Every now & then a book comes out that corroborates certain facets of the TomorrowToday.biz message. Daniel H. Pink a former White House speech writer has recently released a book that he spent several years researching. The books deals with what he calls the ‘Conceptual Age’. If you read the paragraph below from the book review in The Futurist magazine you will hear echos of our message using slightly different words. These aptitudes are precisely what will bring success in the Connection Economy, and they are covered in varying degrees of detail in all of our frameworks.
This book may be one to add to your shopping list. Order it from Amazon here “A Whole New Mind”
The Futurist book review
Pink identifies six high-concept, high-touch aptitudes needed in the new era and devotes the bulk of his book to describing them and outlining specific ways for readers to develop them.
Continue reading ‘A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age’
Here is a great book review by a good friend of mine. I wonder if we shouldn’t be looking more to parenthood and children (maybe especially teens) for some lessons on how to deal with the Bright Young Things in our companies.
Raising Adults
By Jim Hancock
Summary by Mark Tittley
Buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net
Jim suggests that while there are no secrets, keys or steps to effective parenting, instead we could do a lot of good in our parenting if we made a commitment to do nothing for the next 30 days - particular stop doing the following six things (and replace these activities with positive ones):
1. Hijacking -> Explore
2. Fixing -> Collaborate
3. Bossing -> Partner
4. Demanding -> Affirm
5. Shaming -> Respect
6. Taming -> Encourage
Continue reading ‘Dealing with BYTs in the office – lessons from parenthood’
I’m a Marcus Buckingham fan, but then I’m generally a fan of anyone that thinks the same stuff I do, so I am about to start giving away copies of the book to all my colleagues. This book should not be recommended reading, it should be compulsory reading for all managers and leaders.
The book (buy it online at Amazon.com and Kalahari.net) explores the difference between great leaders and managers, he believes that great managers and leaders are born and not made, although he acknowledges that they can learn some of the skills. He cautions leaders not to try and be managers if they are not interested in individuals but to focus on their strengths as leaders of many and cuts to the core of what successful managers and leaders need to know. Such as:
The 4 skills you must learn to “not fail� as a great manager
1. Select good people
2. Define clear expectations
3. Praise and recognise
4. Show care for your people
He defines managers as being people that are interested in the individuals and that they are not about transforming people but about realising the potential and strength of the individuals.
Continue reading ‘The one thing you need to know about Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success – by Marcus Buckingham’
Margaret Wheatley in Leadership and the New Science (but it from Amazon.com or Kalahari.net) puts it this way…
“…in this day and age, when problems are increasingly complex, and there are simply no simple answers, and no longer is there simple cause and effect, I cannot imagine how stressful it is to be the leader and to pretend that you have the answer. A life-affirming leader is one who knows how to rely on and use the intelligence that exists everywhere in the community, the company, the school, or the organization. And so these leaders act as hosts, as stewards of other people’s creativity and other people’s intelligence. And when I say host, I mean a leader these days needs to be one who convenes people, who convenes diversity, who convenes all viewpoints in processes where our intelligence can come forth. So these kinds of leaders do not give us the answers, but they help gather us together so that together we can discover the answers.“
Tom Peters highly recommends the book, “EVEolution:The Eight Truths of Marketing to Women” by Faith Popcorn & Lys Marigold (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net).
In his generic presentation on Re-Imagine, Peters extracts some key learnings for anyone who takes women seriously as a market (and everyone should!). Each of these thoughts links marketing to women very strongly with the connection economy mantra we preach here.
Continue reading ‘EVEolution’
I attended a breakfast this morning where Sue Adkins an international expert on Cause Related Marketing did a presentation .
See more about her book at Kalahari.net or Amazon.com ISBN 0 7506 4481 8
What struck me was how technology is changing the global consumer . We are now able to view and be made aware of bad behaviour by corporates far away from their consumer base through the internet, television, blog sites, cellphone cameras etc. The statement that who you are will be much more important that what you sell is being defined through a new set of rules that cannot be controlled by governments or the mighty corporates of the past.
This is a great read for anyone interested in making a difference in the 21st century enviroment.
Once again I have been pulled out of bed by the inspirations of a book that is grabbing me. I’ve only just begun reading Barbarians at the Gate (buy it at Kalahari.net or Amazon.com) via a recommendation from a corporate advisor regarding a cross-section of what LBO’s (Leveraged Buy-Outs) are about. This book chronicles the momentous events that took place in late 1988 during the $25 billion take-over of RJR Nabisco – the quintessential American company that became a symbol of the greed and power-mongering of the “Roaring Eightiesâ€?.
Already there are a few thoughts I’d like to share with you but I cannot wait until I finish reading the book before I blog them in a book summary/review. So what I’ll attempt to do is blog my journey through the book real-time in the form of comments to this entry.
TmTd.biz (if you do not have a RSS feeder) has a funky new feature whereby you can subscribe via email to comments made to entries – just tick the box below the comments box. As I get pulled out of bed I’ll post new comments which you can receive if you so wish.
Let our journey begin …
Take me with you - by Brad Newsham. Read it! (Buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net) This book review might seem a bit out of “left field” … because it’s got nothing to do with business, corporate policy or anything remotely related … it’s a travel book.
Ah, but it’s a travel book with a difference. Let me tell you why.
1) Brad is on a 100 day trip … to find a stranger to invite him back to America.
2) He really does take you with him! (This is not just “armchair travel”.)
But what made me realise just how incredibly unique this book is …. I emailed Brad (he has a website: www.bradnewsham.com) … and he emailed me back. And it wasn’t just some standard template email … it was personal. We connected.
To me he is really an author that is fully emersed in the connection economy. That struck as something pretty special!
PS. If you can - find the Random House version of the book - it is the most recently published version and has a few extra’s which are well worth reading.
Walk into any (reputable) book store and you’re bound to find a stack of Jim Collins’ sequel to Built to Last entitled Good to Great (buy it at Kalahari.net or Amazon.com). One need only to look at the stock levels of any particular business book to see the demand that the book enjoys. Why this arbitrary lesson in supply versus demand? Well, I believe that it is pretty difficult to choose which book to purchase next unless you have been particularly discerning in reading reviews and keeping your ear close to the “what is good to readâ€? ground. And so this is how I came to reading Good to Great.
Before I go further, a little summary of what the book covers …
Continue reading ‘Good to Great: A review on absolutes’
I read a book review this morning in Wired (click here for Wired Web site) on “Flight of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net). It got a so-so review, and I haven’t read the book (has anyone else?). But I did like the 3 concepts/engines he seems to have built his book around.
The book is about the creative capital that the US is losing at an alarming rate, and the risk to it’s ‘Global Edge’. Florida suggests that the engines of economic growth are technology, talent and tolerance.
These 3 drivers got my attention. Mostly because one of them is the bell we’re ringing within TomorrowToday.biz, the other I am completely committed to, and the third because we’re wrestling in a country struggling to work out how to do it.
I may just go out and get the book.
Nuf Sed
During my daughter’s prize giving on Friday, one of the phrases that jumped out at me was “ The difference between a stumbling block and a stepping stone is how you use themâ€?.
I was reading a magazine in a client’s reception not so long ago, about a man called Sam, who had bought a home in an area that was surrounded by industry and was becoming more seedy and with a rapidly climbing crime rate. Opposite his home was an open field with all the obvious problems – overgrown, litter, attracting bad crowds and their drinking problems. He decided this was his project – gathered neighbours, and with many hours of work raised funds from companies, Sam turned this field into a park. Companies started noticing and donated plants, benches and tables. Locals from the area built a small wall and named the park. This park has become a community gathering area for it’s diverse community, a safe place for kids to play, and you guessed it, because of the community spirit – a noticeable reduction of crime in the area.
While I was reading this article, it reminded me of “The broken Window Theory” in Galdwell’s The Tipping Point (get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net): If a window is left unrepaired, soon people will conclude that no one cares, and soon more windows will be broken… Using this theory, they cleaned up the NY subways of graffiti and the crime rate decreased.
Sam tipped his community, by using a field, which most would see as a stumbling block, he used it as a stepping stone to clean up and raise the standards and spirit of his community.
If you want to know what, in my opinion, makes a book great, then read the next 3 paragraphs. If not, skip them.
There are a few qualities I look for in a book before I refer to it as a great book. Firstly, a great book needs to capture me. I know this happens when I pick up the book first out of the pile of other books I happen to be making my way through. To capture me, it needs to hold my attention – an important thing for an Xer as it is often easier to stop reading than to finish.
Secondly, a great book needs to connect with where I am. If this happens then the words become alive as I find and meet their connection in the world around me. It is in this process that a book becomes timeless … in a sense its words now walk with me ahead in life.
Thirdly, a great has the ability to get me out of bed (or in Graeme’s case: keep him in the bath until the water is cold). Huh? Well, I read before going to bed, and it is a rare thing when a book hauls my sleepy gray matter off the road to slumber land, and onto a path of discovery as thoughts, inspirations and questions fly to the surface. As I sit here now, this is what has happened.
Continue reading ‘Re-imagine! by Tom Peters’
I got this by email a few weeks ago. I have lost the original reference, but its a goodie.
What kind of workers and managers will members of the “gamer generation” make? You’ll be surprised at the answer provided by the authors of a new book, Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever (buy it online at Amazon.com and Kalahari.net).
They are different from you and me, this generation born after 1970. They grew up with a finger on the keyboard and an ear to the cell phone, and in a world where the forces of globalization have broken down national barriers like no time in history.
And right now this group is moving up in the business ranks, becoming managers, partners, and eventually CEOs. Chances are you manage employees from this generation, and it’s not far-fetched to believe you may yourself be managed by them before you check out of your career.
Continue reading ‘The Gamer Generation’
In the past five years, Marcus Buckingham has burst on the leadership/management scene with a really distinctive voice and message. He now has three books - all worth reading (see detail here).
I have not read his latest book yet (it is on back order), but plan to do so as soon as it arrives. But, I give you here, an extract from the WHARTON LEADERSHIP DIGEST, June, 2005, Volume 9, Number 9, in which they extract some of Buckingham’s key thoughts and leadership and management.
Continue reading ‘Marcus Buckingham’
I attended a talk run by GIBS Forum on Thursday. The speaker was Ron McMillan and his subject was Crucial Conversations.This forum was so over booked that they moved it to a hotel at the last minute due to numbers who attended. I arrived early and scanned the table with names of delegates - many influential business people had made the effort to attend. There were more than 400 people at the event. So why is this topic so hot? Is this a skill we all battle with? Ron discussed the tools that can change the direction of a conversation if we are skilled and willing to want win win situations in all enviroments where we inter act.
I have purchased the book Crucial Conversations - Tools for talking when stakes are high (purchase at Amazon.com or kalahari.net). Published by McGraw Hill
Conversations, Dialogue, Storytelling,Connecting………the tools for leaders of the future
A new book (released today, not yet available online) from industrial design expert Craig Vogel says companies must continually adapt their products if they are to compete. Read an interview with the author at Inc.com’s blog here.
Design is absolutely critical these days. In a world where you cannot really differentiate on the basis of quality, product, price, position, and all the other usual “P’s” of marketing theory, two key differentiators are WHO you are, and design. Daniel Pink, in “A Whole New Mind” (but online at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net) says that the new MBA is the MFA. The “Master of Fine Arts”. We’ll soon be looking for these in large numbers, he argues.
Good to Great and its predecessor, Built to Last are two of the best selling business books of all time. Built to Last is, in my opinion, a seriously dodgy book that purports to give timeless advice for building enduring companies, by analysing the antics of seriously industrial age companies over the past 50 years. There are, of course, some good principles that emerge, but on the whole, I’d give it a skip.
Good to Great, by Jim Collins (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net) (2001) is a much better aid for 21st century companies battling with the connection economy and how to build a really great company. The one enduring weakness of Collins’ work is that he only focuses on stock market returns as a measure of greatness, rather than societal contribution - but, in his defense, he has very little option given that he was trying to do an objective, scientific analysis.
There are some excellent summaries of Good to Great available online - I’d recommend this PDF document, from Executive summaries.
I have been a fan of Dan Tapscott for years. He was one of the first authors to fully grasp the implications of the Internet technology, and has been writing about its potential and impact since the early 1990s. I still think his book on how it will impact young people, especially educationally, is one of the best yet written: Growing Up Digital may be a bit dated on the tech info side, but its still a brilliant read (get it at Amazon.com). In 2003, he jumped into the arena of corporate governance, with (buy it at Kalahari.net).
Trolling through the Net, I found a book review for one of his earlier books, from 1997. It’s “The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence”, (buy it online at Amazon.com) and the review/summary is available here.
This book, by By Alan G. Robinson and Sam Stern, is highly recommended as a business text. Buy it at Amazon.com.
It was reviewed by Stephen Baker, in BusinessWeek in 1997. Here is an edited version of his review (available online here).
Continue reading ‘Corporate Creativity: How Innovation and Improvement Actually Happen’
This book, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, was one of the most highly recommended of 2004. Click here for Business Week’s review. I have ordered it, and will review it myself in a few weeks’ time.
Buy it online at: Amazon.com or Kalahari.net.
To download a free e-book from MIT on Innovation goto this link Democratizing Innovation by Eric von Hippel Chapters are as follows
1 Introduction and Overview
2 Development of Products by Lead Users
3 Why Many Users Want Custom Products
4 Users Innovate-or-Buy Decisions
5 Users Low-Cost Innovation Niches
6 Why Users Often Freely Reveal Their Innovations
7 Innovation Communities
8 Adapting Policy to User Innovation
9 Democratizing Innovation
10 Application: Searching for Lead User Innovations
11 Application: Toolkits for User Innovation and Custom Design
12 Linking User Innovation to Other Phenomena and Fields
Please come back and post comments on this page.
The book by this name, by Jessica Williams, (Buy it at Amazon.com) was published in 2004 (Sep) - you should not be able to read these facts and stay the same. How you choose to respond is up to you - but you can bet that there are people responding.
Continue reading ‘50 Facts That Should Change the World’
The Futurist in February reviewed the book, “Predictable Surprises” (2004) by Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins (buy it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net). It is designed to help us see when we should be able to expect unpleasant surprises, and how to be organised to minimise them.
Here are some of the points:
Continue reading ‘Predictable Surprises’
By engaging with the reality of the emerging Connection economy the signature tune is that of connection: in other words ‘relationships’. Here is just one more story of that power at work - a story that if you are in the medical profession might just save you from litigation!
Continue reading ‘The Power of Connection’
The attached article appeared in issue #596 of Innovative Leader, Volume 13, Number 3 March 2004.
It is a review and application of Christensen’s book on innovation, The Innovator’s Dilemma, and encourages companies to get different generations working together in the disruptive innovation/technology space.
Continue reading ‘Extrapreneurs: Crossing Generations for Disruptive Innovation’
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