Uncategorized Posts
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Blog / Editor's Choice
Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations
Book Review by Porchlight
Dan Ariely's new book takes us on a journey into the complex nature of human motivation.
Categories: editors-choice
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Blog / News & Opinion
Inside the Longlist: Marketing & Sales
By Blyth Meier
The five finalists in the Marketing & Sales category highlight a clear trend emphasizing the role of emotion in the decision-making process.
Categories: news-opinion, the-company
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Blog / ChangeThis
Wake Up, Heretics! We Need You
By Porchlight
"Today's corporate culture is leadership-starved. Our leadership vacuum is somewhat ironic, given that sometimes it seems like all we talk about is leaders—what makes them strong or weak, successes or failures. Skim your favorite business publications, and you'll find think piece after advice column after scientific study outlining how to lead and why it matters. Many of the pointers are good: servant leadership is indeed worthwhile, and empowering your employees is a key to peak performance. But those strategies alone are not the path to the kind of groundbreaking leadership we not only want, but desperately need. The climb to taking charge of changing the world is only scalable via bareknuckle, boldfaced heresy. To put another way: we need more than just leaders in the workforce. We need heroes––and the greatest heroes have always begun their journeys as heretics."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
In Defense of the Gray Area
By Phillip Barlag
"For countless cultural reasons, Americans have long associated the phrase with defeat. Yet, 'I don't know' is not an end, but a beginning. It is not a failure but an opportunity. 'I don't know' is a launch pad for deeper investigation. [...] Yes or no not only creates a false interpretation of historical or contemporary issues, it can also be dangerous. Isaac Asimov said violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. That refuge is frequently guarded by unyielding monolithic absolutes."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Failure Drives Success
By Porchlight
"There is no success without failure. Success is what you do after you fail. The people in my life who have become great successes have also suffered through quite a few failures. Those who avoid failure or try to help others avoid failure are really just impeding their progress. [...] Failure itself is not a bad thing, but repeating the same mistake over and over is a tragedy. There is rarely a time in life when one cannot recover from failure. However, having consecutive failures can be unrecoverable. One of the reasons people have consecutive failures is that they are unable to see the value of or learn from the lesson of the first failed attempt."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Five Keys to Being Fiercely You
By Jackie Huba
"When was the last time you did something that astounded those around you, that amazed yourself, that was outside of your comfort zone? Has it been a while? Was it in your childhood, or at college? If it was recent, did you need the help of a drink or two to muster up that courage? That's pretty common. But when was the last time you felt intimidated, insecure, afraid to do something because it might be wrong? Or when was the last time you watched someone else do something bold and you thought, 'That's amazing! But I could never do that?' Unfortunately, that's pretty common too. Why? Fear. We often hold ourselves back from our true potential because of all kinds of fears—fear of failing, fear of rejection, fear of being laughed at, and even the fear of being our most glorious self."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Disrupt Yourself! Create the World You Want with Liminal Thinking.
By Dave Gray
"People talk a lot about disruption these days. Leaders in large organizations fear that rapidly-emerging competitors will disrupt them and make them irrelevant. Netflix has disrupted Blockbuster. Uber has disrupted the taxi industry. AirBnB has disrupted hospitality. Brexit disrupted an entire system of government—in one day, with one vote. Who's next? In an era where change has become the norm, we spend a lot of time worrying about how to avoid being disrupted by others. We'd be more successful if we learned how to disrupt ourselves. What if I told you the number one reason companies go out of business is that their senior leaders don't know how to listen? That they are not paying attention? That they are completely blind to disruptive new businesses that are staring them right in the face?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / Excerpts
Draw to Win: A Crash Course on How to Lead, Sell, and Innovate with Your Visual Mind
By Porchlight
Dan Roam explains why our oldest technologies is still one of our best.
Categories: excerpts
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Blog / Book Giveaways
The 800-CEO-READ Business Book Awards: Marketing & Sales
By Porchlight
This week, we are giving away five sets of the five best marketing and sales books of 2016.
Categories: giveaways
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Blog / Editor's Choice
An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy
Book Review by Porchlight
Marc Levinson has written an incredibly smart and unideological economic history of the post-World War II boom, how it skewed our idea of what normal economic growth looks like, and how responsible government is for it.
Categories: editors-choice