Most Recent Articles
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Blog / ChangeThis
InsideOut Development: Do What You Already Know
By Alan Fine
"If knowledge really were all it took to be a high performer, then all any of us would have to do would be to read that book or take that class and we'd all be winning championships. We'd all be incredible managers, great teachers, phenomenal parents and performance. But we're not. Why? Because the biggest obstacle in performance isn't not knowing what to do; it's not doing what we already know."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Survival of the Simplest: The Micro-Script Rules
By Bill Schley
"I have found out how to simplify the confused and mucked-up world of communications so that your message can penetrate the maelstrom of modern media, whether you are a global corporation, a local politician, a college lecturer, a sales rep or a start-up. I have a magic bullet that will sharpen whatever story you have to tell so that it gets to the heart of the matter, cuts through mental barriers and lodges easily in the mind. As an advisor to companies, politicians and institutions of higher learning, I've been thinking about this problem for about twenty years, and have been figuring out the solution for the last two. I don't know how to de-complicate my cable bill, or untangle the knots in the U.S. Congress, but I do know about this. This is my small part to play in the crusade. So here's your answer."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Personality Poker: How to Create High-Performing Innovation Teams
By Stephen M. Shapiro
"The desire for equality permeates everything we do and always has, as can be seen in many of our age-old philosophies. For example, we see it in the Golden Rule, which is often interpreted as 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.' However, who really cares what you want? After all, treating people as you want to be treated doesn't address the needs and desires of others. Buying into these doctrines, myths, and lies leads to pasteurizing, homogenizing, and sanitizing everyone in order to fit people into one mold and think the same way so they can then gather together in like-minded harmony. There's a good reason why they call it a company culture, since organizations are, in actuality, mini-cults. Instead, we should consider living by the doctrine: The person you like the least may be the person you need the most."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / News & Opinion
Five Quick Questions with Jack Covert
By 800-CEO-READ
For the first installment of its Five Quick Questions With Publishing’s Top Leaders series, the wonderful folks of Cave Henricks Communication interviewed Jack this week about the current state of Publishing—and where it's heading. Asked what "influences people most to buy business books? " Jack replies: This is a hard question.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / Staff Picks
Don't Quit Your Day Job
Book Review by 800-CEO-READ
There are a great many (and many great) literary books about work. There are those that search for the deeper meaning of work by interviewing others about the work they do, such as Po Bronson's What Should I Do with My Life? , Studs Terkel's Working, and The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alex De Botton.
Categories: staff-picks
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Blog / News & Opinion
Where Good Ideas Come From
By 800-CEO-READ
Steven Johnson has a new book coming out in October called Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation. Not only does it report on much of the innovation that has occurred over time, it focuses heavily on the process. We all have ideas.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
The Shibumi Strategy
By 800-CEO-READ
Matthew May is known for his thoughts on innovation and design strategy. His books The Elegant Solution and In Pursuit of Elegance focused on those topics, and were written in a more straightforward business style. Now, he's taken another turn: the business parable.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
8cr Pow Wow Adds Chris Guillebeau and Sally Hogshead
By 800-CEO-READ
The 800-CEO-READ Pow Wow is really incredible. I continue to hear stories about people who met at the first one in 2005, and are still working on projects together. Also, their work is better based on the things they learned by coming to the Pow Wow over the years.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / News & Opinion
Progress or Paper Ceiling?
By Sally Haldorson
In the 2008 edition of our annual year-in-review, In the Books, I wrote an essay titled: "For Women Only? A Look at Trends in Business Books Written by Women. " It's a topic that always intrigues me.
Categories: news-opinion
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Blog / Staff Picks
Pete Carroll and the Grateful Dead
Book Review by 800-CEO-READ
After leading a train of counter culture, tie-dyed long-hairs around the country for over three decades, the Grateful Dead is now being used to teach valuable lessons in some unlikely places. David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan released a great book last month with John Wiley and Sons about how the band built its devoted following and the many lessons they offer marketers today. Basketball legend, Dead Head and current NBA announcer Bill Walton wrote in the book's introduction that "Brian and David's newest book, Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, is like a powerful, hard-charging anthem that fills in so many of the blanks while closing the circle of life all around us.
Categories: staff-picks
