Customer Reviews

The Power of Small: Why Little Things Make All the Difference

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THE POWER OF SMALL reminded me a lot of John Miller's QBQ series. I haven't read the previous book, THE POWER OF NICE, but I would imagine the message is much the same. All in all, Thaler and Koval are sending the message that just one small action in your life can have momentous or serendipitous consequences. By taking a moment to thank someone for a job interview, you could be setting yourself up to be chosen over a more qualified candidate. Or by escorting an old man to a room he's looking for, you could be escorting your boss's boss and thereby leaving a (favorable) memorable impression.

The point of the book is this: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It's the Golden Rule. Everyone knows it but not many actually follow it. Follow it and you will be rewarded in spades.

I picked this book without any great expectations - just hoping for a few insights from a big name ad exec. After reading it, I thought "well of course, this stuff is common sense." But a week later I found I was still noticing examples of the "power of small" in almost every aspect of daily life. For instance - my husband stopped (in his pickup, which carries our company name) and let another car take a left. Who knew that the driver of the car was someone who was looking for a videographer (our business)? Not only did the driver have plenty of time to read and note our company contact info, but she was also positively impressed by our kindess!

Lisa

This book really inspired me and I'm honestly not one of those self-help reading types who looks for books for inspiration. I kept hearing about this book though and saw this amazing video that showed a woman whose life was saved because of small talk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7FtxRhkNTU). It made me realize that all those times I feel helpless, I'm not. There are small things we can all do in our daily lives that can have a huge impact in both personal as well as buisness matters.

This book simply could not have come out at a better time. In a style similar to their previous book, The Power of Nice, Kaplan Thaler and Koval use engaging stories to relate their concepts in the Power of Small. Although the book is a quick and easy read, it packs a powerful messafe that will stick with you long after you put it down. From making checklists, to using visualisation to shrink down your problems into more manageable pieces, the tips provided in the book can apply to a multitude of life situations, and couldn't be more relevant to our current national crisis.

Living up to its name, this petite book does demonstrate how small can deliver a mighty powerful punch. Highly readable and engaging, _The Power of Small_ provides plentiful proof (via interesting stories and clear explanations) for times when the small really does make a huge difference. The one small (or maybe not so small depending on your tolerance factor) catch of the book is the authors' frequent promotion of their own advertising agency--over 20 times in the short 130 pages of the book. But, if you can look beyond their patting themselves on the backs and appreciate the hidden gems scattered throughout,it's certainly worth a read. The small investment in time it takes to read this book does deliver some powerful payoffs.

[I could write more, but I want to keep this review small and to-the-point. :) ]

I'm not usually a fan of self-help "motivating books" (usually you can be more productive if you took the motivation you had for reading and turn into real world work) but there's a lot more to this book than a tight and breezy text.

This isn't a book that demands you "do this" or "stop being this person and be more like, say, Donald Trump." The authors use anecdotes, memorable ones at that, to show you why other people are getting ahead of you and capturing the imagination, heart, and wallets of others in business. There's too much focus on the big prizes and not even focus on the core parts of our lives that matter.

I would tell you more but you should just read it for yourself.

I read this book, rather read half then skimmed the other, in about an hour. I was immediately turned off at how often the authors referred to their own successes in terms of how much money they've made and how they've created such great icons of advertising(like the Aflac duck). I understand the concept of ethos but the level at which they mention their accomplishments borderlines on bragging. The Aflac duck...really? They could have created a pooh slinging monkey as a marketing icon for Aflac and it would've had the same, if not more pronounced, effect. I once took a marketing class and the teacher explained that using something completely random in creating a brand image is a psychological trick marketers use to get people to remember a product or service. However, it doesn't mean a duck, who's vocabulary is limited to "affflllaccc" squawked by Gilbert Godfried, used to represent an essential and important service like insurance, should be considered a brilliant work of marketing which one should use to establish themselves as qualified to give advice on achieving success. Phew...glad I got that out because the blaring irony was killing me.

Occasionally the book veers away from its self satisfying core into what may be considered somewhat useful territory. Actually I recant that last statement. The book never really gets into useful territory unless you have no common sense in which case you are going to need a lot more help than this little book can provide. Therefore, I don't recommend the senseless to read it any more than someone who has a firm grip on what it takes to achieve greatness. Therefore I will save everyone some time and summarize the crux of the book, which in itself is a good philosophy and the reason why I gave it an extra star: Set a goal, break it into smaller steps, break those into even smaller steps that can be done on a daily basis, then doggedely work to complete those steps with the highest degree of accuracy possible. Oh, and remember to say please and thank you liberally while engaging others in meaningless small talk and don't forget to pay attention to the small details in life that, when added up, can make the difference between good and great.

There. Now you know (and I didn't even have to mention the Aflac duck).

As I began to read Linda Thaler Kaplan and Robin Koval's book, I was reminded of the "Broken Window Theory" that George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson discuss in an article published in the Atlantic. As they explain, solving what may seem to be insignificant problems in an urban area (e.g. repairing broken windows) can reduce the frequency and severity of much more serious problems (e.g. violent crime). I was reminded, also, that the titles of two of Jason Jennings' books are Less Is More and It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow. And, that Mies van der Rohe once observed, "God is in the details." I wholeheartedly agree with Kaplan and Koval that "small" can sometimes have great power or impact and there are countless examples of that. Rather than wrestle or cross swords with Goliath, David slew him with a carefully selected, well-placed stone. And according to legend, Richard III lost his kingdom when his horse fell to the ground at Bosworth after losing a shoe "for wont of a nail." More recently and tragically, the space shuttle Challenger disaster occurred 73 seconds into its flight because of the failure of a gasket (i.e. an O-ring seal) in its right solid rocket booster. Although we cannot control everything, and small will not always have power and impact, Kaplan and Koval suggest, "Believing that it is the small things that make the greatest difference is not just an ideology - it is also timely and pragmatic advice born out of the economically challenged world we live in."

The great value of their book is derived from their pragmatic approach to all manner of situations and circumstances in which recognition and accommodation of the right details can indeed have a significant, beneficial impact. They cite retired U.C.L.A. men's basketball coach John Wooden custom of devoting his entire first meeting with players explaining how to put on their socks. He realized the value of that when playing high school and then college basketball in Indiana and introduced the custom at the first practice of the team he coached at Dayton High School in Kentucky. The tradition continued until his last season of coaching at U.C.L.A. when his team that year won the last of ten NCAA titles during his last 12 seasons, including seven in a row from 1967 to 1973. By the way, not one of his players ever had any problems with blisters. I also learned during a memorable afternoon with Coach Wooden after he retired that he had planned each 90-minute practice on a 3x5 file card and had saved every card since the first team practice at Dayton High School. Two key points: Coach Wooden left nothing to chance that he could control, and, no detail was insignificant if it was in the best interests of his players, the team, and their university.

I really appreciate the informal, almost conversational tone that Kaplan and Koval immediately establish with their reader before they work their way through an especially lively and eloquent narrative. The chapter titles are clever (e.g. "Go the Extra Inch") but not cute. They take the subject (i.e. the power of small) seriously because of the potentially enormous implications and consequences of neglecting or ignoring "the right details" but, that said, they should have provided an occasional qualification to temper an otherwise strident comment. Surely they realize that some (but not all) "little mistakes spell disaster"; there are times when it is possible to "make it big by thinking small" but there other times when thinking small makes "it" even smaller; and when "small changes the world," the results are not necessarilybeneficial. I think the subtitle should have been "Why Little Things Can Make All the Difference."

That said, this is nonetheless an insightful, thought-provoking, and well-written book in which Thaler and Koval explain why it is important to develop several different mindsets, including those that understand and appreciate "The Power of Small" as well as "The Power of Large." In another of his books, Think Big, Act Small, Jason Jennings affirms the value of having a bold and inspiring vision while "nailing the fundamentals." The most innovative companies encourage and support constant experimentation by those who take small scale, carefully calculated, and prudent risks. They reward rather than punish those associated with an experiment that fails, viewing it, in fact, not as a "failure" but as a learning opportunity. Each of the world's largest corporations began as a small idea that one or two people began to develop, albeit with "high hopes and great expectations." Think of that idea as an acorn. Today, it is an oak tree. The same can be said of small and isolated acts of kindness that have become worldwide movements to help those less fortunate.

With both skill and passion, Linda Thaler Kaplan and Robin Koval urge their readers to be alert for the important details that others miss, to become an effective problem finder, to make "going above and beyond the call of duty" their standard operating procedure, to be a more inquisitive and attentive listener, to take advantage of every opportunity to tell others how much they are appreciated, and in countless other ways to apply and leverage "the power of small" whenever and wherever appropriate. Well-done!

Thanks a lot, got here quickly. I needed it for one oh my college courses for assignements I have to do.

After reading a few books on the concept of Kaizen and getting ahead in ones life by taking small steps, I was looking forward into reading this book as well in order to gain some insights into the power of getting ahead by taking a series of small steps. Unfortunately this book provided very little information in regards taking such small steps. The authors within this book seemed to get to involved in telling stories rather than the practical advice. Also as I read the book, I noticed that the content didn't remain around the theme of the chapters, hence the meaning behind each chapter would get lost.
On a positive note, if you like to read personal development books which are filled with lots of stories which can appeal to the fictional side to yourself, than I would recommend this book.

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