800-CEO-READ Blog

ChangeThis

A new ChangeThis issue has been published!

Head on over for a new manifesto from our friend, marketing guru and founder of the site, Seth Godin. There's also a manifesto from the CE-YO of Stonyfield Farm, Gary Hirshberg, on sustainability and business that I'd highly recommend. Other manifestos in this issue cover topics ranging from customer service to problem-solving, from how to manage your ideas to how to manage your overall physical and mental acuteness. More detailed descriptions, straight from the manifestos themselves, are below.

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Marketing Mismatch: When New Won't Work with Old (Riffs on Meatball Sundae)
By Seth Godin

"People treat the New Marketing like a kid with a twenty-dollar bill at an ice cream parlor. They keep wanting to add more stuff--more candy bits and sprinkles and cream and cherries. The dream is simple: "If we can just add enough of [today's hot topping], everything will take care of itself." Most of the time, despite all the hype, organizations fail when they try to use this scattershot approach."

http://changethis.com/42.01.MarketingMismatch
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.01.MarketingMismatch.pdf

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The Future is Here and It is Bright: What Are We Waiting For?
By Gary Hirschberg
"We need more than simple awareness to break our generations-old, fossil-fuel-induced stupor. We have known what we should do, but we clearly have not done it. And the situation has deteriorated because of our lack of action. After more than three decades spent working in the environmental movement, I am convinced that economic self-interest--whether it is achieved by saving, earning, or a combination of the two--is the most powerful, if not the only, force capable of bringing about the future we need in time to make a difference... ."

http://changethis.com/42.02.FutureHere
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.02.FutureHere.pdf

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Humanize It: Bring a five-star sparkle to your customer interactions and watch your business flourish.

By Leonardo Inghilleri and Micah Solomon

"The best thing you can do for your business is not about new technology, brute force, or first-mover advantage. It's something simpler. And more dependable. Humanize each customer interaction, in order to turn your product or service into much more than a commodity. In your customer's mind, commodities are interchangeable and replaceable. Humanized relationships are not."

http://changethis.com/42.03.HumanizeIt
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.03.HumanizeIt.pdf

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A "Where's Waldo" Approach to Problem-solving
By Adelino de Almeida, PhD

"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."

http://changethis.com/42.04.WhereWaldo
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.04.WhereWaldo.pdf

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Ideaicide: How To Avoid It And Get What You Want
By Alan Parr and 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."

http://changethis.com/42.05.Ideaicide
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.05.Ideaicide.pdf

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Free Your Ass and Your Mind Will Follow: Embodied Leadership
By Jaime 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."

http://changethis.com/42.06.FreeYourAss
http://changethis.com/pdf/42.06.FreeYourAss.pdf