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Blog / Editor's Choice
Simply Brilliant: How Great Organizations Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways
Book Review by Dylan Schleicher
Bill Taylor, founder of Fast Company, reminds us that creativity exists outside of Silicon Valley, and is available to all of us.
Categories: editors-choice
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Blog / New Releases
Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life
By 800-CEO-READ
Bill Burnett and Dave Evans of the design school at Stanford University have turned their popular course "Designing Your Life" into a book for all of us.
Categories: new-releases
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Blog / Book Giveaways
How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race, and the Birth of Private Spaceflight
By Porchlight
Julian Guthrie tells the story of the XPRIZE, which helped humanity take a giant leap toward producing private space travel.
Categories: giveaways
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Blog / News & Opinion
Last call! Submissions for the 2016 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards close September 29
By Blyth Meier
Publishers and authors have ten days left to enter their book for our annual Business Book Awards.
Categories: news-opinion, the-company
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Blog / Editor's Choice
Managing In the Gray: Five Timeless Questions for Resolving Your Toughest Problems at Work
Book Review by Dylan Schleicher
Joseph Badaracco has written a great guide to management that reminds us of its moral imperative and importance.
Categories: editors-choice
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Career Benefits of Writing Without Bullshit
By Josh Bernoff
"Clarity. Boldness. We say that we value these qualities in communication at work. So why is nearly everything we read so full of bullshit? Our inboxes, browsers, and smartphone screens are filled with jargon-laden, meandering drivel. Why can't people get to the point and say what they mean? [...] After 35 years of reading and writing for work, I decided to face this problem head-on: to determine what causes bullshit, and how we can all learn to write without it. The problem is real. And the solution is within reach. It's just a question of committing yourself to writing without bullshit."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Make Things Happen When You're Not the CEO
By Thomas Barta, Patrick Barwise
"You're an expert or manager in, say, marketing, IT or distribution. Maybe you're even the head of that function—the CMO, CTO or Distribution Director. You and your team have come up with a great idea that—if executed—will significantly benefit the company. But, like most important proposals, in order to be implemented, it will need the support of several other departments. Without that support, nothing will happen. Here are five ways to achieve it."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
SIMPLY BRILLIANT: 8 Questions to Help You Do Ordinary Things in Extraordinary Ways
By William C. Taylor
"Why should the story of success be the exclusive domain of a few technology-driven startups or a handful of young billionaires? The less-noticed story of our time, the huge opportunity for leaders who aim to do something important and build something great, is both simple and subversive: In a time of wrenching disruptions and exhilarating advances, of unrelenting turmoil and unlimited promise, the future is open to everybody. The thrill of breakthrough creativity and breakaway performance doesn't just belong to the youngest companies with the most cutting-edge technology or the most radical business strategies. It can be summoned in all sorts of industries and all walks of life, if leaders can reimagine what's possible in their fields."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Turn Your Dreams into Reality—with the Stroke of a Pen
By Nora Herting, Heather Willems
"Have you ever dreamed of doing something big in your life—like maybe starting your own business. Have you also had trouble pursuing that dream because you didn't know where to start. Rest assured, you're not alone. Some 67 percent of millennials are interested in starting their own business, while about 54 million Americans now consider themselves freelancers. But turning a great idea into something that will actually earn you a living can be intimidating. You kind of know what you want, but maybe you have a hard time explaining it to other people, let alone knowing if someone would be willing to pay you in return for your product or service. If only there were a way to break it down into more manageable chunks—something you could do that would allow your brain to fully activate in coming up with the answers you need. It turns out there is a first step you can take to start to make your big ideas and dreams come true: You can pick up your pen and start drawing. ".
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Start Up Your Brand: Develop a Minimum Viable Brand
By Denise Lee Yohn
"Many startups get derailed because they don't get their brand right. They rush into the marketplace thinking that a creative name, cool logo, and pithy tagline are all they need to launch their product idea. But the business isn't grounded in a strategic foundation that provides the internal focus and clarity and external relevance and differentiation it needs to survive the myriad of challenges and threats facing new brands, much less to thrive as the business scales. Soon enough, the upstart finds it's not attracting customers or investors, so it retrenches, plots a pivot, and tries (and fails) again—insanely doing the same thing over again expecting a different result. To avoid this fate, you need to develop a Minimum Viable Brand (MVB). With a MVB, you expend the least amount of time, effort, and money necessary to develop enough of a launch brand concept to center your organization, convey your value, and to collect learning. As an alternative to a complete strategic brand platform or simply a shell of a brand, a MVB provides you the perfect balance of structure and flexibility.
Categories: changethis