Mavericks at Work


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Paperback
316 pages
ISBN 9780060779627 Published Jan. 2008
Harper Paperbacks
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Mavericks at Work
Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win
By William C Taylor, Polly LaBarre 

Related Blog Posts
Jack Covert Selects – Practically Radical
Posted Jan. 13, 2011 9:51 a.m. by 800-ceo-read

Practically Radical: Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself by William C. Taylor, William Morrow & Co., 320 pages, $27.99, Hardcover, January 2011, ISBN 9780061734618

If you made a resolution of any kind for the coming year—for your business or for yourself—Bill Taylor’s new book, Practically Radical, should be the first book of the year you read. As a great admirer of Fast Company magazine, which Taylor cofounded, and his first book, Mavericks at Work, I have been looking forward to this one since I saw it listed in the publisher catalog—and it didn’t disappoint.

In the introduction, Taylor tells the story of his struggle with the topic and timing of the book. Would people have any use for a book about fundamental change and transformation in the midst of a recession? Wouldn’t most business people be retrenching, cutting back and going conservative? But he realized that “turbulent times were precisely the right time to explore the hard work of making big change.”

If you’re an avid business book reader, you know that most books don’t need to be read cover-to-cover, that you can pretty easily find what’s applicable to your situation and skim the rest. Taylor isn’t shy about letting you know that about his book. In fact, he tells you upfront exactly where to start based on what kind of change you’re interested in:

If big-company change is your first order of business, then begin with the materials in Chapters 1 through 3 and move ahead from there. But if the challenges of launching something new (inside an established organization or with a blank-sheet-of-paper start-up) are what keep you up at night, then begin with the material in Chapters 4 through 6 and move around at your discretion. (My guess is that nearly all readers will turn at some point to the material on “Challenging Yourself” that begins with Chapter 7.)

Chapter 7’s “Leadership Without All the Answers,” which touts the pragmatic but status quo challenging advice to “invite bright people throughout the organization to share insights, talents, and ideas” is where I started, but I soon found myself consuming the entire book with enthusiasm. Taylor is such a deliberate writer and tells such unpredictable stories—like the opening story about the Providence Police Department—that I just couldn’t put the book down.

Above all, Practically Radical is, well, a radically practical book, chock-full of instantly applicable ideas and lessons. But it is also a perception-changing book from the start (wherever you start it), beginning with the first chapter, “What You See Shapes How You Change.” Taylor will help improve that vision and help you enact change that works.



Crowdsourced Entrepreneurial Reads
Posted Sept. 14, 2009 9:17 a.m. by todd-sattersten
In Lists - 800 CEO Read Blog

A few weeks ago, Fred Wilson from avc.com kicked up interest in books that entreprenuers should read. Fred, in particular, made the point that "there is way more insight to be gained from stories than from business books." He suggested Kavalier and Clay, Atlas Shrugged, The Prince, and anything by Shakespeare.

At the end of his post, he asked for more suggestions. The post generated 191 comments and prompted the creation of a wiki.

I pulled all the books from the wiki over into this post and linked to the books. The [FW] tag denotes that it was endorsed by Mr. Wilson himself directly or in the comments of the original post.



International Best Selling Books for May!
Posted June 4, 2009 9:58 a.m. by the-roy
In International Bestsellers - 800 CEO Read Blog

Want to keep up with what's going on in other countries?  They do too!

Check out what others are reading about outside the US:

[caption id="attachment_3970" align="alignleft" width="124" caption="Mavericks at Work - Chile"]Mavericks at Work - Chile

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3969" align="alignleft" width="125" caption="Immunity to Change - Germany"]Immunity to Change - Germany

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3968" align="alignleft" width="124" caption="Brand Bubble - Australia"]Brand Bubble - Australia

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3967" align="alignleft" width="122" caption="One Billion Customers - Korea"]One Billion Customers - Korea[/caption][caption id="attachment_3966" align="alignleft" width="124" caption="Career Distinction - Australia"]Career Distinction - Australia

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3965" align="alignleft" width="121" caption="Behavior Change - Spain"]Behavior Change - Spain

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3964" align="alignleft" width="126" caption="Seven Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial Masters - Great Britian"]Seven Secrets of Great Entrepreneurial Masters - Great Britian

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3963" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Groundswell - Switzerland"]Groundswell - Switzerland

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3962" align="alignleft" width="124" caption="Innovation Nation - Turkey"]Innovation Nation - Turkey

[/caption][caption id="attachment_3961" width="129" caption="The Forgotten Half of Change - France"]The Forgotten Half of Change - France[/caption]




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