This was quite a good read. The start and the end were really well put together, though like some of the other reading that I have done for this blog, I think the padding in the middle was somewhat superfluous, and somewhat of a struggle, but it was all worth it, as the book had an amazing ending, and a great conclusion.
Onto the content ... Joseph Warrillow, aka Father Joe is a monk who has devoted his life to his religion. He lives in a monastery, with other monks, who also have a life long devotion to their religion. Tony Hendra, as author, explains in essence, the role that Father Joe has played in his life, especially during tough times, which for Tony, there have been many.
Tony was taken to Father Joe as a 14 year old, by the husband of the married woman that Tony was having an 'affair' with (he started young, apparently). The affair was not too 'sexual', as the pair was busted by the husband, before it got too out of hand. But, it was off to the monastery, for a meeting with Father Joe. Tony was obviously terrified on the way, but the meeting was the first of many that the two were to have over the next 40 or so years.
Tony was not chastised, as he was prepared for, by Father Joe, who took a very soft approach to the situation. He was very calming, very understanding and very friendly. He called Tony 'Dear', from that point forward. The meeting had such a profound impact on the young Tony that he decided to become a monk himself. He worked and studied hard towards that endeavour, that was, until he hit university and discovered girls and alcohol. Sounds familiar ...
So, onto and through a working life in the media business, with many visits back to see Father Joe along the way, Tony marries (twice), fathers several kids and manages quite a successful career. Tony is actually a very educated, very academic and very intelligent individual (evidenced by all of the big words - most of which I did not understand - that he used in the book). His grasp of the English language is amazing, though I need to say that some of the words and some of the intense vocabulary was not actually required and was a little over the top. That is just my call, and once again, I need to say that I might not be hugely qualified to critique a best selling book. Once again, though, my blog, my call, I guess.
So, coming to the end of the book, and really, to the end of the life of Father Joe, the ending is somewhat unexpected. Inevitably, Father Joe passes on, which is sad and which is in a quite inhumane way. Mind you, he beat cancer twice before it got him, and affected his looks and his eyes. He loved Tony with a father like love until the day he died.
I won't spoil the ending of the book for you, though I will say that it is very sad, and very unique. Very impressive really, and it does demonstrate the importance that some lives have on others.
Overall, a 4 out of 5. A good read, and very enjoyable. Feel good at times.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Book 14 - Tuesdays with Morrie - an old man, a young man and life's greatest lessons
Finally, after 14 books, I have found one that I just could not put down. It contains 189 pages of great reading, and I got through it in one day. Not only could I not put it down, but I thought it is potentially the best book that I have ever read (now, I tend to say that a lot, if you know me), but this one is just a pearler, and I would encourage you to get out and get yourself a copy. Then, take on board Morrie's thoughts and implement them into your own life. In short, Morrie rocks. He was a fantastic individual, and he had some great messages for the world. Here is a summary of the book.
Mitch Albom was a university student and under the tutor of a career professor, Morrie Schwartz. Morrie was a Sociology professor, and was well versed in all things to do with interpersonal relationships. Morrie used to take the time to speak with his students, to make sure they were wall coping and to ensure that they had all understood the messages that he wanted to impart on them. Mitch, on graduating, had developed a close relationship with Morrie, and e gave Morrie an embossed brief case as a thank you gift, when he graduated from college. He also said that he would keep in touch - which unfortunately, he never did.
It was not until about 20 years later, when Mitch was about 37 (my current age), that he again made contact with Morrie. Mitch saw an interview on Television with Morrie, and the interview was about how Morrie had contracted ALS (a degenerative disease), and how the disease would, over a period of about 5 year, take Morrie's life in a slow, very painful and very inhumane way. The disease kills muscles and nerves, so it slowly stops the body from functioning. It starts in the lower limbs and works its way up, until it gets to the lungs and stops them from functioning. Death then comes quickly.
So, in the ensuing 20 years, Mitch had become very successful, as a journalist, and when he saw the interview, he contacted Morrie to request an interview. From that first interview, Mitch travelled the 700 miles (one way) to chat with his old mentor on Tuesdays for the coming months, up until Morrie finally passed away. Mitch spent the last few months with Morrie, who was always extremely positive about life, and felt himself lucky to have had such a great life and a great family (a loving wife of nearly 50 years and two sons who adored him). He needed constant care, though was always smiling.
Mitch used to meet Morrie on Tuesdays during college, when he was working on his thesis, and again they were meeting on Tuesdays. Morrie said that they were 'Tuesday people', as they functioned better on Tuesdays. Morrie loved the idea of writing a book from the Tuesday discussions and even allowed a tape recorder to be used, so that Mitch would not forget anything.
Every Tuesday, they covered a different topic, from family, to emotions, to fear of aging, to forgiveness, and a range of other important life issues.
Over the course of 14 visits, Morrie slowly passed away, and Mitch slowly got life messages that he could not have got elsewhere. Now, I won't try to give you all of Morrie's messages here, as I won't do them justice, but one that jumped out at me was how Morrie "mourned his dwindling time, but cherished the chance it gave him to make things right".
Finally, Morrie passed away, although he had his funeral while he was still alive (very unique). Morrie wanted to be buried in a nice spot, under a tree, and he asked Mitch to come and visit him. He said that Mitch would be able to do all the talking then, and Morrie would listen. On his first visit to Morrie resting place, Mitch spoke to Morrie ... "I tried doing that in my head and, to my happiness, found the imagined conversation felt almost natural. I looked down at my hands, saw my watch and realized why. It was Tuesday."
Look, this was an amazing book - if you only read one book in your life, make it this one. It was amazing.
5 out of 5 from Jimmy for Tuesdays with Morrie. Loved it.
Until next time, keep reading.
Jimmy A
Mitch Albom was a university student and under the tutor of a career professor, Morrie Schwartz. Morrie was a Sociology professor, and was well versed in all things to do with interpersonal relationships. Morrie used to take the time to speak with his students, to make sure they were wall coping and to ensure that they had all understood the messages that he wanted to impart on them. Mitch, on graduating, had developed a close relationship with Morrie, and e gave Morrie an embossed brief case as a thank you gift, when he graduated from college. He also said that he would keep in touch - which unfortunately, he never did.
It was not until about 20 years later, when Mitch was about 37 (my current age), that he again made contact with Morrie. Mitch saw an interview on Television with Morrie, and the interview was about how Morrie had contracted ALS (a degenerative disease), and how the disease would, over a period of about 5 year, take Morrie's life in a slow, very painful and very inhumane way. The disease kills muscles and nerves, so it slowly stops the body from functioning. It starts in the lower limbs and works its way up, until it gets to the lungs and stops them from functioning. Death then comes quickly.
So, in the ensuing 20 years, Mitch had become very successful, as a journalist, and when he saw the interview, he contacted Morrie to request an interview. From that first interview, Mitch travelled the 700 miles (one way) to chat with his old mentor on Tuesdays for the coming months, up until Morrie finally passed away. Mitch spent the last few months with Morrie, who was always extremely positive about life, and felt himself lucky to have had such a great life and a great family (a loving wife of nearly 50 years and two sons who adored him). He needed constant care, though was always smiling.
Mitch used to meet Morrie on Tuesdays during college, when he was working on his thesis, and again they were meeting on Tuesdays. Morrie said that they were 'Tuesday people', as they functioned better on Tuesdays. Morrie loved the idea of writing a book from the Tuesday discussions and even allowed a tape recorder to be used, so that Mitch would not forget anything.
Every Tuesday, they covered a different topic, from family, to emotions, to fear of aging, to forgiveness, and a range of other important life issues.
Over the course of 14 visits, Morrie slowly passed away, and Mitch slowly got life messages that he could not have got elsewhere. Now, I won't try to give you all of Morrie's messages here, as I won't do them justice, but one that jumped out at me was how Morrie "mourned his dwindling time, but cherished the chance it gave him to make things right".
Finally, Morrie passed away, although he had his funeral while he was still alive (very unique). Morrie wanted to be buried in a nice spot, under a tree, and he asked Mitch to come and visit him. He said that Mitch would be able to do all the talking then, and Morrie would listen. On his first visit to Morrie resting place, Mitch spoke to Morrie ... "I tried doing that in my head and, to my happiness, found the imagined conversation felt almost natural. I looked down at my hands, saw my watch and realized why. It was Tuesday."
Look, this was an amazing book - if you only read one book in your life, make it this one. It was amazing.
5 out of 5 from Jimmy for Tuesdays with Morrie. Loved it.
Until next time, keep reading.
Jimmy A
Book 13 - Making Common Sense Common Practice - Models for Manufacturing Excellence
Here we are, one quarter of the way through the book reading challenge for the year. Loving the book reading and living the dream, as always.
Although this blog was founded on biographies, and was designed to explore people, places or events, this book is very different to that. I could probably fit it into the event category, as it tells a hypothetical story about how a business turns its fortunes around, with the help of strategies from the author, Ron Moore. Ron is a great business mind, and his theories and practical examples for business improvement are outstanding and somewhat easy to adopt and implement.
The reason that I read the book is that I am consulting to a Diamond mine in outback WA at the moment, and the Operations Manager up there read the book, liked it, and recommended that I read it. I committed to do that, over a weekend, all 475 pages of it, and provide feedback on how it could be used to help the operations overcome some of their challenges and to keep continuously improving.
Really, there was a wealth of information in the book, though being a Maintenance Engineer (for want of a better description of the role that I am fulfilling at the moment), the chapters on maintenance systems improvement were the ones I was interested in.
In summary, there were only four pages in the whole book that I 'dog eared' for further review. Saying that, though, I highlighted information on most of the pages in the book (that I thought were important). So, what was on the four pages that I dog eared. Here are the key messages for any Maintenance Manager in a plant of any kind:
1. From page 75: The hypothetical company was struggling with plant reliability issues (everything kept failing), and it "wasn't routinely repairing things. Its new "model" for behaviour was "fixed forever" as opposed to "forever fixing." Now, this is not rocket science, but in a plant that has reliability issues, a change of thinking, and culture, like this is the first step in the right direction.
2. From page 221: There was a very clear definition of the four maintenance types provided - these included Reactive Maintenance (breakdowns), Preventive Maintenance (time based), Predictive Maintenance (condition monitoring based) and Proactive Maintenance (root cause based). Again, simple philosophies, but the understanding of these, and what percentage of each is being carried out in the plant is crucial if improvement is to be achieved.
3. From page 434: There was a 10 point plan provided by Ron Moore, to achieve manufacturing excellence. I won't list the whole ten here, but the essence includes; optimising uptime, minimising losses, applying best practice, implementing a suitable organisational structure and measuring performance. Do these things, and plant performance will improve.
4. From page 453: There was a job description for a Reliability Engineer provided by Ron Moore. In an effective maintenance (or Reliability) department, a competent and committed Reliability Engineer is an essential element. The key attributes of that role include loss accounting, root cause failure analysis, condition monitoring, shutdown support, proactive support and facilitation and communication within and external to the maintenance department.
Overall, the book was a good read - on one condition - you have an application for it. I would not recommend reading this book, unless you were trying to fix your plant, improve your manufacturing process or something similar. I have tried to read many of these types of books in the past, without a case study to apply it to, and I found it difficult. This time it was easier, as I had a case study. Therefore it was a great read, great timing, and it contained great information. I really like Ron's ideas and strategies, and I am sure, applied correctly, would make real differences to organisations.
Overall, from a business perspective, I give the book 4.25 out of 5. Very relevant and very full of great tips.
If you are interested, or for four more great books, go to: http://www.antonguinea.com.au/.
Until next time, keep reading.
Jimmy A
Although this blog was founded on biographies, and was designed to explore people, places or events, this book is very different to that. I could probably fit it into the event category, as it tells a hypothetical story about how a business turns its fortunes around, with the help of strategies from the author, Ron Moore. Ron is a great business mind, and his theories and practical examples for business improvement are outstanding and somewhat easy to adopt and implement.
The reason that I read the book is that I am consulting to a Diamond mine in outback WA at the moment, and the Operations Manager up there read the book, liked it, and recommended that I read it. I committed to do that, over a weekend, all 475 pages of it, and provide feedback on how it could be used to help the operations overcome some of their challenges and to keep continuously improving.
Really, there was a wealth of information in the book, though being a Maintenance Engineer (for want of a better description of the role that I am fulfilling at the moment), the chapters on maintenance systems improvement were the ones I was interested in.
In summary, there were only four pages in the whole book that I 'dog eared' for further review. Saying that, though, I highlighted information on most of the pages in the book (that I thought were important). So, what was on the four pages that I dog eared. Here are the key messages for any Maintenance Manager in a plant of any kind:
1. From page 75: The hypothetical company was struggling with plant reliability issues (everything kept failing), and it "wasn't routinely repairing things. Its new "model" for behaviour was "fixed forever" as opposed to "forever fixing." Now, this is not rocket science, but in a plant that has reliability issues, a change of thinking, and culture, like this is the first step in the right direction.
2. From page 221: There was a very clear definition of the four maintenance types provided - these included Reactive Maintenance (breakdowns), Preventive Maintenance (time based), Predictive Maintenance (condition monitoring based) and Proactive Maintenance (root cause based). Again, simple philosophies, but the understanding of these, and what percentage of each is being carried out in the plant is crucial if improvement is to be achieved.
3. From page 434: There was a 10 point plan provided by Ron Moore, to achieve manufacturing excellence. I won't list the whole ten here, but the essence includes; optimising uptime, minimising losses, applying best practice, implementing a suitable organisational structure and measuring performance. Do these things, and plant performance will improve.
4. From page 453: There was a job description for a Reliability Engineer provided by Ron Moore. In an effective maintenance (or Reliability) department, a competent and committed Reliability Engineer is an essential element. The key attributes of that role include loss accounting, root cause failure analysis, condition monitoring, shutdown support, proactive support and facilitation and communication within and external to the maintenance department.
Overall, the book was a good read - on one condition - you have an application for it. I would not recommend reading this book, unless you were trying to fix your plant, improve your manufacturing process or something similar. I have tried to read many of these types of books in the past, without a case study to apply it to, and I found it difficult. This time it was easier, as I had a case study. Therefore it was a great read, great timing, and it contained great information. I really like Ron's ideas and strategies, and I am sure, applied correctly, would make real differences to organisations.
Overall, from a business perspective, I give the book 4.25 out of 5. Very relevant and very full of great tips.
If you are interested, or for four more great books, go to: http://www.antonguinea.com.au/.
Until next time, keep reading.
Jimmy A
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