ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Let's Get Persian
By Paul B. Carroll, Chunka Mui
"Herodotus, the Greek historian, reported that the ancient Persians always made important decisions twice—first when they were drunk, and then again when they were sober. Only if the Persians reached the same decision, drunk and sober, would they act on that decision. In addition to using what might be called a second-chance meeting to review important decisions in an unbiased light, businesses should also take advantage of other means of introducing constructive contention into their decision-making. . . Our research found nine additional ways to introduce disagreement and to manage that disagreement so it keeps everyone on their toes without harming the camaraderie of a management team: 1) Informal devil's advocacy 2) Escalation systems 3) Bets 4) Staring into the abyss 5) Finding history that fits 6) Deciding (ahead of time) how to decide 7) Smoothing out management ruts 8) Constructing alarm systems 9) A formal devil's advocate review We'll look at those nine methods, one by one, starting with the relatively simple and concluding with a formal process that, we believe, should be used by every company before any major decision is made.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Today's Trojan Horse
By Diana McLain Smith
"At least as far back as Agamemnon and Achilles on the beaches of Troy, relationships have had the power to create or to destroy enormous amounts of capital—human, social, intellectual, and economic. Yet few among us can say anything even remotely systematic about how relationships work, develop, or change. [...] If relationships can have such a decisive impact on the success, even survival, of leaders and their firms, why do so many of us give them such short shrift? The answer lies in the outdated belief system that governs how we conduct business. Among the many beliefs that make up this system, four are killers. This manifesto is a call for us to shift to a new set."
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Blog / ChangeThis
I Am The Walrus: Lessons In Personal Branding from The Beatles
By Porchlight
"Side One 1. I Me Mine (Harrison) 2. I Am The Walrus (Lennon-McCartney) 3. Don't Let Me Down (Lennon-McCartney) 4. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill (Lennon-McCartney) 5. Your Mother Should Know (Lennon-McCartney) Side Two 6. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window (Lennon-McCartney) 7. The Long and Winding Road (Lennon-McCartney) 8. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Lennon-McCartney) 9. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey (Lennon-McCartney) 10. Hello Goodbye (Lennon-McCartney) On Parrlophone 33 1/3 RPM"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Attitude Problem In Education
By Don Berg
"We are losing the potential for entrepreneurial, vocational, and artistic genius in children and teachers around the world because the majority of schools navigate by academics alone. Academic schooling facilitates only a partial liberation of the human spirit. We have liberated some people, in some places, in some ways by making due with the limited academic tools available. [...] Parents today have already chosen to launch their children into a world of challenging conditions. The question is whether their suppliers—schools—are providing the right stuff to get the job done."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Being a Gifted Speaker Isn't a Gift
By Frances Cole Jones
"Despite a pervasive idea that some people are born with a 'gift' for public speaking—and that this gift is the reason they excel when presenting themselves—my experience has proven this isn't so. I believe that everyone can be a great speaker, and this includes you. So what's the disconnect? Why do so many people feel they don't have what it takes to present their ideas with confidence and flair? Thomas Edison said, 'Opportunity is missed by most because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work.' I find the same is true for public speaking. If you're willing to put in the time, there's a science to presenting that's concrete and available."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Sell a Book (or Any New Idea) (step 1 is the hard part)
By Porchlight
“Tribes grow when people recruit other people. That's how ideas spread as well. They don't do it for you, of course. They do it for each other. Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.”
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It All Starts With A Sense of Urgency
By John P. Kotter
In a turbulent era, when new competitors or political problems might emerge at any time, when technology is changing everything, both the business-as-usual behavior associated with complacency and the running-in-circles behavior associated with a false sense of urgency are increasingly dangerous. In bold contrast, a true sense of urgency is becoming immeasurably important. Real urgency is an essential asset that must be created, and re-created, and it can be.
Categories: changethis
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10 Rules for Branding In a Post Branded World
By Jonathan Salem Baskin
We live in the twilight of a branded world born over 100 years ago. Most marketing remains blinded by the fading glare of its old, outdated promises. Yet there is a new approach to brands ahead of us, based upon a definition that is less about static image and imagined identity, and more about real-time interaction and actual involvement between company and consumer. This is your Manifesto for making branding work in a post-branded world.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Age of Speed Manifesto
By Porchlight
In the following manifesto, we will explore our present relationship with speed and examine four behavior profiles that can help you determine if you (A) embrace speed and (B) harness the power of it. By the end, you just might discover that our 24/7, CrackBerry, more-faster-now world is not threatening to eat you alive, but rather, to set you free.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Social Capital Value Add: Value Based Management for the Networked Age
By Porchlight
"The marketing/communications mix is completely different than it was before 2004. Broadcast's monopoly on attention is dead. The symbolic brand, which has been the fastest growing source of corporate value for the last quarter century has reached its pinnacle. It is being absorbed and replaced by memetic brand. Technologies have evolved and mapped so tightly against the way humans transact, form relationships and create self-identity that it is time for business management to link the pioneering academic studies of social capital and social network analysis (SNA) to value based management and the priorities of marketers. The transition required is no less abrupt than that moment when the search of Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion reaches confrontation with the Great Oz faade and the curtain is pulled back to reveal a mere mortal. The corporation is at risk of being the 'humbug' caught shouting into the loudspeakers and pulling at the mechanistic levers of the past."
Categories: changethis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.