ChangeThis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.
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Blog / ChangeThis
Manners Matter: The Commonsense Approach to Business Etiquette
By Joel D Canfield
"Manners matter, not just socially; we all know manners matter socially. Manners matter in business. Good social skills, in fact, are critical to the success of any business. Let's talk about the why and the how, but first, let's dispel a common myth: being polite doesn't make you a doormat. We've all seen the stereotype: meek and mild librarian/accountant gets walked on by everyone, running others' errands, never getting any respect, until one day, they explode in a rage, baseball bats and fists and profanity flying, and finally, finally, they get the respect they deserve and find true happiness in life. Let's stop pretending Hollywood represents real life."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage
By Michael Lee Stallard
"I want to share something with you I've learned over the last decade of my life that I believe can be as helpful to you as it has been to me. In a nutshell, one of the most powerful and least understood aspects of business is how an emotional connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage. Unless the people who are part of a business feel a sense of connection –an emotional bond that promotes trust, cooperation and esprit de corps – they will never reach their potential as individuals, nor will the organization."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
An Eater's Manifesto
By Michael Pollan
"Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. We are entering a postindustrial era of food; for the first time in a generation it is possible to leave behind the Western diet without having also to leave behind civilization. And the more eaters who vote with their forks for a different kind of food, the more commonplace and accessible such food will become. This is an eater's manifesto, an invitation to join the movement that is renovating our food system in the name of health—health in the very broadest sense of that word."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Power of Intuition: And Why It's the Biggest Myth in Business Today
By Kevin J. Clancy, Peter C. Krieg
"What is it about going through life, making decisions flying by the seat of our pants, without a plan to get to a clear destination that has us all so captivated? To have the confidence to strike out on your own—research and professional opinion be damned—and take a stand, make a choice, set off in a new direction... just like that? As it turns out, while it sounds quite manly, brave, and highly lucrative to stick to your guns and go with your gut under pressure, under scrutiny, to not back down, it's not exactly an uncommon thing to do in business today. ... The real issue is how many times do pure hunches alone lead to legendary success? The answer upon closer inspection: pretty rarely."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Let's Make a Deal: Deal Making Process Improvement Principles
By Noric Dilanchian
"Doing business in almost every field involves deal making. The challenge is that negotiating good deals and drafting effective contracts are non-trivial tasks due to legal, technological and business complexities. A further layer of complexity is added by variations in game play, psychology, and ethics. In this context, deal makers can benefit from simplification and improved understanding of the legal context and practical processes relevant to deal making. Deal making should be led by process, as well as practical and commercial considerations, not purely legal considerations. It is helpful to think of deals as blueprints for living outcomes, not just glue to bind relationships."
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Blog / ChangeThis
100 Ways to Help You Succeed/Make Money: Part II
By Tom Peters
We published the beginning to a very empowering list three years ago—Tom Peters' 100 Ways to Help You Succeed/Make Money. That list was finished recently, and we now update it here with success tips #51-100 (&1).
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Indexing a Career: A Career Path in Pictures
By Jessica Hagy
Jessica Hagy has a unique and irreverent sense of humor, and has the ability to capture complex realities in a 3" by 5" frame. Here she has organized a series of twenty index cards she has created throughout the years, plotting the trajectory of an imagined, but possibly recognizable, career path.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Free Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow: Embodied Leadership
By Jamie Wheal
"Somewhere between Ancient Athens and today's Aeron, we've lost the plot and come to believe that all of Reason and Innovation resides inside our skulls. Organizational leaders require more than coaching "from the neck up" to compete in today's information age. We need to develop our physical, cognitive and relational capacities and expand our bandwidth."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Ideaicide: How To Avoid It And Get What You Want
By Alan Parr, Karen Ansbaugh
"Ideaicide is deadly. People come up with lots of new ideas everyday, but nothing happens....The problem is not usually the ideas themselves....Corporate forces act to eliminate risk and make an idea conform to the company's existing business model, not to the needs of the marketplace. The edginess of the idea is gone, replaced by cold, calculated efficiency and predictability. We will show you how to bring your ideas to life."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
A 'Where's Waldo' Approach to Problem-solving
By Adelino de Almeida
"We've all encountered bad solutions that come from bad problem-solving; heck, we've even encountered good solutions that were somehow generated from bad problem-solving.....All you need to become a proficient problem-solver is a basic understanding of the concept behind the Where's Waldo books: unbeknownst to most, these books encapsulate all the wisdom necessary for sound problem-solving."
Categories: changethis