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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Lay Off Your Buildings, Not Your People!
By Maynard Webb
"When I began my career, everyone "went" to work. It was long before the advent of the Internet and personal computers; you had to go to work to gain access to computing power. Most computer centers had people on call 24/7. When there was a problem, they had to drive to the office and fix the problem on-site. There was no such thing as logging on remotely. Employees had to be at their desks to do work. Our inboxes were paper based. We had written phone memos, not voicemail, so in order to receive a call, we had to be in the office. There weren't PCs that could be disconnected and taken home. At that time, it wasn't firewalls that protected the network; it was office walls, and if you weren't inside the office, you weren't able to work. Offices and office hours actually made sense. Now it's an unbelievably outdated concept."
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Innovation Begins Here: How to Become the Hero in the Hero's Journey
By Brian Solis
"Welcome. You've officially arrived at the intersection of reality and possibility. Take comfort. You are not alone. There are many who are standing with you at this junction. But each of you has his or her own path to follow, and what you do next is yours and only yours to define. While that may sound either trite, abstract or both, the future does in fact begin with you and will be defined by you."
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Can Business Save The World?
By Joey Reiman
"Business people are the new superheroes. And they are here to save the world. Their super power is purpose. And with it they intend to improve and save billions of lives while putting millions more dollars back into the economy. No force on the planet is greater than purpose, because purpose gives us our reason for being and doing. When you discover your purpose, you become unstoppable. It works the same for business."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Pause to Lead Forward: The Paradoxical Leadership Breakthrough
By Kevin Cashman
"The demanding pace for global leaders has never been more challenging. Digitally connected every moment, we are increasingly tied to a 24-hour global clock. This is the 'new normal.' We are expected to perform continually in the face of global crises and multifaceted pressures, including downsizing, mergers and the accompanying stresses and expectations. The list of demands, personal and professional, never ends. Could it be that going faster and driving harder are not the answers? Could there be another way to sustain high performance? Could it be that the source of our real value as leaders might come from different thinking and different choices rather than from perpetuation of the incessant pace we strain to maintain?"
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The Self-Publishing Revolution
By Guy Kawasaki
"In the old, constrained world, somebody had to select, print, and distribute what was worthy of royalty, shelf space, and killing trees. That somebody was an employee of a traditional publisher; he served as a filter, finisher, and arbiter of taste. Several thousand traditional publishers added this kind of value for hundreds of years. Shelf space for ebooks, however, is infinite, and anyone who can use a word processor can write and publish a book. These changes don't mean that books are better—no more than a democratic political system guarantees better leaders—but at least the system is more accessible."
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Ninja Innovation: The Secrets of Today's Top Innovators
By Gary Shapiro
"After thirty years in the consumer electronics industry, I have seen my fair share of successes and failures. Applying our idea to the successes, we decided they exhibited characteristics of the feudal Japanese stealth warrior known as the ninja. They are all ninja innovators because they achieve their mission through a set of similar tactics; they all adhere to a code of business ethics; and they are all single-mindedly focused on winning as the only option. They are true business warriors, and here are some of their secrets ... "
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Being Vulnerable: Business Tips from a Former CIA Officer
By Porchlight
"The typical corporate environment may not be quite as fraught with danger as the realm of spies, but that doesn't negate the value of understanding the impact of emotions on decisions and performance. So, for a moment, let's loosen the ban we tend to enforce on expressing emotions in the workplace. Drop the barricade between the numbers and the feelings. Stop denying those aspects of human behavior that we, as leaders, feel we MUST deny. You can't lead if you're 'soft', right? But you also can't influence what you pretend doesn't exist. Embrace vulnerability, if only to understand why your clients are vulnerable to wooing from your competitor. To see just how vulnerable your boss is to the pressure to give the other guy the promotion, instead of you. To know how vulnerable your best employees are to job offers from other companies."
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Making the Unconscious Conscious: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing
By Douglas Van Praet
"If we don't understand our own preferences or the true motivations behind our own behaviors, marketers are wasting billions of dollars each year by asking questions in quantitative surveys and qualitative focus groups people simply can't know the answer to. And marketers are using that information as the guiding forces to bring innovation and improvement to the marketplace. Not surprisingly, the success rate is abysmal, as only two of every ten new products launched in the U.S. succeeds. 'Houston, we have a problem.'"
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You—According to Them: Accelerating Career Success By Understanding—and Boosting—Your Reputation
By Porchlight
"'Reputation' is not a line item we can find on a corporate income statement. But honestly, it should be. Instead it's lurking in there, living pervasively below the surface of the carefully calculated revenues and expenses. And yet, the accountants can't assign a specific number to it. Think about that for a moment. Companies can leverage the incalculable perceptions of a great reputation (their brand) into bottom-line success and a very real corporate advantage. Sadly, there's also the flip side. Companies can totally crash and burn because of negative reputations, despite solid product offerings. Perceptions may be unquantifiable, but they are infinitely powerful."
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Why It Pays to Be Likeable
By Dave Kerpen
"40 years ago a brand such as Jolly Green Giant could sell a lot of mediocre corn with a great jingle and a huge television advertising budget. 20 years ago a company such as Circuit City could be a miserable, secretive place to work but it wouldn't matter much to shareholders or customers because they likely would never find out. Social media has changed all that, very quickly. The speed and ease with which information travels—the good, the bad and the ugly—is faster than ever before, and only accelerating. Today, the brands that succeed aren't the ones that spend the most money on disruptive advertising—they're the ones that spend the most money on creating valuable, meaningful products and customer service. Today, the businesses that succeed aren't the ones who keep costs down by not giving perks to employees—they're the ones who create an open, transparent, fun place to work where passionate people can exchange ideas. Today, more than ever before, for businesses, brands, and entrepreneurs, it pays to be likeable.
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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.