The Secret to Self-Discipline By Rory Vaden

“Today’s work environment has been dubbed everything from the Age of Distraction and the Age of Inattention … The bottom line is this: regardless of your job title, we are all trying to accomplish increasingly more with increasingly less resources—whether those resources are money, time, focus, or energy.”

The Collaborative Organization by Jacob Morgan

“I believe that collaborative organizations can make the world a better place. … I believe that for the first time in history organizations are able to deploy technologies and strategies that not only impact the lives of employees in the workplace but also outside of the workplace, and both for the better.”

How to Spread Ideas: Think Like an Entrepreneur, Not Like a Crusader by John Vespasian

“The fact that most philosophers and innovators have acted like crusaders does not prove that this is the right way to live. In fact, the opposite if true. … When it comes to practical wisdom, entrepreneurs are light-years ahead of crusaders.”

Can You Call It a Business If It Isn’t Making Sales? Why So Many Business Owners Find Selling Difficult and What To Do About It. by Jenan Mujkic

“No matter what your first job is, your second job is self-promotion. … To do this effectively, you need to have ALL of your touch points mapped out, and they need to be designed and actively managed.”

How to Get Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level by Joel A. Garfinkle

“By studying, researching, and observing over a thousand clients, I discovered three things the most successful do that others don’t. … When used together, these three powerful principles will catapult you to the next level in your career and ensure future success.”

The Way of Identity by Larry Ackerman

“The order in life that affects us all is contained in a code, the identity code. Much like our biological genetic code, our identity code is born into each of us, providing a complete map of how we, as human beings, are designed to function—of how we are supposed to live—when we are living according to who we are.”

How to Make Change Stick: Kill the Company How to Make Change Stick: Kill the Company by Lisa Bodell

“Innovation is not just about data analysis, plans and processes, and thinking outside the box. More than anything else, innovation is about change. And the truth is that as much as we’d all like to think otherwise, we are all hardwired to resist it.”

A Three Trillion Dollar Reason to Work Together: Public-Private Partnerships Are Here to Stay by Mary Scott Nabers

“Relief won’t come quickly or easily, but one thing is crystal clear: government must reach out to private sector partners for innovative solutions.”

The ROE Manifesto: How to Maximize Your Return On Energy by R. Michael Rose

“It’s easy to measure how much time we have and how much money we have left, but energy is something that is hard to explain, much less tie to business results. Until now.”

Selling, Art or Science? by Jim Holden

“[There] has always been the debate as to whether sales is an art or a science, almost to suggest that for some, sellers are born and not made. The intent of this manifesto is to apply unconventional thinking to the question of art or science.”

The Struggle by Nate St. Pierre

“Most people bear a heavy burden, quietly and alone, so focused on making sure it looks like they have everything under control that they forget they don’t have to have it all under control, and they certainly don’t have to walk their road alone.”

Why Companies Must Reduce Complexity by Neil Smith

“Too often companies look at reducing expenses without even thinking about reducing complexity. These types of programs to increase profitability may be successful in the short term, but unless you look at how things get done, change won’t be sustainable.”

Unleashing the Creative Reservoir: The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited by Richard Florida

“A new social compact—a Creative Compact—can turn our Creative Economy into a just and Creative Society, in which prosperity is widely shared. While driven and shaped by economic logic, the key institutions and initiatives of the future will be shaped, as they always have, by human agency.”

Build This: Your Culturematic Laboratory by Grant McCracken

“Ruled by pragmatism and play, your laboratory is fast becoming the place you come to look out into the future. This the bridge from which you can look at your possible outcomes, examine your range of options, think about how to think the future.”

The Shattering: How We Get From Where We Are to What and Who We Need to Be—A Non-Illustrated Guide to Becoming Honest by Erika Napoletano

“The Shattering is the moment where everything familiar slips away. Our protective facades of familiarity spontaneously combust and we shun faith, deny comfort. We’re left voiceless regardless of our need to scream. We tread water in an ocean filled with every brilliant memory of what was only moments ago.”

Let’s Make Leadership Real Again by Mike Figliuolo

“What has happened to leadership? With all the crises and challenges we face and the increasingly risk-averse environment in which we operate, leadership has become generic, ephemeral, and bland. We have devolved from leaders into managers. Admiral Grace Murray Hopper said it best—you manage things, but you lead people. The problem is we’re no longer leading.”

The Face-to-Face Manifesto: Back to the Future by Ed Keller & Brad Fay

“The fact is that online social networking is no substitute for the power and impact of face-to-face communications. Real world conversations—most of which take place face-to-face—are still the dominant mode of communication, and they are the most trusted and persuasive.”

Rebooting America’s Innovation Engine: Using Jugaad to Innovate Faster, Better, and Cheaper by Navi Radjou

“The motto ‘innovate or die’ held true for American firms in the 20th century. In the 21st century, ‘innovate faster, better, and cheaper—or die’ will be your new mantra. Indeed, in today’s hypercompetitive, über-connected, and globally integrated economy, you need to crank out new products faster than you can spell ‘R&D,’ or else your customers will switch their allegiance to more agile rivals.”

Nine Things I Learned from Alan Mulally by Bryce G. Hoffman

“I spent many hours sitting across the table from Mulally in his corner office on the twelfth floor of Ford’s world headquarters. I learned a lot about how to change cultures and streamline organizations, and I believe these principles will prove as valuable to your organization as they have to Ford.”

Stop Selling and Start Storytelling by Jason L. Baptiste

“Successful entrepreneurs are never selling, and always storytelling. Throughout this manifesto, I want to focus on how an entrepreneur can use storytelling to persuade four key constituents that can ultimately make or break their startup—the press, team members, customers and investors.”

Becoming China’s Bitch: A Radical Centrist Manifesto for Fixing What’s Broken by Peter D. Kiernan

“Where do I get off using a title like that? Because the time has come to get you out of your comfort zone. In fact, it’s well past time for all of us. If we don’t, we will lose more than our superpower status—we may well lose our national soul.”

We Say We Want a Revolution: How to Activate the Activist and Surf the Tidal Wave of Radical Change by Gina Amaro Rudan

“I confess—the revolutionary climate we’re experiencing right now excites me. Why? Because every monster economic crisis or socio-political upheaval brings bottom-up innovation, top-down collaboration, and a flurry of creativity … ”

The Unasked Question: How Do You Run a Company? by Dick Cross

“Despite all the hand-ringing and acerbic rhetoric over the American economy, we could be just one step away from solving it all.”

Five Rules for Pricing Excellence: Getting the Most for Your Services
by Patrick Lefler

“Pricing is critical, and short-changing your pricing strategy is the fastest way to leave cash on the table—money that will be lost forever and never recovered.”

How Habits Work (and How They Change) by Charles Duhigg

“Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits. Habits are subtle. But any habit can be changed. And now we—finally—know how.”

Laughing at the Joneses by Laura Vanderkam

“It’s silly to talk about personal finance without talking about where you live and what you drive. … There are plenty of people who have discovered this truth and, rather than trying to keep up with the Joneses or submitting to their tyranny, are getting a good laugh at them.”

Twelve Gentle Rules: How a Couple Can Live Together Peacefully When One of Them Is an Entrepreneur by Meg Cadoux Hirshberg

“Clearly, when it comes to business-building, some degree of obsession is required—or soon the business won’t be around to obsess about. The problem arises when entrepreneurs try to simultaneously enjoy a thriving family life.”

Lead Differently by Mark Miller

“People and organizations are much more likely to thrive if the leader subscribes to what Robert Greenleaf called Servant Leadership. It is not a new idea—Greenleaf didn’t invent it nor did I. However, it is an idea whose time has come… It is time to Lead Differently!”

Inspire and Influence with the Power of Presence by Kristi Hedges

“Lying inside you, untapped, is an inspirational force. Guided by passion and steered by your influence, you can build momentum for yourself, others or a greater cause.”

How to Change Medicine by Eric Topol, M.D.

“New tools in medicine can reboot the future of health care, making it more precise, consumer-driven, and truly preventive. While not intended to be a comprehensive overhaul of all of the maladies of medicine, the 9 steps outlined here address exceptional opportunities for getting us on the right path for the future.”

The Substitution Economy: How Small Changes in Our Day-To-Day Spending Can Shake the World by James Marshall Reilly

“The brands we purchase can become, in a sense, our personal position statement. Each of us can define ourselves publicly, and we can simultaneously feel good about who we are privately, as a direct result of our consumption patterns.”

From Dropouts to Fully Functioning Adults: What’s Missing in Our Efforts to Fix America’s Public Educational System by Steve Rothschild

“We can teach young people the attitudes and skills they need to succeed in school and in life. And we can make it worthwhile for schools make the effort.”

Strategy for Personal Success: Discovering Your Purpose by Rich Horwath

“Just as we need strategy for business success, we need to plan for successful lives. Without one, we allow all kinds of forces to push, pull, twist, and turn us into mental and emotional pretzels.”

Generating Repeat Business by Richard Shapiro

“Focusing on the service interaction alone is not always enough to generate repeat business; it’s building an emotional connection that becomes the loyalty glue.”

Changing the Way We Change by Eric Haseltine

“Most people not only repeat past mistakes, but fail to learn that they’ve failed to learn from the past so they go on making the same mistakes over and over again.”

GROW: How to Change the Narrative of Business by Jim Stengel

“The business case for brand ideals is not altruism. It’s self-interest and mutual interest. In addition to its wider positive impact, a devotion to brand ideals will do more for your own business and career than any other factor. Maximum business growth and high ideals are not incompatible. They’re inseparable.”

Transcendent Leadership: How to Lead Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime
by Les McKeown

“What if each successive leadership role brought out more of what makes you you, rather than asking you to compromise your core values, bury your deepest wishes, hold ransom your dreams? Having coached and advised hundreds of leaders, I know this isn’t a pipe dream.”

Shift & Reset by Brian Reich

“There are lots of excuses for not making real, demonstrable changes in the way we live, work, and how we interact as individuals and engage in groups/communities. I have heard them all. I have used many of them myself. But they are bullshit. All excuses are.”

It Really is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn from Masterful Orators of the Past by Matt Eventoff

“Millions of meetings and presentations occur daily. Each of these presentations is meant to drive ‘someone’ to do ‘something.’ And what do the vast majority of [them] have in common? Unfortunately, they usually fail to get anyone to do anything.”

Make Social Media Sell—Now by Jeff Molander

“The ‘social media revolution’ is over-hyped nonsense. The real business opportunity is to become more relevant and meaningful to customers in ways that create sales.”

The Promise of Entrepreneurship by Adelaide Lancaster

“We are made to believe that when it comes to business success, bigger is always better. In our super-sized, consumption-oriented culture, not even small business is exempt from the pressure to grow for growth’s sake. … There is an alternative that is both rewarding and attainable—it just requires rethinking things a bit.”

Leading Transformation and Captivating Communities by Brian Solis

“At the center of any revolution is the burning desire to bring about change. But it always comes down to people, shared experiences, and a common ambition. And it is people who need one another for leadership, support, and inspiration. What’s missing from the equation is your vision and leadership.”

Blending Art & Science To Create More Effective Ideas by James Trezona

“Blending art and science is about collaborating in ideas generation: the inter-relationship is critical, you can’t have one thing without the other. A bunch of code or data is just a bunch of numbers without the art.”

Does Your Customer Really Need You? Lessons from Zappos by Joseph Michelli, Ph.D.

“Let’s face it, every business is at risk of becoming a commodity, thanks in large part to the speed of information delivery, consumer empowering technologies, and media outlets that tell consumers that the economy is too fragile for them to be spending money.”

The Business Genome Approach: Finding Your Next Competitive Advantage by Andrea Kates

“You have the wrong tools. And you use them the wrong way. It isn’t your fault. You were taught, as we all were, to make forecast models out of past results. … But, now, the rules have changed: our game plans have gone public, and whoever knows what the customer will do next wins.”

Putting a Signature on Customer Experience by Michael T. Kanazawa

“Customer experience needs to be thought of as a strategic agenda item on par with and actually integrated with corporate strategy, managing the brand, and new product development. If you share that vision for your customer experience efforts, here are some strategic tools and ideas to help you do that.”

The 5,000 Year History of How We Lost Half Our Mind (Or How Blah-Blah-Blah Has Gradually Taken Over Our Lives) by Dan Roam

“Over the millenia, we have gradually purged our visual mind from our understanding of language, communications, and intelligence. Just when we need pictures the most, we no longer have the ability to think visually. It’s time to bring our visual mind back.”

Innovate or Perish! What’s Your Strategy? by Kevin & Jackie Freiberg
and Dain Dunston

“It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, someone, somewhere right now is building a product, process or business model designed to kick your butt. If it’s you, then you define the rules by which others must play the game. If it’s NOT you, then you had better get comfortable playing by someone else’s rules.”

Innovation You: Creating Growth By Jeff DeGraff

“Growth comes from developing a deeper understanding of the interplay of the forces and how to manage the tensions of conflict and cooperation. … Our opportunities to become better and new—to become whole—to succeed, are discovered in the places where the world around us is growing and calls us to do the same.”

Crime and (the Lack of) Punishment by Neil Senturia

“I am passionate about great crimes and the criminals who commit them. But, I often wonder if the long arm of our law, the finest justice system in the world, is at times deeply corrupt, especially with regard to the most recent financial meltdown of 2008.”

Success or Suckcess: It’s Up to Senior Management to Decide by Dan Hill

“Over the past 25 years, the breakthroughs in brain science have systematically documented that thought and emotion can’t be artificially separated and that, in fact, the capacity for emotion proceeded thought in evolutionary terms and continues to do so with every deliberation and act an employee makes.”

Clickability: A Skill for Life by Dr. Rick Kirschner

“Whether the times are great, or the economy is in the tank, the people who do the best, who prosper and advance, are the people who know how to connect with other people and have it matter.”

Starting this month, ChangeThis manifestos will have a slightly different look.

We’ve had repeated requests from readers to make our manifestos easier to read on their mobile devices, and we’ve done just that. Our designer extraordinaire, Joy Panos Stauber of Stauber Design Studios in Chicago, Illinois is the woman who makes our manifestos sparkle every month, and she has now designed a new template for them that retains most of the visual elements you’re all familiar with, while tweaking the dimensions, margins, and aspect ratio to make it more mobile-friendly.

We’re really pleased with what she has come up with and hope you like it, as well.

And now, here are this month’s manifestos.

Guarding the Guards: Crushing the Bureaucratic Rules that Limit Success by Tom Rieger

“As managers are forced to do more with less, contend with limited resources, or battle for headcount and budget, many will begin to build walls to help protect their ability to meet their own local goals. Unfortunately, sometimes those walls become so high that those inside lose sight of the ultimate outcome. Their world becomes defined by the piece, and not the puzzle.”

How Unplanning Your Business Can Make It Happen Faster How Unplanning Your Business Can Make It Happen Faster by Ian Sanders & David Sloly

“The problem with writing a fixed plan is that you can get stuck in amber mode. You get so bogged down with hypotheticals, financial modeling and revenue projections that your cool business idea gets stuck in a spreadsheet and the light never goes green.”

Responding Effectively to Workplace Bullying: Managing Behavior at the Time of an Attack by Aryanne Oade

“This manifesto is written against a backdrop of increasing bullying at work. Its objective is to equip you with the interpersonal know-how and the insight you need to respond effectively to incidents of bullying workplace.”

Reinventing the Wheel: Creating Lifetime Customers by Chris Zane

“Creating lifetime customers requires that you offer every customer or potential customer more service than they consider reasonable. Further, it means that you actively solicit customer feedback about what you could be doing better and use that information to expand and tweak your offerings to best service the customer.”

The Power of Trust and Mistrust by Dr. Judith Bardwick

“When trust levels are high, so is the quality and performance of business—and the reverse is also true. These facts are demonstrated dramatically when we look at the financial outcomes of companies that are among the best to work for and their peer companies that aren’t.”

Go Do: How Hard Can It Be? by Lou Imbriano

“It’s important to realize that the only true barrier in life is you. Sure, there can be obstacles that you face every day and people who are impediments to achieving your goals, but ultimately, you will be the reason that you achieve or fail.”