STRATEGY CENTRAL

If you lead meetings and need to be more innovative…you’re going to want to pick up a copy of Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers.  Wow!  What a great resource!

I caught co-author Sunni Brown on a presentation she gave for Duarte Designs and knew I needed to check this book out.  I was not disappointed.

At the outset, Gamestorming points out that while in “industrial work, we want to manage work for consistent, repeatable, and predictable results,” that won’t produce breakthrough ideas.  Since the goal isn’t “to incrementally improve on the past but to generate something new,” you’re going to have to do things to make it possible for your team to “imagine a world that we can’t really fully conceive yet.”

You’ve probably heard of the way the military uses game playing to develop and teach strategy.  That’s the concept here.  At over 250 pages, this book is really a toolbox full of some of the best practice concepts used by many of the most creative companies.

After establishing a basic pattern (gamestorming involves opening exercises that are divergent, exploring exercises that are emergent, and closing exercises that are convergent), the rest of the book is made up of tools that you can learn to use as you put together your own opportunities to gamestorm.

Each of the included exercises features the object of play, the number of players that can play, the duration of play, a brief explanation of how to play, and the strategy for its use.

Gamestorming is one of those books (kind of like Dan Roam’s Back of the Napkin or Doug Hall’s Jump Start Your Business Brain) that you’re going to want figure out a way to use right away.  While you’re going to recognize a few of the games, unless you’re really a visual and experience guru, there are going to be plenty that you’ll react like I did when you see them.  I want to try Campfire!  I want to try The 4Cs!  I want to try the Pain Gain Map!  And so will you.

Okay…this is seriously cool.  If you’re interested in innovation, you’ve to check it out.  If you can’t see the video below, you can click here and watch it (HT Collide)

Carpetbagger: A Rare Look Inside Pixar Studios – nytimes.com/video from The New York Times on Vimeo.

Had a chance to read Guy Kawasaki’s newest book this week.  Like another of my favorite books (The Art of the Start), Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions is a great resource!  Packed full of great insights and infused with Guy’s infectious enthusiasm…it will get a lot of use.

There’s a lot to really love in Enchantment.  First of all, 11 of the 12 chapters are literally essential how tos.  Covering a sequentially relevant set of topics (after a first chapter that explains the importance of enchantment), the how to list begins with chapters on how to achieve likability and how to achieve trustworthiness.  In the era of hyper-connectivity…these are essentials and there is some great stuff in here!  My book is seriously marked up with ideas that I’ll be putting to work.

Chapters 4 and 5, how to prepare and how to launch are equally packed with some great ideas.  I loved the simple list on how to make your cause, “short, simple, and swallowable;” a great checklist that I’ll be using over and over.

How to overcome resistance, how to make enchantment endure, how to use push and pull technology, how to enchant your employees and your boss…there is a lot to work with here.  This is a book that becomes a handbook (much like the earlier Art of the Start).

Another cool element in Enchantment are all of the cool sidebars at the end of each chapter.  Inspirational stuff…very cool personal stories that illustrate the point.  A really cool sidenote? Tony Morgan is the sidenote in chapter three!

I have to say, like so many of Guy Kawasaki’s previous books, Enchantment is packed with good stuff.  If you’re in a business (and we all are) it will definitely be one you’ll want to pick up.

Had a chance last weekend to read Hugh MacLeod’s latest, Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination.  If you caught his first book, Ignore Everybody, you know already this is certain to be a fun and perversely inspirational read.

MacLeod, an A list blogger at Gapingvoid, first made his name with “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards.”  He’s definitely one of the most interesting characters in the world of marketing,   Along with MacLeod’s customarily insightful and slightly off-kilter observations about how to unify work and love, Evil Plans provides an interesting retrospective on his wild ride of a career.

What I’ve always really loved about MacLeod’s unique combination of cartoon and writing is characteristically evident in Evil Plans.  There’s no shortage of sarcasm.  Wit is in abundant supply.  And there’s enough actual how-to to make it fun and very practical.

If you’re at all interested in carving out a niche where you control your own destiny and actually do what you love…this is a book that ought to be in your stack.  It’s not a tough read.  You’ll find yourself smiling, probably shaking your head acknowledging that it takes all kinds, and maybe starting to work on your own evil plan.  I’m up for world domination…how about you?

Working my way through The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo.  And “working” is really not the right word.  Much like he did with The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, Gallo does a great job of fleshing out each secret with an anecdote or two from Jobs’ amazing story.  The book is full of great stories, both from Jobs’ life and the lives of other notables, that illustrate the principle.

Gallo has identified 7 secrets or principles that are essential to Jobs’ innovative track record.  If you’re at all familiar with Jobs’ career at Apple and Pixar, you’ll recognize many of the secrets right away:

• Do What You Love
• Put a Dent in the Universe
• Kick Start Your Brain
• Sell Dreams, Not Products
• Say No to 1,000 Things
• Create Inanely Great Experiences
• Master the Message

Each of the secrets is illustrated with a one-two punch of chapters; the first, fine tuning the principle, the second, laying out some practical takeaways about how to apply the principle.  For example, principle #3 is Kick Start Your Brain.  The two chapters supporting it are Seek Out New Experiences and Think Differently About How You Think.

Seek New Experiences cites examples of Jobs’ track record of “bombarding the brain with new experiences.”  He studied calligraphy, spent time in a commune, visited India, and hired musicians, artists, poets and historians.  Gallo makes the point that “some of Jobs’ most creative insights are the direct result of seeking out novel experiences either in physical locations or among people with whom he chose to associate (p. 89).”

Think Differently about How You Think points out “five skills that separate true innovators from the rest of us”:

• Associating: Innovators seek out diverse experiences
• Questioning: Innovators get a kick out of questioning the status quo
• Experimenting: Successful innovators engage in “active” experimentation
• Networking: Innovators surround themselves with interesting people who expand their domain of knowledge
• Observing: Innovators watch people carefully, especially the behavior of potential customers

Each of the application chapters conclude with a short list of “iLessons,” practical steps that you can take to implement the principle.

I have to say, although I find the stories fascinating and thoroughly engaging, it’s the practical application that has the greatest potential for me.  I’ve read many books on innovation.  This is one that goes beyond biography, beyond what the innovator did, and identifies a little bit of a path.

If you’re a student of innovation…The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs ought to be on your reading list.

If you are a presenter, you’re going to want to take a look at Nancy Duarte’s newest effort.  Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences is a great follow-up to slide:ology (her previous book on “the art and science of creating great presentations).

Duarte, the CEO of Duarte Designs (an award winning design firm whose clients include Adobe, Chick-fil-A, Cisco, Citrix, Food Network, Facebook, GE, Google, etc.), might be best known as the leader of the team that shaped Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth presentation.

Although slide:ology got the conversation started, Resonate takes it to a whole new level with the introduction of the concepts and practices that help tell “visual stories that transform audiences.”  Using examples drawn from great storytellers in a wide variety of industries (Ronald Reagan, Leonard Bernstein, Richard Feynman, John Ortberg, Steve Jobs, and Martin Luther King, Jr.), Duarte skillfully illustrates the steps that create moments (and take it way beyond a presentation).

I found a couple of the chapters especially helpful.  Create Meaningful Content is a great combination of practical steps that begin with idea collection and creation and end with the transformation of information into stories and ideas into messages.

Another chapter that gave me introduced me to some new practices that were immediately helpful was Structure Reveals Insights.  Now, I’ll have a new set of tools to use whether I’m building a consulting presentation or a leader training event.

Finally, I loved chapter 7, Deliver Something They’ll Always Remember.  Referencing some of the best known presentation moments in recent history (Bill Gates releasing a jar of mosquitoes at the end of his TED talk on solving some of the world’s biggest problems and Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air by pulling it out of a interoffice envelope), Duarte details the creation of “memorable moments that get repeated and retransmitted so they cover longer distances.”

If you’re looking for a way to take your presentation skills from the delivery of information to the creation of transformational moments…resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences needs to be in your toolbox.

I learned some time back that when Bill Taylor publishes a new book…you jump on the opportunity to pick it up and start the journey.  As the co-founder of Fast Company magazine and the co-author of Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win (with Polly LaBarre), Taylor seems to be always talking about things that cause the imagination synapses to fire.  Practically Radical is no exception.

81 pages in and I haven’t had a book this marked up, underlined, starred, and dog-eared in quite a while.  The sub-title perfectly describes what I’ve experienced in the last 48 hours.  “Not-So-Crazy Ways to Transform Your Company, Shake Up Your Industry, and Challenge Yourself.”  I have to say, much like Mavericks at Work, Practically Radical is a book with an inspiring idea on just about every page.

As the subtitle informs, Practically Radical is “built around three distinct (but related) modules: transforming your company, shaking up your industry, and challenging yourself (from the introduction).”  Further, the three sections are designed to be read in any order.  You can begin reading the section that has the most immediate appeal.

I started right from the beginning and struggled a little through the introduction.  Honestly, it was a little slow going.  But…once I turned the page and began reading chapter one, “What You See Shapes How You Change — the Virtues of Vuja De,”…oh my.  Almost immediately found myself underlining whole sections and rapidly finding very transferable concepts and ideas that will quickly get application and implementation.  Chapter two, “Where You Look Shapes What You See,” is very much the same; seriously marked up, starred and underlined.

I first picked up Mavericks at Work in the fall of 2006 when I began hearing people like Guy Kawasaki and Tom Peters talk it up.  Practically Radical is already getting the same treatment as authors like Dan Pink begin to talk about Taylor’s latest project.  If you haven’t already ordered your copy, let me help you get on the bandwagon.  In the next few months, everyone will be talking about Practically Radical.  You can order your copy right here (affiliate link).

You’ve heard plenty of experts telling you that you need to be reading broadly.  You certainly don’t need anyone else telling you the same thing, but you might need a little guidance.

I should probably tell you that I’ve been blogging at StrategyCentral since 2005.  I find so much that ought to be helping the leaders of the Church and non-profits in the writings of Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Patrick Lencioni, and many others about the intersection of strategy, vision and mission, change and innovation, marketing and design.

Every year I read 20 to 25 books in this cross section of disciplines.  These are the top 5 that I read this year.

Steven Johnson’s Where Good Ideas Come From kept my attention to the very end.  A great collection of innovation stories spun by a great story teller, Johnson connects the innovation process (i.e., where good ideas come from) to natural history and Charles Darwin’s research.

Adding breadth to the topics in your reading stack will go a long way towards expanding the way you think.  You can read my review right here.

If your organization is about customer service (and if it’s not is should be), this is a book that ought to be on your stack.  Delivering Happiness is the story of Zappos.com as told by Tony Hsieh, its enthusiastic CEO.  You’ll come away inspired and challenged to up the ante on the way your organization approaches customer service.  In addition, I think you’ll find yourself thinking about ways to develop your other customers…your employees.

I loved The Orange Code.  If you didn’t pick this book up when it published in 2009, you’ve got to make time to read this one.  You’ll definitely come away with a genuine appreciation for the ING Direct organization and its founder and CEO, Arkadi Kuhlmann.

For me, the supreme test of a book’s value is often the way it looks after I’m finished reading it.  If it’s marked up, starred, underlined and dogeared…I know I really got my money’s worth.  You should see my copy of The Orange Code!

Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd by Harvard Business School’s award winning Professor Youngme Moon is well worth a read.  If you find yourself drawn to the idea of adopting the model of another organization, you’ll find Different helpfully challenging.

You can read my full review right here.  I loved this book!

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky will probably turn out to be the book of the year for many organizations.  If you find it hard to execute on the great ideas you come up with or if you find yourself frustrated by a lack of a process that leads to implementation…this is a book you need to pick up.

You can read my review right here.

If you’ve been along for the journey here at StrategyCentral, you’ve heard the phrase “life-change” many times.  It’s the thing we exist to deliver…and that’s true whether your organization is a church or a non-profit.  Our organizations are in business to do more than make products or create experiences or operate programs.  We exist to do something that will ultimately change lives!

Yesterday I saw a Tweet from my friend Will Mancini (@willmancini) and it got my attention.  His Tweet read: “Ikea out-articulates the church. Isn’t “Life Changes Available” a better golden tomorrow than the nebulous “life change” we talk?”

I have to say, the addition of the word “available” presented such an intriguing twist on the well-worn phrase “life-change” that I had to check into what IKEA is doing.  Life Changes Available is a great tag line, but it’s more than a tag line.  It is a great story.

At the same time, it is a great illustration of the kind of thinking that can create an appealing and memorable invitation designed to catch the attention of our customers.

Back to Will’s Tweet.  He was making the point that our frequent reference to life-change is colorless.  It’s vague.  Who really knows what it means.  I guess we know what it means.  But when we use that phrase in a marketing piece or in a message, doesn’t it slip right by our intended audience?

Example: “Small groups are important here at ___________ Community Church because we believe that life change happens best around a coffee table.”

What?

The Takeaway:  The addition of the word “available” takes the phrase “life-change” from camouflaged fuzziness to an appealingly clear offer.  It shifts the phrase from the body of the marketing piece to the headline.

For me, it now fits in the same category as another tag line I’ve used for years: “Feel like a face in the crowd?”  That line perfectly fits the sensation that many people have when they’re walking into a large crowd week after week and no one knows them.  No one knows their struggle.  No one knows their loneliness.

Can you see how “Life Changes Available” will catch people’s attention?  It sure caught mine.

New Here? StrategyCentral is my original blog with over 1100 articles on strategy, vision, mission, values, change, innovation and marketing.  Want to come along?  You can sign up to get my updates right here.

Leaders move people from here to there…The first play is not to make there sound wonderful.  The first play is to make here sound awful.  Bill Hybels