Most Recent Articles
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Blog / Book Giveaways
Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
By Porchlight
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, asks some existential questions about himself, his company, and the future of the world.
Categories: giveaways
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Blog / Editor's Choice
The Memo: Five Rules for Your Economic Liberation
Book Review by Dylan Schleicher
John Hope Bryant has been championing financial literacy for at least 25 years, and he has now written a book to deliver the memo directly to you.
Categories: editors-choice
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Blog / News & Opinion
Last Call! Submissions for the 2017 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards Close September 28
By 800-CEO-READ
Publishers and authors have one week left to enter their book for our annual Business Book Awards.
Categories: news-opinion, the-company
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Move from Just Making Money to Making a Difference
By Dean Niewolny
"Think about it, since most of us are knowledge workers, we are likely going to live considerably longer lives. In fact, most of us will have another 30 years or more after the time that the previous generation was retiring and sailing off into the sunset with the gold watch. And, here's the kicker: those extra 30 years could turn out to be the most productive and satisfying years of our lives if we only figure out how to make the transition. We begin the season of halftime with that feeling of smoldering discontent. But if we make the transition successfully into our second half, we emerge with a clear purpose, plan, and focus that will allow us to finish well and live a life of true significance."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Why You Should Hire a Futurist
By Rebecca D. Costa
"A quiet revolution is underway. It is as unanticipated and stealth as the internet and social media once were and just as ubiquitous. Every day our knowledge about the future grows more precise, and this is transforming how modern leaders lead. Think about it. A few decades ago we didn't know if a person was predisposed to Alzheimer's, baldness, or lung cancer, when a country's currency was on the verge of collapse, or how close a rogue nation on the other side of the world was to a viable nuclear warhead. We didn't know which automobile parts were likely to fail first, second, and third, or when a hurricane would make landfall, or whether our credit was sufficient to secure a mortgage. But today, we do. We have more data about future outcomes than ever before, and this has armed leaders with a heretofore unprecedented power: the ability to adapt before-the-fact. That's right. Today's successful companies are no longer adapting to changes in the environment, they are changing the environment to which they must adapt.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! The Fall of Homo Economicus and the Rise of Design Thinking
By Jeanne Liedtka
"It is hard to think of a more flawed theory that has had as much of an impact on organizational life as that of the 'rational man' of neoclassical economics: an unfeeling automaton, driven by analytic assessments of economic utility and the pursuit of self-interest. [. . . ] But it's not only economists who retreat to abstraction and analytics for comfort—organizational leaders often have the same inclinations. This creates especially dramatic problems when we are trying to accomplish change—because change is about human beings, first and foremost. The 'messiness' our management approaches so often try to avoid is, essentially, our humanness. In our desire for predictability, control and simplicity, we eliminate consideration of the reality of the human experience. Our behavior reflects our emotions as well as our presumed 'rationality'—we inhabit realities that are subjectively interpreted through our own unique backgrounds and experiences. Ultimately, change requires that a particular set of human beings behave in new ways.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Moving Beyond Competing
By W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne
"For us, as business scholars, the world we aspired to help advance wasn't one defined by competing and dividing up markets or the globe, where one's gain comes at the expense of others. Competition exists, and win-lose scenarios abound, but they weren't what captured our imaginations, nor what we believed our world needed more of. What we admired, what inspired us, were the organizations and individuals that went beyond competing to create new frontiers of opportunity, growth, and jobs, where success was not about dividing up an existing, often shrinking pie, but about creating a larger economic pie for all—what we refer to as blue oceans. Blue oceans are less about disruption and more about nondisruptive creation, where one's gain doesn't have to come at the expense of others. But how do you translate aspiration into action, intention into reality?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Relationship Capital Unplugged
By John Hope Bryant
"You may have gotten one or two of the five rules of economic independence, but you still don't feel economically independent. You may have a 725 credit score, but you're sitting at your computer all day and your relationships are dwindling and it's preventing you from getting ahead. You may be sitting there thinking, 'If I'm doing all the right things and still struggling, then the system has to be rigged. ' No, actually, there's just some important stuff nobody told you. Nobody gave you the Memo. What if I told you there was a reason that you were not as successful as you thought you should be, and it had little to nothing to do with whether you were smart, or competent, or whether you qualified for the job or post you applied for. What if I told you that you had everything you needed in this life for success—except the right Relationship Capital. And that your Relationship Capital starts with what I call Inner Capital. That it starts with you. How you see and feel about yourself. That you ARE capital.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / New Releases
Do Big Things: The Simple Steps Teams Can Take to Mobilize Hearts and Minds, and Make an Epic Impact
By 800-CEO-READ
Craig Ross, Angela Paccione, and Victoria Roberts are obsessed with answering one question: How do you equip a team to deliver big things?
Categories: new-releases
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Blog / Excerpts
Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking
By 800-CEO-READ
Jennifer Riel and Roger Martin write about the importance of creating room for understanding, and the empathy that grows from it—one of three core principles at the heart of a better decision-making process.
Categories: excerpts
