TMG Book Club

At The Mainspring Group one of our core values is discovery and propagation of best practices. We consider ourselves to be “lead learners” when in relationship with our clients. We bring over 50 years of experience in homebuilding operations to the table and we’ll be the first to say: No one knows everything. 

As a way to bring this value to life, as well as to connect with our distributed team, we started a virtual book club. We use Slack to dialogue about a book that has been chosen specifically for Mainspring’s current challenges and opportunities. Each week one of our team members leads us through some discussion questions around that week’s reading. We push each other to think through the information presented and how it applies to our own organization as well as to our clients’ organizations. 

We invite you to browse the books our club has digested and let us know what you learned from them – help us live out our core value of discovery and propagation of best practices! 

Here are all the books we’ve finished so far, accompanied by notes from members of our team about what we learned and who we recommend read the books. 

Summary by Ethan Kelly, Business Analyst

The book first helps us to understand the differences between WHAT we do, HOW we do it, and WHY we do what we do, the way we do it.

You will see many examples of businesses that found success, even in hard times, because they knew and were able to communicate WHY they were in business. By contrast, the book also gives you examples of companies that had all the “right ingredients” for success but failed to communicate WHY they were doing anything and failed because of it.

You learn that your WHY must resonate with customers. They need to know why you sell that product and it needs to tie into WHY they would buy it. Otherwise, you become a commodity, scrambling to fight for scraps with other purposeless businesses.

No matter where you are in your career, or where your company is in the market, it is never too late to Start with Why.

Who I Would Recommend This Book To

If you believe that value comes from being driven by a purpose, this book is for you. If you feel lost, like your actions are not building towards your dreams, this book is for you. If you feel like your company is not resonating with your market, this book is for you.

If you or your team members question why your company even exists, stop now, and read this book to understand how important a WHY is for your business. 

Summary by Steve Holzer, Senior Consultant

 Leadership Jazz turned the typical top-down military structure over. Max De Pree taught us how to leverage the differing gifts of every team member. Leadership is not telling someone what to do and how to do it. Leadership is demonstrating the best we know how, our own gifts to the benefit of the collective team.

We learned, as in the best jazz ensembles, that competition within the ensemble bears no fruit for anyone. Rather, highlighting the strength of each of the members sharing what they do best in the best way they know will build the best outcome for everyone. This extends outside of the ensemble, or company, to customers, investors, owners, contractors, and every stakeholder. The music produced is a joy to consume.

Who I Would Recommend This Book To

This book will shift the goal development of anyone truly wanting to lead the making of a difference in their own work, the work of their associates, and the environment of their organization. This book shares the power each player has to lead, no matter their “position” in the organization. Every person benefits in understanding the dynamics they will discover in Leadership Jazz.

Summary by Jason Sherman, Operations Lead

In a nutshell…we learned that humans are really bad at numbers. We struggle to keep numbers bigger than about five in our heads, and anything bigger seems fake and our brain searches for a map of how to make sense of it. The book walks through a wide variety of strategies that assist in bringing an intuitive clarity to numbers that strengthens their impact in practical and not always obvious ways. 

Who I Would Recommend This Book To

If you are someone who crunches numbers in your day-to-day and need to present them for decision making, you need to read this. If you feel like your last several recommendations got denied without being clearly understood, you need to read this. If you are in the position of needing to engage others using influence in your organization, this book has the potential to strengthen your positions by simplifying your message and making it more direct and meaningful.