800-CEO-READ Blog

April Titles

As we start the next month, here are a few of the titles coming out in April that are sure to be covered in various media outlets.

• From the author of A Whole New Mind, comes the first ever manga business book. Dan Pink's The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need.
• Procter and Gamble's A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan worked together to publish The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation.
• Nudge:Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by two professors at the University of Chicago
• Climate Change: What's Your Business Strategy? (Memo to the CEO) by Andrew J. Hoffman and John G. Woody on the subject everyone is talking about: how business will change as the climate changes.
• From the Cult of Mac author, Leander Kahney takes a look Inside Steve's Brain.

Enjoy your April.

Random Links For Your Friday Afternoon

Here's some things you may find interesting, like we did:

Maya Angelou celebrates turning 80 years old.

Financial firms letting go of thousands of workers - many face unemployment in the real estate and finance fields at all levels.

South African activist Ivan Toms passed away at the age of 55 in his home, this past Tuesday.

The new book: The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food - brings to light a truly all-American food item.

Something else to watch out for during airport security screenings .

Take a CREATIVITY break!

And... for all of you sci-fi geeks: Welcome to 'Firefly' Fridays! - courtesy of Hulu.com!!

Little House on the Prairie: The Musical (!?!?!?!?!?!) Yes, tickets go on sale June 27th (Cheers, Half-Pint!)



Happy Friday, everyone!

EyesOpen

Who doesn't love IDEO and the work they do. Fast Company recently listed them at number 5 on its "Fast 50" list of the world's most innovative companies, and they have been hired in the past year by such stalwart and venerable organizations as the CDC, the Acumen Fund, the Red Cross and HBO (hey, HBO heals too).

I write today to tell you of a great new project they've embarked on... and of course, we being who we are, it revolves around books. They are not quite business books, but when I got word of them, I knew I needed to place an order and see what IDEO is up to this time. Well, they came in the mail today, and they are great. It is a series of travel guides--or "field guides for the curious" as they put it--and they are really unique. Entitled EyesOpen, the series starts with New York and London, and step off of the typical tourist route to take you around the cities in the way a good friend who lives there and knows the city well might. As they state on their website:

Eyes Open guides shift the attention of the traveler and everyday observer away from sightseeing toward looking--really looking--at their surroundings. This series is an intimate exploration (starting with London and New York) that celebrates finding inspiration at every turn. These guide books step away from the proverbial sense of "place" toward experience, reminding us all to keep our eyes open in the world to gain a better sense of how we fit in.

You'll find places such as Hackney City Farm in London, an organic community farm in the middle of the city...

...and the Chelsea Flea Market in NYC, which takes leftover urban space and turns it into a vibrant community of vintage thrift culture.

You've just got to give it up to IDEO (author and experience designer Fred Dust in particular) and Chronicle Books for this series. The books will definitely slow productivity a bit as they pass around our office today. They're really fascinating, and additionally, this isn't just a series of books. You can go to the EyesOpen website and read stories of other unique places and even contribute your own. These people are unstoppable.

Finding It

Recently, I was at a popular electronic "super store" (think Circuit City/Best Buy type). I was browsing through the DVDs and noticed a flaw, basically due to the fact that I'm a big trivia geek: most of The Thin Man mystery series were shelved with movie musicals like Grease, West Side Story and everything Elvis. Odd, right? One of them is titled 'Song of the Thin Man', so I could see why that one may have gotten mixed within the musicals. But what about all the other titles in the series? Seemed peculiar to me, so I asked an employee. He said he knew about the discrepancy and laughed about it. Before he left me, I asked why he didn't correct or report the mistake. He shrugged, 'Well that's how our company has it categorized'.

Whatever happened to empowerment in organizations? What happened to taking initiative? Good will? Common sense?

Following are some titles that deal with empowerment. Just a little reminder for those who think that one person can't do anything to change the way another person, or for that matter, a company thinks.

Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment by William C. Byham

Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Noel M. Tichy and Stratford Sherman

Heroz: Empower Yourself, Your Coworkers, Your Company by William Byham and Jeff Cox

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly

You're in Charge, Now What? by Catherine Fredman/Thomas J. Neff/James M. Citrin

Getting it Done: How to Lead When You're in Charge by Roger Fisher

Managing Your Boss by John J. Gabarro and John P. Kotter

What book is your favorite?

Of all time. Vote today. Books added daily.

The final list will be in Jack and Todd's book due out in January '09.

New Excerpt Up - from The IT Value Stack

There's a new excerpt up on our Excerpts blog: the introduction to The IT Value Stack: A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership by Ade McCormack. From the inside flap: "Successful IT value realisation is a cloudy subject. This in part contributes to the overall dissatisfaction many organisations have with IT. This book tackles the subject of IT value realisation head on. Most importantly it provides a model to help CIOs and business leaders maximise the return on their IT investment."

Here are the author's reasons for writing a book about IT Leadership:

Introduction: What's IT All About?

"Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together."
Jesse Jackson, US Civil Rights Leader

Introduction

Welcome to The IT Value Stack - A Boardroom Guide to IT Leadership. Before we get into the content proper I have provided some insights into why I have written this book. This opening chapter also details the book's structure.

I have my Reasons

Having worked in the IT sector for more than two decades, I have made a number of observations that are in many ways interrelated:

• The IT industry has a poor delivery record.
• Business people do not know what IT people are talking about. And this doesn't seem to bother IT people.
• Users are generally suspicious of IT people.
• Executives are frustrated that they cannot measure whether they are getting good value from their IT investment.
• There is a perception that all problems involving IT are ipso facto the fault of the IT department.
• The IT industry suffers from low self-esteem.
• Many businesses do not know what business they are in. I will dwell on these in the next chapter.

Here's a direct link to the excerpt: http://800ceoread.com/excerpts/archives/007824.html

links for 2008-03-25

• Stirring It Up >> Advertising Age | The CE-"Yo" Speaks: Gary Hirshberg Blows the Lid on Stonyfield's Green History
  Hirshberg has shown environmental ethic and profitability can coexist in a business plan--long before "going green" became as common a brand position as the oft-cited platitude, "The consumer is king."
  (tags: biography greenbusiness businessbooks)

Brain Rules

A rather interesting book was released last week by Pear Press entitled Brain Rules. It was written by the director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University, John J. Medina, and he writes in the introduction:

If you wanted to create an education environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a classroom. If you wanted to create a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain was good at doing, you probably would design something like a cubicle. And if you wanted to change things, you might have to tear down both and start over.

And while this book doesn't actually give you the tools to tear down the whole system (and what would those be anyway?) it does lay out the basic principles of how the brain really works and gives us some tips that can help us start working more efficiently and holistically.

The book also comes with a DVD, and you can find samples from that and a trove of other information on this great site devoted to the book.

New Titles in Spanish!

Another listing of titles in Spanish came to my attention! These can be great as gifts for bi-lingual clients or employees! If you want to place an order for any of these books, let me know (roy@800ceoread.com).

Mas alla de el secreto (Beyond the Secret) by Brenda Barnaby

Sera mejor que lo cuentes! (Will Be Better To Tell Us the Story) by Antonio Munez

Espejimsmos (The Halo Effect and Other Business Delusions) by Philip Rosenweig

Gane cualquier negociacion (How to Win Any Negotiation) by Robert Mayer

La magia de pensar a lo grande (The Magic of Thinking Big) by David J. Schwartz

60 segundoes para organizarse (60 Second Organizer) by Jeff Davidson

"The Modern Era's Second Worst Promulgator of Intelligence Reduction"

The following is my letter to the editors of Fast Company Magazine on Elizabeth Spiers recent column in their publication. You can read Spiers column here. Kate wrote about it earlier in the week, and I couldn't let it pass either.

***

I write to provide a needed counterpoint to Elizabeth Spiers April 2008 Not So Fast column titled "Library of The Living Dead."

I will start where she ends, agreeing in fact with Spiers' ultimate conclusion: Business books are self-help, by their very definition. The implication that business books fall strictly into the "I'm OK, You're OK" segment of self-help is where Spiers and I diverge. A book publisher recently shared research with me that showed the number one reason people buy business books is to find a solution to a problem. Sitting at the educational crossroads between "I know nothing about this," and "Let's hire a consultant," business books contain a high value proposition for the twenty dollars and two hours spent. Not, as Spiers says, to abdicate responsibility for the choices they make. Instead, it takes a great deal of personal awareness to look for answers from those who offer experiential lessons in books.

The packaging of those lessons receives the majority of criticism in Ms. Spiers column and I am always dismayed by the problems pundits have with this aspect of the industry. Human civilization is built upon stories and when an author chooses a fable as the delivery device, the writer is making the lessons more accessible to a wider audience.

The "12-step-ification" is a crutch that bloggers, business magazines, and book publishers certainly use alike, in the same way celebrity authors are used to garner attention and sell product. This is simply product marketing through concreteness and social proof.

The bestseller list as a guide to the "best" in the category is just another form of social proof. My optimism for the category would bring me to highlight Gallup's research-based StrengthsFinder 2.0 or Jim Collins' insightful and wonderful written Good to Great as evidence that some books that make the bestseller list really deserve the title.

In the case of John Kotter, we have the benefit of choosing either his current top-selling fable, or his 1996 book "Leading Change," which has sold over a million copies. Both books tackle the same content, but offer options for the reader to choose his method of consumption.

Ms. Spiers overall indictment of the entire business book category is an easy mark and one that could be applied to any genre of media. Her elitism about what constitutes good reading compounds the problem further. While I can appreciate her hyperbole as a method to communicate some criticism about the genre, a more subtle treatment of the subject would, I believe, be more effective.

Beyond that, Fast Company is a magazine that has always supported business ideas. A simplistic column like Spiers' goes against the very DNA of your publication. The mantra "WORK IS PERSONAL" matches well with Thoreau's or Emerson's definition of self-help. The publication of this column leaves me wondering just how that mission has been served.

links for 2008-03-21

• Myself and Other Important Matters>>The Wall Street Journal | A Business Guru's Portfolio Life
  "Myself and Other More Important Matters" is a charming autobiography, recounting Mr. Handy's life in genial prose. Like the best Oxford tutorials, it is much more substantial than it first appears. It is not only an excellent introduction to Mr. Handy's
  (tags: businessbooks biography)

Kindle supply and demand

There's a message from Jeff Bezos on Amazon's home page describing the company's success with the Kindle. According to Bezos, Amazon sold out of the device within the first 5.5 hours after its announcement, and have been struggling to keep up with manufacturing. Some customers have waited up to 6 weeks to receive their order.

I have to say I'm slightly surprised to learn this; the only people I know of to have bought the Kindle are those of us at 800-CEO-READ (we have one). Jon posted his impressions of the device here: http://800ceoread.com/blog/archives/007546.html.

Have you purchased or tried the Kindle? What do you think?

Defending the business book genre.

It seems just a bit ironic that the last page in April's Fast Company is a grueling review and warning of the business section of your local bookstore. Especially considering more than a handful of business book authors--including the Heath brothers, Dan Roam, Amy Sutherland*, Tim Ferriss, Robert Scoble, Fred Krupp--contributed to or were mentioned in the issue.

The last page is Elizabeth Spiers' (founding editor of Gawker and Dealbreaker) article "Library of the Living Dead." She starts out by contradicting all that our parents and teachers have taught us for years:

...reading does not necessarily make you smarter. Sometimes it doesn't even require you to think. I would send you a copy of Nicole Richie's novel, The Truth About Diamonds, as demonstrable proof, but there's a clause in my contract prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. Instead I'll point you to the modern era's second-worst literary promulgator of intelligence reduction: your local bookstore's business section.

Next comes the critique of the business genre's cliches, "12-step-ification," and seemingly empty promises (four-hour workweeks, loads of money and personal growth); all of which, Elizabeth would say, don't amount to much or anything at all really. Rather "they [business books] create the illusion of progress simply by adding another layer of busyness." Ouch.

Really, a comparison of Nicole Richie's writings to that of business authors? Okay, I'll be the first to admit that many books lack in substance and rightly deserve such criticism. The first set of titles used to back up this point are Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life and Donald Trump's Think Big and Kick Ass both of which, she points out, have different formulas for success and both of which are currently on the best seller list.

To Elizabeth's point, the best seller list is certainly not where I'd start in my search of a business book. (And my apologies here to Surowiecki because I do partially adhere to the Wisdom of Crowds philosophy, just not in best sellers.) In business books, like in music, the top titles not always the best of the best, rather they're what the masses are buying. Take music. Though I haven't done any strict calculations or research, I'd imagine that only a small portion of the music covered by Rolling Stone appears on top 10 lists. Nonetheless, ask nearly anyone who follows music closely and they probably subscribe to Rolling Stone. I doubt the same crowd would consider Leona Lewis (currently toping iTunes best seller list as of 4pm CST yesterday) to be one of the greatest.

Good or bad, best seller lists operate in a catch-22 manner or more simply, inertia. Once a book is on the best seller lists (through a number of clever PR pitches, handing books out to each member of a packed audience, and special Amazon giveaways), people start talking about the book. That leads to more people buying the book, which leads to bookstore restocking. Which leads to more people buying the book and better placement on the best seller lists, ultimately starting the process all over again.

That's not to say every best seller fits in this category. There are a number of best selling business books worth reading, many of which have been featured in Fast Company and whose authors have regular bylines there. Case in point: The Wal-Mart Effect and Made to Stick. Yet, if a best seller list is your only reading guide, you'll miss a number of really great titles. Books that are provocative and will compel you to think or act differently.

Which brings me to another of Elizabeth's points:

Business books let us amble zombielike through our careers freeing us from responsibility for the quality of our own decision making. Better to delegate that responsibility to other people--Jack Welch, perhaps. It's a fresh spin on the old saw that no one ever got fired for buying IBM: No one ever will get canned for leaning on something with a Ken Blanchard blurb on the front cover.

Yes, we should stand on our own feet and rely on our own critical analysis. It'd be foolhardy for me to take Jack Welch's lessons and replicate them exactly here at 8cr. Not every lesson, as Elizabeth explains, works for every situation. I imagine it's for that very reason that 11,000 business books are published every year. There are at least 11,000 different ways to present a problem and solution; certainly not every one merits our time in reading nor application.

But we learn through exposure to and experience with both the good and bad, the smart and the not-so-smart. And certainly, being exposed to Welch's ideas makes me a better prepared, better informed business woman. Experience via a $24.95 hardcover is not a bad way to arrive at new ideas and solutions.

Elizabeth's last point is that if we cannot become more skeptical of and less dependent on business books, we should simply move business best sellers to the self-help section. I would argue that at least half of business titles are self-help (the other part being books on new ideas or trends, a la The Long Tail); and I mean this in the best of lights. Self-help has long been stereotyped as the answer for the spineless or those who need a more regular pat on the back.

Yet, many business books are meant to help us help ourselves--help us manage better, help us start up a company, help us communicate better, etc. That is the very definition of self-help. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Self-help doesn't have to be preachy (yes, you will find these preachy, self-help books on the best seller lists). If I'm a horrible manager, I'm going to pick up Growing Great Employees to learn how to improve my skills. If I'm not sure where to start when evaluating customer satisfaction, I might start with The Ultimate Question.

If the question is whether every best seller is worth reading, I'd respond without a doubt, no. If that were true, we (as a company) would not exist in the blogosphere. If the question is whether business books are worth reading, they are. Not every single one of them is worth reading. And finding the right one is not always easy. To stand on my pulpit here, that's what we endeavor to help with--finding the right business book for you. Please, don't be afraid of the business book aisle, many a title is worth a gander.

[Stepping off the pulpit.]

- - - - - - - -
* Amy's an animal trainer -- a whale trainer, in fact. The Heath brothers apply her lessons to the training of bosses. Hence, for the purposes of this post, she's listed as a business book author.

NYT review of Predictably Irrational

The New York Times Sunday Book Review had a great article on Predictably Irrational: A Behavioral Economist's Startling Insights for Irrationally Better Living by Dan Ariely. We've had several good reads on this book, one the reviewer calls "a far more revolutionary book than its unthreatening manner lets on."

Writer David Berreby tells us that:

Another sign that times are changing is "Predictably Irrational," a book that both exemplifies and explains this shift in the cultural winds. Here, Dan Ariely, an economist at M.I.T., tells us that "life with fewer market norms and more social norms would be more satisfying, creative, fulfilling and fun." By the way, the conference where he had this insight wasn't sponsored by the Federal Reserve, where he is a researcher. It came to him at Burning Man, the annual anarchist conclave where clothes are optional and money is banned. Ariely calls it "the most accepting, social and caring place I had ever been."

Obviously, this sly and lucid book is not about your grandfather's dismal science. Ariely's trade is behavioral economics, which is the study, by experiments, of what people actually do when they buy, sell, change jobs, marry and make other real-life decisions.

Berreby provides just a few of the insightful stories Ariely uses to illustrate irrationality, touching on concepts like the power of suggestion and the unfortunately common social habit of "wanting stuff we can't afford and don't need."

These sorts of rigorous but goofy-sounding experiments lend themselves to a genial, gee-whiz style, with which Ariely moves comfortably from the lab to broad social questions to his own life (why did he buy that Audi instead of a sensible minivan?). He is good-tempered company -- if he mentions you in this book, you are going to be called "brilliant," "fantastic" or "delightful" -- and crystal clear about all he describes. But "Predictably Irrational" is a far more revolutionary book than its unthreatening manner lets on. It's a concise summary of why today's social science increasingly treats the markets-know-best model as a fairy tale.

Ask 8cr! - Divide or Conquer

Ask 8cr! is a section of our blog used as a forum to address the kinds of issues and challenges people are having in the workplace. We take these issues and apply a business book we feel offers a viable solution. Others then chime in via the comments section. The person with the selected challenge gets a free copy of the book, but everyone who reads these posts, wins. What's your challenge at work? Send it to me at jon(a)800ceoread(dot)com.

Today's challenge deals with how to break teams out of their mold to try new things, make some smart mistakes, and reach a higher level of success, particularly when you're not the boss:

"How can I get some help convincing management who has been doing the same things for many years to try different/new things?"- Corey

Work is mostly about relationships, but as work becomes complicated, busy, and hefty, so do the relationships involved become more complex. Sometimes this makes things more difficult, rather than simplified. In Corey's case, he's dealing with something internal (the desire for change), yet controlled by an external force (management). This relationship is a tricky one, so it's probably best to really have a good understanding of the relationship first. Then, he can work to transform this relationship, and offer practical change into the mix.

But don't take it from me. This is the overview of an interesting new book by Diana McLain Smith titled Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength. Corey doesn't mention any conflict, but he's certainly feeling it internally. Though much of the book addresses external conflict, the overall message is how to strengthen the team for the best results by starting with you. This works for Corey's, or anyone's, case. In fact, a big part of the relationship analysis the author outlines deals with addressing those internal issues - the concerns, the questions, the doubts, that put our working relationships to the test. By addressing these first, the approach will be less defensive and will create opportunities.

Let's say Corey attends a meeting with other employees and his manager. The manager lays out the details of a project, and Corey sits there thinking, "Here we go again! The same old approach!" He exchanges glances with another of his co-workers who feels the same way as him. After the meeting, the manager thinks that things are moving forward, but really, the team is divided, and the project result will be mediocre at best.

The author states, "There's no getting around it: change is difficult, and the more significant the change is, the more difficult it will be. Yet many of us render it even more difficult by making three common mistakes: setting unrealistic expectations, failing to anticipate and to help each other overcome predictable barriers, and micromanaging the pace and direction of change."

So, it might not be about convincing management to think outside the box, it might actually be about finding ways to better understand the relationship, use experience to show potential, and integrate change naturally - particularly when it's from the perspective of employee to management. Divide or Conquer can help bring all teams together for better results.

More on Dan Roam...

As Dylan mentioned last week, we're a big fan of Dan Roam's The Back of the Napkin.

It seems others are catching on to the Roam trend. Tom Peters deemed him worthy of the Cool Friend title where he was interviewed by another guy we like who uses words like "grok" in regular conversations, Erik Hansen. BusinessWeek mentioned Dan and his drawings last month. And, if you open up to page 45 of your latest copy of Fast Company, you'll find another piece about Dan and his napkin sketches.

The Bottom Billion

Over at WorldChanging is Ethan Zuckerman's review of Paul Collier's book The Bottom Billion. Collier points out that in much of the world poverty is decreasing. It's but a few states (maybe 50) which account for the poorest people in the world that are not seeing any improvement. From Zuckerman's review:

The problem is a set of nations that aren't developing. Since the 1960s, when many of these countries threw off foreign rule through colonialism, these nations have progressed very slowly or, in some cases, regressed. Most of these nations are in sub-Saharan Africa, but countries like North Korea, Burma, Afghanistan and some other Central Asian nations also are home to members of the bottom billion. Collier refers to this set of nations as "Africa+", but that's a bit deceptive - all his examples come from Africa, though some lessons may be applicable to countries like Tajikstan as well. (He never quite defines the set of nations - South Africa is explicitly exempted, and I assume nations like Botswana are as well - less clear if nations "on the bubble" like Senegal and Ghana are included.)

Zuckerman's review summarizes the key points in Collier's book; you'll find the bullet point solutions Collier offers towards the last third of the review. The question of poverty has long been on the table. If you're looking for a book that presents a possible solution, The Bottom Billion is a good start.

And while we're on the subject, Jeffrey Sachs' latest Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet landed on my desk today. More on that soon.

Fishman was in town.

Yesterday Charles Fishman, The Wal-Mart Effect joined us for the first of our spring events. He's an incredible storyteller; if you ever have a chance, go see him live. I'm guessing he'll be on tour with his next book on the subject of bottled water. Yesterday's subject: Wal-Mart, the behemoth that can make or break a company. He told the story of Vlasic pickles and their one gallon jar. Wal-Mart started selling gallon jars of Vlasic pickles for a mere $2.97 (yes, under that $3 mark). Elsewhere in retail aisles, Vlasic pickles stopped selling as the demand for the bargain gallon jars increased.

Vlasic, already burdened with financial problems, finally convinced Wal-Mart that the gallon jars being sold at $2.97 a pop wasn't working for them and requested a price adjustment. Wal-Mart responded by allowing them to decrease their jar size to just under half a gallon for the same price. Vlasic responded by filing for bankruptcy.

That's one of many stories. Of course, there are good and bad stories. As Charles explains, asking whether Wal-Mart is good or bad for America is like asking whether the IRS is good or bad. There's no right answer. For right now, at least, Wal-Mart just is.

Here's a photo Miss Rebecca took at the event.

Charles, if you're reading this, thanks for coming. Do come again.

Megacommunity: Where Governments, Organizations and People Work Together to Take on Issues

Four senior managers at Booz Allen Hamilton have a new book out this coming Tuesday (the 18th). Megacommunities is the book.

This book landed on my desk a few months back and I remember being attracted to the idea. We as business leaders, governments workers, and everyday citizens are faced with the daunting task of tackling a variety of issues -- environmental conversation, energy, community development, aging populations, and on and on. Each of us faces these issues to one degree or another. To a certain extent there is much we, as individuals or parts of larger entities, can do to play a part in taking on each issue. To help out with conserving the environment, we can, of course, use CFL light bulbs, insulate our buildings well, turn the heat and AC down/up a degree, use less (and recycled) paper, and drink less bottled water.

Our part is relatively easy to understand. At some point, there's only so much we can do and then the issue needs to be turned over to a higher level of power -- an entity that can affect a greater scope of people. Who or what is this entity? The government can't solve this on their own, nor can organizations.

The four authors say the answer is megacommunities: communities where each individuals, governments, and organizations work together to tackle today's issues. This book is built around helping leaders build and succeed in megacommunities. I've heard Booz Allen is using this book to brand their company.

Two places to learn more about megacommunities: (1) A video clip of Reggie Van Lee, one of the authors explaining where the idea came from and its implications; (2) A Megacommunity manifesto over at ChangeThis.

I'll leave you with this piece from the manifesto.

The root cause of the challenges confronting these leaders is complexity: the growing density of linkages among people, organizations, and issues all across the world.
Because people communicate so easily across national and organizational boundaries, the conventional managerial decision-making style--in which a boss exercises decision rights or delegates them to subordinates--is no longer adequate. Solutions require multi-organizational systems that are larger and more oriented to multilateral action than conventional cross-sector approaches are. In such systems, the most successful leaders are not those with the best technical solutions, the most compelling vision, or the most commanding and charismatic style. The “winners” are those who understand how to intervene and influence others in a larger system that they do not control. We call this type of larger system a "megacommunity."

The Back of the Napkin, Out Now!

That's right folks, it's the official release date of The Back of the Napkin. As you can see in Dan's picture below (click to enlarge), it took a lot to get to this point. We here at 8cr are big fans of Dan Roam and his book (see the previous post for more on that). If you'd like to learn more, we have an excerpt from the book's introduction up on our excerpts blog, and we recently published the "lost chapter" of the book over at ChangeThis.

Jack Covert Selects - The Back of the Napkin

The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam, Portfolio, 288 pages, $24.95, Hardcover, March 2008, ISBN 9781591841999

When one thinks of the skills needed to thrive in today's business environment, the ability to draw isn't usually high on the list. But, as Dan Roam persuasively suggests, visual thinking through the use of drawing is one of the most powerful tools for solving problems and selling ideas we have available to us. And selling ideas and problem-solving, I think we can all agree, are essential to business success.

Human beings are born with an immense talent for processing images, and Roam insists--even if you don't believe you’re a visual person--that so long as "you [are] able to walk in [a] room without falling down," you can use this talent to address any issue. The great thing about this book, though, is that it doesn't exhaust itself preaching the benefits of visual thinking. Roam states his case simply and effectively, and then moves on to giving you "tools and rules" to think visually, laying out the steps to take (Look, See, Imagine, Show) and "the six ways of seeing."

The six ways of seeing are: who/what, how much, where, when, how, and why. These six ways of seeing are going to affect each part of the visual thinking process, from identifying the issue, to developing an idea, to expressing a solution. As Roam puts it, "For every one of the six ways of seeing, there is one corresponding way of showing. For each one of these six ways of showing, there is a single visual framework that serves as a starting point."

Roam discovered the power of all this after flying to England to cover for a colleague at the last minute. He was asked on the train, en route to a large conference of education experts in England, to run his PowerPoint by the British team leader. And there was the rub. He didn't have one. In fact, he wasn't quite sure yet what it was he'd be talking about. When he found out it was about the role of the Internet in American education, a topic he didn't know much about, he grabbed a pen and the nearest napkin and began sketching out how to build a useful website for that audience. So, instead of having a PowerPoint, Dan Roam redrew the napkin on a giant blackboard, explaining each step as he had on the train, and what could have been a boring 45 minute lecture turned into two hours of "inspired discussion."

This book is full of great stories like the one above, and will show that you don't need to be a great artist to master the art of problem-solving--but it sure helps to draw it out anyway.

Jack Covert Selects - Hug Your People

Hug Your People: The Proven Way to Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees and Achieve Remarkable Results, by Jack Mitchell, Hyperion, 288 pages, $19.95, Hardcover, March 2008, ISBN 9781401322373

Some of you may recall Jack Mitchell's last book, Hug Your Customers. In it he discussed how to nurture and maintain customer relationships using his "hug" method. In his new offering, Mitchell's embrace of his customer base has been expanded to his employees. He noticed that if there is not praise or recognition for a job well done, there isn't the same incentive to try again--even when one maintains the monetary comfort from the job.

It is not complicated to comprehend that people are happy and content when they are rewarded in humane ways, but people often forget that they are dealing with, well, other people. Mitchell stresses that we shouldn't lose the humanity in business relations and that everyone needs a hug. A random hug in this day and age may result in sexual harassment, so hugs can and should take on different forms. He suggests many ways to do this, from using a nickname, to a quick email recognizing a good job or an unexpected little token/gift from a superior or co-worker.

The Mitchell Blueprint to hugging your employees has five principles: Nice, Trust, Pride, Include and Recognize. He goes into all these aspects in the book, giving examples of each principle. In the Nice chapter, for instance, he explains how important it is to just be nice to people, and how easy it can be. He shows how easy it can be to forget this as well. One simple way companies stay "Nice" is by getting "Nice" employees. Mitchell suggests different ways to notice these traits, many in an interview--the handshake, meeting eyes, the way they sit--and offers open ended questions to use in this situation such as "Share the nicest thing you've done to another person" or "Who is the nicest person you know."

Mitchell also talks about the importance of maintaining a fun working atmosphere. Sure, business has to get done, but like his son Bob tells his people during a meeting, "Let's all make twenty customer calls today, but let's have fun doing it." It is in this atmosphere that the Trust Principle comes into play. People that work for a "fun" place also have to take responsibility for their actions and how they affect others.

The Mitchell Blueprint, with its five principles, helps companies develop ways they can incorporate "hugs" in their company. Each principle makes up a part of the book, and each part contains a study guide. This may seem elementary to a lot of business people (and it should) but it is a great reminder that people like to be assured, patted on the back and given a hug once in awhile, and this book reminds us all of that.

links for 2008-03-12

• Predictably Irrational >> BusinessWeek | "Why You Do the Crazy Things You Do"
  "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely, is an entertaining tour of the many ways people act against their best interests, drawing on Ariely's own ingeniously designed experiments."
  (tags: businessbooks economics creativity)

Jack Covert Selects - The Go-Giver

The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea, by Bob Burg and John David Mann, Portfolio, 112 pages, $19.95, Hardcover, December 2007, ISBN 9781591842002

Bob Burg and John David Mann have written an interesting parable around the life of "Joe," a highly ambitious guy who comes to a dead end when he can't create the two things he needs to succeed: clout and leverage. In his pursuit of obtaining these things, he meets "Pindar," a smart, kind, and extremely wealthy man who seems to have everything Joe wants. After meeting with Pindar, Joe realizes that he's on a much bigger quest than he anticipated, and learns through Pindar and his associates that the most optimal way to receive is to give. By learning and practicing Pindar's "Five Laws," Joe obtains not only clout and leverage, but a life fulfilled far beyond the old goals he used to have.

The process is much more complicated than he expected though. In fact, a constant shift in perspective, a breaking of usual habits, and an adoption of seemingly illogical business practices had to take place. In his meetings with Pindar and associates, Joe examines such things as why people crowd into restaurants with good food while tables sit empty at places with excellent food; he sees meeting rooms with executives using finger paints as part of their creative process; and he learns about creating a huge network of influence by placing other people's interests first.

Each lesson is themed with the idea that the more you put other people first, and the more you provide for them, the more you'll be able to receive. The book states, "Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment." In business, it is typical to focus on what we are going to get and how we are going to get it. The Go-Giver reminds us to focus on the important point of what we are going to give to people. As shown throughout the book, this focus turns business from a 50/50 proposition to a 100% success.

New book out: Crucibles of Leadership

Crucibles of Leadership: How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader, by Robert J. Thomas, is out from Harvard Business School Press this month.

Thomas's premise is that what matters most is what one makes of experience--particularly, the traumatic and often unplanned crucible events that challenge one's identity as a leader. He offers self-assessments and innovative tools to develop what he deems a "Personal Learning Strategy." The book includes interviews with leaders of all stripes, and moves from narrative to application as the author offers lessons and exercises based on his major findings. Warren Bennis provides a glowing forward.


Here's an exemplary passage from Chapter 5: The Core of a Personal Learning Strategy:

Why Lead?

As a young man, John W. Gardner had no ambition to lead, much less to manage. Yet when he passed away in 2006, his accomplishments included serving as secretary of health, education, and welfare under President Lyndon B. Johnson (despite being a registered Republican), presiding over the creation of the Public Broadcasting System, founding two successful public action lobbies (Common Cause and the Independent Sector), presiding over the Carnegie Corporation, and serving as a Marine Corps officer in World War II. What kindled his desire to lead?

Finding himself in a small management job at the Federal Communications Commission during World War II, he recalled, "I began to get quite impressive praise for my management skills. And it wasn't even on my map! I mean I didn't even respect managers. But apparently some qualities were there waiting for life to pull those things out of me." Gardner deeply believed that life was a tug-of-war between what "was" and what "was possible" and that the principle human challenge--his challenge--was one of continuous renewal even in the face of what might seem to be implacable opposition and constraint. As he put it, "The need for endless learning and trying is a way of living, a way of thinking, a way of being awake and ready. Life isn't a train ride where you choose your destination, pay your fare and settle back for a nap. It's a cycle ride over uncertain terrain, with you in the driver's seat, constantly correcting your balance and determining the direction of progress. It's difficult, sometimes profoundly painful. But it's better than napping through life."

There is no point in trying to assess people's abilities without first finding out what they care about. The same goes for trying to assess things such as "leadership potential" or "creativity" out of context. One has always to ask, in relation to what? Thus, before we address motives and skills, we start by asking, Why do you lead? Why does a person seek out, or accept, the burden of leadership? A Personal Learning Strategy begins and ends with why as the central question and with you as the central character. You alone can answer these questions. The vessel you are creating will hold your aspirations and your passions and provide a shield that defends you from the fears and inhibitions that learning inevitably summons up.

From Crucibles of Leadership by Robert J. Thomas, Harvard Business School Press, 2008.

Ask 8cr! - The Life Guide

Ask 8cr! is a section of our blog used as a forum to address the kinds of issues and challenges people are having in the workplace. We take these issues and apply a business book we feel offers a viable solution. Others then chime in via the comments section. The person with the selected challenge gets a free copy of the book, but everyone who reads these posts, wins. What's your challenge at work? Send it to me at jon(a)800ceoread(dot)com.

Today's challenge deals with how to manage the insanity of work demands on top of other things, you know, like life and happiness:

"My biggest challenge right now is keeping my 6-8 bosses happy. Why 6-8 bosses? That's how many active projects I typically have as a consultant. Each boss wants to be the 'special' one, the one I'll bend the rules for -- "Mary, we know that you usually don't fly on Sundays, but can you be here on Monday morning to attend a meeting with our President?" -or- "Mary, we know that you're booked six weeks in advance, but can you shake a couple of days loose to help us out of a jam?" How do I maintain a life, and keep everyone happy, while still trying to go 'above and beyond' for my clients? - Mary

6-8 bosses? Many of us find it difficult enough to deal with one, so this challenge really jumped out at me. It's likely that Mary has very little time for non-work related, but equally important things such as health, family, and leisure, but how does she even begin to manage the demands and requests of her 8 bosses during working hours?

Robert Ashton has written a helpful, jam-packed little book called The Life Guide: 10 Things You Need to Know About Everything That Matters. In it, he covers both realms of Mary's dilemma - personal time, investing, retirement, entertainment, relationships as well as the daytime grind of setting priorities, making time, making changes, avoiding pitfalls, managing the boss, enjoying your work, and getting things done. Importantly, Ashton uses this guide to help the reader understand what success means, and how to accomplish it for themselves. It's different for everyone, after all.

A big part of Ashton's approach deals with how to make changes. By reevaluating things and re-prioritizing them, a broad improvement takes place. Regarding this improvement, he states, "In reality, it's not a straight ladder. You rarely want to change just one aspect of your life and leave everything else undisturbed. However you build your ladder, you want to make sure the rungs are equally spaced and not too far apart. Equally, it must be accepted that if no one else knows what you're trying to change in your life, it will be harder for you to stay on track. To make sure you're going to follow through, you need to be realistic in the goals you set and make sure you allow other people the opportunity to give you the occasional nudge in the right direction."

Even this point alone could help Mary have a conversation with her bosses and let them know her concerns, while stressing the positive impact her changes will have on her work (the benefits to them). All in all, this is a book we can all refer to that will keep us on the path, our head above water, and our lives (all parts of it) in order.

One of our own will be at SXSW

Friday was opening day at SXSW, the famous Austin music/film/media/interactive festival that's been running for the past two decades. If you're not familiar with it, here's an introduction.

Most of us here are missing the fun. But one of our own, Mr. Jon Mueller drummer extraodinare, will be down there sharing his music with the rest of the world. He'll be performing solo and with his band, Collections of Colonies of Bees.

If you're in Austin, find the Hideout to see Jon in action. The Bees show and Jon's solo act will both be happening on Thursday, March 13th. It's not to be missed. If you're like us, and not heading to Austin, you can check out the latest from Collections of Colonies of Bees over here.

And, while I'm on the subject of my talented cohorts...Mr. Aaron Schleicher and Mr. Ryan Schleicher (formerly inBubbleGuy) are part of a band named Juniper Tar. From months of work and weekends in rustic cabins, came their first album -- To the Trees. One reviewer defined their music as "rustic, electric and just-plain-hard to define tunes--maybe Walt Whitman fronting the late-era Byrds...They have developed the knack to take on miniature musical tangents and arrive back via ESP, not time signatures." You can check out Juniper Tar over here. You'll like what you hear.

Readers, you can imagine we are beaming like the proud mother. Congrats guys! If we don't say it enough, we're glad to be in such good company.

Go Ask Alice...

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?"

- from Alice in Wonderland

Well, the following books from February's top 25 may or may not contain pictures, or even conversations in them... but they are available now in audio format:

# 6 - Meatball Sundae

# 8 - Rules to Break & Laws to Follow

# 12 - It's Your Ship

# 14 - Predictably Irrational

# 16 - Speed of Trust

# 20 - Made to Stick

# 22 - What Got You Here Won't Get You There

links for 2008-03-08

• Putting Some Fun Back Into 9 to 5 :: New York Times :: The Levity Effect
  Grandma would be beyond surprised at what Adrian Gostick and Scott Christopher have to say in "The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up" (Wiley). The book, which is to be released later this month, examines how fun in the office increases the bottom...
  (tags: businessbooks HR)

The ChangeThis Connection

Just in time for the weekend... the March issue of ChangeThis is up!

This month's manifestos revolve heavily around issues of community and connection--whether it be Richard Florida writing about why choosing where to live is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make, or the folks from Booz Allen Hamilton writing about how Government, Business and Non-Profits can unite to form megacommunities to address large and complex problems. Julien Smith and Chris Brogan discuss forming relationships and gaining influence in online communities, and Joel D Canfield talks about manners in forming and maintaining relationships with our customers. Michael Stallard runs the gamut, writing about "Connection Cultures." While focused heavily on creating these cultures in the workplace, he also discusses how forming connections with others benefits our lives as a whole.

In the one manifesto that does not specifically deal with community, Dan Roam shares the lost chapter of his new book The Back of the Napkin (out next week!), dealing with how visual thinking can be applied to solving problem and selling ideas.

You'll find more information and links below.

A Creative Manifesto: Why the Place You Choose to Live is the Most Important Decision of Your Life, by Richard Florida

"Increasingly, the place you choose to live will help determine your success in business, in finding a life partner, and in living a fulfilling life. In fact, it may be the most important decision of your life. I believe that we are in the beginnings of a shift as fundamental as the industrial revolution was over a century ago--one that will have as dramatic an impact on how people live and work. Furthermore, it will have a dramatic impact on where they live and work."

http://changethis.com/44.01.CreativeManifesto
http://changethis.com/pdf/44.01.CreativeManifesto.pdf

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The Mega Community Manifesto, by Mark Gerencser, Fernando Napolitano, Reginald Van Lee, and Christopher Kelly

"Public, private, and civil leaders should confront together the problems that none can solve.

Leaders everywhere no longer express as much confidence about the future as they once did. When they speak candidly, it often sounds as if they feel trapped in quicksand, unable to move forward easily. The methods and tools that helped them succeed in the past no longer work. The challenges they face--such as global competitiveness, health and environmental risks, or inadequate infrastructure--can no longer be solved by their organizations alone. And when they try to reach beyond the boundaries of their own corporation, government agency, or nongovernmental organization, there often is no clear pathway to success."

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http://changethis.com/44.02.Megacommunities
http://changethis.com/pdf/44.02.Megacommunities.pdf

The Ten (and a half) Commandments of Visual Thinking: The Lost Chapter from The Back of the Napkin, by Dan Roam

"Visual thinking is the future of business problem solving. Using our innate ability to see--both with our eyes and our mind's eye--gives us entirely new ways to discover hidden ideas, develop those ideas intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way they are simply going to 'get.'"

http://changethis.com/44.03.TenCommandments
http://changethis.com/pdf/44.03.TenCommandments.pdf

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Trust Economy: Investigations into the New ROI of the Web, by Julien Smith and Chris Brogan

"If You Build It, They Won't Come

What happened to the early days? You built a baseball stadium, a store, a web app, and people flocked to it... now what? We are suspicious of marketing. We don't trust strangers as willingly. Buzz is suspect. It can be bought. Instead, consumers and business people alike are looking towards trust. We want our friends to tell us it's good. We want someone we know to say we should look into it. Marketing spend might start at awareness, but in the Trust Economy, communities are king, and ROI stands for Return on Influence."

http://changethis.com/44.04.TrustEconomy
http://changethis.com/pdf/44.04.TrustEconomy.pdf

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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."

http://changethis.com/44.05.MannersMatter
http://changethis.com/pdf/44.05.MannersMatter.pdf

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