ChangeThis: Issue 65
December 09, 2009
The 65th issue of ChangeThis has been published. Take some time with it. Introduce it to your friends.
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The World on Reset by John Hope Bryant
"I keep saying that this is not a recession, it is a reset. What amazes me is how many brilliant people I know, in the US and around the world, who either don't see it as anything more than a recession, or who don't want to. No one really argues with me when I say it, but more so, simply want to turn away; hoping that by turning the mental page, somehow the reality of the statement will simply go away. It is as if society has a vested interest (and we do, by the way) in 'keeping the party going,' and doing precisely that, even if for only a little while, and even if that means fooling ourselves. Fear has the world in its grips these days, and fear is the ultimate prosperity killer."
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Freedom, Inc.
Free Your Employees and Let Them Lead Your Business to Higher Productivity, Profits and Growth
by Brian M. Carney & Isaac Getz
"From Genesis 'in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' to Marx's ]the proletariat has nothing to lose but its chains,' work has always been seen as a constraint and the workplace as a ship's galley. But this is beginning to change, and it comes, we have discovered, not from workers but from their bosses. This is the most important corporate movement of the last two decades, a movement that has been quietly transforming the fortunes of dozens of businesses and the lives of thousands of employees by using a source of benefits neglected by most—complete freedom and responsibility for employees to take actions they, not their bosses, decide are best."
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Chief Culture Officer: Building a Living, Breathing Corporation
by Grant McCracken
"The American corporation is bad at culture. It's good at management, finance, technology, and HR. It's getting better at innovation, cocreation and social media. But culture? It still pretty much sucks at culture. Culture is the 'last mile' for the corporation. It's the final 'core competence' required for its skill set. Until it masters culture the way it now master the other pieces of management—finance, strategic planning, human resources—it will suffer the blind side hit or miss yet another opportunity. The thing about errors here is that they are not small. They do not merely take a percentage point of volume or profit. They do not merely inflict a tiny ding on a CEOs reputation. No, the mistakes that come from culture can cost millions. And they lay a CEO low. It's time to bring in a Chief Culture Officer."
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Brands Are People Too by Joy Panos Stauber
"When you talk about 'branding,' you are not discussing a superficial activity. More and more business people are finally starting to understand that. A brand is not a veneer you apply to make a business (or product or service or idea) appealing to its intended audience. Instead, a brand begins to exist when a business has something to offer to the world—values, services, or products. From there, the brand's work is to articulate those unique attributes and strive to communicate them the right way, and to the right people. Even so, a brand is not what a business says it is. It's what the consumer ends up perceiving it to be."
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Start the Soloist Journey: Become the Hero in the Face of the Ten Least Wanted by Jonathan Littman & Marc Hershon
"The hero's journey has been the cornerstone of great literature and hit movies. We all know the winning dramatic premise: a beaten-down protagonist battles everyone from evil characters to wild beasts in a dangerous passage of self-discovery. Strangely, the main frictions of modern man's largest battlefield have often been ignored in the books designed to steel you for that daily 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. grind. Except for a few notable exceptions, the hostile territory otherwise known as the workplace has been treated with kid's gloves. We've been advised that the key to success is to 'be nice,' to develop 'lifelong mentors,' and a host of other absurd fantasies that no ten-year-old would ever swallow as remotely realistic or helpful."
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Relational GPS: The Road Map to Outstanding Business Relationships
by Ed Wallace
"Identifying your core relationships is the vital first step you must take in shifting how you perceive your role in any business relationship.
Instead of just wishing that better business contacts would magically appear in your professional life, drive the business contacts you've already established to more productive and rewarding levels. The initial step of pinpointing your core relationships will lead you toward participating with an actual person rather than with a digital line in a CRM system or on Linked In.
A process, however, for driving your core relationships to success, is also vital. I call this process understanding your contact's Relational GPS."
Click here to visit the site. Click here to download the PDF.