Back to future
For the craig, we went back to books we used with clients in 2011, when we invented blogging. Have not gone back to 2007, when we started Bookbuzz. The good old days of “Good to great” (the book we love to hate). “Blink”, Harry Potter and “The five dysfunctions of a team”.
Key lessons
Here are some key lessons from 5 years back. You can read the full blogs of those books (and 260 other reviews) here.
“Hacking work” talks about staff taking back the power, allowing staff to spend time on social media and the importance of transparency.
“Why work sucks” talks about the 40-hour work week being outdated and outmoded. They developed ROWE – Results-Only Work Environment.
“The Mesh” talks about the importance of reputation and word of mouth as the new search and the future key metrics for marketing.
“Sticky marketing” talks about emotional selling propositions and customer events as the main trigger for buying decisions.
“Loose” talks about organisational design and the need to be loose. The way to succeed in fast-paced, ambiguous situations is to avoid creating too much structure.
“The new capitalist” talks about constructive capitalism, delivering better outcomes for everyone, not only the shareholders.
“Getting things done” talks about the importance of robust dialogue as a key factor for action.
“What I didn’t learn at business school” tells you that strategy making is part science, part art, part politics, and part change management.
“Out of our minds” talks about the importance of passion as the common culture dominator in companies and the importance for its success. Without passion, there is no innovation
“Mindsight” talks about the power of reflection, using brain science, clinical psychology, and mindfulness to make decisions.
“Switch” talking about aligning emotion and rational with change. If they are aligned, change can come quickly and easily. If they’re not, change can be gruelling.
“Talent is Overrated” talks about the myth of natural ability. It is all about deliberate practice.
“What technology wants” talks about Moore’s law and exponential change in most of the key technologies.
Not much has changed. It would have given you a five-year head start. And the messages are more current now than they were in 2011.
2019
If you want to know what current books are saying, you can drop me a line. Key topics are still strategy, innovation, marketing, creativity, future trends and mindfulness. The nuance is different and the books are more sophisticated.