poli- cies. The keys: A. Obtain feedback and lis- ten without judging (Yes, and … , not Yes, but … ). B. Connect to people on a personal level (e.g. remember names, interests, con- tributions, their projects, etc.). When people respect each other, col- laboration and teamwork prosper because there are fewer silos, trash-talking, politics and personal agendas. 3. "Empower others." High-performance environ- ments allow employees to figure out "how." They have leeway to question and cre- ate. On occasion, they might "drive into the ditch"; that doesn't mean you should take away their "keys." Consider letting employ- ees set their performance measures and objectives because it gives them a real sense of ownership and control. I did this in my corporate days and found that my staff always set and achieved goals higher than those I would have given them. 4. "Measure what you want to achieve." Expectations must clearly define the "what and when." When empowered people know what success looks like, they accept responsibility and accountability for making things happen. Trust prospers when individuals are given the credit they're due; it wilts when leaders hog the spotlight. Key takeaway: Trust drives continuous improvement and execution. • • • "Good Charts — The HBR Guide to Making Smarter, More Persuasive Data Visualizations" by Scott Berinato (Harvard Business Review Press, $35). Data visualization (dataviz) started when cavemen drew lines in the dirt to show oth- ers where they could find food and shelter. During the Industrial Revolution, manage- ment used charts and graphs to reduce com- plex narratives. Today, it seems dataviz has gone overboard as too many audiences miss the point and suffer "death by PowerPoint." Berinato takes dataviz back to the basics by providing information about how we see. Eyes don't read charts like they read a nar- rative, which strings together sentences in order. With charts, the eyes are automatically attracted to focal points, peaks and valleys and colors before they even look at the title. The eyes go to the chart's title to con- firm its message. With this in mind, keep it simple; show a "single salient point so clearly that we feel we under- stand the chart's mean- ing without even trying." Two bars or two lines do this effectively. But every situation isn't described so eas- ily because relationships frequently have many variables. The more variables depict- ed, the greater the difficulty in determining meaning. How many is too many? Berinato advises five to 10, but much depends on the audience, too. People familiar with the topic will see more than those who aren't. Care must also be taken with the creation of the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) axes and the legend. Relative to the axes, lengthening or shortening either can literally create an optical illu- sion that distorts visualization. Having numerous color-coded legend items cre- ates problems because people have dif- ficulty determining shades. With these factors in mind, Berinato shows hundreds of visu- al examples that help chart creators focus on the information they need to include and how to effectively present it. n Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer. Jim Pawlak TALKING POINTS Tinker your way to business success By John Graham I t took a long time but it had to happen. And it did. Finally, there are schools, summer camps and weekend experiences where kids learn how to tinker. This is far from what some call "futzing around" and others label wasting time. It's serious business. Tinkering was once a valued profession. Adept at analyzing and solving problems, tinker- ers tackled anything that needed fixing. They were skilled problem solvers who figured out what was wrong with equipment and machinery and fixed them, as well as found ways to improve their performance. Tinkering is any- thing but a lost art. Spotting and dissect- ing problems and coming up with work- able solutions is an enormously valuable busi- ness skill — one that requires a lot of tinkering. At its core, tinkering is getting things right before we make needless costly, and perhaps disastrous mistakes. It's all about insight and creativity. And here's what it takes: 1. Nothing is ever good enough. Tinkering is the attitude good enough doesn't cut it. What- ever it is, it can be better, whether it's writing a letter, email message, report, memo, proposal or presentation, dealing with a problem, respond- ing to inquiries, answering customer concerns, creating a sales plan or understanding prospects. 2. Take on challenges. The one oppor- tunity that overshadows everything else in any job is routinely ignored or passed up. And that's taking on challenges, which is a code word in business for solving problems. If you ask most people to spell challenge, they'll say, "T-R-O-U-B-L-E." They run the other way from challenges, avoiding them at all cost. As they see it, challenges conger up images of long hours, too much work, get- ting blamed and failing. Just say the word and they run and hide behind claims of being too busy or having to walk the dog after work. That's all good news because it opens up enormous opportunities for those who dare to raise their hands and say, "I'll work on that." 3. Get to the bottom of things. Under- standing how things fit together, making con- nections and uncovering what's missing goes beyond superficial and incomplete answers. Since many of us think that may be a good idea, but it takes too much time, so why bother. And that's why "Googling" is the accepted standard for research. How many of us are interested in knowing whether something is fact or opinion? How many know the difference or even care? The New York Times Magazine described how Kent Clizbe, a former C.I.A. officer and intel- ligence contractor, went about the arduous expo- sé of a daring media con man as "an unrelenting compulsion to get to the bottom of things. He has a perpetual need to turn everything inside out." Tinkering gets us to the bottom of things, and that's what it takes to innovate, break down barriers, and make a difference on or off the job. 4. Stop making mistakes. Is that too much to ask? Of course there are "circum- stances beyond our control," but most often, mistakes result from moving too quickly. Steve Jobs tapped Ron Johnson to develop the now wildly successful Apple retail stores. Then, based on this success, he was picked to work his magic on saving the legendary J.C. Penney stores. Instead, he unleashed tornado- like disruption and was quickly blown away. Now, Johnson is launching a new venture and told USA Today, "The mistake I made was trying to change things too fast. I'm going back to what I learned at Apple, which is that there's no such thing as an overnight success." No one wants to make mistakes, yet they still happen. New executives arrive, for exam- ple, with a "Here's what we're going to do to make us successful" message. This is always a mistake, because this is the time for tinker- ing, for learning how the place operates, spot- ting problems, and coming up with plans for improvement that brings everyone on board. 5. Take control. Those who practice the art of tinkering know its secret. They've learned how to take control of their lives. They don't cower, complain or quit in the face of the endless obstacles they face every day. They're always looking for ways to make something better. To encourage tinkering, it might be a good idea to give "Tinkerer of the Month Award" and share tinkering success stories. At a time when so many workers feel undervalued, we should let them tinker and see what happens. It just could be the way to turn a lot of minds into sug- gestion boxes bursting with new ideas. n John Graham of GrahamComm is a mar- keting and sales strategist-consultant and business writer. John Graham ▶ ▶ Consider letting employees set their performance measures and objectives because it gives them a real sense of ownership and control.