KnowledgeBlocks « 800 CEO Read

June 19, 2013

A New KnowledgeBlocks Giveaway: Red Thread Thinking

Filed under: Giveaway,Innovation,KnowledgeBlocks — Tags: creativity, debra kaye, giveaway, ideas, innovation, red thread — Sally @ 10:11 am

Author Debra Kaye wants to help you become an innovative thinker, to “make innovation a regular part of life, and it’s a skill she believes is available to anyone. And her book, Red Thread Thinking, will help you “uncover new connections between phenomena that you didn’t realize were linked, giving you a fresh understanding and an innovator’s edge.” To do this, you’ll need to “pull the right threads and connect them properly” in order to create something that solves problems for people. After all, innovations that solve problems, Kaye says, are the most that become personal for people, and what becomes personal becomes in demand. A well-balanced mix of the practical and the possible, Red Thread Thinking will teach you how to access your own creative power and create a product and a language that will speak to consumers.

First, what are red threads? “Red Threads are the connecting strands of relationships in which knowledge, memories, and insight are woven together to create a multitextured fabric of seamless interconnectivity. Red Threads can also connect new products and services with consumer desires….” The five threads that Kaye introduces are:

1. Innovation — It’s All In Your Head
2. Everything Old is New
3. People–The Strangest Animals in the Zoo
4. What You See Is What You Get
5. The Force of Passion

The first thread focuses on the neuroscience of creativity; the second on building off already existing ideas; the third on developing observational insight; the fourth encourages product and packaging simplicity; and the final is all about finding “the right balance of confidence and flexibility” in turning you ideas into reality.

Red Thread Thinking is an optimistic book that can bring personal success within arms’ reach. Kaye is clear that her target audience is the individual. (“Innovation is individual.”) However, she closes her book with a call for increased social responsibility through innovation. Good things happen when people innovate for the good of everyone else.

Win a copy of Red Thread Thinking and learn how to “design and develop thoughts into things.” Click here to enter!

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June 4, 2013

A New KnowledgeBlocks Giveaway!

Filed under: Giveaway,KnowledgeBlocks — Sally @ 9:17 am

Over on KnowledgeBlocks, we’re giving away 20 copies of Beating the Global Odds: Successful Decision-Making in a Confused and Troubled World by Paul Laudicina. Sign up to win here!

Beating the Global Odds is a book about change and how to be proactive in the face of our fast-moving–and “rudderless” as the author terms it– world. Instead of trying to tread water by reacting to change, your decision-making process has to adapt along with the pace of business.

What’s different now is the level of complexity and velocity we are faced with in every aspect of our lives and occupations. In short, what has changed is the ramp speed. What has also changed (decreased, of course) is the level of engagement of large groups of the public, who feel (and are) adrift. The courage required to make a somewhat more difficult leap is more significant than ever, as are the eloquence and inspiration needed to encourage others to come along for the ride.

Laudicina is the CEO of management consulting firm AT Kearney and passes what he and the company has learned in this book. This advice includes:

➻ recognizing the importance of value-based leadership beyond corporate objectives

➻ developing rich relationships with clients

➻ delivering value instead of worrying about wealth creation

➻ envisioning a future that expands out into the community

One way to help your customers combat the chaos is to make your offerings Sesame Street Simple. Laudicina uses Apple and Volkswagon as examples of companies that have a small number of options rather than a raft of choices for a customer to make. The takeaway? Eliminate confusion. Simplify the decision for consumers.

The author provides similar advice when it comes to relationships. Just as we need to focus on connecting with our family and friends in our personal lives, lest we let technology and busy-ness separate us, we also have to take that same intention to building our relationships with our customers. Tangible over technological, Laudicina says.

While Beating the Global Odds encourages us not to sit back and not “wait for the next big thing,” the book also makes clear that we can’t predict the future either.

That’s the problem with futurism: It’s frequently so far off-base that it has about as much real-life utility as using last year’s pulp science fiction to build your corporate strategy. So what’s the alternative? Actually there are two main methodologies my colleagues and I use with clients around the world, day in and day out: scenario planning and horizon scanning. They are not so much about predicting the future as they are about informing the present, so that organizations can develop alternative scenarios of the future they can act upon now. It’s important to note that these are real disciplines, with bodies of knowledge that even relatively passive users need to understand–so do-it-yourself scenario planning makes about as much sense as DIY eye surgery. (Friends don’t let friends become amateur futurists.) So do yourself and your organization a favor, and get some basic training at the very least.

What I like about the passage above is that it not only exemplifies the insights Laudicina offers readers, but also the humor. This is not a dry text about globalization and strategy. It’s wide-ranging and smart, but not so smart to make you feel panicky. In fact, it’s rather comforting to be told that we can take some control back just when we feel out of control.

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May 21, 2013

KnowledgeBlocks Giveaway: The One Thing

Filed under: KnowledgeBlocks,Uncategorized — Tags: bard press, Keller, one, one thing, Papasan, productivity, results, success — Sally @ 8:25 am

If I were to ask my husband to make a “to-do” list of the things he wants to get done over the weekend, the list would top out at around 20 items. On it would be anything from cleaning out the garage and going to the bank…to moving our garden to the east side of the yard and building a new set of stairs. Over the 16 years we’ve been married, I’ve been a witness to his inability to whittle that list down to something manageable many times, and the inevitable result that he gets none of those 20 things done because he is overwhelmed and distracted. He wants to get it all done, and is unsatisfied by anything less. I doubt my husband’s method is rare. In fact, it’s likely pretty common. We all buy into the myth that we must be uber-productive and any inability to multi-task is a glitch in our character.

But trying to do too much is a hard habit to break. Thank goodness we (and my husband) have The One Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan. Not only will the authors help you establish a practice of whittling down that menacing “to-do” list to increase productivity, but he will also help you understand yourself better, making it easier to find and stick to your personal ONE Thing.

Keller and Papasan open the book with a Russian proverb: “If You Chase Two Rabbits You Will Not Catch Either One.” And that is a fitting synopsis of the book’s premise. But really, the book is populated with similar easy-to-remember catch-phrases that you can carry with you as you apply the ONE Thing process. Another is to “go small.”

“Going small” is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It’s recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It’s a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It’s realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.

Pretty antithetical to the message we usually receive about productivity, isn’t it? But the authors back up their theory with a little physics. The chapter titled, “The Domino Effect,” describes how the momentum of one small domino can not only knock over many dominoes, but also knock much larger dominoes. Why does this work? “Because extraordinary success is sequential, not simultaneous.” Not only can small accomplishments add up to big results, a series of small results can actually add up to much more progress than if you were doing two tasks at once. “Every time we try to do two or more things at once, we’re simply dividing up our focus and dumbing down all of the outcomes in the process.”

I think nearly all of us have a friend or colleague whom we regard as being admirably focused. We long to be as disciplined, and we treat that person with a sort of reverence. The One Thing offers us relief from this envy: discipline and willpower are over-rated. “When you do the right thing, it can liberate you from having to monitor everything.” Concentrate on establishing a habit, rather than trying to change your character.

Returning to my husband’s inclination to overload his to-do list, even if he buys the argument that multi-tasking is bun, and he needs to concentrate on that first domino, how does he deduce what his ONE Thing is? The second half of The One Thing focuses on solving that conundrum, and it’s this section of the book that is truly revelatory. The authors start by encouraging us to ask one “focusing” question:

What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?

Parse out that question, and you’ll begin to see that the ONE Thing process is, well, two-fold. First, you must determine your “big picture” ONE Thing. Then, you will ask yourself: “What’s my ONE Thing right now?” The answer to that question becomes your first domino. Is this a bit of a cheat? Doesn’t the premise of the book become “The Two Things?” No, the authors explain: “Your big ONE Thing is your purpose and your small ONE Thing is the priority you take action on to achieve it.”

The third section of the book steps you through the process of finding that ONE Thing you dream of, that thing that sometimes seems too big to achieve. The formula the authors present consists of Productivity, Priority, and Purpose. The section concludes with a chapter on how to implement the ONE Thing process in every area of your life. And the authors’ enthusiasm is contagious:

So be prepared to live a new life! And remember that the secret to extraordinary results is to ask a very big and specific question that leads you to one very small and tightly focused answer.

To help you practice the ONE Thing approach, in addition to providing winners with a copy of the book, The One Thing, we will also send you a door hanger that will remind you and your coworkers/family that you are working the ONE Thing philosophy, as well as a mousepad/notepad on which you can practice the process.

Sign up today to win the gift of greater productivity! Then visit us in the forums to discuss what you’ve learned and how you’ve applied the concepts to your own work.

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May 7, 2013

A New KnowledgeBlocks Giveaway!

Filed under: KnowledgeBlocks,Marketing — Tags: community, fans, Jackie Huba, lady gaga, Marketing — Sally @ 9:42 am

Monster Loyalty is a book that reveals the power and popularity of Lady Gaga’s undeniably-effective marketing machine. It highlights the methodology of Gaga’s creation of a community of ‘Little Monsters” that is quite willing to do anything for her music…and for her, their “Mama Monster.” But the key here, Huba makes clear, is that community. The community members depend on the community. They feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves, and even bigger than Gaga herself.

Building a community of fans or customers doesn’t happen overnight. As Gaga and anyone else who is a community manager knows, it takes hard work every day to connect with those who are of like minds and to nurture relationship with them. It takes an egoless spirit to show the community that your company is not just concerned with financial gain also with what’s in the best interest of the community. Once you sense that customers want to be part of something more than a transactional relationship, you can begin the process of helping them self-identify.

So how do you translate that into your own marketing plan?

While Jackie Huba is clearly fascinated by and respectful of Gaga’s approach and commitment to her fans, for the purposes of this book, she is equally concerned with teaching us how to apply those same methods to our own businesses, methods such as concentrating on you “One-Percenters”, using imagery and naming to bring people together, making your customers feel like there is a greater purpose to the community. Huba also provides us with plenty of non-Gaga “business examples” of companies that use similar methods, such as Method (green cleaning products) and Fiskers (knives and scissors.)

The takeaway of Monster Loyalty is not only that Lady Gaga is an impressive marketing strategist, but that it’s community that powers the popularity.

To learn how to do this in your own company, sign up to win a copy of Monster Loyalty!

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March 20, 2013

A New KnowledgeBOX offer!

Filed under: KnowledgeBlocks,Personal Development — Sally @ 9:35 am

If you aren’t already aware, 800-CEO-READ powers the business knowledge-building site, KnowledgeBlocks. One of the services KnowledgeBlocks offers is a quarterly book club. For $80, you’ll receive 4 quarterly shipments for a total of 9 books per year (see more details and sign up here.)

This quarter’s KnowledgeBOX shipment contains a signed and customized copy of Chip & Dan Heath’s third book, Decisive. Plus, you’ll get an early Advanced Reading Copy of a great new Crown Business title as a surprise gift!

This KnowledgeBOX will ship April 15th, and there is a limited quantity, so don’t wait! You’ll immediately be sent a complimentary copy of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time when you register. So start building your business knowledge today!

DECISIVE: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
Chip Heath & Dan Heath
(CrownBusiness)

“And that, in essence, is the core difficulty of decision making: What’s in the spotlight will rarely be everything we need to make a good decision, but we won’t always remember to shift the light. Sometimes, in fact, we’ll forget there’s a spotlight at all, dwelling so long in the tiny circle of light that we forget there’s a broader landscape beyond it.”
Decisive, page 3

From 800-CEO-READ’s Jack Covert Selects Review:

Those who have read the Heaths’ previous books, Made to Stick and Switch, know they are great writers. Their books are filled with clever stories, detailed research told in a relatable way, and as a result, each page simply makes you think, and think more clearly. But what elevates their books above many others is that they operate both as “how-to” guides as well as social insight. You can read them to change what you do or how you think, and in the process, you’ll understand the world a bit better. Because decision-making is one of the great challenges for leaders, entrepreneurs, and really anyone trying to manage a career, Decisive may be their most an important one.

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August 27, 2012

Thinker in Residence: Nacie Carson

Filed under: Blog,KnowledgeBlocks — Michael @ 12:08 pm

Say hello to KnowledgeBlocks’ newest Thinker in Residence, Nacie Carson. Nacie’s work is especially interesting in our current climate of unpredictability in the employment world. Where traditional means of income appear to be dissolving for many, she suggests an overall evaluation of one’s skill set and adapting accordingly, just like Darwin’s Galapagos finches. It doesn’t necessarily mean just perusing the job listings for full-time positions; it means complete adaptability. What can you do with your skills right now, in any mode?

Last week, Nacie did a couple of Q&A sessions with us, touching on ‘gig-economy’, ‘Career Evolution’, and a selection of other topics that bring into focus the importance of adaptability in today’s career world.

To the question “If people only take one thing away from this book, what do you hope that is?” Nacie replied:

I hope it is that we all have the capacity to grow, change, and yes—evolve. Unlike other species on this earth—our dear finches included—humans have the unique capability to consciously participate in our own evolution. We are not passive beings, but active and sentient beings who can survive and thrive in most any conditions. Our economic and vocational conditions are no different. I hope people take away a message of hope, motivation, capability, and a few good business tips as well!

Read more from Nacie over at KnowledgeBlocks.

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