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Hardcover
350 pages
ISBN 9781591844594 Published Nov. 2011
Portfolio
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Posted Dec. 22, 2011 3:22 a.m. by sally-haldorson
In - 800 CEO Read Blog
Over the course of this week, we will be introducing, by category, the candidates for the 2011 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards. Even though only one of the candidates can win the big prize, good business books deserve an audience, and perhaps one on this list will be the winning book..to you.
Today, we take a look at the candidates in the Creativity/Innovation & Marketing/Sales category.
Creativity and Innovation:
- Nanovation: How a Little Car Can Teach the World to Think Big and Act Boldby Kevin & Jackie Freiberg and Dain Dunston | Thomas Nelson
- StandOut: The Groundbreaking New Strengths Assessment from the Leader of the Strengthsby Marcus Buckingham | Thomas Nelson
- Blah Blah Blah: What to Do When Words Don't Workby Dan Roam | Portfolio/Penguin US
- Best Practices Are Stupid: 40 Ways to Out-Innovate the Competitionby Stephen M. Shapiro | Portfolio/Penguin US
- The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Noticeby Todd Henry | Portfolio/Penguin US
- The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovatorsby Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen | Harvard Business Review Press
- Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativityby Josh Linkner | Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley
- Open Services Innovation: Rethinking Your Business to Grow and Compete in a New Eraby Henry Chesbrough | Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley
- The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make Them Happenby Andy Boynton, Bill Fischer | Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley
- The Two-Second Advantage: How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future‚ Just Enoughby Vivek Ranadive, Kevin Maney | Crown Publishing Group, Crown Business
- Big Wave Surfing: Extreme Technology Development, Management, Marketing and Investing by Kenneth J. Thurber, PhD | Beavers Pond Press
Marketing and Sales:
- The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversationby Matthew Dixon, Brent Adamson | Portfolio/Penguin US
- The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real Worldby Harvey Mackay | Portfolio/Penguin US
- Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actionsby Guy Kawasaki | Portfolio/Penguin US
- Users, Not Customers: Who Really Determines the Success of Your Businessby Aaron Shapiro | Portfolio/Penguin US
- The Ultimate Question 2.0: How Net Promoter Companies Thrive in a Customer-Driven Worldby Fred Reichheld with Rob Markey | Harvard Business Review Press
- The Power of Foursquare: 7 Innovative Ways to Get Your Customers to Check In Wherever They Areby Carmine Gallo | McGraw-Hill Professional
- Likeable: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazingby Dave Kerpen | McGraw-Hill Professional
- Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevantby David A. Aaker | Jossey-Bass, An Imprint of Wiley
- The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobileby Chuck Martin | Nicholas Brealey Publishing
- Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buyby Martin Lindstrom, Morgan Spurlock (Foreword) | Crown Publishing Group, Crown Business
- Brand Resilience: Managing Risk and Recovery in a High-Speed Worldby Jonathan R. Copulsky | Palgrave Macmillan
- We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build a Better World by Simon Mainwaring | Palgrave Macmillan
Jack Covert Selects - Blah Blah Blah
Posted Nov. 10, 2011 4:03 p.m. by 800-ceo-read
We’ve been fortunate to spend time with Dan Roam over the years, and his new book, Blah Blah Blah is as high-energy, insightful, and creative as he is.
Blah Blah Blah is a book that may just be impossible to give justice to in a review. From cover to cover, Dan Roam uses his great skill at communicating through words and pictures to inform us, charm us, and convince us to accept his belief that ideas become clearer when they are represented by pictures. Not that words aren’t important—this book is full of them—but Roam explains that:
Words are abstractions, the ultimate mental shorthand. When we know what they mean, words instantly call to mind ideas, images, feelings, and memories. When we all speak the same language, our words offer near-perfect communications efficiency. … But the extraordinary verbal efficiency of words also has a steep downside. Like all abstractions, words are by definition distinct from the actual “things” they represent. If we are unclear in our own mind about which specific “thing” our word means or if we’re unclear when we share words with other people, the whole system crashes.
Roam’s solution? Make communication less of an abstraction by using pictures to help guide understanding, to learn more quickly and to share ideas more clearly.
Start with Roam’s method of creating a Visual Grammar: “When we say a word, we should draw a picture.” Easy enough. Then combine that grammar into Vivid Thinking, which is more than just linking word pictures together, but about combining them in a specific way that reflects the complexity of our ideas—because Vivid Thinking is Balanced Thinking. As Roam writes:
Verbal mind, visual mind. They see the same world, but they don’t see it the same way.
This is important: drawing pictures as Roam suggests is not about simplifying. Nor does it dumb down our ideas. Instead, it makes them more concrete, more sticky. In fact, reading through Blah Blah Blah reminds me of my first reading of Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. Perhaps it’s Roam’s use of the word FOREST as a mnemonic device for his 6 essentials of vivid ideas. (The Heath brothers used the word SUCCESS as a mnemonic to remember their keys to sticky ideas.) FOREST stands for Form, Only the Essentials, Recognizable, Evolving, Span Differences, Targeted.
The use of FOREST is particularly memorable because of its relations to the phrase, “He couldn’t see the forest for the trees.” For Roam’s book offers easy to remember, easy to implement ideas that will help you see (and communicate) the forest and the trees.
