Very early on in her compelling book Mindset, author Carol Dweck (a Professor at Stanford University) asks us to consider the kind of mindsets we carry, and in doing so, asks us to look at the beliefs that guide them.…
Category: Book Reviews
Negotiating So Everyone Wins
You may not think of yourself as a negotiator, but indeed, you are. For as Jean Chrétien says in the foreword to David Dingwall’s new book, Negotiating So Everyone Wins, “…everything in public life, the private sector and even personal…
Infomania* – How to Clear the Mind
One of life’s great pleasures is to crack open a book by a well-known author, and find it not only meets, but surpasses one’s expectations. So is the case with Daniel Levitin’s The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age…
Looptail – How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business
More and more nowadays, we hear about people who are not simply entrepreneurial leaders, but who are leaders with a social conscience – social entrepreneurs. Leading this vanguard is Bruce Poon Tip, a resident of Toronto who heads up the most…
Read More Looptail – How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business
Thanks for the Feedback
It is the authors’ assertion that we not only need feedback, but that in our heart of hearts, we actually want it…given others have insights about us we can’t see…insights that help us become better leaders, better team-players, better family…
THE WILLPOWER INSTINCT | By Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
Welcome to the world of craving. Whether it’s the double espresso shots in the already jitter-inducing coffee, the incessant iPhone check or play, the carcinogenic cigarette, or a habitual way of treating others, we all understand willpower - or more…
Read More THE WILLPOWER INSTINCT | By Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg, Random House 2012 The science of habits is a fascinating subject, one that held Charles Duhigg, the Pulitzer Prize-winning business reporter with the New York Times, in a ten-year thrall and inspired his 2012 international bestseller The Power…
Read More The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity and Reap Big Results by Dr. Morten Hansen
Collaboration is an effort by a group to produce greater results.
When deciding whether collaboration will produce greater results, Dr. Morten Hansen, the author of the 2009 book Collaboration*, encourages us to ask: “[Assuming we could do collaboration within our company well,] what is the potential for innovation, sales, and operations?” In other words, make it a mandate to construct a business case to determine collaboration value, taking into account: 1) Opportunity Costs. “What else could we do with the time, effort, and resources [we’re putting into this]?” and 2) Collaboration Costs. Delays, budget overruns, poor quality, and lost sales.
The Innovator’s DNA by Clayton M. Christensen, Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen
The title of the book alone deserves mentioning; it is that smart. The subheading: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, could have been used, but it doesn’t quite have the edge that captures—that seems to imply: “DNA can be changed!... gotta buy this right now! ....could change it during my summer vacation!” (Yes, you could—if your vacation time was 1,459,999,999,979 trillion days longer—which is how long it’s taken DNA to evolve.)
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B Cialdini
Have you ever gotten an unsolicited key-chain in the mail, and donated money to the charity that sent it? At Christmas time, have you wondered why it’s suddenly impossible to find that special toy your child wants? At some point in your life, have you found yourself wanting to keep up with “the Jones’s”? Or against your better judgment, have agreed to accept less-than favourable conditions in a negotiation?