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
It's Time to Evolve: Leading with Just Enough Anxiety in the 21st Century
By Robert Rosen
"In Prehistoric times, saber-toothed tigers and other wild animals tried to make primitive man their meal, before he made a meal out of them. Out of this anxiety-ridden society, a built-in coping mechanism was burned into our genes—the fight or flight response. In today's business world, leaders face a modern-day breed of saber-toothed tigers; burnout, corporate takeovers, diminishing finances, and other anxiety-producing events threaten our well-being and the survival of our companies every day. [...] When it comes to managing our anxiety, it's time to evolve. Anxiety is as much a fact of life today as it was for our ancestors. How we use it makes all the difference. If we let it overwhelm us, it will turn to panic. If we deny or run from it, we will become complacent. But if we use anxiety in a positive way, we will turn it into a powerful force in our lives. We will uncover the hidden driver of business success."
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A Creative Manifesto: Why the Place You Choose to Live is the Most Important Decision of Your Life
By Richard Florida
"Increasingly, the place you choose to live will help determine your success in business, in finding a life partner, and in living a fulfilling life. In fact, it may be the most important decision of your life. I believe that we are in the beginnings of a shift as fundamental as the industrial revolution was over a century ago—one that will have as dramatic an impact on how people live and work. Furthermore, it will have a dramatic impact on where they live and work."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Megacommunity Manifesto
By Porchlight
"Public, private, and civil leaders should confront together the problems that none can solve. Leaders everywhere no longer express as much confidence about the future as they once did. When they speak candidly, it often sounds as if they feel trapped in quicksand, unable to move forward easily. The methods and tools that helped them succeed in the past no longer work. The challenges they face—such as global competitiveness, health and environmental risks, or inadequate infrastructure—can no longer be solved by their organizations alone. And when they try to reach beyond the boundaries of their own corporation, government agency, or nongovernmental organization, there often is no clear pathway to success."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The 10 1/2 Commandments of Visual Thinking: The "Lost Chapter" from The Back of the Napkin
By Dan Roam
"Visual thinking is the future of business problem solving. Using our innate ability to see—both with our eyes and our mind's eye—gives us entirely new ways to discover hidden ideas, develop those ideas intuitively, and then share those ideas with other people in a way they are simply going to 'get.'"
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Blog / ChangeThis
Trust Economies: Investigation into the New ROI of the Web
By Julien Smith, Chris Brogan
"If You Build It, They Won't Come What happened to the early days? You built a baseball stadium, a store, a web app, and people flocked to it... now what? We are suspicious of marketing. We don't trust strangers as willingly. Buzz is suspect. It can be bought. Instead, consumers and business people alike are looking towards trust. We want our friends to tell us it's good. We want someone we know to say we should look into it. Marketing spend might start at awareness, but in the Trust Economy, communities are king, and ROI stands for Return on Influence."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Manners Matter: The Commonsense Approach to Business Etiquette
By Porchlight
"Manners matter, not just socially; we all know manners matter socially. Manners matter in business. Good social skills, in fact, are critical to the success of any business. Let's talk about the why and the how, but first, let's dispel a common myth: being polite doesn't make you a doormat. We've all seen the stereotype: meek and mild librarian/accountant gets walked on by everyone, running others' errands, never getting any respect, until one day, they explode in a rage, baseball bats and fists and profanity flying, and finally, finally, they get the respect they deserve and find true happiness in life. Let's stop pretending Hollywood represents real life."
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The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage
By Michael Lee Stallard
"I want to share something with you I've learned over the last decade of my life that I believe can be as helpful to you as it has been to me. In a nutshell, one of the most powerful and least understood aspects of business is how an emotional connection between management, employees and customers provides a competitive advantage. Unless the people who are part of a business feel a sense of connection –an emotional bond that promotes trust, cooperation and esprit de corps – they will never reach their potential as individuals, nor will the organization."
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An Eater's Manifesto
By Michael Pollan
This is an eater's manifesto, an invitation to join the movement that is renovating our food system in the name of health—health in the very broadest sense of that word.
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Power of Intuition: And Why It's the Biggest Myth in Business Today
By Porchlight
"What is it about going through life, making decisions flying by the seat of our pants, without a plan to get to a clear destination that has us all so captivated? To have the confidence to strike out on your own—research and professional opinion be damned—and take a stand, make a choice, set off in a new direction... just like that? As it turns out, while it sounds quite manly, brave, and highly lucrative to stick to your guns and go with your gut under pressure, under scrutiny, to not back down, it's not exactly an uncommon thing to do in business today. ... The real issue is how many times do pure hunches alone lead to legendary success? The answer upon closer inspection: pretty rarely."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Let's Make a Deal: Deal Making Process Improvement Principles
By Porchlight
"Doing business in almost every field involves deal making. The challenge is that negotiating good deals and drafting effective contracts are non-trivial tasks due to legal, technological and business complexities. A further layer of complexity is added by variations in game play, psychology, and ethics. In this context, deal makers can benefit from simplification and improved understanding of the legal context and practical processes relevant to deal making. Deal making should be led by process, as well as practical and commercial considerations, not purely legal considerations. It is helpful to think of deals as blueprints for living outcomes, not just glue to bind relationships."
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.